(Crossing Lake Michigan on The Badger)
These are from my book Praying: Reflections on 40 Years of Solitary Conversations with God.
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 every day for active talking and listening to God. Just ten minutes a 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.
