Tag: Habit of Prayer

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

You Just Need To Obey – Steve Lawson (Ligonier)
For all true followers of Christ, obedience is never peripheral. At the heart of what it means to be a disciple of our Lord is living in loving devotion to God. But if such love is real, the acid test is obedience.

What Your Complaining Says About God – Philip Graham Ryken (Crossway)
It is really important to recognize that all of our complaining is ultimately directed against God, whether we mention him specifically in our complaints or not. All of our complaining goes to him; he is the great God. He is the one who exercises his sovereignty over whatever happens. So all of our complaints go right to the top.

Patience Is Not Optional for the Christian – Albert Mohler (Ligonier)
Patience is not optional for the Christian. The apostle Paul repeatedly commanded Christians to demonstrate patience to each other. In fact, this is a critical test of Christian authenticity. True Christian character, the very evidence of regeneration, is seen in authentic patience.

A Powerful Practice for Prayer – Tim Challies
There is one practice I find myself working on these days more than any other, and I think it may be the most important of them all. It is a simple one: Never resist the least urge to pray.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Sermon Songs: Ephesians 1:16-19

On By BrianIn Ephesians Hymns

MusicNotes

Open our eyes that we might see
Our hearts to really know
Your great blessings so vast and free
That from Christ ever flow

To know our glor’ous God above
Our hope in this dark night
His wonderful amazing love
The power of His might

To know these wonders of Your grace
And in them ever live
And offering unceasing praise
Our thanks to You we give

(To the tune of “O God Our Help In Ages Past”)

A Prayer

On By BrianIn Books of the Bible

Father, you have opened our blinded eyes that we might see you and know you, but too often our eyes are sleepy when it comes to your spiritual blessings. So open our eyes that we might grasp the ramifications of your great salvation for us. Open our eyes that we might live out the blessings that we have in Christ. May your Spirit enlighten the eyes of our hearts with wisdom to understand and live out the revelation of the gospel that you have given to us.

Open our eyes to know you in an intimate, experiential, life-impacting way. To grow in our personal relationship with you. To commune with you more and more – listening to you as you speak to us in your Word, and responding to you in prayer. Open our eyes to know you better.

Open our eyes to know in an intimate, experiential, life-impacting way the hope of your calling to us. To grasp the incredible inheritance that you have for your children. To cling to the hope of our own resurrection that we might dwell with you forever and ever. And to live in response to this hope in the midst of the struggles of life. Open our eyes to this great hope.

Open our eyes to know in an intimate, experiential, life-impacting way the riches of your inheritance in us. To grasp the wonder of being your own people, your own inheritance. To cling to the reality of your delight in us, desire for us, love for us, care for us – not because we are so great, but because of your incredible love. And to live each day in response to your amazing love for us no matter what others may think of us. Open our eyes to your great love.

Open our eyes to know in an intimate, experiential, life-impacting way the greatness of your power toward us. To grasp the immeasurable greatness of your power, your great might working in us. To cling to this same power toward us that raised Jesus from the dead and placed him above every other power. And to live each day in response to your mighty power toward us which is greater than anything that can come against us. Open our eyes to your great power.

Open our eyes to know you, to know this hope, to know this love, to know this power in an intimate, experiential, life-impacting way. Open our eyes, O God, open our eyes.

(Inspired by Ephesians 1:16-20)

Passion Posts

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some really good posts for your weekend reading:

You Were Made for the Godward Life – John Piper (DG)
A Godward life is lived leaning toward God. We turn our face toward him and not away from him. We enjoy the consciousness of his presence moment by moment. We remember him and do not forget him. At every turn of the day, we put our trust in him.

Why You Should Be Praying the Psalms – Don Whitney (CBS)
Praying the Bible means talking to God about what comes to mind as you read the Bible. Usually you might read the passage first, then go back and pray through what you just read.

When Routines Become Idols – Christina Fox (CBMW)
Some of us are so attached to and defined by our routines that we can’t stand when they are interrupted, changed, or tampered with in any way. That’s because of what our routines represent to us. Comfort. Ease. Control. Peace. When we trust in our routines and cling to them, we are relying on them to give us comfort.

When Your Heart Isn’t In It – Joe Thorn (FTC)
We are made by our triune God to worship him in spirit and truth. In him we find grace and mercy and fullness of life. He speaks in his word, hears our prayers, and delights in our songs of praise. And when we engage in these disciplines by faith we are sanctified. We experience more grace. And despite all of this we sometimes just don’t want to do it.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points1 Comment

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

Anselm’s Prayer for Fullness of Joy in God (via Justin Taylor)
I pray, O God, that I may know you and love you,
so that I may rejoice in you.

The Joy of Living in Jesus’s Shadow– Marshall Segai (DG)
What we learn from John the Baptist is that the greatest glories in this life are not in receiving attention or fame, but in funneling it all to Jesus.

Five Steps to Meditating on the Bible – Colin Smith
To meditate, then, is to think deeply about what God has said to us in the Bible and to prepare our minds and hearts for prayer. Scripture is the foundation of our praying; meditation readies us for it by helping us focus, understand, remember, worship, and apply.

The Sunday Worship Killer – Jason Helopoulos
Donning the robes of the critic maims and kills many would-be worshipers in churches every single Sunday morning.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our great God!

Begin in Mercy a New Work

On By BrianIn Prayers

O God,
I have tasted Thy goodness,
and it has both satisfied me
and made me thirsty for more.
I am painfully conscious of my need of further grace.
I am ashamed of my lack of desire.
O God, the Triune God,
I want to want Thee;
I long to be filled with longing;
I thirst to be made more thirsty still.
Show me Thy glory, I pray Thee,
that so I may know Thee indeed.
Begin in mercy a new work of love within me.
Say to my soul,
“Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.”
Then give me grace to rise
and follow Thee up from this misty lowland
where I have wandered so long.
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.

– A. W. Tozer in The Pursuit of God

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

Here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

3 Helpful Instructions on Keeping a Journal – Tim Challies
…a simple plea to Christians to maintain a journal that records specific instances of God’s compassion and care.

How I Started Praying the Bible– Donald Whitney
I simply spoke to the Lord those things prompted verse-by-verse in my reading of the psalm. If a verse didn’t suggest anything to pray, I would go to the next verse. 

3 Compelling Reasons Why We Must Deal with Our Sinful Anger – Robert Jones (BCC)
Why should we seek to uproot our sinful anger and replace it with godly fruit? In one sense, we must deal with it simply because God commands it…

How Should Christians Comment Online?– Jon Bloom (DG)
…we must heed Jesus’s warning: “on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak” (Matthew 12:36). This caution makes commenting serious business to God.

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day!

Sermon Songs: Isaiah 63-64

On By BrianIn Isaiah Hymns1 Comment

MusicNotes

Behold our holy mighty Lord
Just King of Righteousness
Behold the vengeance of His sword
His treading the winepress

Remember our Lord’s steadfast love
His goodness, compassion
His Holy Spirit from above
His wond’rous salvation

Redeemer Father God we pray
Show forth your zeal and might
Your presence may we know today
Turn back the evil night

We plead O Lord your grace impart
A new work now begin
Revive and soften every heart
And forgive every sin

– From a sermon on Isaiah 63-64
(To the tune of “O For A Thousand Tongues To Sing”)

Passion Points

On By BrianIn PASSION Points

It has been a busy week with VBS, so I haven’t had time to blog.  But I’m back, and here are some good posts for your weekend reading:

What We Need Is More Knowledge – John Stott (via Tim Challies)

Breaking Free from the Spell of Fantasy – Jon Bloom (DG)

Well-Planned, Hard, Sweat-Inducing Prayer and Work – Joel Beeke (via Tim Challies)

12 Questions for a Six-Month Spiritual Checkup – Chuck Lawless

Hope you have a great Lord’s Day worshiping our Great King!