Divided allegiance is as wrong as open idolatry. “How long will you hesitate between two opinions?” Elijah asks the people of Israel. The easiest thing to do when you are outnumbered or overwhelmed is to remain in that mediocre state of noncommitment.
Read MoreCategory Archives: Prayer
When Tragedy Strikes
I’m deeply impressed by the man’s gentleness. Though Elijah deserved none of the woman’s blame, he stood silent under her blast. That’s gentleness. Someone, somewhere, has called this fruit of the Spirit “the mint-mark of heaven.”
Read MoreWhat Jesus Says You Should Pray For
“The world does not revolve around you!” “You are not the center of the universe!” “Your mother and I are the sun; you’re the moon!” I bet my wife Christy and I have said something like this to our children hundreds, if not thousands, of times—because I have five of those rascals. I’m sure your […]
Read MorePrayer God Will Answer
If you knew God would answer your petitions, how would that change your prayer life? Would you pray more fervently and more often? Philippians 1:9–11 records Paul’s plea for the Philippian church—it was a prayer God was certain to answer. Joy saturated Paul’s prayers for the believers at Philippi. They had joined Paul in the […]
Read MoreA Surprising Answer to Prayer
Many years ago one of my mentors told me a story I have never forgotten. A missionary was home on furlough, traveling by car from church to church. Late one rainy evening, facing a long and lonely all-night journey, he asked the Lord to help him stay awake and make it safely to the next place he would minister.
Read MoreSaying Grace
Most of us did not learn to pray in church. Nor were we taught at school . . . nor even beside our bed at night. If the truth were known, we’ve done more praying around the kitchen table than anywhere else on earth. From our earliest years we’ve been programmed: If you don’t pray, you don’t eat. It started with Pablum and it continues through porterhouse. A meal is incomplete without it.
Read MorePraying to Your Friend
Francois Fenelon, a seventeenth-century Roman Catholic Frenchman, said this about prayer: Tell God all that is in your heart, as one unloads one’s heart, its pleasures and its pain, to a dear friend. Tell Him your troubles, that He may comfort you; tell Him your joys, that He may sober them; tell Him your longings, that He may purify them; tell Him your dislikes, that He may help you to conquer them; talk to Him of your temptations, that He may shield you from them; show Him the wounds of your heart, that He may . . .
Read MoreA Puritan’s Prayer
Some years ago I was given a book of Puritan prayers called The Valley of Vision. I have worn out one copy and had to purchase another. I recommend this volume to you. Read the following prayer from the Puritan’s pen slowly (preferably aloud) . . .
Read MoreCrucible of Crises
God’s Word is filled with examples of those who believed God and “commenced prayer.” David certainly did. “I waited patiently for the LORD; And He inclined to me, and heard my cry. He brought me up out of the pit of destruction, out of the miry clay; And He set my feet upon a rock making my footsteps firm” (Ps. 40:1–2).
Read MoreCommence Prayer
It was in 1968 on an airplane headed for New York—a routine and normally very boring flight. But this time it proved to be otherwise. As the plane was on its descent pattern, the pilot realized that the landing gear was not engaging. Passengers were told to place their heads between their knees and grab their ankles just before impact.
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