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] […]
Read More Thinking and praying about SundayA prayer from Scotty Smith — Dear heavenly Father, on a day on which many in our world set clocks and arranged schedules to view a wedding of total strangers—a wedding to which we were not invited, how can we not think about and long for our coming wedding day to Jesus? Like John, when […]
Read More The Most Royal Wedding of AllA few days ago, I was reading a debate on whether God hears the prayers of an unbeliever. Here is the kind of prayers from an unbeliever that the Lord hears and answers: Tom Martin Testimony on Vimeo on Vimeo. Let this also serve as a guide for our own praying for the unsaved! HT: […]
Read More God’s hears some prayers of unbelieversPrayer is not a manipulative tool by which we receive our wishes and desires. Our wants may be godly or they may be ungodly. In either case, prayer is not a wishing-well tool to access those wants. The example of Christ demonstrates that God sometimes answers our petitions with, “No:” There are, no doubt, passages […]
Read More No guaranteed answers to prayerFound around the internet in the past week — C. J. Mahaney blogs about “The Pastor and Personal Criticism.” But it’s not just pastors who need to understand the role of criticism in their lives (to produce wisdom and maturity). We can all benefit from the criticism we receive: If we could mature in wisdom […]
Read More Grab bagThe audio, video, and notes from each plenary session of the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors, “The Powerful Life of the Praying Pastor” is now available at Desiring God’s Resource Library page. The conference may be designed for pastors, but the theme is prayer, something that would benefit every believer in Christ to do with greater […]
Read More The Powerful Life of the Praying PastorA few things spotted recently around the web: John Piper’s 8-month leave of absence ended at the end of December. Last Sunday he resumed preaching with the sermon, “Our Deepest Prayer: Hallowed Be Your Name.” He also wrote an article entitled, “Why I Am Full of Hope About Bethlehem’s Future,” and while it is written […]
Read More Grab bagToday many people will make resolutions for the coming year. Even believers will make resolutions concerning their spiritual lives. Setting spiritual goals is a worthy enterprise. But the task of spiritual growth is often overwhelming: where shall we start and what shall we do? We know we need more biblical reading and study and memorization […]
Read More Resolved to read and prayJonathan Edwards contemplated the reality that Christ has made a way available for us to have access to the Father: [God] sits on a throne of grace, and there is no veil to hide this throne and keep us from it. The veil is rent from the top to the bottom. The way is open […]
Read More The way to God is openRussell Moore answers the question, “Is My Music Warping My Child?” Two points he makes, and one reaction of my own — Lyrics are influential — they shape the way we think about the issues of life, so liberty cannot be applied indiscriminately to music choices. Music becomes a parent’s opportunity to be intentional about […]
Read More Grab bagWe pray. But that is no guarantee that God will answer what we ask, the way we ask it, or in the time frame that we ask it. He is no genie in a bottle for us. So when God seems slow to answer, or answers prayers contrary to our asking, we might ask ourselves […]
Read More When God says “No”In studying our way through Ephesians 4, we’ve seen the importance of spiritual gifts and how God uses them to accomplish His purposes in His people. We seem to understand that, at least cognitively, if not also experientially. But the use of our gifts and our receiving the practice of the gifts of other believers […]
Read More Spiritual gifts and unanswered prayerIn anticipation of tomorrow morning’s sermon (on Paul’s doxology in Eph. 3), I was reading again in A. W. Pink’s work, Gleanings from Paul: the Prayers of the Apostle. He makes several helpful statements about the glory of God and its implications for prayer: …we should be deeply concerned with the glory of God, that […]
Read More The glory of God and prayerWhat kind of spirit is most conducive to God-exalting prayer? In his sermon, “Hypocrites Deficient in the Duty of Prayer,” Jonathan Edwards provides insight into an attitude that will stimulate believers into greater dependence on the powerful sufficiency of God: The true spirit of prayer is no other than God’s own spirit dwelling in the […]
Read More The true spirit of prayerWe have something to say to God every day. Many are not sensible of this, and it is their sin and misery; they live without God in the world, they think they can without him, are not sensible to their dependence upon him, and their obligations to him, and therefore for their parts they have […]
Read More Prayer and the power of God
Words of Grace 