205 results found
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.
Is It Okay to Pray a Curse on My Enemies? (Psalm 5)
Prayers of this sort generally carry the unstated assumption that the evildoers will not repent and seek forgiveness; should they turn, these prayers are reversed as well.
Podcast: The Antidote to a Boring Prayer Life (Donald Whitney)
Donald Whitney talks about a simple, proven approach to prayer that has the potential to transform your spiritual life for the better.
How Thankfulness Increases Your Capacity for Wonder
Thankfulness greatly intensifies one of life’s most precious capacities—namely, the capacity to marvel. We are created for it.
Praying to Our Father Is a Spiritual Privilege
To pray with intimacy to God as father is not a human right; it is a spiritual privilege. It is a privilege for the people of God who have been born again by the Spirit of God.
The Lord’s Prayer Teaches Us How to Pray Every Other Prayer
The Lord's Prayer orients us, most importantly, to the vertical dimension of our prayers. That's why we start by saying, “Our Father.”
What Is the Sin that Leads to Death? (1 John 5)
What is the “sin that leads to death” and why does John not say we should pray for people committing such sin?
Podcast: Struggling to Pray? Start Here. (Kevin DeYoung)
Kevin DeYoung talks about our common struggle to pray and how the Lord's Prayer—the prayer that Jesus offered as a model for our prayers—can help us to pray to God day in and day out.
A Word of Encouragement for Those Who Don't Journal
Those of us who have not journaled before might wonder where to even begin. We might ask why journaling is important or how it helps us in our walk with the Lord.
Help! I’ve Stopped Caring about the Things of God
I imagine all Christians sometimes feel like we don’t love God enough, don’t read our Bibles enough, don’t pray enough, don’t evangelize enough, and so forth. And there’s a sense in which we are largely correct.
Podcast: How to Lament after Two Years of Loss (Mark Vroegop)
Mark Vroegop considers what it looks like to lament the COVID-19 pandemic—and how that lament can help us heal, both individually and as churches.
Should the Sick Be Anointed with Oil? (James 5)
James instructs the church elders to “anoint” the sick person with oil “in the name of the Lord.” Throughout the centuries, Christians have struggled to understand and apply this verse.
A Simple Solution to a Boring Prayer Life
But if God invites and expects all his children—regardless of their age, IQ, education, or resources—to do the same thing—to pray—then prayer has to be simple.