Category Archives: prayer

A Simple Way To Pray

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For years I have struggled with how best to pray petitionary prayers. I am much more comfortable with prayers of adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and exaltation. It’s the prayers for things that I have a hard time praying.

Somewhere over the past few months I began categorizing my requests into particular days. At first it felt a bit mechanical and awkward, but after about two weeks it was really freeing. Here is how I do it. Please note that I offer this as a suggestion, not a rule!

Monday Is For Me

This may sound selfish, but after preaching and attending meetings most of the day before, I need to sync up with the Lord, shake off any pride or despair, and get my mind and heart ready for the week. Here I pray for, among other things, my heart to be stirred for the Gospel, my identity to be buried in Christ, and for my will to be bent toward obedience. Monday is for me in the sense that it’s for God’s glory and His purposes for me.

Tuesday Is For Heather

I have some “stock” prayers that I pray for her as well as things I’ve picked up on or things she’s told me over the week. I also let my Bible reading for the day shape the way I pray for her.

Wednesday Is For The Boys

I’ve written elsewhere about how I pray for them. Here I pray for things current as well as things future. In light of the events in Connecticut on Friday, I am currently praying for them to be tender, sweet, and compassionate, but also courageous, discerning, and brave in the face of evil.

Thursday Is For Church

Here I pray for all things Metro East. This includes our vision, our upcoming services, our staff, elders, deacons, and issues we are currently facing as a church. I also pray for the global spread of the Gospel and unreached people groups.

Friday Is For Friends And Family

I pray for the couples that Heather and I spend the most time with. I pray for the men I am discipling. I pray for my family.

Saturday Is For The Country

I pray for our city, state, nation, and all those in high positions (1 Tim. 2:1-4).

Sunday Is For The Service and Sermon

I bathe the day’s sermon in prayer. I beg for grace and wisdom to preach. I pray for the listeners, especially any non-Christians who will be present. I pray for clarity and boldness. I pray for the Gospel to be heard. I pray for our teachers, worship team, and volunteers. I pray for God’s blessing on the day both in our church and all the churches.

Try It

Of course there is overlap with all of these. If Heather asks me on Friday to pray for something she is struggling with I don’t say, “Can it wait until Tuesday?!” I also pray many other prayers on all these days. But this helps me to pray specific, thoughtful, and focused prayers for all these issues and people. If this sounds helpful, please use it. If it doesn’t, forget all you just read.

GB

Memorial Day Prayer: The Ultimate War and Warrior

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Then I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse! The one sitting on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, arrayed in fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron. He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name written: King of kings and Lord of lords. Rev. 19:11-16

Triumphant Lord Jesus, on this Memorial Day we honor the men and women who’ve served our country in various branches of the armed forces. In a world filled with “wars and rumors of war,” we don’t take our servicemen and servicewomen for granted. There’s has increasingly become a thankless, even despised calling. We remember those who have lost their lives; those currently serving, at home and abroad; and the families of our servicemen, who pay an enormous sacrifice.

But on this particular Memorial Day, we want to honor you, Lord Jesus, as the ultimate servant-warrior—the quintessential man of service, the one who on the cross waged the war to end all wars. No one hates warfare among vying nations more than you. No one is more offended even by the petty and pointless squabbles between spouses and friends (James 4:1-2). No one paid a greater price to bring the final and full peace for which we intensely long and hope.

Having secured the defeat of the prince of darkness on the cross, you’re now the rider on the white horse—alone worthy of the name Faithful and True. You are faithful to fulfill every promise God made for the salvation of his people and the restoration of creation. You are presently, actively completing this good work of redemption, for your name is also the Word of God. We praise you. We bless you. We worship and adore you, Lord Jesus!

Though evil hates beauty, your love trumps all evil. Evil will not prevail. It has been defeated and it will be eradicated. You are already the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Your kingdom has come and your kingdom is coming. Consummate peace will replace all petulance and pettiness, hating and being hated, fuming and fighting, of every variety and expression. Hallelujah, several times over! So very Amen we pray, in the memory and victory of your matchless name.

HT: Scotty Smith

3 Prayers God Will Answer

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There are three prayers that God will in, in some way, always answer. Tim Keller refers to these are frontline prayers. He says “frontline prayer has three basic traits:

a) a request for grace to confess sins and humble ourselves,

b) a compassion and zeal for the flourishing of the church, and

c) a yearning to know God, to see his face, to see his glory.”

While God beckons us to bring all our requests, fears, worries, and desires to Him. I believe these kinds of prayers should always be at the top of our prayer lists.

GB

HT to Ray Ortlund for posting the Keller quote from “Kingdom-centered Prayer,” Redeemer Report, January 2006.

How To Be A Vain Preacher

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Reading through Charles Spurgeon’s Lectures To My Students today reminded me how important prayer is for the preacher. He says:

The minister who does not earnestly pray over his work must surely be a vain and conceited man. He acts as if he thought himself sufficient of himself, and therefore needed not to appeal to God. Yet what a baseless pride to conceive that our preaching can ever be in itself so powerful that it can turn men from their sins, and bring them to God without the working of the Holy Ghost. If we are truly humble-minded we shall not venture down to the fight until the Lord of Hosts has clothed us with all power, and said to us, “Go in this thy might.” The preacher who neglects to pray much must be very careless about his ministry. He cannot have comprehended his calling. He cannot have computed the value of a soul, or estimated the meaning of eternity. He must be a mere official, tempted into a pulpit because the piece of bread which belongs to the priest’s office is very necessary to him, or a detestable hypocrite who loves the praise of men, and cares not for the praise of God. He will surely become a mere superficial talker, best approved where grace is least valued and a vain show most admired. He cannot be one of those who plough deep and reap abundant harvests. He is a mere loiterer, not a laborer. As a preacher he has a name to live and is dead. He limps in his life like the lame man in the Proverbs, whose legs were not equal, for his praying is shorter than his preaching.

GB

How I Pray For My Sons

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I have two boys. Cross just turned 3. Rhyse (pronounced rise) is 6 months. Here are some ways that I pray for them.

  • That they would grow in stature and wisdom, in favor with God and man (Luke 2:52)
  • That they would have an early trust in and knowledge of God (Psalm 22:9-10)
  • That they would continue to develop (sit up, eat, sleep, crawl, walk, talk). This is mostly for Rhyse.
  • Their physical safety. (Psalm 139)
  • That they would see God as their Joy not as a Divine Policeman (Philippians 4:4, Psalm 37:4)
  • That they would be pure and self-controlled (Proverbs 5:15-23)
  • That they would have an angst for life (Colossians 3:23)
  • That God would draw them to Himself (John 6:44)
  • Wisdom to discipline them and still be their friend
  • That they would sense a calling in their vocation (Genesis 2:15)
  • That they would resist idolatry (Psalm 73:25)
  • That they would honor their parents (Ephesians 6:1-3)
  • That they would learn to suffer well (Lamentations 3:25-31)
  • That they would see pride as their greatest enemy and humility as their greatest friend (James 4:6)
  • That they would be biblically masculine (1Corinthians 16:13-14)
  • That they would marry well (Proverbs 31:10)
  • That Jesus would be the greatest Treasure of their life (John 6:68-69)
  • That the glory of God would always be before them (1Corinthians 10:31)

GB

A Side-Effect To Playing With Your Children

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I love this post by Michel Kelley:

“This past Saturday afternoon was a pretty lazy one for our family. That’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned; our children think a bit differently, though. It only took about 7 minutes of me sitting on the couch, drinking an afternoon cup of coffee, for the calls to start:
“I’m bored.”
“There’s nothing to do.”
“Daddy, play with me.”
I’ll admit – I did NOT in fact want to play with the children. I did not want to be the policeman who ties up the bad guys with a jump rope. Nor did I want to be the fire-breathing dragon who was vanquished by being pelted with frisbees. Even less did I want to be an evil mad scientist who had to face down Anakin Skywalker and Princess Leah (let’s not get too involved with the correct Star Wars genealogy here).
I wanted to sit on the couch, watch the sports documentary that was a poor substitution for a football game, and drink a cup of coffee. And that’s what I did for the next 5 minutes.
But then, seeing it to be a fruitless endeavor, I relinquished my hold on the lazy Saturday, and went outside with the kids. I went begrudgingly. I slung open the door harder than I should and stomped into the backyard, fit with an attitude that would rival any method actor who was set to channel his inner fire-breathing dragon. And I played.
We had light saber fights with sticks.
I caught the bad guys and imprisoned them in the playhouse.
We built a fire in the fire pit and threw different stuff on top to see what kind of smoke it made.
My attitude only improved slightly, until I suddenly had the striking thought that I really think was from the Lord:
I have never once felt this way when you have wanted to spend time with me.
And it stopped me dead in my tracks. I paused and confessed my sin of selfishness, my overwhelming commitment to my own person, in light of the great generosity of God. And then, while we were hosing down the children an hour later, wiping down the grime and rinsing off the smoke from the fire, I had another thought:
Playing with the kids was the best thing I did all day.
Not original, I know, but I realized that the benefit was not only for them; it was also for me. The corollary to the thought above was in these terms:
Who would have ever thought that the main way to mortify my flesh today was playing with my kids?
There was a two fold effect, by God’s grace. I play with my kids, and hopefully then have a small notion of the great willingness and desire of God to be with His people. And as for me, playing with them – really playing with them – is another means by which God uses to pry my white-knuckled fingers off my idol of self.
So, dads, can I encourage you with this today? Play with your kids – not only for their sake, but also for yours.
Be the dragon they want at the expense of your TV show.
Build the Lego structure they want at the expense of your nap.
Dance with the dolls at the expense of your adult conversation.
Do these things, and watch how God uses this simple action their lives and in yours.”
I also just began reading his book Wednesday’s Were Pretty Normal: A Boy, Cancer, and God. I hope to blog some thoughts from it soon.
GB

Wanna Pray Better?…Pray Worse!

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Let me clarify the title of this blog a little. Prayer has been on my mind a lot recently as I have preached through some texts on prayer and attended a conference on prayer. I also went back and reread CS Lewis’ book Letters To Malcolm, which was his attempt to articulate the life of prayer. Something he said really intrigued me (as Lewis usually tends to do) about the quality of prayer. Here is what he says:

I have a notion that what seem our worst prayers may really be, in God’s eyes, our best. Those, I mean, which are least supported by devotional feeling and contend with the greatest disinclination. For these, perhaps, being nearly all will, come from a deeper level than feeling. In feeling there is so much that is really not ours—so much that comes from weather and health or from the last book read. One thing seems certain. It is no good angling for rich moments. God sometimes seems to speak to us most intimately when He catches us, as it were, off our guard. Our preparations to receive Him sometimes have the opposite effect. (CS Lewis, Letters To Malcolm: Chiefly On Prayer)
Most of us are apt to pray when we feel our best. But this could just be due to weather, health, or reading CS Lewis! The best time to pray, according to Lewis, is when you least feel like praying. You can be sure, those prayers are coming from something far deeper than emotion and good feelings. Psalm 42 seems to agree with this. Like a deer coming to a brook it’s always relied on, only to find it dry, so the psalmist cannot find God. But what does he do? He pours out his soul (Psalm 42:4)! He prays to God more intensely without being accompanied by warm feelings for prayer and meditation. So if you wanna really get good at prayer, pray when you least feel like praying. In other words, pray worse.

GB

Trinitarian Prayer

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John Stott’s trinitarian prayer:

Good morning heavenly Father,
good morning Lord Jesus,
good morning Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, I worship you as the creator and sustainer of the universe.
Lord Jesus, I worship you, Savior and Lord of the world.
Holy Spirit, I worship you, sanctifier of the people of God.

Glory to the Father, and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit.

Heavenly Father, I pray that I may live this day in your presence
and please you more and more.

Lord Jesus, I pray that this day I may take up my cross and follow you.

Holy Spirit, I pray that this day you will fill me with yourself and cause your fruit to ripen in my life:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

Holy, blessed and glorious Trinity, three persons in one God,
have mercy upon me. Amen.

2 Ways Not To Pray

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We often asked how we should pray. Jesus, before telling us how to pray, tells us how not to pray. He says:

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. . . . And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him” (Matt. 6:5,7).


There are two ways from this text as to how we should not pray.

We Should Not Pray to Look or Sound Spiritual
Do you ever do that? Do you ever pursue God and do spiritual things in order to impress people? Do you make excuses for why you were late? Do you fear the opinions of other people to the point that you attempt to control them? We all, at times, do. But our praying and our pursuing God cannot be a means to the end of impressing people. If we do, we will receive our reward: the applause of men!

We Should Not Pray Without Wanting God
The Gentiles pray this way. They dont want God. They just want His stuff. God wants to do more than simply answer your prayers. He wants to do more than give you advice, fulfill your plans, accomplish your goals, and make your life comfortable. God wants to shape you. He wants to mold and form your heart so that all your affections are wrapped around Him. The purpose of prayer is to get God!

GB

Spurgeon Bomb

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Charles Spurgeons writings always have a way of dropping a bomb on my life, especially when it comes to prayer. In Lectures To My Students in his chapter on The Preachers Private Prayer he says:

How much of blessing we may have missed through remissness in supplication we can scarcely guess, and none of us know how poor we are in comparison with what we might have been if we had lived habitually nearer to God in prayer. Vain regrets and surmises are useless, but an earnest determination to amend will be far more useful. We not only ought to pray more, but we must. The fact is, the secret of all ministerial success lies in prevalence at the mercy seat. (Charles Spurgeon, Lectures To My Students, 49)
GB