Personally, I choose to believe that God answered our prayers. Is it possible that I was making too much out of it? Yes. But what would you rather believe as a Christian: that God answers prayers or that there is no need to pray? We are told not to be anxious in anything but in everything by prayer and petition
Emily Belz of World Magazine (www.worldmag.com) writes: “The Web site for the prayer event is designed in red, white, and blue, and features an American… Read More »Follow up from Islamic March on Washington
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“The Word of God represents all the possibilities of God at the disposal of true prayer.” – A.T. Pierson
“I’d rather teach one man to pray than ten to preach.” – J.H. Jowett
What does sex teach us about prayer? Techniques of both prayer and sex are not the source of pleasure. The source of pleasure is the depth of relationship.
Confession in our personal prayers often takes the form of dredging up every possible sin to bring before God. There is a scene in the movie, Luther, where Martin Luther is spending long hours in the confessional of the monastery to the point where the other priest is getting bored with him. Now I do not think God ever gets bored of us coming to Him. But I do think God wants us to know that sin has been dealt with. The purpose of confession in our prayers is not to get our sins forgiven. They are already forgiven. The purpose of confession is to remind ourselves of this truth and to thank Jesus for the forgiveness given to us. Confession is not to rehash the shame of sin, but to annihilate shame’s very existence in our lives.
Praying for your pastor is very important. While God has given you this person to lead you in your journey with Him, he is still a man and needs prayers.
We have a choice of which voice we will follow. Will it be the voice of condemnation or the voice of life? Our prayers are an agreement with what the Son of God has already said is true about us, others, and the world around us. Listen to what His Spirit is saying to you and pray along with Him as partners in His work.
Is the purpose of prayer to get what we want? Absolutely not! We can all agree to this, but how many of us practically live this out? We come to God with our lists, then we question the significance of prayer when we don’t get what we pray for. Since we don’t see the answers, we give up. Maybe the reason that so many have had a hard time with prayer is because our focus is incorrect.
Last night as I was praying with my older daughter and putting her to bed, she was going through her list of people she wanted me to pray for. She decided to add a few new people to the list, and I started thinking how this is like our relationship with Jesus. Here was my daughter just telling me who she wanted to pray for, and I was the one who flushed this out in prayer. Now this is not a perfect analogy, but Jesus lives always to intercede for us.
Prayer is the easiest thing to do as a Christian. It is as easy as talking and listening. And yet, it is considered the biggest issue facing the church.