prayer

Encouragement for your Daily Life

Prayer Meetings Are The Heartbeat Of The Church

The condition of a church can be accurately determined by its prayer meetings. Vance Havner said that “the thermometer of a church is its prayer meeting.”

A.T. Pierson said: “There has never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin in united prayer.” It’s well documented that all true revivals in history began in the prayer meeting. Based on the teaching of Scripture, the example of the early church, and church history, it seems to me that the need of the hour is to worry less about doing whatever it takes to draw a crowd and to give greater attention to collectively seeking God in prayer.

Spurgeon said: “We shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.” He also said: “If we would have Him, we must meet in greater numbers; we must pray with greater fervency, we must watch with greater earnestness, and believe with firmer steadfastness. The prayer meeting … is the appointed place for the reception of power.”

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

How To Have A Conversation With God

If our best memories of our earthly fathers are conversations not sermons, why do we think our heavenly Father (who is better than the best earthly father) wants mostly to lecture? “Will not our heavenly Father give good things to us when we ask?” Would we want it any other way?

We most frequently seek God’s voice during times of crisis. “I’m in trouble; I need direction!” The thing is, until we have learned to recognize his quiet voice in the humdrum of life, what chance do we have of distinguishing his voice in the maelstrom of crisis?

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

We Don’t Need To Bring Prayer Back To Schools Because It Never Left

I object to any mission to bring prayer “back” to school because I can’t support the faulty theology—downright heresy—of implying God is only around to hear our prayers when the building sanctions his presence.

Prayer never left schools. And God never did either. To suggest otherwise should make us shudder. And yet, that’s what campaigns full of good God-fearing folks seem to be saying.

What are we communicating with our laments over godless classrooms and demands for established prayer times? We insinuate we have the power to take and put God where we want him. We suggest the act of teacher-led prayer or a public invocation of God’s name keeps us from harm or makes a place more God’s and therefore more worthy than another.

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

What Is Christian Meditation And How Can It Help You Hear God?

Most people I know have an innate desire to hear God; actually, more than a desire, an intense longing. We want to connect with the divine, to somehow see the face of God, to touch and be touched. It’s inborn, an inherent ingredient of our humanity.

Christian meditation trains our ears to distinguish God’s voice—that one instrument—amidst the orchestra of others. And once we learn to recognize God’s voice, we begin to hear it “time and again, in various ways.”

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

You Can’t Save Your Children, So Call Out To The One Who Can

“But wait…,” some might say, “how is God going to hold me accountable for something that I have no ability to accomplish myself?”

You are right, you cannot save your children. But God never called you to save them. He has called you to care for them. You are to shepherd their hearts with the word of God (Eph. 6.4; cf also Deut. 4.9 ; 6.7 ; 11.19). And you are to carry your cares of their salvation to the throne of grace for mercy and help (Heb. 4.16; 1 Pet. 5.7). It is this that you will be accountable for.

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

If God Isn’t Your Employee, Then Why Do You Speak To Him As If He Is?

If I asked someone, “Do you think you know better than God?” I’m pretty sure most would say no. However, if you listen to their prayers it sounds more like a conversation between an employer and an employee than it does a servant to God.

My concern isn’t with “fix it” prayers in general. I’m concerned for a lot of Christians that are overly obsessed with “fix it” prayers and make no acknowledgment of God’s sovereignty or of His perfect purposes that typically work through our pain.

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

Sunday Sermon: How Fatherhood Affects Prayer

Happy father’s day. Even though this may be a Hallmark holiday, it’s still a fine occasion to give special attention to fatherhood. In this 9 minute video, Mark Driscoll explains how fatherhood offers a unique lens through which to view our relationship with The Father. This perspective change will cause us to call out to The Father and encourage prayer.

Note: Regardless of your opinion of Mark Driscoll as a person in light of recent controversy, this message is still timely and important.

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

Hijacking The Conversation With God

Are we meant to relate to God in a conversational manner, or by monologuing? When we ask questions of him, do we really believe he can or will answer? If not, why not? Are we even open to the possibility that he might question our questions?

God is always offering more than we ask or think. We just miss it. He really does think outside the box, so his answers often lay outside the little cubicles of our questions.

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Encouragement for your Daily Life

Let’s Kill The Sinner’s Prayer

I believe that a true “sinner’s prayer” will gush out of anyone who is truly seeking God and is tired of being enslaved to sin. The very act of “leading someone in a prayer” is utterly ridiculous. You will find nothing even remotely like it in the Bible, or among the writings and biographies of those in Church history. It completely savors of crowd and peer pressure tactics, and (please forgive me) brainwashing techniques. I do not believe that Jesus wants to have his disciples “repeat after Me,” I believe He wants them to follow after Him!

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