Prayer
God? Are You Listening?
Do you ever get the sense that your prayer line has a weak signal, that prayers don’t seem to get past the ceiling of your prayer room or bedroom, that no one is hearing the prayers but the dining room table? Why does this happen? Where Does the Problem Live? Surely the arm of the…
Read MoreFervent Prayer
Profoundly godly men and women have existed throughout history, and exist even today. We read rosters of names like those in Hebrews chapter eleven, that great “roll call of faith” and marvel at those who have gone before us. Even among the notable biblical history-makers, there are names that stand out, and even among those…
Read MorePraying for You
It is a pleasant thing to learn that others are praying for us. If I’m being candid, there is a significant part of me that holds to the unbiblical idea that the prayers of others are so much more effective than my own feeble offerings. Cognitively I know this is untrue, but my gut says…
Read MorePaul’s Prayers
Paul’s prayers for the church are strewn throughout the New Testament, and in those prayers, we see the heart of Paul for the early believers, and I believe, by extension, for the entire church throughout history. This week, we are looking at several of Paul’s prayers, though not all, and not in their entirety. As…
Read MoreFour Flavors of Prayer
Not too long ago, I had a brief exchange with someone who excitedly exclaimed that the Greek language was so cool because the Greeks had four words for “love.” “No,” I responded. “They don’t. Rather, English is such a limited language that it has only one word to convey four different Greek concepts.” That’s not…
Read MoreHindered Prayers
“Text out of context is pretext,” our instructor said with resounding forcefulness. He was right, of course, and much misinterpretation of scripture has resulted from passages being ripped from their context and twisted to mean something wholly other than what was originally intended. Take prayer as an example. The Bible speaks extensively of prayer, how…
Read MoreName It & Claim It Praying
Those of you familiar with my writing and speaking know I am nowhere near even the outskirts of the “name it and claim it” movement. Abusing scripture with this theological construct is both insulting to the sovereignty of God and depressing to the one naming and claiming when their claims go unfulfilled. For the eyes…
Read MoreIntercession is a Privilege
If there were any area of my life in Christ I would like to heal, it would be my prayer life. I know brothers and sisters in Christ who pray with such ease – as easily and naturally as I converse with Alean. My prayer life is not like that. But as tattered as it…
Read MoreGod, Do You Even Care?
I preached a sermon recently as part of a team preaching through 1 Peter. The second point of that sermon was, “Life is Pain.” That’s just a fact. Life is pain. Peter jumps with both feet directly into that reality. Jesus modeled a life of prayer for us. The apostle Paul directs us to “pray…
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