Are there people who pray for you? Family members, such as parents or spouse often intercede for those dearest to them. Your best friend, boyfriend, or girlfriend may seek God on your behalf. Maybe members of your church, your small group, or your pastors pray for you. If you’re fortunate, it may be your boss, […]
God Hears Us When We Pray Many years ago my dad gave me his twelve-year-old riding lawnmower. “If you’re careful,” he advised, “you might get a couple more years out of it. The first time I used it, I prayed. I thanked God for his provision and for my parents’ generosity. I asked God to […]
Don’t Rush Your Time with God I cringe whenever someone says, “Let’s just say a quick prayer.” Prayer is holy communication with the Almighty. It is a hallowed honor that we, as mere human beings, are granted the privilege to experience with the Divine. I’ve never comprehended why God bothers to listen to us or […]
Say a Pre-Church Prayer One of the practices my wife and I followed when we visited 52 churches was to pray before we headed out the door. This seems simple enough and something we should have always done, but praying prior to church was a practice we seldom did, more likely skipping it than remembering. […]
Pray it Forward For my first ten years as a parent, I struggled to pray for my children. Oh, I did pray for them but not regularly, not every day. This changed when someone gave me a list of twenty-three traits to pray for my children. The items included that they would fall in love […]
What Do You Expect When You Pray? When you make a bold prayer, what do you expect? Do you anticipate God will answer your request, or do you brace yourself for disappointment? More to the point, are you more surprised when your prayers are answered or surprised when they’re not? Some people pray with little […]
My Quest to Pray Throughout My Day I don’t think I’ll ever spend the majority of my day in God’s presence like Brother Lawrence or pray without ceasing like Paul. But I can learn to pray more often, so I seek to remain open to my surroundings, looking for reasons to pray. “God, I fear […]
Fold Hands, Close Eyes, and Bow Head I’ve blogged about the use and meaning of amen, and shared how amen is used in the Bible: primarily as a way to end a prayer. Three more prayer conventions perplex me as well. The first is to fold our hands while praying, the second is to close […]
The speaker’s words were both, familiar and shocking: “Let’s say a quick prayer.” The familiar part came from hearing this many times before and even saying it myself. The shocking part came from realizing how disrespectful this is to God and how sad he must feel when his kids can only find time for a […]
By Rosalind Rinker (reviewed by Peter DeHaan) “I have discovered,” says Rosalind Rinker, “that prayer’s real purpose is to put God at the center of our attention, and forget ourselves and the impression we are making on others.” So begins the preface of Prayer: Conversing with God, aptly establishing the foundation for the rest of […]