Cast your burden on the Lord

The story of Brian Hesse is one of my all-time favorites. One account of it is as follows: Brian Hesse had more than his share of luck in July (1981), and most of it was bad. When his apartment in Provo, Utah became flooded from a broken pipe in the upstairs apartment, the manager told […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from around the internet: Tim Challies offers “Seven Ways to Pray for Your Prayer Life.” This is helpful. A new book coming June 1 (ebook) and June 15 (paperback) from my dad: Everything Happens for a Reason?: God’s Purposes in a World Gone Bad. Paul Tautges offers “36 Purposes of God in […]

The Lord’s prayer

In prayer (when we are genuine and truthful), our hearts are exposed and revealed as in no other way. That is true as well of the heart of Christ, which makes the Lord’s prayer in John 17 a particularly rich and stimulating passage of Scripture. Of this passage, Melanchthon wrote, “There is no voice which […]

Remember the character of God when you pray

All it took to capture the disciples’ attention was for Jesus to pray. They heard Him pray, and when He finished, the immediate response was, “Lord, teach us to pray…” (Lk. 11:1). Something about the manner of His praying evidently made them realize the deficiency of their prayers. And they wanted to pray with greater […]

Grab bag

Helpful resources for the growing Christian: Have you ever heard the statement, “I love him, but I don’t like him”? Me too. Too often. Rick Thomas demonstrates the idol behind the statement and how to address it in “Marriage problems.” How to handle public debate among Christians is a growing question and concern, though not […]

A reluctant Giver?

A few years ago I was encouraged to ask someone for a favor — “Ask him…I really think he’d be willing to help you.” I was uncertain. The favor I was asking was not insignificant and while this man was well-known to my friend, I did not know him at all. Why would he take […]

Jesus prayed

It’s a short sentence almost hidden (you will miss it if you read too quickly) between two accounts of healing by Jesus: “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray” (Lk. 5:16). Now think about that for a minute. Jesus was a man, but He was also fully God. He had […]

A prayer plan

Sometimes we struggle in prayer because we haven’t thought through a plan. While even plans can become ruts, they also can be tools to stay out of ruts if we use them wisely. So here is one pastor’s prayer plan: First I pray for my family by name. Next I pray for pastors. I also […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles recently spotted on the internet: Douglas Groothuis offers wise counsel on listening to sermons in “A short theology of listening.” An excerpt: Listen . . . with all your might; hear the living and active word. The teaching and preaching of God’s imperishable word is truly a sacred event whereby the Truth […]

Sunday Leftovers (9/18/11)

As I mentioned in my sermon yesterday, it is far more important why we pray than what we pray. In general, our attitude in prayer is more critical than the mechanics of our prayer. Yet there are also some “mechanical” things we can do to help our prayer life — a consideration of time, location, […]

Two encouragements to pray

I know of no one who is completely satisfied with his prayer life. All could pray more and more effectively. Even when fellowship with Christ in prayer is good, the godly man desires more of that fellowship — just as a husband and wife seek more and greater fellowship with each other even when (especially […]

Do we pray? Let us pray.

On Sunday morning, I said something like, “Our tendency is to talk about prayer, admit our weakness in prayer, accumulate prayer requests, and then not pray. (It’s doubtful any believer would disagree with that statement of our practice, including me.) It’s time to stop talking about praying and time to start praying.” Then yesterday I read […]

Praying Ephesians 6

Lord, you have invited — no, commanded — us to always pray with every kind of prayer, acknowledging our dependence on you. So we come to you this day in submission to the Spirit of God and seeking His wisdom and His intercession on our behalf. And we pray not only for ourselves, but we […]

Sunday Leftovers (6/5/11)

A Christian in ancient Rome was being pursued by a lion. He ran through the city streets and into the woods, dodging back and forth among the trees. Finally it became obvious that it was hopeless. The lion was going to catch him. So he turned suddenly, faced the beast, and dropped to his knees. […]

Thinking and praying about Sunday

As I was preparing for Sunday morning’s sermon, I came across a number of helpful statements about prayer, including these three: “No heart can conceive that treasury of mercies which lies in this one privilege, in having liberty and ability to approach unto God at all times, according to His mind and will.” [John Owen] […]