CarizzCruzem

You pray. You wait… and wait… wait again… and then wait some more. But still, the answer is so slow in coming. You’re not even sure if it’s coming indeed. Do you stop praying?

The beauty of the Word of God is that we can’t fully understand it yet. And because of that, we always learn something new. It never gets old and boring.

One barrier of understanding the written Word of God though is language. Parang sa Tagalog din po yan eh. Merong mga Tagalog words na walang exact equivalent sa ibang language. Like, “sayang”. Hindi naman pwedeng “waste” sa English. Kasi yung word na “waste”, it doesn’t capture the feeling of regret of losing something na nakapaloob sa word na “sayang”. It’s the same thing with the written Word of God. There are words written in the original na hindi nakukuha ang buong essence when translated to another language.

Enlightening po kapag nakita natin sa original version. To make myself clearer, I’d like to share Matthew 7:7. KJV po, kasi slightly malapit daw po ito sa original. Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Now, Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew. New Testament po eh Greek naman. I’m always grateful na sa panahon na ‘to naisip ng Dios na mabuhay ako. Madami po kasi akong “why”. Sa panahon po natin, napakadali na ang pagre-research. There are websites available to check Strong’s concordance para po makita yung original word na ginamit sa Bible. At our fingertips, sabi nga. Kaya medyo nai-ease po yung frustrations sa ilang misteryosong bagay na palaging naglalaro sa aking kautakan.

So, back to Matthew 7:7. Ito pong “ask”, “seek” and “knock”, sa original po eh merong hint ng kakulitan. Nag-promise po si Jesus sa’tin na I will never leave you nor forsake you. In return, kapag lumalapit tayo sa Dios, God is expecting us to have Mr. Mike Enriquez’s attitude. Hindi namin kayo tatantanan!

I mean, really, it’s like Jesus was saying, “Ask and ask and ask, seek and seek and seek, knock and knock and knock until you get the result.” Sabi pa nga sa definition ng original word na ginamit sa ask; crave, desire, require, beg even! Imagine. Mag-beg daw! And dun sa seek; seek in order to find. That if we seek, we expect to find it. Hindi yung after a few tries na hindi pa rin natin nakikita eh ayawan na. Sabi pa nga po eh demand something from someone. Mga strong verbs ang ginamit – beg, demand, strive.

Parang yung widow na nag-a-ask ng justice sa merciless judge. Sabi ng judge, Ok, ok. Sige na. Utang na loob, lubayan mo na ko! I’m paraphrasing, of course. Pero dahil nakulitan na yung judge, ginrant na nya yung hinihiling nung widow. Ikaw ba naman ang araw-arawin at istorbohin sa pagtulog. Tingnan natin kung hindi ka rin makulitan.

In thinking about this, bakit kelangan nating mangulit sa Lord? Siguro dahil gusto nya na maglambing tayo sa kanya. Another way of looking at it is battle. Remember Daniel? In Daniel 10, it was accounted there that he prayed and fasted. It took 21 days before Angel Gabriel came to him and reported what happened. And keep in mind, he was on a fast all those 21 days. Nung 21^st day ng prayer and fast ni Daniel, dumating si Angel Gabriel dun sa room ni Daniel. Sabi ni Angel Gabriel na sinagot na yung prayers ni Daniel nung first day pa lang, pero hinarang sya ng Prince of Persia. Kaya to the rescue si Archangel Michael. All those 21 days na nagpe-prayer and fasting si Daniel, may rambol naman sa air.

Kung siguro nag-stop si Daniel sa pagpe-pray, baka isinuko na nila Archangel Michael ang laban, kasi it would connote na hindi naman talaga interesado si Daniel sa answer dun sa prayer nya.

Let us not be weary in doing well because we will reap the harvest if we faint not. Sabi nga, PUSH daw, Pray Until Something Happens.

Good day everyone!