Pray For Iraqi Christians

CNN reports that seven churches have been bombed in Iraq in the last three days. Pray for your brothers and sisters there to have perseverance in the face of persecution.

Searching For God's Man

If you would, please pray for my church over the weekend, as we'll be having a pastoral candidate preaching Sunday morning. It's been a long and trying time since our previous pastor resigned back in August, and it's exciting to begin to look to the future. Pray that we would make a wise decision.

A Primer on Prayer

D.A. Carson has long been a favorite author of mine. Ever since hearing him give a series of lectures during my freshman year of college, his writing has had a great impact on my spiritual life – most notably the way I think about the love of God. For that reason, I picked up a used copy of one of his books I hadn’t read – A Call to Spiritual Reformation. This book is a study of the prayers of the apostle Paul, intended to help us to reevaluate and reinvigorate our prayer lives.

This was a bit of a curious book from Carson. It’s obviously written with the layman in mind, with each section ending with questions for study and reflection. On an organizational front, this would be a great book for a small group study in the local church. On a content front, it also seems tailor-made for such an endeavor. Time after time, Carson offers insights into the discipline of prayer that the church definitely needs to hear (I say this because I definitely needed to hear them). Some of the middle chapters started to feel repetitive, but the book’s final chapter was incredibly good, with several instances of excellent insight into unanswered prayer. He is better than most at examining theological truths that are not only hard to understand, but hard to accept. My favorite Carson writing is his material dealing with aspects of God’s love that often don’t feel very loving to our human hearts (I highly recommend The Difficult Doctrine of the Love of God and Love in Hard Places), and I think he is equally adept at offing counsel on a prayer life that feels like it’s hit a brick wall.

However, the curious nature of the book comes from the fact that, though it seems like a perfect fit for a lay group study, Carson’s writing may be over the head of much of the audience. Carson is an incredibly smart guy. However, I felt at times that the way he wrote wouldn’t really connect across the spectrum of theological literacy. The book seemed to have the pastoral heart of his love books, but the academic tone of Exegetical Fallacies. It was a combination that didn’t always mix well. In final analysis, though it’s not perfect, and it’s not my favorite Carson book, it’s definitely worth a read for someone who is struggling to learn how to pray. Just bring your pocket theological dictionary.

Sola5 Wednesday Recap - 12/10/08

This weekly topic is an effort to recap the Wednesday night Bible study I teach at Sola5, my youth group. I hope it serves to help us all in contemplating the ceaseless riches of God’s grace as revealed through the Scriptures.

Chances are that if I asked what the area of your spiritual life you’d most like to improve is, a lot of people would say their prayer life. It’s an area that we all know is of paramount spiritual importance, but yet it’s an area that we all so easily neglect. How many times do your prayers feel empty, like you’re just going through the motions? How many times do you find yourself saying the same thing you said the day before – and the day before that. If you’re honest, how many days do you not say anything at all? Last night, we talked about the topic of prayer, and looked at a helpful model to focus us on what the Bible has to say about prayer in the hopes that it will help us jump start our own prayer lives.

The model is a familiar one to many – ACTS, an acrostic that serves as a reminder of several aspects of a healthy prayer life. When we think of prayer, usually the first thing to come to mind is praying for someone or for some situation in our lives. Requests have become nearly synonymous with prayer. Indeed, Jesus calls us to cast our cares and concerns upon him and to pray for those around us. However, if that is all that our prayer lives consist of, then we are missing the boat. ACTS is a way to remind us of that. The A stands for adoration – praising God for who he is. Look throughout the Psalms, which largely function as prayers, and you’ll see this type of prayer everywhere. The character and nature of God should be enough to move us to worship, and we should express that worship to God through the way that we pray. A great way to gauge how we’re doing on this front is to ask ourselves the question, “When I pray, which word is more prevalent – ‘I’ or ‘you?’” Look at Psalm 145 – notice the constant focus on God and his glory. This is a great way to open our prayers, as it causes us to meditate on the greatness of God – the one on whom we depend for every single breath, and who is able to supply any needs we have.

The C stands for confession – seeking forgiveness of our sins. Having established the greatness of God, we then recognize our own fallenness, and our dependency on God’s grace. Psalm 51 is a great place to look here, as David’s brokenness as a result of his sin is in full view. The Bible commands us to bring our sins before God with the confidence that we will find forgiveness. Why can we have confidence? Because God is all the things that we’ve declared him to be in our prayers of adoration. That’s another great thing about the ACTS structure – each part lends increased faith and confidence to the following parts. The T stands for thanksgiving, which can be easy to confuse with adoration at times. The best way to differentiate the two is this – if adoration is praising God for who he is, thanksgiving is praising God for what he’s done, for his action in our lives and in the world. Psalm 105 provides a cool example as the psalmist spends verse after verse recounting God’s covenant faithfulness to his people. The net result? An increased confidence in his faithfulness in the future. All of us can be thankful for Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and for God’s regenerating work in our hearts, and we’ve all had instances in our lives where we’ve seen God’s faithfulness displayed. Thank God for these areas, and thank God also for the people he’s placed in your life, like Paul does in many places (Philippians 1:3-4 being a prime example).

Finally, the S stands for supplication – bringing our requests before God. If the word supplication is a new term for you, remember it by thinking of the word “supply” – we’re asking God to supply our needs, and the needs of others. Even in this area, we need to broaden the spectrum of who we’re praying for. Our prayers should include brothers and sisters in Christ (Acts 12:1-5), and ourselves (Psalm 70), but also people we’ve never met (1 Timothy 2:1-2) and people who hate and mistreat us (Matthew 5:43-44). It’s no coincidence, either, that supplication comes last in the list. Think of the benefit of having spent time contemplating the greatness of God, his grace in our sin, and his faithfulness to us through time before we bring our concerns to him. What a boost in confidence! As you go through your life this week, take time to be intentional about prayer, and seek to expand the scope of your prayer life. You’ll find that it helps you to be more God-focused in your attention and your affections.

Easy as 1-2-3

Let the ads end. Let the pundits cease. Let the water cooler debates quiet. The election is over.

So now what? What should you do if you, like me, cast your vote for the McCain-Palin ticket? What do you do if your excitement that our nation has elected a black man as President (unthinkable when my father was born) is severly tempered by the fact that Barack Obama's policies show total disregard for the unborn? I've got three suggestions.

1. Calm down. The kingdom of Christ is not of this world. The gospel flourished under Nero - an insane, murderous tyrant. I think we'll be fine under Barack Obama.

2. Pray for President Elect Obama. Thank God for men like Obama who dedicate their lives to public service. The next four or eight years will be incredibly difficult on this man and his family. Look at pictures of George W. Bush in 2000 and again in 2008 if you'd like a visual representation of the stress that Obama has just taken on. If it weren't for presidents and senators and judges, you wouldn't enjoy the life of peace and security you do. Our brothers and sisters in Christ in places like Sudan and Afghanistan would be quite grateful to live under the government of Barack Obama, I think, imperfect as he may be. If you still don't feel like praying or thanking God for Obama, then read 1 Timothy 2:1-7 and get over your sinful hatred. That sounds harsh, I know. But if you look at your political enemy and fail to see a human being created in the image of God, then harsh words are in order.

3. Read Eric Redmond's "Living Soli Deo Gloria Under Obama." It's the best post-election piece I've read, easy.

One Out of Two Don't Cut It

Did you vote today? Good for you, citizen. Have you prayed for the future of our country today? If not, then remember this...

For kingship belongs to the Lord, and he rules over the nations. - Psalm 22:28

Not sure how to pray? Mark Altrogge has some good advice.

Prayer

Sorry for the recent silence. Our pastor at Hazelwood resigned Sunday morning, so I've been quite busy these past few days and not really in the right frame of mind to post. Please pray for our pastor and his family as they move on and for peace and direction for our fellowship during this difficult time.

Surprised by Hope

No, I'm not reviewing N.T. Wright's book. Last week I blogged about the raw deal a friend of mine was getting at the hands of Louisville's largest newspaper. Well, I'm happy to report that the paper's editors have made an attempt at making things right. I didn't expect to see a pleasant ending to this story, but that's to my shame - after all, I was praying for my friend's vindication in this case, so why should I be so surprised by my God? Just another instance where I feel so much like the the man from Mark 9:24. Praise be to God, and kudos to the C-J editors for their efforts.

Pray For the Chapman Family

This is heartbreaking news. I just read that the 5-year old daughter of Christian music artist Stephen Curtis Chapman was killed after being struck by a car in the family's driveway yesterday. I've heard SCC in concert multiple times, and he's one of the rare contemporary Christian artists who truly exemplifies what it is to make music and live life to the glory of God. He and his wife have been ambassadors for international adoption, and Maria was one of their three adopted daughters from China. Please be in prayer for the whole family in this tragic time, and especially for Chapman's teenage son who was driving the car that hit her.

Psalm 31:9
Matthew 5:4

HT: Joshua Harris