Day 10

Just want to share one of my all-time favorite prayers with you today. You can find it 1 Kings 18. It's prayed by Elijah in his contest with all the prophets of baal on Mt. Carmel. 

O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your bidding. Answer me, O Lord, answer me, so that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.

 Frankly, it's a prayer we all need to be praying for our church and our community.

God, may your greatness and glory be revealed through us. May all those around us see that you are calling them back to their creator and their home. Amen

Day 9

In case you missed it, on Sunday we discussed three critical things we must keep in proper perspective in order to really open ourselves up to a healthy, committed prayer life. I referred to the following three things as "prerequisites to prayer":

1. Better Understanding of God's Identity - God is sovereign over all creation and capable of answering our prayers.
2. Better Understanding of Our Own Identity - We must acknowledge our weakness, limitations and inadequacy in order to really appreciate the blessing we have in the opportunity to pray to God.
3. Better Understanding of God's Initiative - God is not simply a great being willing to be benevolent towards weak and needy humanity. Rather God is a loving, committed parent who has adopted us into his family as co-heirs, and who longs to give good gifts to us, his children.

Those ideas have been powerfully compelling in my life. If you missed Sunday morning and have time, I'd encourage you to go to the website and listen to these ideas worked out in a little more detail in the sermon. However, I'd like to focus our attention on that second prerequisite for just a minute today.

Many of us find it very difficult to ask for help. Ask my wife, this is a particularly pronounced struggle for me. Yet the undeniable truth is this...we ALL need help at times. In fact, most of the time we need help from others in a variety of ways, to one degree or another. Each of us knows this internally, but we seem to spend a lot of time trying to convince ourselves and each other this isn't the case. In our time and cultural, independence and self-reliance are firmly entrenched in the highest tier of personal traits, and the indoctrination process starts early. Think about it, every time a child learns to do something "on their own" we all clap and cheer and tell them how grown up they are. There isn't anything wrong with that on its own. Actually those kinds of celebrations are wonderfully appropriate. However, there is an important, yet extremely fine line between a healthy self-image and the delusional, destructive sense of self-suffiency that plagues our society. Learning to walk or hold your own fork as a child is great. Growing into an adult who refuses to ask for directions and doesn't ever read the instructions before trying to assemble (Just speaking generically here. Obviously, not referring to myself.) is not good at all.

Each of us in our own unique ways struggles with this tendency towards independence and self-reliance. So, is it any wonder so many of us struggle with prayer? When we pray, we acknowledge more than God's greatness. We also are admitting to our own inadequacy. At its core, prayer is us asking God for help, admitting our need for more power than we possess on our own. In fact, that's how prayer began in the first place. People began crying out to God when they found that life was more than they could handle on their own. It is still the same with us today. Life is bigger and tougher than anything we can deal with by ourselves. We need help. You know it. I know it. Though God most certainly knows it, maybe it's time we owned up to it in his presence and began asking him more often for the help we so often need.

O give thanks to the Lord, call on his name, make known his deeds among the peoples.  Sing to him, sing praises to him, tell of all his wonderful works. Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his presence continually.    

1 Chronicles 16:8-11

Have a great evening and a prayer-filled tomorrow. Be in prayer continually. Pray for one another. 

Day 8(ish)

Oops. I messed up and forgot to post something on Monday. Sorry. The good news is that I didn't forget to pray. In fact, I spent several minutes of my prayer time yesterday morning asking God to help me work hard and stay focused yesterday as I feel particularly behind after the holiday weekend. God was merciful I had stayed longer than usual yesterday and really made some progress on my "to do" list. Unfortunately, I stayed so focused on other things that I forgot to keep my commitment to write something here about prayer. I hope you'll forgive me.

More to come later today that is actually intended for today, so I'll share something short that I really enjoyed reading over Thanksgiving weekend.

God our provider, all good gifts come from you. Make us so thankful for your gifts that we cannot help but share them with others. Own us as your fools as we abandon the stuff of this world for the treasures of your kingdom.  Amen.

Hope everyone has a great day. Keep praying!

Day 6

We've made it to the end of our first week. If you've joined with the rest of us in this commitment to renew and deepen our prayer lives and stuck with it this week, way to go! If you've slipped up along the way, no problem. Just dust yourself off and try again. If you've not yet joined in this pursuit, there's still plenty of time left to come along on this journey into prayer. It's been a challenging and exciting ride and I'm sure there are more great things to come.

Thought I'd use the space today to pose a question to you: Does location matter? When it comes to praying, does it matter where you are when you pray? Are there right and wrong places to pray, or can you just pray anywhere/anytime? Do you find some location makes a difference in the prayers you pray? Does the Bible have anything to say about this or provide any examples for us to follow in this? This concern has come up some in my study lately. More importantly, it's been a big part of my thoughts about my own prayers this week. So, I'd love to hear some feedback from some of you guys...does the setting matter when it comes to praying?

Day 5

The blog is officially online! I hope this blog will benefit this time of a prayer in a few ways. First, I am confident this will make it easier for me to write my daily posts. This site's software is geared specifically for this kind of writing and will give me a little more freedom and potential for creativity. Second, I believe this will make it more convenient for all of you to read these posts when you actually have time to spend a few minutes considering whatever is written that day, instead of just trying to read a long message caught in a long line of emails that probably hit your inbox everyday.


One other really cool function of using a blog is the ability for readers to post their own thoughts or responses. Several of you have taken the time to send me a message back over the last few days. Those of meant the world to me (I'm trying to respond to them all in some way, but sorry got a little behind over the holiday). Some of those are the kind of thing that would really benefit the whole group or foster some healthy discussion. So now you'll have the ability to write a response directly to my post each day which others can see. I will probably even offer up some specific questions or requests for response that can push our prayer discussion to greater depths as a group. If you have a personal response that you'd rather not share publicly, no problem, you can still just send me an email. Obviously, this is a really exciting addition to me personally.


So, how's your prayer life today? Have you taken the time to really open up to God some and share your heart with him? I hope so. I'm praying that this is so. Before I sign off for the day, I'd like to commend a couple of books to you that have and continue to be invaluable companions to me in this time of focusing on prayer. I have really enjoyed reading Prayer: Does It Make Any Difference by Philip Yancey, a popular level book written by a really thoughtful, honest and devoted believer, who also happens to be a really good writer. The other book that I have spent a lot of time consider in the few weeks is Richard J. Foster's Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. This book is an introduction or primer on prayer from a phenomenally insightful teacher and practitioner of the spiritual disciplines. Foster's book in particular has been extremely encouraging and educational for me. I believe it would be the same kind of tool for many of you. 


Have a great rest of the day. Be in prayer continually. Pray for one another.

Day 4

Originally published on November 24, 2011

Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name; make known among the nations what he has done.  -- 1 Chronicles 16:8 

Bet you thought I'd forget today. Hope you are having a wonderful time celebrating with loved ones. I'll be short and sweet. I simply want to encourage you to make sure you don't just call it Thanksgiving, but that you actually make it Thanksgiving. Take some time to give God thanks for all that he is and has done for us. 

Praying for you all.

Day 3

Originally published on November 23, 2011

Luke 5:15-16 (NRSV) --  But now more than ever the word about Jesus spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray. 

Hope everyone is having a good day today. I imagine that many of you may be headed home early to start the holiday weekend or hit the road to be with family and friends for Thanksgiving. I'm really looking forward to the weekend as well. Thought I'd share the verse above with you before the holiday. I find it awfully encouraging that even Jesus himself thought it was necessary to step back from busyness of life, even in the midst of some of his greatest moments of ministry, and pray. Given the pace of life in our part of the world, this seems awfully relevant to our discussion. Making time to pray was a priority for Jesus and it should be for us. Prayer was a big part of how he kept himself strong enough to deal with the stresses of his demanding life. Furthermore, prayer helped Jesus stayed focused on God's priorities for his life. 

Our world is busy. Our lives can be very demanding and extremely complicated. Far too often I find myself feeling so busy and setting prayer aside until I feel like I have more time free. Yet there is Jesus in the midst of his ministry often taking the time to retreat and prayer. Prayer is a precious gift, but that doesn't mean we should view prayer as some non-essential indulgence that we only use when all of our "real priorities" have already been brought under control. Prayer is not a luxury, it's a necessity. I hope the holiday weekend will provide you the opportunity to withdraw from some of the busyness and brokenness of our world for a little while and pray...just like Jesus did. 

Be in prayer continually. Pray for one another. 

Day 2

Originally Published November 22, 2011


I've been thinking a lot lately about some of the things that make it difficult for some of us to find the consistency in our communication with God that we really want. There are lots of different things I suspect provide that kind of roadblock for many of us and hopefully we will have some opportunities to discuss several of them during this time. However, I am frustratingly aware of one concern that I often allow to hinder my prayers: I'm not sure what to say. It isn't that I don't have anything to say, there are tons of things that need I need to share with the Father. There are so many things I need to say thanks for, confess, plead with God about, acknowledge, praise, question, express, etc. The truth is, I don't know where to begin. What if there is more to say than I have time? What if I don't bring up the most important stuff first? What if I can't figure out the best way to say what's on my heart? What if I've been neglecting my prayers lately and it feels a little awkward? What if God was paying attention to the way I behaved yesterday? What if God doesn't want to hear from me right now unless I can properly apologize for and sincerely repent for that mistake? 

For some of you, those may seem like silly thoughts. For many of us, they're very real and can be rather paralyzing when it comes to prayer. One of the books I've been reading lately led me to consider again the story of the Prodigal in Luke 15. In that story, when they are finally reunited the Father embraces his child and celebrates his homecoming. Despite all the mistakes, all the sin that son had dirtied his own life with the Father runs to his son, throws his arms around him and kisses him. Whatever we've done, wherever we've been the Father is longing to hear from us and embrace. This is the entire story of the Bible: God loves us and pursues a relationship with us, even though we are unworthy and awfully prone to messing up our relationships. As it relates to prayer, this story is rather helpful as well when we consider the son's words to his Father. The whole way home the son was scripting, refining and rehearsing exactly what he would need to say to the Father. Yet by the time they are finally face to face, the exact words seem to be irrelevant. The Father embraces his son before he can even begin his prepared remarks, and once the son finally gets the words out it seems the Father doesn't almost ignores the specifics of the son's speech. He's just glad his son has come home. All he wanted, was for his child to come back home and back into his Father's presence. So it is with prayer. We can certainly grow in our prayer and improve our ability to speak honestly and powerfully with God. But more than anything, God just wants to hear from us. He wants us to turn to him and open up our lives with him, pour out our hearts before him. He's just a Father who wants his children to love him enough to spend time with him and share their lives with him. Prayer is one of our greatest avenues for doing this. 

I hope you've taken some time to visit with the Father today. If you did, regardless of the exact words you used, I'm sure that God was glad to hear from you. 

Be in prayer continually. Pray for one another. 

Day 1

Originally Published - November 21, 2011

Good afternoon church,
I hope all of you are doing well and that your holiday week is off to a good start. You have all been in my prayers today. Yesterday in worship we talked about given to prayer in the Scripture and wrestled with the question of whether or not our lives reflect the same kind of commitment to and appreciation for the gift of prayer. If you weren't with us yesterday, you can find the sermon audio by clicking on this link. The sermon isn't anything special, but I really believe God is calling our church family to rediscover the spiritual gift and discipline of prayer. I am prayerfully hoping that all of us will respond to this call from God together. Perhaps this lesson can provide a good launching point for that.  

As part of yesterday's sermon, I asked everyone to commit themselves to daily prayer and the intentional pursuit of a deeper understanding of prayer . Each of us needs to make prayer as a priority in our lives every day, not just for the next month. However, we want to spend some concentrated working on it and exploring what it means to be a "praying church." For some of us prayer comes quite naturally, but for others it can be a struggle. Over these 30 days, we'll have the opportunity to encourage each other, pray for each other and work together to make prayer a priority in our lives, homes and our church family.  

One of the ways I have planned to support this commitment to prayer over the next 30 days is by writing about it some every day during this time and sharing it with you all. So, for the next 30 days I will be sending out an email like this as a reminder to make prayer a priority that day. The daily form will vary, but I'll typically include some great idea (someone else's obviously) or an encouraging thought I run across in my studies for this series on prayer. Or, perhaps just share a personal reflection or prayer. After all, I'll be walking through this prayer journey with you all for the next month as well.  

I will probably create a space on the church website or open a blog site for these as well to make it as easy to access as possible for you all. So look for info on that soon. I do hope you will join me in this exciting time of prayer and spiritual growth. I've taken up enough of your time for now. So, I'll leave you with this quote from the great theologian Karl Barth:  

To be a Christian and to pray are and the same thing; it is a matter that cannot be left to our caprice. It is a need, a kind of breathing necessary to life. 

May God bless you this evening. Be in prayer continually! 

Grace and Peace, 

Josh