Biblepraise Fellowship Online

Inspirational Writings, Stories and Poetry.

Posts with Tag: prayer

by Steve Popoola on
In part one of this series, we examined our first acronym for P.U.S.H - ‘Pray Until Something Happens’. In this part, we will discuss another aspect of P.U.S.H, which is, “Praise Until Something Happens”.As I was thinking about this, I thought about the process of driving a car. First, you have to switch on the engine whether it’s with a key, button or even your voice. Turning the engine on is however not enough to take you to where you are going. Unless you engage the accelerator, you will remain in one place.  It’s not a perfect analogy but it helped me picture the relationship between prayer and praise. With prayer, we present our request by faith. Between when we present that prayer and when we receive the response to that...
by Steve Popoola on
Those who have been Christians for a while may have read or heard of the acronym P.U.S.H. I used to view it exclusively in terms of prayer but I recently got a new perspective inspired by one of the conference speakers at the recently held Assemblies of God (GB) National Conference. In Part 1 of this article, we will examine one of the aspects of this acronym.The first aspect which is commonly known is; Pray Until Something Happens. Prayer is at the core of the Christian journey. Why is prayer so important? Prayer is the vehicle with which we commune with God but it does not stop there. It also strengthens our faith and helps us draw closer to God. Interestingly, our Christian journey starts with prayer. We come to the realisation that we are sinners and...
by Steve Popoola on
In Part 1, we examined how prayer came into being, tracing it's origins back to when the generation of Seth began to all upon the name of the Lord (Genesis 4:25-26) We considered what would have been the main focus of their prayers and highlighted two topical issues which were, repentance from sin and God fulfilling His promise to crush satan's head and restoring man to his original state. Part 1 ended with the first reason why prayer is important, which is, prayer re-aligns our hearts to the one who created us.Secondly, Prayer is important because it is powerful. In the second part of James 5:16, we read, “The prayer of...
by Steve Popoola on
When we look around us, we see people of no faith seemingly doing well in their lives and not having to deal with problems that we are aware of, including those that we have to deal with and it makes us wonder, “Why do we really need to pray? Does prayer even change anything? Won’t life just happen whether we pray or not?” These are some of the questions we will attempt to answer in this article.To understand why prayer is important, we need to go back to the first time prayer was mentioned in the scriptures. When God created Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, we are not entirely sure what the mode of communication between God and man was. We know that in Genesis 2:16, God commanded the man not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil telling him the conse...
by Steve Popoola on
Except you have been living underground with no contact with the outside world, you must have been following the events in Ukraine which began since the deployment of Russian troops to the Ukrainian border late last year.In spite of all pleas and threats of sanctions by various countries as well as organisations like NATO and EU, on February 24, 2022, Russia launched what President Putin called a “Special Military Operation” as its forces moved into Ukrainian cities, launching a full scale invasion.When all the warnings began earlier in the year following the build up of Russian military across the border of Ukraine, I began to pray that the invasion would not go ahead because I knew any war, no matter it’s scale would result in the loss of lives and...
by Steve Popoola on
Sometimes we pray like pagans and barter with God. "God, if you will do this or that," we beg, "then I will stop what I've been doing and start doing something else!" Pagan prayer - and much that passes for Christian, I fear - is like a giant roulette wheel at a gambling casino. You want to get well. Or you are desperate to pay bills. Or you are scared you are going to die. So you wish hard, close your eyes, and spin the wheel. If you are lucky, you get what you want!Authentic prayers of faith are different. We go to the Lord and do what is normal and right. We ask his help. We throw ourselves on his mercy. But we do so with the caveat, "Not my will, but yours, be done!"That is terribly risky, for we sometimes discover that God doesn't want the things...
by Joseph Mazzella on
When I was a young boy my Grandmother had to have surgery for a tumor on her brain. The only hospital equipped to do it was over 1 ½ hour’s drive away. Still, after her surgery we all climbed into our old car to head down to see her. When we got to the hospital I learned that to visit the patients you had to be over 12 years old, which I wasn’t. It was a safer time then so my Mom felt comfortable leaving me alone in the waiting room while the rest of them visited Nana.After leafing through magazines for awhile I got bored and decided to walk down the hall and see what I could see. One of the first rooms I peeked in was a small chapel. At first I thought it was empty but when I looked closer...
by Steve Popoola on
In the last couple of days, I have been reading scriptures and devotionals on prayer and I dare say that it has increased my desire and passion towards prayer. It also gave me the opportunity to understand the power that prayer can unleash if we only understand the gift and power that has been placed into our hands as believers. I ask the question, ‘Why Pray?’ because I have found out that in life, if you do not understand the ‘why’ then you will not value the ‘what’. There are various references in scripture which you may have become quite familiar with; “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.” 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 “Watch and pray s...
by Steve Popoola on
For the Christian, prayer is simply our direct line to God and it is always on 24/7. My children know how frustrated I get whenever I call them and I get sent to voicemail either because they exhausted their phone batteries and didn't recharge or they placed their phones somewhere while they were elsewhere. When praying to God, you can be sure that there is no point of failure. When we pray in Jesus name, heaven hears us instantly. There is no linking from one communication tower or network to another. It is instant and immediate!Having defined what prayer is, the next logical question is, "Who is qualified to pray?" The only qualification for prayer is having a right standing with God. Without this, prayer is more of a wish list and a gamble. Naturally, the follo...
by Steve Popoola on
Walking In His Presence


By Steve Popoola

I  read about a boy who every night had to walk past what he believed was a haunted house. A friend gave him a good luck charm to give him courage.
An adult said, “It’s sinful to be afraid. Trust God! Be brave!” But the boy was still afraid.  Then someone told him, "I know what it means to be afraid, take my hand, I will go with you". The boy took the man's hand and he was no longer afraid.

In discussing the topic, Walking in His Presence, we will be looking at three aspects of God's presence.



The Essential Presence of God: This refers to the omnipresence of God. By Omnipresence, we mean that God is everywhere at all times. The Psalmist emphasized this when He...
by Rubel Shelly on
Loving Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, As we keep this Christmas Season in memory of the Baby of Bethlehem:Give us the acquiescent faith of the young Mary,Grant us the courageous devotion of a mature Joseph, andTeach us to receive and love our children as they did the Christ Child.While we read the ancient stories of his birth yet again,May we worship with the joy of an angel chorus,Feel the eager excitement of shepherds who heard their song, andBring the Blessed Son a gift more precious than Magi could offer.When we gather with family, friends, and those whom we love most,Let us celebrate our joys and successes without boasting or envy,Help u...
by Steve Popoola on



I did a last minute check to ensure that I did not leave anything I needed behind. Having done that, we got into the vehicle heading for the airport.

Thoughts and questions  ran through my mind as we set out on the journey.  There were many questions but few answers. There was however one conclusion, God would take care of everything.

It was not the first time I would be leaving my family for  a period of time but it was the first time I would be leaving them for an unspecified period of time. My wife asked me the question time and time again, ‘How long would it take for us to come and join you?’ I had no answer but once again I relied on my faith in God and told her, ‘Within a year from now, you should be with me, God willing’.



We got to the airpor...
by Steve Popoola on
I believe that the strength of a home is largely related to the choice of who we marry.  I do not know how far I would have gone in life if I had not married my wife. I have always been thankful of the fact that God did not give me the kind of person I wanted but gave me the person I needed.

Initially, my wife could not understand when I always convert our needs into prayer no matter  how little and trivial the problems were. Afterwards when the needs were met in unusual ways, she would remember that we actually did pray for it.



One of those incidents happened when we had a need for a car. I was not happy with the fact that we had to travel several miles to church, often combining foot and bus travels. By the time we get to church, we would most times be late and tired. The...
Steve Popoola
Steve Popoola is the editor of Biblepraise Newsletter and the founder of the Biblepraise Fellowship Online. He lives in Kent, United Kingdom, where he works as an IT Professional. He serves currently as a Worship Leader in his local church and on occasion, speaks at invited events.

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