By Jimmy Spencer, WitnessFaith.com
Twitter: @JimmySpencerNBA

In my other life, I cover the NBA as a national writer.

But as a fan, I grew up watching San Francisco Giants baseball.

One of the things that has been incredible as both a Christian and a devout fan of the Giants is the intermingling of the two.

So many of the current Giants players are also are committed to Jesus.

I’m certain there are many players around the Giants and Major League Baseball who share the faith of Christianity. But here’s just a small sample I wanted to share with examples of their faith.

If you have a few moments, spend some time to hear their words.

Barry Zito – On putting God before idolatry:

Zito gave himself to Jesus in August 2011. He grew up in a “metaphysical” church and loosely based on God, but it was more on his shoulders than God’s shoulders. We first deny him, but then grow to him. “God has a way to break us down and make us give control to him.”

“I had this very odd injury in April of 2011 — a lisfranc ligament tear. I came off the field after never being hurt in 11 years and said: “All right, something bigger is going on here. A message is being sent, and I’ve got to listen.” A few months later, my best friend told me an old story I really love. A shepherd will be leading his sheep, and one of the sheep will be walking astray from the pack. The shepherd will take his rod and break the sheep’s leg, and the sheep will have to rely on the shepherd to get better. But once that leg is completely healed, that sheep never leaves the side of the shepherd ever again. That’s a really beautiful metaphor. A lot of things happen to us as people, and we realize we’ve been relying on our own strength for too long. I got a tattoo, and it’s the only one I have, of a golden calf on the inside of my right biceps. I show people that, and it signifies idolatry and that I was putting things before God.”

Hunter Pence – “I try to give every game to God …”

Ryan Vogelsong

“The biggest thing I kept asking the Lord from is to put me in a place where I can share and help people to be closer to Him and draw to him through strength.”

“I pray now more than I ever had.” … He said being in church all the time made him want to get away from church, and it affected him in college/pros and it took things in his career to start leaning back on Him. Incredible testimony here.

Jeremy Affeldt

Affeldt is one of the most outspoken Christians on the team. He does much in terms of social justice in the name of philanthropy. He also has his own book and a popular blog.

“I’m working to stir a movement by raising the hearts of people in response to God’s call to end injustice everywhere. I know we can do it.  If God shows you a problem, he also shows you how to fix it.  Join me in making this movement real.”

Angel Pagan

“For those of you who have never accepted God, please do. Because He is the right way.”

Pagan said his faith started in 2005 with health problems. He talked about being prayed for, and as soon as a minister put his hand on him, he started crying feeling the presence of God.

Ever since then he gave himself an opportunity to accept God. “It’s funny, every time I get a base hit, and you cheer, it’s for God.”

Brandon Belt

Belt grew up in the church, was saved when he was nine, but as life went on he said he stopped thinking about serving God. He came to a point last year into the season, and he made the commitment to go to chapel every Sunday. “God has own plan for us and when we submit to Him everything is going to be OK.”

Santiago Casilla

The Giants bullpen star, in Spanish, gives testimony to God.

Brian Wilson

Though he’s not current a Giant any longer, this is amazing video of Brian Wilson sharing his faith. This is incredible.

Please send further examples of Giants players sharing their faith to be included in this post.

Posted by Jimmy Spencer
J

[Names have been changed to give more anonymity]

God is never about just me.

Without a doubt, He cares for me. He has showered down blessing after blessing, providing a path into the happiest time of my life. But he is not about me.

There is a precarious trap when forming a relationship with God. Like any relationship, we look inward and ask what He can do for us. Then we look narrowly outward, asking what it is that we can do for Him. But in doing things for Him, many of us are quick to look inward again and begin a laundry list of detailed obedience. “I’ve been good, so God should be happy.”

But recently, I received a powerful reminder that a relationship with God is about achieving His will – both inwardly and outwardly.

This story begins with faith in Him.

On Monday July 16, I sat in discussion with a brother in faith, Armando. I explained to him that I felt more at peace with my life than I ever have. God has blessed me incredibly, and I am happier than I have ever been. I am newly engaged, I am in a career that is fulfilling, and I just recently had spent a great deal of quality time with my family. Life is good. While I am always praying for others and the needs of others, I told Armando that I wanted God to put me in a position to help His will. I just didn’t know what that was. But I did know that the time when I felt closest to God came about a year-and-a-half ago when Armando and I developed a bond with a homeless couple, who we will call “Hunter” and “Annie.” We had endless days of conversation, prayer, victories and heartache with the couple in their 50s. I craved that closeness again. I voiced that to Armando before prayer.

Together, Armando and I sat in prayer as he recited the words of Luke 11:9-10: “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Translated in the Bible version, “The Message,” it reads: “Ask and you’ll get; Seek and you’ll find; Knock and the door will open. Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need. This is not a cat-and-mouse, hide-and-seek game we’re in.”

So in faith of His word, I did exactly that. In prayer with Armando, I directly asked God to show me a path to do something – anything – in His will. I prayed for a clear opening to help, an act outside of myself. In turn, God turned the notch of my faith to an even higher level.

Perhaps 20 minutes following the prayer, my cell phone rang.

It was a photographer from The Sacramento Bee calling to see if I could help track down a homeless man who had attended Unity in the Community, a potluck event Armando and I organized at McKinley Park in Sacramento in December 2010 to help create human connections between neighborhood residents and the local homeless community. I told the photographer that I had recently been living in the Bay Area, and have not been in touch with that group in more than a year. The homeless man’s family was from San Diego, and had lost touch with him long ago, but the family tracked him down through an Internet search that led to a photograph from the event taken by this photographer. They called the photographer, who then called me.

I waited as the photographer looked up the name of the homeless man from his notes. It was Hunter.

I could have guessed that man was going to be Hunter. Of the many people at that event, it was him and his girlfriend who we had bonded with most. And having prayed to God for an opportunity to help His will, subsequent to having Hunter and Annie on my mind, it was clear what God was doing.

The reason the family was reaching out, as the photographer told me, was because Hunter’s mother was in a nursing home, and in her last days. They wanted to put Hunter back in contact with the family and had no idea where to find him. I had no idea either. The last time I saw him was in June of 2011, sitting with Annie in a parking lot behind a drug store. I didn’t even know if he was still in Sacramento. But I knew God had placed this act in front of me for a reason, and it wouldn’t be for me to simply reply, “Nope, haven’t seen him.” The San Diego area phone number that was left belonged to Hunter’s nephew, Kenneth. I spoke briefly with Kenneth to explain that I hadn’t seen Hunter in more than a year, but I would do my best to find him. Kenneth told me the same thing that I learned from the photographer, that his mother wasn’t doing too well and they wanted to let Hunter know or perhaps urge him to visit.

I drove to all the typical spots around Sacramento’s midtown area where I used to see him. I drove around for nearly an hour that first day. I sat in front of a Jamba Juice eating oatmeal, hoping that he might appear. I vaguely recognized one guy who attended our community event in 2010 and asked him if he’d seen Hunter. “I’ve seen him recently, but really I have no idea where he would be. Sorry, man.” Then, I drove to McKinley Park, hoping someone may have seen him more recently and might be able to tell me where I could find him. It was there that I found a group of three homeless people sitting on the lawn. Taking a bit of a chance toward the strangers, but acting as if nothing were out of the ordinary, I asked them directly, “Do you guys know where Hunter is?” Hesitating at first, they ultimately gave me some good information after I told them the reason I was asking. He had transitioned over to another side of town, the Arden area, a much bigger haystack. Still, it was good to know he was still around. I left a written message with one of the gentlemen of the group who said he would pass it along for me if he saw Hunter. After driving around for nearly an hour in the Arden area, I gave up for the day in hopes that the note I left would likely reach him.

But on my way out of town the next morning, it would not be enough. God placed on my heart that I needed to try again. So I did, driving out to the Arden area and checking a few of the spots that I had checked the prior day. No luck. To be honest, even after 15 minutes of a quick look, I was giving up. I turned on a street that would lead me back to the highway and on my way home.

Then I looked to my right. A beacon in a McDonald’s parking lot, Hunter’s bright smile flashed and caught my attention. Standing with that seemingly frozen smile, staring out toward the street, there stood Hunter in a red beanie and khaki jacket. God had led me here, there was no doubt.

I quickly pulled into the parking lot. “Hunter, I have been looking for you!” He had a puzzled look for a moment, and then the smile returned, “Jimmy?” I broke the bad news about his mother. He asked how I found out. I hesitated to tell him it was through the photo from The Sacramento Bee that allowed his family to track him down. He had hated that photo because it publicized his being homeless – his failure – and the worry that his family would learn this information. But right there, he admitted, “Well, now I am glad my photo was taken.”

He called his brother to learn more. He came to tears when he found out it wasn’t just his mom who wasn’t doing well, but also that his brother had brain cancer. Before the phone call, Hunter had told me that he had just been talking about his nephew Kenneth and thinking about his brothers earlier that morning. Before learning about his brother’s brain cancer, he also told me he didn’t care about his brothers. But after learning the news, he most certainly did care. That was obvious through his emotion. Today, he told me he plans to find a way to travel down to San Diego to see his family.

His animated girlfriend, Annie, pulled up on her bike during my conversation with Hunter. Equally as shocked to see me after more than a year, she walked up and immediately told a story that attests even greater to God’s work. Before she even knew why I was there, she walked up and began gushing words. “Jimmy. Jimmy. Wait a minute. Now just hold on one minute. What’s going on here? What’s going on? I was just standing on the corner trying to get Hunter’s attention and this lady pulled up in a car. She gave me a sandwich, she gave me a $20 bill, and she pointed to you guys in the parking lot. She said that someone is ill and I needed to go over.”

Later, sitting on the curb, Annie said, “If anyone didn’t believe in God, this story would sure make them believe.” She added that she and Hunter really needed this for their faith.

I think it gave my faith the same boost. A relationship with God is about more than just me and Him. It’s about His will. It’s about playing a role in His plan, honoring Him along the way. This story was just another of his many reminders.

Further thoughts and an update …

I keep thinking about how precise God’s timing was to have me in Sacramento when I received that call. So I could act for Him in that moment. It got me thinking about coincidence vs. God’s timing. I was reminded of the fact that amazing things have happened a lot with this couple. I have seen this woman, Annie, burst into tears and hugs at the first sight of my pastor friend, Ben, before knowing him or the fact that he was a pastor. I once prayed with Annie and Armando outside of a motel as she was being kicked out because the foundation that payed her stay had not extended past that day, which was Easter Sunday. As we prayed with her, the guy behind the counter came out to say that the moment we started to pray, the phone rang and the foundation payed for another two weeks. He said he hadn’t believed in God until that day, but did then and had goosebumps to prove it. We’ve prayed to find Annie and Hunter before only to have them show up just seconds later. There is something very, very spiritual and special about that couple. Today was just another day in a long year-and-a-half story.

Update [Monday, July 23]
Thanks to the love, kindness, and support of those who read this, we were able to send Hunter to San Diego to see his family. Not only did he have a train ticket down there, but he also had a spiffy new wardrobe, a duffel bag, and fresh toiletries with him. There was a moment where we turned to prayer again to make the right decision. Annie had expressed a strong, again animated, desire to go with Hunter. We just didn’t know if it was the best idea, and if it would help serve God’s will. We were stuck in decision-making mode, didn’t know what to do, so we turned to prayer. We did a group prayer asking for God to intervene and give us the right answer. Just hours later, Hunter called us to say that he felt God in his heart telling him that he needs to go alone. Another answer to our prayers. This is truly God’s will. Hunter is now in San Diego with his family and so, so thankful for everyone’s prayers and support. His Mom is doing OK, but his brother is gravely ill.

You can email Jimmy at jimmypspencer@gmail.com

Posted by Jimmy Spencer

I have always believed in God. Sure, doubts existed, but I knew God was there, at least in some form or another.

Religion, church, priests and pastors – I felt they were just unnecessary gatekeepers, wielding self-proclaimed powers of God to those who followed.

I didn’t go to church and I didn’t read the Bible. My motto: I love God but religion just separates me from that.

Years later, nearly a year since what I consider to be the dawn of my true faith in God, I still am not sure I feel or think much differently. It’s a complete struggle. I have faith in God, but I don’t have complete faith in the Bible or man’s religious power.

Just as I did growing up, I still know that God is completely real. I’ve been shown that without any doubt. My personal testimony to God’s existence is powerful and intimate. I have gained a deeper connection with God in this past year, which has included a sense of communication that borders on unbelievable. But of course I believe it; those experiences that strengthened my faith are tangible moments that I felt and saw, truly coming from God.

So how can I be so convinced there is a God but still struggle to trust in Christianity and The Bible? Because I still am not convinced that man hasn’t completed botched this religion thing. I don’t trust man and I don’t trust history recorded by man.

It’s hard to believe that God’s word is bought at a bookstore. It’s hard to believe that the interpretations and translations of scripture are accurate after thousands of years of potential tampering. It’s hard to discount all the amazing testimonies of the countless religions and their high powers just because they don’t match my own.

Church, in its foundation, should be a community that supports and guides its members to act in faith and love through God. Pastors should be inspirational leaders who help orchestrate that community and provide leadership in those values.

Rather, religion lays emphasis on shame, violating those who are struggling and ultimately leading to resistance from not just religion, but faith as well. All of this placed shame is delivered in the name of what God “says,” based off the text of a Bible that is interpreted in contradicting methods.

I spent this past year reading the Bible and doing my best to decode its messages and meanings. I threw myself into those messages and pulled out so many powerful, meaningful verses. I still do love the Bible.

But I haven’t been able to overcome one major hurdle: Is the Bible truly the word of God or is it merely an inspirational interpretation of religious men throughout history, no different than any great book ever written?

I believe that Jesus did exist and that He died for our sins – a part of my testimony that God has shown me without a doubt. But has the account of Jesus and His message been skewed or exaggerated throughout thousands of years? Did it perhaps begin as God’s word before it was altered by societal beliefs, leaving parts of the Bible accurate and no longer others? Can I trust the Bible as a set of guiding principles and its list of sins?

Does God care what religious sect you are so long as you act in faith and love for Him? Or does He even want you to be “religious” at all?

I’ll be spending time searching for answers. I’ll be praying for God to show me that the Holy Bible is truly His word. I’ll seek and pray for a grander perspective.

I’m not questioning my faith. I am not questioning God or Jesus. The question I am asking is whether or not we can truly rely on the Bible and religion completely as a way to guide our lives.

Email me at jimmypspencer@gmail.com

In music, to call a song secular means that it’s not religious, or at least it comes without a Christian name tag. While there are a variety of great worship songs in the Christian genre of music, I often find songs that aren’t intended to be songs of faith can be more inspirational.

In this post, I have highlighted a few (secular) songs in which I draw inspiration for my faith, even if the artist didn’t intend it in that way. Hopefully, you will enjoy them as well. (If anyone could connect me with Brandon Flowers or Brett Dennen, I’d love to interview them sometime.)

Brett Dennen – “There Is So Much More”
I wonder how so many can be in so much pain,
while others don’t seem to feel a thing.
Then I curse my whiteness
and I get so damn depressed.
In a world of suffering,
why should I be so blessed?

Brandon Flowers – “Playing With Fire”
Ten thousand Demons hammer down with every footstep,
Ten thousand Angels rush the wind against my back.
The church of mine may not be recognised by steeple,
That doesn’t mean that I will walk without a God.

The Wallflowers – “How Good It Can Get”
Take a deep breath
And hold it in tight
And put your face up
Right into the light
Can’t you feel that full moon
Shining down on you
Help is coming
From the great unknown

Do you know of other songs like these? Please send them to witnessfaithcom@gmail.com

Posted by Jimmy Spencer, witnessfaithcom@gmail.com

There are a few options when we don’t get what we want: We can pout. We can fight for it. Or we can give in, claiming that it wasn’t meant to be.

Christians or non-Christians, people often believe in the idea that things are predestined for them. And destiny, well that’s a strangely wild thought when you think about it. It means no control, or little control. The Lord declares, “For I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

He is in control. We pray for guidance, but if we have given our life to Him, He’s going to put us where he needs us.

But does that mean we give up on decision-making?

I’ve prayed plenty for direction. If prayers were calculated like songs in iTunes, it’d be my “most played” in the last six months. Sometimes I am left frustrated, hoping that I’ll wake up to an email or text message from God with advice. Unfortunately, it’s not always so easy.

God’s timing is different than ours. Sometimes, He’ll slap us upside our heads with direction, and other times He’ll stay quiet. More often though, we’re just failing to listen.

I am a believer in God’s control. I believe in His predestined plans for us. But I also believe that God has given us free will – the ability to follow His direction or not. What we need to do is simply pray about it and learn to follow His signs and do as He asks.

Certainly, it’s not always easy learning how to interpret His signs. That’s why it becomes so important to develop a personal relationship with God so we don’t miss what He wants to communicate to us. When we focus on God and concentrate on His word through the Bible, He will focus on us and communication will become clearer.

But that’s just step one. Once we learn to listen to God and follow His plans for us, then we have to learn to trust His entire plan. There will be times when we feel forsaken by our circumstances and question why God would have hurt us or put us in difficult times – especially if we’re following his direction. (“Isn’t this what you want, God? Why has it turned out so poorly?”)

We have to be okay with the good and the bad, a lesson in trusting God that I am learning more each day. We have to realize that God is teaching us something, perhaps placing us in a dire condition to learn, grow or meet someone who needs help or will help us. Sometimes it may feel like God has our life on hold, when in reality, he is trying to show us something. Imagine God’s frustration with our impatience in His world of eternity.

I had a moment this past weekend while at a men’s retreat near a lake. I was sitting underneath the sun, amongst dirt and boulders overlooking the lake’s shore. It was a gorgeous, serene panorama of God’s creations. But for a moment, I took my eyes off the grand beauty and looked down towards the dirt towards a small, black rock lying near me. There was tiny red spider moving along the rock. I picked up the rock, with the spider still on it, and watched the little red creature move briskly across his small island. As I turned the rock, the spider continued to move – obviously with thoughts of, “what is happening, I better keep moving.’ But the spider wasn’t going anywhere. His understanding of that moment was far different than mine. I was in control; I better knew the bigger picture of this spider’s world.

I quickly appreciated that I wasn’t too different than this spider. My life seems to move just as aimlessly when I live outside of God’s plan. Like this spider, my legs often churn in the direction I determine to be important. Imagine God sitting up there, watching me drive my car back and forth to my home, work, the gym. Without His direction, was I living a life any more significant than this spider?

We don’t always understand what’s around us in the physical world. We just keep moving. To find our true purpose and what God has planned for us, all we have to do is listen – to find God, to trust Him, to communicate with Him and to hear what He wants from us.

His purpose and plans for us are far superior than what we think is important in the physical world. Once we learn how to listen to Him, we’ll stop wandering our respective rocks.

Posted by Jimmy Spencer

I cried tonight in church. As I drove home, tears again began to roll down my face. Walking into my door, I broke down and wept on my couch.

It’s rare when I do cry. But tonight, on Good Friday, I was struck by all the suffering in our hearts, the suffering that I have felt in my heart – and through an amazing sermon from my pastor – I came to finally realize the suffering that Jesus endured on the cross, and the suffering that God endures.

My friend, Pastor Bret, and I spoke briefly before he gave his sermon. He made a simple, yet impactful statement: “We tend to rush to Easter and forget about the meaning of this day.”

Tonight, I mourned the loss of Jesus. I cried and questioned how we could treat the son of God so brutally, how we could treat anyone so brutally. Images of those who are suffering in this world were shown. I cried as I thought about times in my own life when I felt suffering. I cried again when I thought about the suffering of others.

“Jesus suffered for us.” I’d heard it my entire life, but until tonight, I don’t think I understood. He endures and he still endures. I feel so much of the purpose for us on Earth is so that we can learn to feel emotion in the way that God feels emotion. We are made in His likeness and we are learning to feel the way He feels.

We suffer, in the way Jesus suffered. In this, we endure pain together and are one. The fact that we do feel is proof enough in His existence and His presence in us all.

An added emotional moment in the night came through the playing of a secular song, Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. It’s not a traditional Christian song by any means, but I hope you will listen to the song in the YouTube video posted below and read the lyrics posted with it.

My tears began to pour down as I heard this song in church tonight, as it has always been a special song to me and it was amazing that it was selected as the final of only two songs that night.

The timing made it even more remarkable. Three years ago – on Good Friday – my Mom underwent serious hysterectomy surgery to remove a cancerous tumor on her ovary. That morning in 2008, driving to San Francisco to be with her and my family for the surgery, I had listened multiple times to that same Leona Lewis song which I had just added on my iPod. I listened to it a lot that Easter weekend, and still it has always reminded me of that morning that my Mom had her surgery. It was a very scary time and we didn’t know what would happen. My Mom means everything to me, and I remember a moment standing in the halls of the hospital with my brother and my mind racing with what-ifs. I took time that weekend to pray at a church in San Francisco. I know God listened. To this day, my Mom is cancer free and healthy. I am so thankful for every day I get to spend with her and I thank God for what he did to heal her.

When that song played tonight, it served as a reminder of one of the most difficult times in my life. As it played, I was flooded with emotion and praise for God. In my tears, I felt a connection to the Holy Day and to the pain that God felt.

Good Friday never meant as much to me as it did tonight.

Isaiah 53:3-4
He was despised and rejected by mankind,
a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

Surely he took up our pain
and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
stricken by him, and afflicted.

Leona Lewis: Bleeding Love Lyrics

Closed off from love
I didn’t need the pain
Once or twice was enough
And it was all in vain
Time starts to pass
Before you know it you’re frozen

But something happened
For the very first time with you
My heart melts into the ground
Found something true
And everyone’s looking round
Thinking I’m going crazy

But I don’t care what they say
I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

Trying hard not to hear
But they talk so loud
Their piercing sounds fill my ears
Try to fill me with doubt
Yet I know that the goal
Is to keep me from falling

But nothing’s greater than the rush that comes with your embrace
And in this world of loneliness
I see your face
Yet everyone around me
Thinks that I’m going crazy, maybe, maybe

But I don’t care what they say
I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open

And it’s draining all of me
Oh they find it hard to believe
I’ll be wearing these scars
For everyone to see

I don’t care what they say
I’m in love with you
They try to pull me away
But they don’t know the truth
My heart’s crippled by the vein
That I keep on closing
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I

Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
I keep bleeding
I keep, keep bleeding love
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love
You cut me open and I
Keep bleeding
Keep, keep bleeding love

Posted By Jimmy Spencer

Let me emphasize this before you read: Everyone can and probably should pray in their own way. The following post hopefully will serve others as bits to help them in their own prayer.

I once Googled “how to pray.”

I really wanted to know. As a kid, I learned to clasp my hands together and recite words that had been told to me. Later on, selfishly, I learned to use prayer as a wish list.

“God, please let me pass this test.”

“God, please let this girl like me.”

“God, please let me be healthy.”

God was Santa Claus. Never did I ask God to forgive me. Never did I ask God to help others, unless I knew someone who was sick – then I’d put it on the wish list.

So when I began to find a stronger faith within the last year, I started to think more and more about prayer. I was building a stronger foundation of faith, reading the Bible and trying to hold myself accountable to God’s word.

But how should I pray? Were there secret keywords I had to use? Did my hands have to be folded a certain way, quiet time in a dark room with my head tilted at just the right angle?

So, I did what I always do when I have a question: I went to Google.

I found some excellent advice. Through a collection of chance sources, I found some great ideas.

1. Just talk to God. Call Him whatever name lets you identify with Him. Talk out loud or speak in your mind – just relax. Treat him like a best friend, like a father, like a mentor.

2) Visualize your heart encased with a shield or protective covering. But before you begin to pray, picture that case or shield being opened to reveal your heart to God. Just visualize it in your head, what it would look like.

3) Every time doubt or skepticism or logic creeps in, just tell it to go away. Say, “there you are again” and move on from it.

Through those few tips, I began to develop my own method of prayer. Let me emphasize this again: Everyone can and should pray in their own way. The following will hopefully act as bits to help you in your own prayer.

God knows what’s in your heart. When you pray, you are just verbalizing what He already knows. But, He does want to hear it from you. Here’s some great advice that I heard a pastor once say: When you are praying, ask yourself: Is this something that Jesus would pray for?

First, I give praise to God. I thank Him for all that he has done, when times are good and when times are bad. This is how I start every prayer.

I pray for others. Sow seeds in your community, friends and family – and even strangers. Don’t feel like you need to go through a laundry list of prayer requests for people, but keep others in mind.

It doesn’t mean you can’t be a bit selfish and pray for yourself. But rather than praying for God to do this or do that, pray that God gives you direction and puts you on the path that He has planned for you. Ask that God help you in your daily activities and helps you speak to others.

This all comes back to the notion that we must give ourselves to God before we can have a true relationship with and for God. But it starts by simply telling God to take control of our lives – to give ourselves to Him completely. This is a topic I plan to dive into on this blog at a later time.

Prayers can come whenever you want and can last as long as you want. Prayers don’t need to be novels, either. They can come in 30 seconds, two minutes or be much longer. Pray in your car, pray in bed, pray in the shower – just talk to Him.

We should pray to have constant communication with God, not to treat it like a chore. As you pray consistently, you will find that He will guide your days. It’s not always easy to listen to God when He gives you direction. We always want to go our own way. But once we trust in Him, through prayer, life will make sense and be made more simple.

So just open up your heart, and ask Him to help you and to help others. Relax and talk to him like you would a friend, and know that it’s all about the special, unique connection between you and Him.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” – James 4:8

Warned, Damaged, Gone
A poem by Jimmy Spencer

Breeze before the wind, forewarning
Gusts flicker the strongest flames, damaging
Soul grasps the fire, clenching
Truth slips to smoke, dissolving

Warned, Damaged, Gone

The cries started with a whisper, hushed
The lull is gone, awakened
The words reveal blood, stained
The voice vanished in screams, silenced

Warned, Damaged, Gone

Warmth seduced, despair fades
Feelings blurred, desire clouds
Belief restored, love haunts
Dreams again, hope blinds

Endured, Healed, Challenged

The poem represents the cycle in my life, the repeated torture of my faith and doubts. As my doubts begin to flicker, I too often see my faith dissolve too quickly. Then I find myself back, close to faith, but only based on my own desires to be close to God. Then the cycle repeats, dreaming again of faith, but is it just blind hope? The use of changing pace in the last stanza is to show a dramatic shift in the cycle back to how doubts heal again, and ultimately restore us through challenges.

The poem also mirrors our frustrations in love, sorting pain through clouds of happiness to strengthen the relationship.

Written by Sophie Aust

Dreams are like miracles.

You can have 25 dreams a night and not remember a single one of them. Likewise, you can spend your entire life trying to disprove miracles, but you cannot keep them from happening.

Miracles are happening all around us, and we shut our eyes to them. Miracles happen when we would rather cover our ears and hum than listen to God. When we force God to pull out the big guns. When He steps down from heaven and makes flowers grow out of our dreadful compost of a life.

I know this, because I often try to ignore God. In Kari Jobe’s Revelation Song, she describes being “Filled with wonder at the mention of your name.” I personally cannot relate to this. When I hear God’s name mentioned, my most common response is to run in the opposite direction. My life has been filled with miracle after miracle; God trying desperately to get my attention and show his deep love for me. I run away and come back, again and again, but God’s love is relentless. No matter how hard we try to ignore miracles, God continues to make them happen.

I am constantly faced with miracles the size of tiny birds. Miracles that are hardly more than coincidence. God does not usually speak to me in the thunder and lightning. Instead, God quietly reminds me that he takes care of the entire universe, and that universe includes me. I experienced the most memorable of these miracles in October of 2011 after a horrific seizure. I have suffered with anxiety my entire life, but we did not acknowledge it until I began to have dangerous physical symptoms such as twitching, paralysis, and intense seizures. The first of these seizures occurred during a school rally when I fell off a high bleacher and began shaking uncontrollably. I had to pull on one of my friend’s legs in order for anybody to notice anything at all. This was hugely disturbing to me. Not only had I had a potentially dangerous seizure, but none of my friends even noticed.

The next day was a Saturday, and I spent the entire day in a cold sweat of anxiety. My family is part of a church small-group, and every month we meet at each others’ houses for dinner. This particular Saturday, we were meeting at the fanciest, richest house of the entire group. I was completely overwhelmed. I don’t think I said over five words throughout the entire dinner, and I was eager to get home early. Then I saw my best friend, Brandon, sneak into the dark living room. Brandon is a silent, awkward sophomore at Alameda High. Not one to talk much, he spends most of his time playing MineCraft on his laptop. He has been one of my best friends for my whole life, but we have never once had a truly serious conversation. On a whim, I followed him into the huge, pitch dark living room. He was sitting and playing on his Nintendo DS. I sat on the armchair across from him. We were quiet for a long time, not talking, just listening to each others’ thoughts, communicating without any words, knowing we had both escaped for the exact same reason. After a while he invited me to watch him play. We sat on the squashy red couch together and watched his little boxy character battle monsters and collect Pokemon. Soon we were talking, discussing weird dreams and awkward friends, embarrassing moments, bad teachers. I don’t think I’ve ever laughed so hard as I did on that one night.

When I was the absolute furthest from God, He picked me up and stuck me back on my feet. With the help of an empty room, a Nintendo DS, and Brandon VanGelder, God put my pieces back together. There were no tears, no wild embracing, no promises to be a better person, none of that. But that night in late October was nothing less than a miracle.

In his book Tattoos on the Heart, Father Greg Boyle calls miracles “Music with nothing playing”. Like the story of Elijah, God was not in the fire, the earthquake, or the wind storm. God was no less than the faintest whisper. But that whisper was more precious than any praise song or devotion. He was there, and He was taking extreme actions to show that I was extraordinarily loved.

Miracles are constantly happening. The air is thick with them. God sends us these sudden, breath-taking moments to stick us back in the right direction. The more we try to run away, to forget, to believe that we are no good, God continues to call us back, saying that we are worth it and He has a plan. God uses miracles to say that He doesn’t just love us, He is madly and irrevocably IN LOVE with us. And that is all that we ever need to know.

Posted by Jimmy Spencer

Often, I am guilty of waiting to hear from God. I could just imagine what He’d really say: “Really, buddy? Why don’t you pick up that book called The Bible that’s been sitting next to your TV remote.”

So, when I grabbed my Bible and decided to read The Letter of James, I shouldn’t have been surprised that everything He had to tell me was already perfectly worded and set to be read. On this night, it was through James that God spoke to me. “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says” (James 1:22).

This was an idea that was plugged into me during the beginning of my faith journey – the idea that it was not enough to just be a
Christian, rather that we must act as Christians. Later in James, this concept is one again slammed home. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them?” (James 2:14).

God couldn’t have been clearer with His words. At this time in my faith, it took His, “come on, man!” method. In this moment, I had figured it
out. Faith wasn’t enough. That was the easy part. That was step No. 1. I couldn’t just sit around praying and thinking about faith. It was an active duty that I was now a part of.

Now, it was time to do something with my faith. And not just something I do on Sunday mornings or every other month. This is about being a Christian outside of simply attending church. It’s about being the church in every moment. I need to be active in my faith – how I treat people, how I help those in need, how I can help save others – all the time. It needed to be my priority, above anything else. I’m not talking about just giving $5 to a homeless person, traveling across the world to do missionary work or any other one-time acts. I am talking about living a life that is dedicated to God, love and others – as much as possible. Certainly, those acts should be a part of it. But everyday, I must act and speak with love, and do it at all times – to move throughout life with God and others in my heart.

It’s certainly not easy. But if we are to strive to live with that mentality, then surely the deeds will come naturally.

I need to learn how to do God’s will on a daily basis, before any of my own selfish desires. It’s time for me to learn how to live that new way of life.

Email Jimmy Spencer directly at jimmypspencer@gmail.com