CATALYST Youth: "Why do the things I watch/listen to matter?", Friday, March 10, 2017

This week, we continued our series called “WHY?” by talking about why the media we listen to or watch matters. Some Christians have been historically strict when it comes to what people do for entertainment. It used to be that some Christians would say that you've committed an unforgivable sin if you played a game of cards (because it was related to gambling) or entered a movie theatre. When I was a teen, there was this huge Christian movement that involved burning cds and cassettes because the lyrics of those albums were all about partying, drinking, sleeping around, and being on the "Highway to Hell". This isn't just stuff that happened decades ago- just a few years ago, some Christians were boycotting Harry Potter novels because they thought it would cause kids to LITERALLY start messing with witchcraft. So, what was the reason for all of those boycotts? Why do Christians tend to be so strict about the shows and movies we watch, the music we listen to or the clicks we make on the Internet? 

1. GOD WANTS US TO LIVE DIFFERENT

The good news of the Bible is that God loves us, and as the ultimate parent, he doesn’t want to see us make decisions that might wreck our lives. He doesn’t want us to do stuff that will put up a big wall in between of the relationship he wants to have with us. He doesn’t want us to live with tons of regrets because of the mistakes we’ve made. The Bible says that when we choose to do what we want instead of the things that God wants for us, that’s sin—and it’s a problem. Everytime we sin it’s like we’re taking a step farther away from the God who loves us, and there’s a lot of danger in us becoming lost (where we’ve gone so far away that we just shut God entirely out of our lives). Now, the good news, is that because God loves us and wants us to be tight with him, he did something crazy and miraculous—even though none of us deserves it--he offers us forgiveness and a brand new start, a do-over, through what Jesus did on the cross! And even if we mess up a million times, he just keeps on offering us forgiveness.

But here’s the deal- when God SAVES us from sin and forgives us for all of the ways we’ve messed up- he doesn’t want us to just head right back in and do the same things all over again. There’s this word in the Bible called REPENTANCE. To Repent means to TURN AWAY FROM SIN and make some better life decisions. As Christians, there are probably some things in the media that we might need to turn away from- things that can pollute us or dirty us up.God doesn’t want us to watch porn- something that’s a click away and can become an addiction, destroy real relationships, fuels modern slavery, and changes the way we see & relate to other people. He probably doesn’t want us to listen to music that is misogynistic (violent towards women and treating them like objects). He probably doesn’t want us to watch movies where people are being tortured and dismembered, full of sex scenes or where the F-Bombs are flying faster than Superman! The media that we absorb does have the ability to change the way we think and feel about the world, and it can sometimes even leave us feeling just dirty and shameful- and God doesn’t want that kind of life for us.

Phillipians 4:8 says, “My brothers and sisters, always think about what is true. Think about what is noble, right and pure. Think about what is lovely and worthy of respect. If anything is excellent or worthy of praise, think about those kinds of things”.

Maybe those cd burning Christians and strict moms took things a bit far, but they had their hearts in the right place. We’re encouraged here to think about, to watch, to listen to things that are NOBLE (decent, moral), RIGHT, and PURE. Does the media that you enjoy fit in those categories?

2 BE A CRITICAL THINKER

There’s this verse in the Bible that I like to call the MEDIA verse. It’s the movie verse! It’s the Internet verse! It’s the Music verse! Psalm 101:2-3 is part of a prayer that King David prayed (by the way—David was a guy who essentially looked at porn and then had an affair with a married woman and then KILLED her husband—but ultimately he found forgiveness, although it still screwed up his life and family).

“In my own home I will lead a life that is without blame. I won’t look at anything that is evil and call it good”.

David is saying here that when he was alone, when he bored, when he was looking for entertainment, he wanted to make right choices and not dig into stuff that was evil and say that it was ok.

 I don't want to give anybody a list with good movies on one side and bad movies on the other side. I’m not interested in telling people what they should do when it comes to what they watch or what they listen to….but what I AM interested in doing is helping teens become CRITICAL THINKERS. Critical thinking is the “objective analysis and evaluation of an issue in order to form a judgment”. It means thinking about the pros and cons about something before you do it. If your friend is doing cliff diving and encourages you to do it, you’re going to weigh the pros and cons and think about the possible risks, you might even examine what’s at the bottom, before just jumping off. Each of us needs to really think about the things you watch or listen to before you press play. That’s the kind of thing that makes God proud.

Not too long ago a friend of mine (who isn’t a Christian) was surprised that I hadn’t watched a particular R rated movie. He said, “Why not? I mean, you’re an ADULT!” and I told him that just because I had the ability and freedom to do something, it doesn’t mean that thing is ok for me or would make God stand up and cheer! In 1 Corinthians 10:23, Paul is writing to a group of Christians who were messing with sin and saying it was ok, and he said this to them- “You say, "I am allowed to do anything"--but not everything is good for you.”. God has given us the freedom to do whatever we want with our lives—but that doesn’t mean that everything we do is actually good for us! Some of that stuff will mess us up and affect us for years down the road if we don’t think about it and make some tough choices. We need to trust that God doesn't want to ruin our lives, but that he really does know and want what's best for us.

-So, here are some good questions you can ask to help you be a better critical thinker.

-Does the media conflict with my faith values? Is it moral, right or pure? Would you watch or listen to it with your grandma in the room?

-What’s the message the music/movie is conveying? It is communicating a healthy worldview?

-Is it something that could possibly be bad for my emotional, physical or spiritual health? What does the Bible say about it?

-Does it make me feel dirty or distant from God?

-Will it pull me farther away from God and what he wants for my life or would it make him proud?

-Is it addictive?

There’s ALWAYS going to be stuff that you’re going to have to overlook because almost EVERYTHING on tv, the movies and the Internet is jam packed with stuff that’s contrary to the Christian faith. Even in PG movies you’ll have people swearing in Jesus’ name (which, as someone who loves Jesus, always offends me). Some of that is stuff you’ll have to overlook but you’ll also need to figure out where to draw the line and determine for yourself how far is too far.

Some practical things that I do (even as an adult) when I’m interested in watching a movie or TV show are:

WHAT’S THE RATING?

I’ll take a look at the rating. USUALLY an R-Rated movie is going to be jam packed with crap and movies that are G or PG-13 generally have way less pollution. But there are even cases where G rated movies are garbage. I brought my kids to the movie SING and was shocked that the message in the movie was “Do whatever you can do—even if it’s illegal- if it means that your dreams will come true”. Not exactly the best message.

IMDB

Another thing I’ll do is that whenever I want to see a movie, I’ll hop on IMDB. When you scroll down on a movie’s page you can click on the “Parents Guide” to see what content is in the movie—listing stuff like profanity, sex, nudity and violence. There have been times where I’ve really wanted to see a movie because it was about something like time travel or space ships but when I checked out the Parent’s Guide it told me that there are 50 cases of someone using the F-bomb or it’s full of sex scenes, and those facts help inform my decision in whether I should watch it or not.

GOOGLE THE LYRICS

Anytime I’m thinking about buying a song or album, I ALWAYS take a look at the album lyrics. If the lyrics contain stuff that's contrary to my faith, I decide not to buy/listen to it. For example, I like Arcade Fire a lot and have a few of their albums—but in their first album, they actually swear Jesus’ name a few times--- so I never bought it, because it’s just not something I can bop my head to or sing along with. It’s certainly not what I would want to play in the car with my kids.

Why do the things we watch or listen to matter? Because God wants us to turn from sin and not be entertained by it. Before you press play, ask yourself some of those questions above to ensure that you're not building up a wall between you and God.

DISCUSSION FOR HOME

1. This week, if you're watching a movie as a family, take some time to ask some of these questions: What is the overall message of the movie? Is it good or bad? Why do you think so? Is there anything in the movie that would be opposite of how God wants us to live our lives? 

2. If your teen listens to a lot of music, encourage them to do a project. Get them to google the lyrics of one of their favourite songs (or even one of the top songs on iTunes) and ask them to answer some of the questions about the song from the first discussion point. In my experience, teens are often amazed when they discover what some of their favourite songs are really about.

3. Encourage your teens that while some media is more obviously not the best thing to watch or listen to, and while you might have particular rules as their parent, they should also practice thinking for themselves to determine what movies/songs are about and whether or not the content in those things is spiritually healthy or unhealthy.

NO OTHER NAME YOUTH EVENT- Good Friday, April 14, 2017

This Good Friday, April 14th, our annual NO OTHER NAME youth event returns! Join us as over 800 teens from the Ottawa area get together to discover why they call this particular Friday a GOOD one!

FEATURES:

-Surprise speakers (last year it was the Youth Alpha guys!)

-Great worship with the house band

-Special concerts and performances (In the past we've had bands, improv, and even an amazing juggler!)

-Cool workshops (Teens can choose workshops that they're most interested in covering a variety of relevant topics)

-The Flea Market of Fun (Bouncy obstacle courses, jousting etc...)

-INCLUDES SUPPER!

COST:

Pastor Ben is offering a special CATALYST discount that's only good until March 19th. Cost is normally $32 but with the discount, the price will only be $22/student. After March 19th, the price jumps to $48/student, so don't delay-- sign up ASAP!

Pick up your permission form at CATALYST youth and get it filled out! On the permission form, there's a link so that you can pay online through our church website!

CATALYST Youth- "Why Give? Part 2"- Friday, Feb, 17, 2017

This week we continued our topic, "WHY GIVE?" by looking at some tips the Bible gives about how and why we should give.
 
1. GIVE CHEERFULLY
 
2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “You must each decide in your heart how much to give. And don’t give reluctantly or in response to pressure. For God loves a person who gives cheerfully.”
 
We should never feel forced or pressured to give. God wants us to give cheerfully. We can do that by giving as worship—by giving as a way to show God that we love him and that we want to do the things that are important to him. It’s also pretty easy to give cheerfully when you know that what you’re doing is making a difference or being a real help (like when we do MISSION WEEK or give in our youth offering). In fact, scientific studies show that when you feel that you’re making a difference and making the world a better place in some way, you’ll actually experience health benefits that include lower blood pressure, lower risk of dementia, less anxiety and depression, reduced cardiovascular risk, and overall greater happiness and fulfillment in life!

2. GIVE SMART
 
When I first got a job and had money, one thing that I quickly learned is that EVERYBODY’S ASKING FOR IT! I’m asked to give at church, when I go to the grocery store I’m asked to donate money to some cause by adding a few dollars to my bill. When I LEAVE the grocery store, I often see someone sitting by the door asking for money for some charity or organization (like cadets or girl guides). People will even come to my door or call my number asking me to give! It seems that EVERYWHERE YOU GO, people want you to give.

One of the important things I learned when I had money was that I needed to be SMART with the way I gave—meaning—I needed to give money, or I needed to volunteer in ways that were important to me personally. This is important because we each only have so much money to give away! We each only have a limited amount of time we can volunteer! Some good questions for you to ask yourself are—What are needs or causes that are most important to me? What are the things that God has wired into me that I feel passionate about? How does God want me to give? What would make him proud? 
 
Another way to GIVE SMART means not to just throw your time or money away—but to use some wisdom when you give. In Matthew 25, Jesus told a parable about a boss who entrusted money to three of his employees before he went away on a long trip. Two of the employees invested that money and did important things with it. One of the employees decided to bury the money for safekeeping. Well, when the boss returned—he was thrilled with the employees who invested the money—but he wasn’t that jazzed with the guy who buried it in the backyard.

The point of Jesus’ story is that God has (and will) give us a lot. Life itself is a blessing—we’re alive for a reason—the time that we have on this planet is limited—and super valuable! The job you have or WILL have is a blessing—it’ll enable you to provide for yourself and a family one day. The Bible says that everything we have COMES from God. So, he’s ENTRUSTED all of those things to us—and expects us to invest our lives and money in things that are valuable and important—not just to waste it or not accomplish anything! The Bible talks about how we should be “GOOD STEWARDS” or “CARETAKERS” of the time and money we have. That means that we need to use our heads when we give. 

Some examples of this might be to not give to a need or organization if you're not familiar with who they or to do some research into a charity to see how they'll use or spend that money before deciding to give. I really think that God is proud when we make smart, informed choices in how we’re going to use the money or time he’s blessed us with.

3. GIVE REGULARLY AND CONSISTENTLY
 
In the Old Testament, people were required to tithe (which we typically think of as giving 10% of their income/animals/produce to the temple, but was actually closer to 22%). This wasn't really giving-- it was more like the taxes we have to pay to the government. While some Christians still practice this today, the New Testament never really gives a magic number we're supposed to give (although it talks A LOT about being SUPER generous), but an important tip is that we give REGULARLY & CONSISTENTLY (this is seen in 1 Corinthians 16 where it talks about giving in a weekly church offering). That might mean giving 10%...or less or even MORE (as we saw in 2 Cor 9:7, it says we need to decide in our heart how much to give).

If you’ve ever wondered why churches ask for money and take up offerings it’s because the church is a CHARITY. If people don’t give, it can’t afford to do all of the things it does—which includes keeping the lights on and paying for a meeting place, paying the pastors they’ve hired to lead and teach them (1 Timothy 5:17-18), providing teaching materials, sharing God's love in the community, and supporting missions organizations in our community and around the world. All of those things are in a church's budget for a year. For this reason, a church (like other charities) DEPEND on regular and consistent giving to survive!

For example, the reason why you commit to giving a certain amount every month when sponsoring a child is because the organization & that child DEPENDS on you for help. If you were to decide to give $40 whenever you felt like it to sponsor a child—there might be some months where the money that child needed and depended on wouldn’t be there. Imagine if you worked full time, but your boss said that he would pay you whenever he felt like it—not regularly or consistently. So, it’s the end of the month—you need a certain amount of money in your account to pay for your rent and to buy groceries and depend on it to survive—but you never get it, or you get it weeks later. Wouldn’t that be stressful? Wouldn’t that freak you out?

When you give a certain amount on a regular basis—you are supporting a charity or organization in a much better way. You’re letting them know that they can count on your support and that they can depend on a certain amount of money to come in regularly. Same with volunteering. If you were a volunteer who only volunteered when you felt like it, the organization could never count on you. For example, if all of our volunteers decided not to show up at CATALYST on a given week, we would have to close the doors—because legally, we need a certain number of adult volunteers to run our youth program! 

When you give or volunteer—it’s ok to do a “one-off” and give or volunteer as a one-time thing, but it’s far better when you’re committed to giving a certain amount on a regular basis so that the church or charity can depend on you and count on you and that money. When you grow up and start living on a budget—where you plan out how much you make and how much you spend, you can also budget and plan how much you can regularly give and where it’ll go. 


Also, when you give regularly and consistently you tend to actually give more. A person is more apt to give $50 a month regularly than give $600 at one time during the year. It's actually the same total amount, but the $50 a month is FAR less painful. It's harder to give cheerfully when it's a HUGE hit to your wallet. In fact, if a person waited all year to give one amount, they might decide on giving $300, which is still a lot, but it's only half as much as they would have given if they had given a smaller amount regularly throughout the year. It's way more tempting to hold onto a bigger amount than a smaller one.

4. GIVE IN PRIVATE

-In Matthew 6: 1-4 Jesus says, “Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven. When you give to someone in need, don’t do as the hypocrites do—blowing trumpets in the synagogues and streets to call attention to their acts of charity! I tell you the truth, they have received all the reward they will ever get. But when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you”. 

Here, Jesus tells us not to be all show-ey and braggy about all of the ways we give—to not announce that you give certain amounts of money so that people think that you’re the most amazing person on the planet--- but that when we give, we should do it quietly, humbly, without calling attention to ourselves. God is not only proud of us when we give in that way, but he promises that we’ll experience rewards and blessing for giving in private!  These days, when you fill out your taxes with computer software, there's even a button that encourages you to share the amount you've given throughout the year on social media. The whole reason why that feature is on there is for you to brag and let others know that you're God’s gift to humanity! “Look at me! Look at how much I give! I bet I give way more than you!” That's just not the way God wants us to give. He wants us to do it cheerfully, wisely, regularly and consistently, but he doesn't want us to brag about it.

DISCUSSION FOR HOME
1. Encourage your teen to be a part of our MISSION WEEK at Capital City Mission. When they return from their date at the mission, ask them about their experience. Why was it so important? How did our group help or benefit others? Did they feel good about the experience? What would happen if people gave up volunteering or giving money to support the mission? Let your teen know that you're proud of them for doing something that might have been outside their comfort zone.

2. Talk to your teen about how, when they start to work, it's important to decide a percentage or amount that they regularly give. Maybe share your own personal experience of how you budget to ensure that you can regularly and consistently support the church or another charity or organization. While the Bible says we should give in private, it's also important that we teach our kids about the importance of giving and to develop good giving habits.

CATALYST YOUTH- "Why Give? Part One", Friday, February 10, 2017

This week we continued our "WHY?" series with a shorter talk because we spent an hour of our night baking cookies that we'll bring down to the Capital City Mission in a couple of weeks. Why did we bake cookies for people who we don't know? Why would we go serve at the Mission? Why is there so much talk about giving or volunteering whenever we're at a youth group or church?

GIVING IN INSEPARABLE FROM THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

Because the Bible says that we're ALL loved and valued by God, it's not surprising that all through the Bible we're encouraged to fight against that urge to be selfish- to only think about ourselves, to only spend money on ourselves- and do what we can to help others who might be in need. 

Jesus had A LOT to say about giving. His most famous parable, The Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), shows us how God expects us to treat other people—even if they might be our ENEMIES! At the time Jesus told this story, Samaritans and Jews hated each other, so when a Samaritan man happened across a Jewish man who was robbed and beaten at the side of the road and then stopped to bandage his wounds, took him to where he could get help, and then even paid for the man to be taken care of, it was pretty controversial! That's NOT how people usually treated their enemies!
 
What’s so powerful about that story is that the Samaritan man didn’t just throw money at the problem by giving in an offering to help the guy, but he was involved in VOLUNTEERING. He gave of his own time and got his hands dirty helping the injured man! It was probably a little bit uncomfortable! I mean, bandaging someone’s wounds is a whole other level of caring! It would have been kind of gross!  Jesus famously ended that story by saying that WE need to be that kind of GOOD NEIGHBOUR to others! That’s how God expects Christians to live! When we do that kind of thing, our CREATOR is super proud of us!
 
Another famous thing that Jesus is known for is for teaching the GOLDEN RULE—in Matthew 7:12 he said, “In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you”.
 
Just imagine what our world would be like if EVERYONE chose to live by that! We would be living in a world with no poverty, no bullying, no violence, no crime! It would be like heaven on earth! Of course, not everyone lives by that golden rule—which is pretty evident if you just watch the news for a minute---so when Christians choose to live that way, it really stands out! Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."  When you’re serious about following Jesus- it’ll stand out! People will take notice! They’ll start asking questions! They’ll ask us why we would give or volunteer when we could just spend the money on ourselves or spend all of our free time playing video games! When we LEGITIMATELY care about others, it’s one of the best ways we can share our faith and let others know that following Jesus is important to us! 

That’s exactly what happened when the first Christians started meeting together as the church! “All the believers were together. They shared everything they had. They sold property and other things they owned. They gave to anyone who needed something. They praised God. They were respected by all the people. Every day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved”. (Acts 2:44-45, 47)
 
Is it any wonder why more and more people decided to follow Jesus! These first Christians were known for making HUGE sacrifices—even selling property and things they owned- to help other people! That’s almost mind-boggling to think of today! Generally, people give their leftovers, they don’t DOWN-SIZE and make sacrifices so that they can give more away!

Of course, all through history, Christians have been at the forefront of helping others. Just look at all of the aid and relief organizations in existence! The ones we’ve all heard about (and arguably the ones that have the biggest impact on our world)- RED CROSS, WORLD VISION, COMPASSION- were all founded by Christians who believed they needed to do something to help people in need. Because of those organizations, MILLIONS of people have gone on to live and have fulfilling lives when they otherwise would have died because of some disaster or simply because they were born in complete poverty. 


You just CAN'T separate Christianity and generosity. There's just no such thing as a Jesus follower who doesn't give or volunteer to make a positive difference in his/her world. That's one of the reasons why we took the time to bake cookies tonight-- and why we do MISSION WEEK as a group every year. It reminds us that there are people in our own city who don’t have very much—who live in poverty or might not have a home of their own. These people are often looked down on and treated like dirt. They often feel alone and don’t have any family members to love and support them--but God loves and values them and wants us to REPRESENT that love by giving a bit of our time and money! Our going down and spending a couple of evenings serving coffee, sandwiches, and cookies at the mission’s drop-in is a way we can worship God! It shows and tells him that he’s important to us! It also helps the mission let people know that our youth group (and ultimately God) loves them and cares about what they’re going through in life. So, I really want to encourage our teens to sign up and be a part of it!

DISCUSSION FOR HOME

1. Ask your teen why we baked cookies as a group this week. Talk about the other ways you might give or volunteer as a family (or personally) throughout the year. Why do you do that? What drives you to spend your time and money involved in the church or community programs?

2. Encourage your teen to be involved in our upcoming MISSION WEEK. The prospect might be a little scary or uncomfortable, but they'll find that the experience will be a great one! Permission forms are due by Feb 17th, so get them in soon!

3. Sign up with Pastor Ben to provide a tray of sandwiches, veggies or fruit that we can bring with us to the mission (even if your teen is unable to go themselves). Encourage your teens to be a part of making or preparing the food as another way that they can give!

CATALYST Youth- "Why Pray?" Friday, Feb 3, 2017

This week, we continued our series, "WHY?" by asking the question, "WHY PRAY?"

Why bother praying? I’m sure there have been times where you've prayed and asked God for something and NEVER saw that thing happen (I’ve definitely been there a ton of times), so you might even think that prayer is pointless. If that's true--if it doesn’t work, shouldn't we probably all give up doing it and quit pretending that it makes a difference? Why do Christians pray? Why is prayer a part of every church service that we go to? Why are we encouraged to do it during the week? Does God really answer prayers? This week, we tackled some of those questions.

PRAYER IS A PART OF RELATIONSHIP
 
Prayer simply means “talking or expressing yourself to God”. It’s pretty much impossible to know someone closely and to have a great friendship with someone without regular communication- and the same is true when it comes to us and God. A lot of people might wonder why they feel disconnected and distant from God—and it might be because they’ve got sin in their life and have basically walked away from God and what he wants for them, or it might be because they just never put an effort into having a healthy relationship with him. If you don’t read and reflect on God’s Word (the Bible)—which is basically God’s instruction manual for living a healthy and fulfilling life, and if you don’t ever talk to him, than really, you’re not going to be that close and you’re also not going to be able to hear HIS voice when HE speaks to YOU!
 
 At some point, I’ll probably dedicate an entire talk about how we can hear God speak to us—but the point I want to make here is simply that we’re meant to have a RELATIONSHIP with God—and you just can’t have a relationship without putting some effort into it and having an open line of communication.
 
Prayer isn’t something you should be scared or intimidated by.  There are no magic formulas involved. You don’t even have to speak in ye ol’ English! God just wants you to be REAL with him. In fact the Bible is full of places, like in the Psalms, where people prayed prayers that were ANGRY, UPSET and FRUSTRATED with God! God didn’t get angry with them! In fact, those prayers are recorded in the Bible for a reason! God wants us to talk to him about the stuff that bothers us! He wants us to talk to him about stuff we’re dealing with in life. He wants us to talk to him about our doubts and frustrations!

2. GOD WANTS US TO PRAY!
 
Philippians 4:6 says, “Don’t worry about anything. No matter what happens, TELL GOD ABOUT EVERYTHING. Ask and pray, and give thanks to him”.
 
1Thessalonians 5:17 has just three simple words, “NEVER STOP PRAYING”.—which, by the way, doesn’t mean that we need to quit school, give up our jobs and spend every waking moment talking to God…but what it’s saying is that God wants an open line of communication with us.
 
In a world where almost everyone has a cell phone—we get that. We can send a text message whenever we feel like it. We can share that viral cat video at the click of a button, AND we have the freedom to talk to God whenever we want about anything we want! This week, I shared how one of the "habits" in our family is that, when we're driving and spot an ambulance with its lights flashing, we take a second to pray for that person in need. It's something my little kids are super aware of. They know that you don't have to be in a church building to talk to God or ask him for help. In fact, there are times in our home when one of us might stub our toe, and within seconds our kids are praying that God would heal us and take the pain away.

Over the last year, one of the things I’ve started practicing is that I’ve decided not to ever say that I’ll pray for someone and never do it. Sometimes someone shares something on Facebook and they’ll have a ton of people say things like “my thoughts and prayers are with you”. I used to be one of those “thoughts and prayers people”, until I realized that I wasn’t actually thinking about them or praying for them at all—it was just a nice thing that I said at the time but would forget all about it! Well NOW, what I do is I’ll take the time to pray for someone and their situation right then and there and then, I’ll just type something like—“I just took a minute and prayed for you”!
 
I share all of that stuff to say that you can make prayer an everyday, everywhere, any time part of your life! It’s like sending a text to the most powerful being in all of existence—and you don’t even need a phone! No data plan is required!

 3. GOD IS NOT A GENIE

The third and final thing I want to do is answer the question about why it seems like God’s not answering those texts—and why it seems that he’s either not listening or doesn’t really care enough to do something about it. You’re not the only one with those doubts and questions—even the prophet Habakkuk said to God, “Why does it seem like you don’t listen to my prayers? Why am I not getting an answer? Do you even care?” (Habakkuk 1:2)
 
The Bible very clearly tells us that God wants to hear from us and that He actually cares about what we’re going through! Psalm 56:8 says that God keeps a record of our tears—which doesn’t mean that he’s LITERALLY got a filing cabinet with your name on it—but it means that he knows exactly what we’re going through and the tough stuff you’re deal with! 1 Peter 5:7 says, “Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you”.

The main verse I want us to think about is found in 1 John 5: 14-15. It says, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him”.
 
Now, it’s really easy to read this verse and say—“Well, look at that--- it says right there that God will give us what we ask for! BUT…that’s not EXACTLY what it says. It actually says that God will answer those prayers that are ACCORDING TO HIS WILL.
 
What that means is that God is not a genie! Rubbing the lamp (praying) doesn’t mean he’s required to grant you wishes! I mean, we’re talking about the God of the Universe here—not our servant. He’s not a candy dispenser that spits out treats once we pull the lever! He’s not going to make money rain from heaven or have all of your problems disappear just because you pulled the lever or said the right magic words!
 
Part of praying is trusting that God knows and wants what’s best for us. While we CAN pray for anything, that doesn’t mean those things are good for us! I mean, my kids can ask me to give them desserts 24/7, and they might be disappointed when I say no and think that I don’t really love them, but the truth is, no good parent is going to do whatever their kids want! Being a good parent means doing what’s best for my kids, even if they might get mad at me and think I’m terrible and unkind!

I shared a story of this one time I was looking for a job, and came across a job that seemed perfect for me. The interview went well, and I thought for sure that it was what God wanted for me. When I didn't get that job, I felt that God had seriously dropped the ball, but as it turns out, when I look back on it, I'm really glad God didn't say "yes" to all of those prayers. In fact, in one of those jobs, there ended up being a big upheaval where I would have moved my family to a new city only to have to look for a new job just a few months later. God not answering my prayer saved me a lot of stress, hardship and money!

Sometimes you’ll pray for REALLY good things—like praying for your family to come to know Jesus---and when that doesn't happen, you might think that God doesn't care or that prayer doesn't work, but we need to remember that God’s not going to over-ride their own freedom of choice just because you prayed! While God might open opportunities for that to happen because of your prayers, he’s not going to force someone against their will or turn someone into a mindless robot just so that my prayer is answered!
 
You see, God ALWAYS answers prayers, but SOMETIMES the answer is “no”. Other times the answer is “I’m working on it, but you’re going to have to wait”, and we need to be ok with that. We need to trust that God knows best! Even Jesus, right before he was going to be arrested and tortured on a cross, prayed and asked God to not let it happen…but he also famously said, “NOT MY WILL BUT YOURS BE DONE”. (Luke 22:42)  Even Jesus said, God, this is what I want, but ULTIMATELY, I want what you want! And I’m so glad that Jesus didn’t get a “YES” to that prayer, because his going on the cross was something that made a way for all of humanity to have their sins forgiven!

Why pray? When we talk to God regularly and read and reflect on what the Bible says, we’ll feel closer to God and be more able to hear him speak to us! We also pray simply because God asks us to do it--- he wants us to tell him about all of the things that worry us and stress us out--- he wants us to ask him for help! But it’s important for us to remember that while GOD ALWAYS ANSWERS PRAYERS—sometimes the answer isn’t what we want or expect. We need to remember that God isn’t a GENIE. He’s not going to give us everything we want and ask for. We need to trust that, as the ULTIMATE GOOD PARENT, he knows and wants what’s best for us! We need to remember to pray like Jesus did—“God—this is what I want, but ultimately, I want what YOU want”.

DISCUSSION FOR HOME


1. As a parent, try to inject some time for prayer into your home life this week. It might be as simple as, when you ask your teen about their day, ask them if there's anything you can pray with them about. Remind them that, while sometimes the answer is "no" or "not right now", or the prayer might get answered in a way we don't expect, God always wants to hear from us. He wants us to depend on him and ask him for help.

2. Has prayer ever made a difference in your life? Have you seen God answer one of your prayers in an amazing way? Talk to your teen about that experience!