prayer encouragement

I mentioned in an earlier post that I've been praying more and longer than perhaps ever in my life. The Praying Church Sourcebook continues to be a source of ideas and inspiration to me. Today I read about Second Baptist Church in Houston, which, I believe, we visited once when unexpectedly laid over on our return trip from Costa Rica. Their Sunday school attendance grew from 800 to over 5,000 because of prayer. They have members praying 24/7 in a room on their campus, with a phone anyone can call in on at any time with requests. I like commitments like this. It reminds me of the story I heard of Spurgeon's church, which had a basement full of prayer warriors during his sermons.
Pastor Cho of the 1,000,000 member church in Seoul, Korea encourages us to pray for very specific requests because God's answers come more noticeably and offer greater testimonies to His greatness. Personally, what I like about praying detailed requests is that it makes it more exciting when you're praying because it paints a better picture. The more facets of the request I consider, the more vivid the picture, and the more it heightens interest, urgency and passion in the prayer.

King of Kings and Lord of Lords

My mom sent me this link today, and it was just what I needed. I'm going to go listen to our CD of the Hallelujah Chorus now...

identity

Part of my homework for BSF was to share what we'd sing to God and although it wasn't intended to be a literal song, really, I thought it was a good opportunity to praise Him with another attempt at hymnody.

The content coincides with the chapter we discussed yesterday in my Sunday school study of The Reason For God by Timothy Keller. The chapter, "The Problem of Sin," explains how sin is essentially finding one's identity in anything but God.


The rain outside my house
tapped softly on my door
My treasured comfort You would douse
I feared if I explored.
So I kept myself in safety dry,
among my idols near,
and studied rain in holy books,
my wisdom lacking fear.

I danced in puddles from Your rain
and stole from You delight.
Upon Your gifts I placed my stain
of pride in copyright.
Were man to know enough to pray
that You would yet entice us
He’d call on You from pleasures’ sway
to save before a crisis.

You turned my puddles into flood
and wet my eyes with joy.
I’m changed forever by Your blood
to be what You employ.
Don’t haste to wipe away my tears.
Your Name deserves reknown.
You’ve paved the way, dissolving fears.
To Your Commission I am bound.

Sing, my heart! Give rise, my voice!
The nations need to hear!
Make known that private hearts rejoice!
Request the public’s ear!
This is what the Lord has done.
Proclaim now His salvation.
“His victory is surely won”
the song for every nation.

prayer

if anything is worth plugging online, it's prayer.

i'm struck by how important, and yet how elusive, it is in my life. i think satan revels inconspicuously in his exploitation of our busyness and complacency.

after a few weeks of missing prayer in the morning, and God's encouragement that i really can have more of this elusive thing to which He's called me, i started reading the praying church sourcebook (partly because i was considering joining our church's prayer commission).

first i began getting up at 5 in hopes of dedicating an hour each morning to prayer. this proved to be too taxing, so i moved it to 5:30 and scheduled, just for the month of november, a half hour each tuesday and wednesday night. the 5:30 routine has been fruitful (i'm nine minutes away from the first of the prayer evenings).

this was at least partly inspired by the sourcebook's account of martin luther, who would dedicate an hour each morning to prayer and - get this - two hours on the mornings of his busiest days.

then, as prayer became more of a preoccupation, i journaled one morning after my bible reading (i had extra time, after all) and laid out opportunities for regular prayer. here's what i've begun to try to implement:

- pray when you get to your office in the morning. pray that God would use you mightily (pray against notions that your work is unimportant on either a utilitarian or Kingdom level); that He would invigorate your work.

- thank Him at the end of the day for the job and the other blessings that come to mind (easier to remember at 6pm than even two hours later).

- pray before each lunch hour, thanking Him for it, and asking Him to bring to mind the best ways to spend it.

- pray before exiting the car at BSF, for men who are struggling to be captivated by the Lord for the next two hours; for the power of the word to heal marriages and other relationships; for the edification of the men of the region to be godly leaders; for this to be an equipping and a time of growth; for honesty, vulnerability, powerful fellowship; that i would be humble, and an instrument for blessing others.

- pray before exiting the car upon returning home, thanking God for another day of His protection and the use of our car.

- pray before each spin class, that Jesus would shine through my wife and call to others

- pray before exiting the car upon arriving at your capoeira class that God would use you to bless others for His Name's sake.

- pray after each capoeira class, thanking God for the ability to do what you enjoy.

- pray before each small group meeting that God would allow prayer to flourish in the group and set the tone of the evening for a more succinct time of sharing led by an awareness that God's Spirit is in our midst (inspired by the sourcebook).

finally, and i hesitate to add it because it seems the most difficult, but, in addition to those i pray for weekly, i've set about praying for one particular person's salvation every day for one year. hopefully, i'll have a significant list of 'persons of the year' when i'm old and grey, and then meet them in glory.

that's it. and now, it's time to pray.