John 11.41 observes Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.”
One of our hindrances to prayer is our belief that God hears us. God the Son had no such hindrance with believing that God the Father heard His prayers. Why? (more…)
Luke 22.46 challenges, get up and pray, so that you will not give in to temptation.
God takes sin seriously. Sin is everything we do that defies the will of God.
This defiance is measured by God by our words, attitudes and actions toward Him and others. God has demonstrated His commitment to punish sin since humanity began their rebellion against God. (more…)
Matthew 21.22 promises, you can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it.
This verse makes many Christians nervous because on the surface it appears God is promising us anything we ask for in prayer. This is what we want His words to mean for there are many things we wish we had but don’t have but if having them was only a matter of asking for them then that would be awesome.
Our experience however tells us this is not what He meant for we have all asked God for things in prayer and did not receive them. So what does this verse mean? (more…)
Luke 18.42 comments your faith has healed you. God begins His teaching in this section by telling us to
pray with perseverance.
When Jesus makes His comment it is to a man who persevered in crying out to Him despite rebuke and demands to stop, in the end, His perseverance was rewarded. What’s interesting is that God said it was the man’s faith that healed him. Jesus did not say it was his persevering prayer or the power of God but faith that caused his healing. (more…)
Matthew 26.39 records, He fell with His face to the ground and prayed, My Father, if it is possible,
may this cup be taken from Me. Yet not as I will, but as You will.
The goal of our prayer should be for the wisdom and strength to do God’s will. True prayer seeks God for the resources to do God’s will because doing His will always exceeds our resources.
God promises to always be with those who do His will because we need Him to complete His will. (more…)
Matthew 6.8 reminds us your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.
One of the foundational beliefs about God is that He knows everything. If He didn’t know everything how could He really be God, goes the logic.
God confirms this suspicion when He reminds us that He already knows what we need before we ask Him in His teaching on prayer. This information seems counterproductive to encouraging prayer. (more…)
Psalm 66.20 describes God, Who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!
All Christians should go see the movie War Room. It is both a challenge and encouragement in the areas of prayer, marriage, parenting and priority.
The question gets asked in the movie about the priority of prayer in a professing Christian’s life. The character admits to not spending much time in that discipline. Most of us would probably echo that sentiment. (more…)
Jeremiah 30.21 asks who is he who will devote himself to be close to Me? declares the Lord.
How close to God do we really want to be?
Our tradition, because of our disobedience to God, has been to run and hide from Him. This is the way we deal with most conflict in our lives: we avoid it.
We are a people who ‘hope’ things will work out in our relationships where issues are occurring. We run from rather than resolve most of our relational conflicts. Our relationship with God is no different. (more…)
Mark 14.38 commands watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
Watch means read the Book, understand what it says so that when you see things happening you can interpret them properly. Pray, so that the Spirit within is able to overpower the flesh without that is unwilling to obey the prescription found in the Book.
While Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for humanity’s disobedience, this was not done to give license to the children of God to disobey the commands of God. (more…)
Matthew 26:41 warns we watch and pray so that we will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing,
but the flesh is weak.
God understands we are a people of good intentions but powerless to fulfill those intentions. Diets prove that to us on an all too frequent basis.
Even deep loving intentions are often unrealized like Peter’s promise not to ever deny Jesus which he failed within hours of making. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak. (more…)
Enter your email below to get your free resource, periodic news, and new blog post notifications.
