Week 1: Keeping Prayer Simple Routines are part of life. We are creatures of habit. The minute babies are born parents begin a sleep/feed schedule to form a desired habit. As adults, we easily slide into habits that reflect what we value; for better or worse. Wherever we are in the habit of doing, the actual practice of forming habits is also necessary for spiritual discipline and growth. I’m excited to exercise toward a new…
The heart of the matter. You don’t start a workout regime without a goal, teachers don’t start the school year without a syllabus and construction managers don’t begin a building project without blueprints. If we are set out to discover how to live a life of prayer in our bustling daily lives, then we need a goal. The goal of praying from the heart boils down to… …fostering a habitual and constant connection with God…
On the brink of entering the Promised Land after forty years of wandering, God commanded Joshua and the twelve tribes of Israel to collect stones from the Jordan River and to stack them as a reminder for future generations of where they had been and of God’s constant and present provision. I’d like to believe looking back at those old markers kept the Israelites grounded, reminded them of what was true when they were faltering…
Prayer Series: Part 2 The results of prayer can be scary. Prayer involves a spiritual realm we struggle to understand. In the west we don’t hear too many stories of miraculous healings, people rising from the dead or people freed from demon possession. If we do, we first speculate on their authenticity and quickly discredit them. However, for many of our brothers and sisters across the globe, these are present-day implications of prayer and life…
Read Matthew 15: 21-28 In Matthew 15 we have a Canaanite woman: a Gentile, unclean, unworthy of any Israelite. Despite her shameful status and out of the desperation of a mother’s cry for her daughters’ life, she pleads for help. She has an inkling of hope from likely observing or hearing about previous healings. In this short engagement, four things unfold. She cries out. “Have mercy on me!” Christ ignores her. The disciples mock her…
