In prayer, you recognize that there is One greater than you and you are needful of His intervention in your life.
– Philip Nation in Habits for Our Holiness
Tag: Prayer
Let Us Ask
And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. – I John 5:14-15 (ESV)
We can have confidence toward God, boldness to actively approach God. We are God’s beloved children and so we approach Him as children approach a loving parent.
When my toddling grandson is hurt, he runs to mommy. When he is hungry, he runs to mommy. When he needs help, he runs to mommy. When he is happy, he runs to mommy.
In the same way, when we are hurting or hungry or need help or are happy, we should run to God as His children, as instinctively and automatically as my grandson runs to his mommy.
The cosmic conflict is bigger than us. All the conflicts we see around us are bigger than us. The conflict you face today is very likely too big for you. But none of these conflicts are too big for God. God is bigger. God is stronger. We can run to Him.
We run to God with confidence – and we ask, and He hears, and we receive. This is the equation for prayer that John gives us: We ask + He hears = We receive. Do you believe that? Do you have that confidence? Do you grasp that God delights to answer your prayers, delights to give you what is good?
Now we must ask according to His will. He won’t just give us anything we ask for. Why not? Because He is a good Father. If my grandson wants to play in road or play with a stick of dynamite, his daddy is going to say “no” because it is not good for him. In the same way, we all too often don’t know what is best for us. But our Father knows what is best for us, and so He screens our requests according to His will. His will is not against us, but for us. Do you believe that? Will you trust Him?
Come to Him and make your request. He will hear and gives us what is best.
Saturday Strands
Loose strand for our growth:
Good News! You Can’t Engineer an Experience with God – Trevin Wax
The presence of God can feel elusive to us, even when we ask for it, because prayer isn’t magic. We aren’t conjurers. We cannot manufacture a true religious experience. Prayer is an encounter with the living God. The feeling that sometimes results from an encounter with God is uncontrollable because we’re dealing with a personal God, not a force we can harness through incantations.
Win the Next Generation with Love – Kevin DeYoung (Crossway)
Jesus said it best: “By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:35). Jesus did not say, “They will know you are my disciples by how attuned you are to new trends in youth culture.” Or “They will know you are my disciples by the hip atmosphere you create.” Give up on “relevance” and try love. If they see love in you, love for each other, love for the world, and love for them, they will listen. No matter who “they” are.
When Self-Centeredness Sets In – justinmykoagpangan (By Grace Alone)
We are naturally self-centered. We live as if we are the center of the universe. We live to achieve what we want in life. We live for the aim of our self-centered pursuits in life. Our dreams, wants, and longings revolve around us.
The Case Against the Abortion Pill – Rachel Roth Aldhizer (First Things)
In this story, medical abortions induce an unnatural process, one in which up to 20 percent of women experience a complication—four times the complication rate of surgical abortion. The medical abortion process is designed to hide adverse events and discourage patient follow-up. Women seeking abortion receive lower standards of care than do women suffering miscarriage….
Flashback: A Gentle Life
A gentle person doesn’t attack others with her words. She doesn’t speak evil of people, slandering and maligning them. She doesn’t fight with others, quarreling or brawling. A gentle person is courteous, considerate, and polite towards others.
True Prayer
Prayer is not a convenient device for imposing our will upon God, or bending His will to ours, but the prescribed way of subordinating our will to His. It is by prayer that we seek God’s will, embrace it and align ourselves with it. Every true prayer is a variation on the theme “Thy will be done.”
– John Stott
Saturday Strands
Loose strands for our growth:
Ask God for More of God: Lessons for a Better Prayer Life – Matt Smethurst (DG)
The ability to converse with the King of the universe isn’t just an honor — it’s the glorious union of two disparate truths: awe before an infinite being and intimacy with a personal friend. Because we’re made to know a triune God — a merry, generous, hospitable community of persons — prayer is the furthest thing from a sterile concept or boring duty. It’s an invitation into unimaginable joy.
The Soundtrack of Heaven – Tim Challies
God is the master of transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary, the mundane into the miraculous. God is the master of accepting little and multiplying it to much. God is the master of taking our little contributions and making them the great means through which he blesses his people and brings glory to his name. And I am convinced we will one day learn that the soundtrack of heaven is made up of the simplest of sounds that God has joined together into the most stirring of symphonies.
We Need Restorative Rest – Jonathan Noyes (STR)
But we weren’t created to be “on” all the time. Part of the health of a Sabbath is the “ceasing from” so that we might attend to other things that get drowned out by our connection addiction. Entire aspects of our humanity are withering because we’re neglecting them in favor of swiping and scrolling through curated social media pages.
Evil Doesn’t Always Show Up Waving a Flag – Trevin Wax
When we look at evil up close, we hope to walk away with a greater sense of moral clarity, and part of that clarity is the realization we’re all capable of justifying, minimizing, or engaging in evil.
Flashback: The Savior’s Example, Part 2
More often than we think, the people around us are bruised, battered, smoldering, weary, tired, and fragile. We need to follow Jesus’ example and treat one another carefully, with great gentleness that builds up and gives life.
Saturday Strands
Here are some loose strands from various places for your growth:
How to Draw Near to God: Learning Prayer from the Puritans – Jeremy Walker (DG)
As we listen to Puritan and Puritanesque praying, putting our ears to their doors, what do we hear? What can we seek to imitate?
Radical Christian Gentleness in an Era of Addictive Outrage – George Marsden (TGC)
…we live in an age when social media puts an immense premium on cultivating anger and indignation. We’re experiencing a pandemic of addictive outrage that spreads uncontrollably on the internet. Polarized political hostilities have made the situation worse, and Christians of all sorts, whether on the right or left, are hardly immune.
Are You a “Yeah, But…” Christian? – Tim Challies
I have long observed a fascinating but concerning tendency when I read one of the Bible’s clear commands. I have observed it in myself and I have observed it in others. It’s the tendency to turn quickly from what the Bible does command to what it does not, from the plainest sense of one of God’s directions to a list of exceptions or exclusions. It’s the tendency to hear what God says and immediately reply, “Yeah, but…”
The Spiritual Promise the Cinema Can’t Deliver – Trevin Wax
All this is spiritual language. When the lights dim, spiritual illumination begins. All this is tapping into the deepest longings of humanity—for connection, for growth, for inspiration, and for stories that bring resolution.
Flashback: The Savior’s Example
If you think him a harsh taskmaster, then that is how you will treat others. But if we grasp that Jesus is gentle towards us – if we rest in his gentle heart, then we can learn from him and share his gentleness with those around us.
Passion Points
Here are some good pots for your weekend reading:
10 Things You Should Know about Prayer – Donald Whitney (Crossway)
…pray the Bible; that is, to turn the words of Scripture into prayer. The Psalms are ideal for this, but you can also go back and pray through part of your Scripture reading for the day.
The Elusive Trait of Reasonableness – Mark Loughridge (GR)
True wisdom is persuadable or open to reason. It recognizes that we don’t always get it right. That we haven’t necessarily arrived at our final opinion on every matter. That we have our biases, limitations, and blind spots. That situations change and new factors need to be taken into account. Reasonableness is a practical outworking of our finitude. We don’t have all the answers, we don’t have infinite knowledge, and we are sinners. In short, we can be wrong.
Drained and Depressed by the Internet? Go Outside. – Brett McCracken (TGC)
More than our smallness, nature should remind us of God’s bigness. And that’s ultimately where the “peace” is found—resting in the sovereignty of a God who designed the anthill as well as the Andes, the delicate petals of a rose as well as the sturdy structure of a sycamore tree.
The Small Change That Can Radically Improve Your Church Experience – Aaron Earls (F&T) I believe one simple change can revolutionize your Sunday morning experience: get there a little early and stay a little late. Showing up to church 15 minutes before the service starts and hanging around 15 minutes after the service ends can make all the difference. Here’s how….
Hope you have a great Lord’s Day with your local church (in whatever way possible)!
Thursday Evening – Prayer
Thursday Evening: Prayer – God’s Will, Not Mine
Read: Mark 14:32-42
Prayer: Father, like the disciples I too am weak, and I need your help to overcome temptation. Awaken me from my spiritual slumber that I might pray. Let me join my Savior in seeking your will. Too often my way is not your way. Help me to submit to your way no matter what the cost. Dear Father, not my will, but yours be done. Amen.
Reflect/Discuss: In what current temptation or situation do you need to submit to his will?
Praise: Sing “Have Thine Own Way Lord”
Brian J. Mikul 