What do we mean by ‘Father in heaven’?
Mike Benson reflects on the meaning of “Father in heaven” when we pray.
I will speak for me. I probably need to spend more time thinking about what I’m actually saying in my private prayers.
“Father in heaven…”
If I am not very careful, the phrase may constitute little more than a thoughtless, repetitive habit.
Strangely enough, I don’t talk to my earthly father that way, but I tend to do so with my heavenly Father. Does he ever get weary of my redundancy?
What am I really saying when I articulate the words, “Father in heaven…”?
Read his whole article here on Forthright Magazine.
Reverence in prayer
Ben G. asks us,”Do you remember this when praying?”
A while ago, I heard a young person start of his prayer with, “Hey God! What’s up?!” When I heard that I just about fell over. I know prayer should be a deeply personal thing. But when we start talking to God like an equal, or like He is our ‘best bud’ at school or work, then maybe we need to reassess our mindset. Perhaps we need to have the attitude of the publican who wouldn’t even lift his eyes up to heaven because he was so aware of his sin (Luke 18:9-14).
When do you pray?
So asks Michael Summers as he shares part of his prayer life on the run, literally.
I pray while I run. I run often, five or six days a week, usually for distances ranging from four to eight miles each day. I run on trails that, while paved, traverse hills. Animals also cross these trails. On a recent run, I encountered a family of screaming humans whose recreational walk had been halted by a snake slithering slowly across the trail. The trail runs along a narrow ridge between a river and man-made ponds. For these reasons, I run and pray with my eyes open.
Read more at the link above.
Two new articles on prayer
Today, Chuck Webster asks, Does Prayer Work?, in his devotional thought centered in the book of James.
Days earlier, we failed to share Richard Mansel’s article, Attitudes Necessary for Prayer, on Forthright Magazine.
Let us pray and let us ponder the place and power of prayer in our lives as God’s people.
Five tips for prayer
As Jehoshaphat was watching the enemy amass themselves against him, he turned to God in prayer (2 Chronicles 20). He was in a period where he was leading well and teaching his people to fear God, so God obliterates the enemy. Jehoshaphat’s reign was always either hot or cold in his relationship with the Lord – so why did God so completely respond to that prayer?
The Bible is full of tips on how to pray. Here are five:
via MyDailyPause.org
Power in prayer: Believe God will, says Chuck Webster
Chuck Webster wrote yesterday about the power in prayer and our need to trust in God to answer:
Ever prayed a prayer you didn’t really think God would answer?
Why do we do that?
Maybe it’s because we’ve focused so much on what God doesn’t do that we forget about what he does.
“Well,” we think, “I know he created the world and parted the Red Sea and raised Jesus from the grave, but now . . .”
I’m not suggesting God is still resurrecting people, but I wonder if perhaps we ought to focus more on his might and power and less on all the reasons why he won’t do something.
Please be sure to read his whole devotional article.
The early church grew because they prayed
Larry Miles gives as one of the five reasons that the church grew in the first century: The Early Church was a Praying Church:
After Peter and John had been released by the Sanhedrin they went back to the rest of the apostles and fellow believers to give a report o what had transpired. Verse 24-31 record that the early Church was a praying church. In Acts 4:29 we read: “Now, Lord, look on their threats, and grant to Your servants that with all boldness they may speak Your word,” They believed in the power of prayer and also of answered prayer. Many of the great figures of the Old and New Testament were people of prayer. God has told us to pray. If we pray, knowing that God hears, and expecting that God will answer in a way that will bring glory to His Name, we can have a victorious prayer life. Remember, it is our Creator that we are talking to. If we can recapture the prayer life of the early church we can better stimulate church growth.
—Larry Miles, “Five Reasons the Early Church Grew (Acts 4)”
How often do you pray?
Dick Ady (founder of WEI [World English Institute]) studied with a Muslim. One day, the student bragged, “We Muslims pray five times a day. How often do you pray?”
Dick replied that he prayed without ceasing. “In fact, I pray for you every day,” he said.
Then he demonstrated how he prayed for him. “When I looked up, his eyes were filled with tears.”
Audio: Pleasing prayer
Preacher Nick Marsh works with the Cherry Street congregation in New Albany IN. This is a recent sermon of his, “Pleasing Prayer.”