I am an organized person. In fact some people think I am hyper-organized. Call us Type A personalities, high strung, or detail crazy – we are the planners, system thinkers, and get it done people. So it should be no surprise an idea called a “Prayer Calendar” excites me.I found this great concept the other day on the blog, Scripture Dig. The post was called “The Type A Person Prays” by Teri Lynne Underwood. Immediately I knew I found a soul sister. (By the way, Scripture Dig is a great web site too)Teri defines a prayer calendar as a “a prayer calendar is a tool for organizing the major areas of prayer in your life.” She uses both a weekly and monthly format and in the post lists the categories. Her suggestions are great and will give you many ideas on how to model this for your prayer life.I keep a list of people and ministries to pray for daily, but haven’t designated days or months like Teri has. I googled prayer calendars and found many organizations and churches share them … [Read more...]
Praying with Joy – Lectio Divina
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy. Philippians 1:4I always pray with joyOk Lord, that is not entirely true for me. I do not always pray with joy in all of my prayers.Maybe most of them.Well, some of them.To be honest, the majority of my prayers are not with joy.The other emotions demand center stage – fear, anxiety, desperation.Sprinkle in a little trust, devotion, and thankfulness - all waiting on the sidelinesI even express love - once in a while. But joy?Joy is an element often missing. That makes me sad.Lord, help me remember to pray with joy each and every time. Joy is Your essential ingredient that makes the bread rise. Joy is the yeast that ferments and grows the batch. I need Your joy.Whenever I approach Your throne, may joy be the first and last taste on my lips. … [Read more...]
Waiting for God – Quote of the Week
“I think Christians fail so often to get answers to their prayers because they do not wait long enough on God. They just drop down and say a few words, and then jump up and forget it and expect God to answer them. Such praying always reminds me of the small boy ringing his neighbor’s doorbell and then running away as fast as he can go.” E. M. Bounds … [Read more...]
Prayer – Quote of the Week
"In prayer, the heart leaps to meet with God just as a child runs to his mother's arms, ever sure that with her is the sympathy that meets every need." E.M. Bounds … [Read more...]
Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Prayer of Relinquishment
How do you pray? Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath. So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms. Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.Reading Catherine Marshall when I was younger was the first time I read about the Prayer of Relinquishment. The dictionary tells me that when I relinquish something, like a possession or a right, I give it up. I surrender it.Catherine Marshall wrote, “…God was trying to teach me something important about prayer. Gradually I saw that a demanding spirit, with self-will as its rudder, blocks prayer….God absolutely refuses to violate our free will; that therefore, unless self-will is voluntarily given up, even God cannot move to answer prayer.”Image of this prayer is the garden of Gethsemane … [Read more...]
Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Intercessory Prayer
How do you pray? Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath. So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms. Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.Praying for others is both an honor and responsibility many Christian take seriously. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote about this type of prayer, “Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day.”Intercession on behalf of a fellow human being is a way of loving the other.“Prayers of intercession specifically ask God to intercede in the world. We ask in the midst of tragedies involving thousands of people or in times of struggle and disease in the life of an individual, family or community. We are asking for God's help. Sometimes we are … [Read more...]
Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Prayers of Adoration
Prayers of Adoration Let's explore different types of prayers beginning with prayers of adoration. How do you pray? Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath. So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms. Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him. At first glance you may think thankfulness and adoration are the same, but there is a difference. Adoration is the outpouring of love, worship, honor, and praise to God. Richard Foster writes, ”In one sense, adoration is not a special form of prayer, for all true prayer is saturated with it. It is the air in which prayer breathes, the sea in which prayer swims…In adoration we enter the rarefied air of selfless devotion. We ask for nothing but to cherish him. We seek … [Read more...]
Praying – Exploring Different Types of Prayers – Thankfulness
How do you pray? Often my prayers slip into comfortable routines, predictable patterns, yet prayer is all around us – like our breath. So many different ways to talk with God are waiting to explore. The following is a part of a three-week series on prayer and its many forms. Come explore with me ways to address God when words are inadequate and let’s get to know God better by spending time with Him.The more I pray with thankfulness, the more I realize the power in gratitude. I have read that love and gratitude are the two most powerful emotions for humans.“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.” – Meister EckhartWe are taught from childhood to say thank you, but as I get older I have discovered I never can fully thank God enough for all the blessings from Him.Each night before sleep I pause and review the day: What am I most grateful for and what am I the least grateful for?To be honest when I first began this form of prayer, I expected … [Read more...]