He is able

A well-known Christian chorus says: He is able, more than able to accomplish what concerns me today He is able, more than able to handle anything that comes my way He is able, more than able to do much more than I could ever dream He is able, more than able to make me what […]

God has spoken

Reflecting on Psalm 108:7, Charles Spurgeon wrote the following: THERE is an old promise, concerning God’s people, which says, “Before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear.” This text is one of the instances in which the Lord has dealt with his saints upon the lines of that […]

How to pray for your pastor

Have you ever wondered about how to pray for your pastor? Have you pondered, “What are the needs he has and what would be most beneficial for me to pray for him?” The apostle Paul’s requests for the prayers of the churches for him are fitting places to start (see Eph. 6:19-20; Col. 4:3-4 as […]

An appropriate prayer

On the sixth day of NASA’s moon mission of Apollo 13, the astronauts aboard the badly damaged space vehicle needed to make a critical course correction in order to position themselves to reenter the earth’s atmosphere. Unfortunately, the ship’s onboard computer had been shut down to conserve power, so the craft had to be steered […]

He hears our prayers

In reading through the Psalms on Sunday mornings, certain themes recur. One of those is the frequency with which the psalmists pray and the regular reminders of the truth that God hears (and responds to) our prayers. Consider these recent examples: “Oh, give ear, Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock; You […]

Excuses for prayer

Instinctively and automatically [the carnal mind] will mobilize all the reasons it can conceive of for not praying now: You are too busy; your mind is too preoccupied; your heart is not inclined toward prayer; later on you will have more time, your mind will be more calm and collected, and you will be able […]

Praying for others

Ask any believer about his prayer life, and he will invariable acknowledge something like, “It’s not what it should be.” And as a pastor, I am not only called on to pray often, but prayer is actually part of my calling. You won’t find “prayer” in most pastoral job descriptions, but the apostles believed that […]

Peter was sleeping…

Christians are prone to talking much about prayer and praying too little. We have attend conferences on praying, we preach sermons about praying, and we read books about praying. We develop methods for keeping track of prayer requests (I now have an app on my phone to do that task) and we frequently tell our […]

Grab bag

Some helpful articles from around the internet: Justin Taylor offers “Eight Reasons Why My Anxiety is Pointless and Foolish.” In “Pray the Scriptures,” Scotty Smith confesses, I am a recovering self-centered pragmatic pray-er — a believer who spent many of my first years in Christ thinking of God more as a sugar daddy than the […]

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 […]