Are you still waiting for God's answer to your prayer? Are you getting impatient that until now He hasn't answered your prayers for years and years? My recent read might give you some heads up why up until now you feel or think that God hasn't answered your prayer.

The Power of Positive Prayer by John Bisagno is an old Christian book I finished reading two weeks ago. I hope it is not too late to make a review about it because I feel so "lutang" the past two weeks, probably because another school year just began and I am a little busy, overwhelmed, and making adjustments in the first two weeks. My mind felt so disorganized and bombarded by different thoughts and information that came from internal and external sources. It was really a struggle, in the beginning, I even had headaches and there were nights I couldn't even sleep soundly. One thing that helped me get through it every time is my quiet and praying time with the Lord, and also meditating on His words.  

This pocketbook is also a companion during those restless days and nights. Bisagno wrote this book intended for a short read to serve its purpose for those who seek answers for their long-pending prayers to God. He encourages people, especially Christians, to spend more time praying rather than reading his authored book. 

Prayer is a great equalizer to all God's children. All of us can have direct communication with the Lord through prayer. But there are times, and when I say "times" I mean lots of them, when we feel like God doesn't answer our prayers. Even though we pray so hard for it and ask for it, God seems silent. He doesn't give us answer about the thing or person that we want and desire the most. And if we are not careful and mindful of the leading of the Holy Spirit, we might succumb to frustration and impatience in times of His silence and lead us to take the matter into our own hands.

In my Christian walk, I came to understand how God answers our prayers. It can be through reading the Bible, by the people around us, or through circumstances or situations in our lives. There are certain conditions to be met for you to get a big Heavenly Yes, and it is clearly stated in John 15:7: If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. 

God answers us with a YES, if we are ready, a NO, if it isn't the best for us, or WAIT if we aren't yet ready. And waiting season can be frustrating sometimes, but I am telling you, I'm telling us, it's all worth it. Trust the process and continue to press on. He is in control and He wants the best for us.

When Dimple Met Rishi is my second book from Sandhya Menon, another young adult book with diverse characters and backgrounds. Dimple and Rishi are two young adults meant to be together, at least that's how the author planned them to be.  To be together forever. Kismet.  

This is the longest book I read in a span of half a month. It has 56 chapters plus 1. I never thought I would have the patience and the courage to finish the book even as a reader. Maybe, one of the many reasons I finished this book is that it is engaging in a way that the author made sure that there wasn't any dull moment in any part of it. Though there are some parts that I am quite concerned about, like how straightforward the female lead is when it comes to pre-marital sex. I felt that the author is very intentional in that part since the whole revolting that Dimple is trying to point out exudes feminism. I won't discuss that topic any further than that. If you are comfortable and have the tolerance and understanding to deal with that kind of topic then there's no reason for you not to read this book. This is just me expressing what I felt reading that part of the book.

And mainly, it is about chasing dreams and acting on them as if there is nothing and even no one that could ever stop the characters in the story from realizing those dreams. For sure, we all have dreams just like the characters I met in When Dimple Met Rishi, but somewhere down the road we stopped and decided to forget about them for some reasons only we knew. This book is a tap for you and me to be reminded of that dream of ours, whatever it was. That one dream we desperately wanted to be hidden and forgotten.

One of the many struggles of humans is to surrender to God. As if surrendering shows the weakness and flaws in us we always want to forget and hide in the darkest part of our closet. That giving up our rights and entitlement to God would cause such loss of every right of our own humanity. That accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior would take away our freedom and liberty to experience life to the fullest. And a lot more misconceptions about God. All these may appear to be true to us if we do not know the character of our heavenly Father, our One True God, if we don't have a personal intimate relationship, there is a danger of believing all these lies from the enemy. 

But God is gracious and merciful. He let us know what we needed to know and never left the essential wisdom and knowledge unheard of from Him. He uses everything and anything to deliver His will right to our doorstep, yet sometimes we tend to be insensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and most of the time, we are impatient. Yes, we are impatient selfish human beings, and our human nature leads us to compromises, and the worst, causes us to sin. We may have past experiences that hold us back and the trauma is still there, but I assure you based on my encounter with Christ there is nothing more redeeming and liberating than accepting Jesus in our lives, He gives us peace, He is the peace we all need to reconcile us with Father God.

Our existence in this life and in this world is not only for us, not solely for our own selfish gain. There is a greater purpose for everything. It is never just about us. We are designed to cooperate and submit to God's law. We are His workmanship and He already prepared us for good works.

Let me share with you Bible verses from Philippians 3:13-14: Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. These Scriptures always encourage me to continue and be intentional in my walk with Jesus. The Christian life is not easy, I can even imagine my sisters and brothers in Christ right now saying in unison that it is not just hard, it is impossible, and I couldn't agree with them more. 

Now that all have been said and done, I would also like to share with you a story through the chapbook I mentioned from one of my vlogs. Yep, you read it right, I'm releasing a new book this year 2021. It's a poetry and prose collection or some might say it is a thought catalog, but I'd prefer to call it a journey of letting go and let God be God.

I present to you the book cover of It's Not About Us (But What If It's About Us).