The church is led to maturity on her mission through intentional, earnest, persistent intercessory prayer. A man of God leads from his knees!
Articles on Prayer
191 results found
Why Use Written Prayers? A Personal Reflection
I understand and respect the hesitations that some believers have regarding the use of written prayers—either privately or publicly. I have close friends who fall on both sides of this discussion.
That there is such a thing as Holy Saturday in the gospel is remarkable, if oft overlooked. Why wouldn’t a simple movement from death one day to resurrection the next be sufficient?
Strengthen Your Prayer Life with an Assist from Past Pray-ers
Ordinarily, desire is not enough. We usually have to be shown how to do something, with plenty of examples, before we can feel capable.
A Guide for Your Personal Worship Entering Holy Week
A sample day’s readings from O Sacred Head, Now Wounded, a 48-day devotional liturgy to help readers effectively prepare their hearts from Pascha (Easter) to Pentecost.
Podcast: The Most Important Thing Our Churches Have Forgotten to Do (Paul Miller)
Paul Miller deepens our understanding of prayer by highlighting why we need to pray with one another if we really want to experience the full blessing of prayer.
We develop wisdom by knowing the Bible and by relying on the Holy Spirit to help us correctly live it out.
7 Things I Prayed for My Husband through 30 Years of Ministry
Marriage to a man in any particular profession has particular difficulties. Over the years, I have learned to pray for the needs of my husband that are distinct to his calling as a pastor.
How to Pray for Your Teen’s Spiritual Growth
Here are seven specific bibliical prayers that I’m praying for my own (almost) teenager, and which I’d encourage you to pray for yours.
How to Pray for a Loved One Struggling with Mental Illness
When God gives us the right spirit in prayer—the spirit of hope, patience, and love—that will usually result in the right petitions.
Help! God Didn’t Answer My Prayer
The problem of “unanswered prayers” is one we all must reckon with. What we hear in Scripture often seems to contradict what we see in everyday experience
On the Crushing Guilt of Failing at Quiet Time
Meet any mature, fruitful Christian, and you can almost guarantee he regularly has something like a “quiet time”—a time set aside to talk to God in prayer and hear from God in the word.
Podcast: Christianity Is Both Easier and Harder Than You Think (Kevin DeYoung)
Kevin DeYoung discusses the reasons we’re so hard on ourselves and what it looks like to truly embrace the freedom and joy of being beloved children of our heavenly Father.
Turning Prayer from Monologue into Dialogue with God
Prayer is not pleading with a God who is not already there to somehow show up. Prayer is not enticing a silent God to finally speak.
The Counterintuitive Path to Blessing
When we pray for God’s kingdom to come “on earth as it is in heaven” (Matt. 6:10), we sometimes imagine the kingdom to be far away.
Jesus is not commending hypocritical prayer. He is not calling for show-prayer. He is calling for real prayer, that is, real Godward desire for the good of our enemy.
Your Prayer Life Might Be Better Than You Think
Scripture’s prayers, especially the psalms, are prayers we can and should take on our lips. We can pray through Scripture. It’s part of learning how to pray.
8 Principles of Prayer from John Owen
There are some generally allowed principles, which, though not always duly considered, yet cannot at any time be modestly denied, that give direction toward the right performance of our duty [of prayer] herein.
Learn to Say “Help” to the Lord
It is not always easy to talk openly to the Lord. We need help, but it is difficult to actually ask God for it. Why is it so difficult? Why do we sometimes resist speaking to him?
Podcast: How Journaling Could Reinvigorate Your Prayer Life (Erika Allen)
Erika Allen talks about the struggles of consistent prayer, how journaling can help us with that, and what God really thinks about our baby steps towards him.
When we are praying in the Spirit, we are being obedient to what the Spirit desires, and bringing those desires to God in prayer.
9 Conversation Starters to Help You Get Out of a Prayer Rut
How do we talk to our heavenly Father like we might to good friends? Quite simply, what does it mean to become human again as a group?
The Hidden Prayers and Pray-ers behind Great Movements
God designed his church to look like his Son who spent most of his life hidden, so the most important people in the church are often invisible.
The 2 Characteristics of Revival
By divine command, we must pray for the reinvigorating of God’s people—morning and evening, today and tomorrow, this year and next year, and in all the years until Christ’s return.
How to Pray with the End Times in Mind
Closely connected to end-time gatherings for the sake of encouraging each other not to grow cold in love, but to persevere in faith, is the summons to end-time praying.
An Open Letter to the Prayerless Church
The church is a spiritual force. It is animated by the Spirit of Jesus in our midst. So, if we want to see the church brought back to life, we have to make room to listen and be led by the Spirit as a community.
Who Killed the Prayer Meeting?
Behind our busyness and wealth is a philosophy called secularism, which doesn’t just deny God’s existence but denies the existence of any spiritual world.
The Bible promises that in Jesus, we have peace. But when our circumstances and our emotions threaten us with despair, it doesn’t always feel like that is the case.
What Does Jesus Want This Christmas?
What does Jesus want this Christmas? We can see the answer in his prayers.
How Prayer Produces a Soul at Rest
We pray because we should, or worse, because we think we have to if we want to experience God’s blessings. A quote from John Calvin in his commentary on Matthew 6:5–6 helped me understand prayer differently.