(Our front yard - snow in April!)
These are from my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God. (Kindle version HERE.)
1. You
will learn more about prayer by actually praying than you can get from a book.
2. Prayer
is talking with God about what God and I are thinking and doing together.
3. Praying
is revolutionary activity whereby I revolt against the kingdom of this world as
I meet with the true Lord of heaven and earth.
4. If you
believe God is all-powerful and all-knowing, then you believe God is powerful
enough and knows enough to address your struggles.
5. If you
believe that God is all-loving, then you believe that God desires to address
your struggles.
6. What
we think about God affects how we worship and pray.
7. Prayer
is not a religious duty, something I “have” to do, but a relationship with God.
8. In
praying I must let go of control and trust God.
9. The
focus of praying is not prayer itself, but God.
10.
I can meet God at a conference. I can also meet
the same God wherever I am.
11.
Assume God is doing something in you, now.
12.
Praying is the act of interfacing this world
with the kingdom of God.
13.
I can hear the voice of God, speaking to me.
14.
Hearing God’s voice is a function of intimacy
with God.
15.
Humility is needed to hear the voice of God.
16.
Discernment is the capacity to recognize and
respond to the presence and activity of God, both in the ordinary moments of
life and in the larger decisions of life.
17.
As intimacy with God increases, discernment
increases.
18.
Discerning should always come before deciding.
19.
In praying, God changes me.
20.
I pray to be able to see God’s Bigger Picture
of my life and reality.
21.
I pray for my heart to be shaped into a heart
of God’s love.
22.
Praying for people is a God-given, holy burden.
23.
In praying I bear one another’s burdens and so
fulfill the law of Christ.
24.
I pray for others because I believe that where
prayer focuses, power falls.
25.
Blessed are the mono-taskers, for they shall
see God.
26.
Praying is a slow-cooker, not a microwave.
27.
Teaching people to pray in solitude is one of
the greatest needs and challenges of the church today.
28.
Solitary times with God prepare us for
fellowship with people.
29.
If you commit to praying God will lead you
deeper into community.
30.
One’s personal prayer life can never be
understood if it is separated from community life.
31.
In praying we cry for the in-breaking of the
kingdom into the brokenness of the present.
32.
In praying God aligns our heart with his
kingdom heart.
33.
To pray is to explore and venture into the
vast, limitless regions of God’s beautiful kingdom.
34.
Authentic praying is an act of self-denial.
35.
To pray is to let go of control.
36.
When God reveals personal faults it is never to
condemn us, but only to rescue us.
37.
There is a “spiritual Alzheimer’s disease”
which results in forgetting the many times God has rescued and delivered us.
38.
A main antidote to fear is remembering.
39.
In praying I enumerate things I am thankful for
and give thanks to God.
40.
I pray because Jesus prayed.
41.
I pray for protection and guidance.
42.
In praying I am detoxified and released from
burdens.
43.
Renewal can begin with one follower of Jesus,
praying.
44.
The more Westernized a person is, the less they
pray.
45.
Prayvailing – Travailing prayer brings
prevailing in a person’s life.
46.
I need to set aside some time very day for
active talking and listening to God. Just ten minutes each day can bring about
a radical change in my life.
47.
Nothing can stop me from praying today.
48.
If I humble myself and pray, turning from any
wicked ways, God will hear from heaven and heal the land.
49.
The antidote to spiritual burnout is time alone
with God, praying.
50.
Pray even when, especially when, it seems or
feels like God is absent.
51.
God isn’t in a panic room when you or I have
doubts.
52.
Life is best lived when death is acknowledged.
53.
Kick the “bucket list” and live for a greater
purpose.
54.
How a life begins and ends is important. Don’t
forget the ending part.
