"You thank God for your day, you pray for God to bless
your grandma," said educational assistant Ruth Thiessen, today's chapel speaker.
"That is a good prayer, but that is just the beginnning."
Thiessen used examples from her own journey from unbelief to
a joyful walk with God to show the secret to powerful prayer.
The secret is expecting God to answer, Thiessen said.
Thiessen said when she was young she prayed for a boy with
dreamy eyes to ask her on a date, she prayed for high marks in classes in which
she was a disruptive influence and did no work, and she prayed for God to bless
her grandma.
In each case, God answered her, she said. The answers were "Nope,"
"Are you Kidding?" and "Yes!"
But in each case, Thiessen was too busy focusing on her friends
or her activities to notice that God was, indeed, answering her. She turned
away from God and the church.
In hindsight, Thiessen said she knows God was always with
her and always communicating with her -- in dreams, visions, signs, other
people and his word.
"I was given eyes to see God," she said. Once she
could see God and once she began expecting him to answer, she saw him
everywhere. "And he is a wild God, guys."
She shared stories of how God used her to have a positive
influence on others -- a heroin addict, a member of her church, or an addiction
program she was running. But she also admitted that each victory caused her to
take pride in her own accomplishments instead of in God's love and power.
She also came to recognize that she was a judgmental person
who criticized and condemned others.
"What God had done with grace in my life, I had taken
and owned and turned it into judgment," she said. Her journey away from
legalism "is still ongoing," she told the students. "When I get into
trouble, I tend to lean to law, rather than lean to grace.
"But God never condemns," she said. "God will
convict. Condemnation comes from law and conviction comes from grace.
God loves her and God pursues her, she said, and she
continually sees evidence of God answering her prayers and working in her life.
"And God loves you," she told students.
"God does everything for you. You just have to ask and
believe," she said. Our ability to pray and our ability to see God's
answers comes from lining up our hearts with the word of God.
"God loves the socks off you," she said. "If
you dwell in his love, you can ask anything and he will do it for you. And
dwelling in that place is the best place in the world."
Thiessen closed by inviting each student to reflect on an
issue in his or her heart, and to think about the feeling that goes along with that
issue: whether it's fear, anger, insecurity, inadequacy or more.
"Take that feeling and focus on Jesus and who he
is," she said. "He is love. He is gentleness. He is faithful and
tenacious and can never let you go.
"And you are so valuable and important to him,"
she said. "God will guide you and protect you. You may be an ordinary
person but you will live an extraordinary life."
Today's chapel began with Mr. Park's prayer of thanks to God
that this is a school "where we recognize that there is something bigger
going on."
A student praise team led us in worship with "I Am
Free," "Give Me Your Eyes," and "I Am Not Ashamed."
And then the winners of the school hockey tournament signed the Stanley Cup!
Here's a short clip from today's chapel, in which Mrs. Thiessen describes "the first miracle" God worked in her life. Mr. Park says she sounds like Shrek!
