The Mystery of Prayer

Greetings All,

     After two weeks away I am back from a relaxing vacation! Time spent in nature, in the woods and mountains of New England, has its benefits in refreshing the soul!
     This morning a friend asked a question about prayer.  It was a question many ask, since prayer is something that takes time to understand, even though we will never fully comprehend the mystery of it. After all, there are so  many different views and opinions and approaches people have toward praying.  Therefore, I decided I would send out this "thought" on prayer by Gary Thomas, entitled: "The Mystery of Prayer."  It is found in his book, "Sacred Pathways."  It does not address the question asked this morning, but given the fact that most all people struggle at one time or another in their prayer life, I thought some might find it helpful and encouraging -- especially those who have encountered the often confusing dilemma called "unanswered prayer."  Enjoy.

The Mystery of Prayer

     "Is there anything more mysterious than prayer? Prayer moves us to call on a Being we cannot see and ask him to altar that which we can see.  Formulas do not work; rituals cannot guarantee success. Neither the length nor the form of prayer makes the prayer potent. This is why we need to create pockets of prayer in our lives, learning to trust God to come through in unexpected ways. There is an element of mystery, however, against which we sometimes rebel -- the mystery of unanswered prayer, or, perhaps more appropriately stated, prayers that receive the answer "no." 

     Because God sometimes answers our prayers with a yes, it can become intoxicating, and this intoxication can become so addicting that we begin to demand that God answer every prayer with a yes When a prayer doesn't get answered in the way we want it to be, we may mistakenly assume there must be hidden sin, lack of faith, or some other buried obstruction, which then sends us into hours of fruitless introspection.  But to demand that God answer all our prayers with a yes is to ask for his omnipotence (power) without having the benefit of his omniscience (knowledge).

     Looking back, I'm thankful that God said no to some of my prayers. The mystery of faith calls us to love and serve a God whom we can't always understand. We love this when the result satisfies us and God answers in ways that make our knees weak. It is much less exciting, however, when the mystery leads us to believe that God is silent, indifferent, or even cruel. Mystery is mystery. It has its exhilarating elements as well as frustrating ones, and we can't expect one without the other.

     The pursuit if maturity will lead virtually every one of us through this canyon of unanswered prayer, where expectancy runs dry and the only mystery seems to be where God is hiding. Understand that this is a necessary avenue on the destination to holiness and that it usually has an end -- in God's timing however."

     Some thoroughly enjoy prayer.  Some struggle with snags and disappointments in prayer.  And some have dispensed with prayer -- at least in the more formal sense -- though I do not believe it's possible for the true believer to dispense completely with conversational interaction with God. Few will go an entire lifetime without the "why's" of both answered and unanswered prayer, yet there is blessing in persevering. Just as a child passes through phases of equilibrium and disequilibrium in their trek to maturity, so also the person maturing in prayer goes through such phases. The key, in the famous words of Winston Churchill, is to, "Never, never, never give up." 

     With you in what is often the struggle to find God, and the pathway to the throne of His grace, in prayer, Pastor Jeff

Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes from a book well worth the time it takes to read: "Holiness By Grace - Delighting In The Joy That Is Our Strength" by Bryan Chapell.  It has to do with God's grace and favor toward us, and the common misconceptions we often have about what it is that causes that grace to come our way.  There are very few who do not desire God's grace.  Few who do not yearn for His favor.  Yet, as Chapell points out, in our attempts to attain it, we often drive it further from us.  We often go astray in the ways we seek to become recipients of it.  I found his instruction in this regard helpful.  I pray that you might also.  Enjoy.

     "Despite the teaching of Scripture, I am at times no less troubled than Christ's disciples were with God's determination to resist human efforts to purchase his love.  I want to believe that God must be good to the organizations I serve, to the family I love, and the career in which I seek to advance, because I have tried to be good. Such reasoning abandons me, however, when I honestly compare my righteousness to Christ's standards... When I face the reality of the inadequacy of my works to merit God's favor, then I recognize that I must depend on his goodness and not my own. At times this dependence (on his goodness) is scary because it lifts control from me, but there is no other choice when I recognize the true character of my good works. For according to Scripture, even my best works are only "filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:5). There is too much human imperfection and mixed motives in my best deeds to have them obligate God to do as I wish...

     That does not mean, however, that God never desires or blesses our goodness.  Walking in God's ways is itself a blessing (Ps. 1, Matt. 5:3-10). For example, being faithful to one's spouse brings integrity to a marriage that is a blessing.  Speaking honestly can enhance one's reputation and help secure faltering relationships... Still, no degree of human goodness will lock God into a pah of blessing according to our choosing, as though we have become his master through our merit.  God promises to bless obedience by using it for his purposes, but the blessings that result should be seen less as credit for our goodness, and more as evidence of his faithfulness to his purposes... Divine blessing flows from God's mercy rather than from our merit. Thus, we cannot guarantee that his care will flow according to our plans simply because we conform in some degree to biblical standards. Our works do not obligate God to care for us in the way WE think is best... God blesses according to the wisdom of his eternal mercy rather than in proportion to our works of earned merit...

     [In Luke 17:11-19 ten lepers cry out to Jesus in desperation, "Jesus, master, have mercy on us!"]... What does Jesus do when these desperate people plead with him for mercy? He shows them mercy.  Jesus shows pity to those who have nothing to claim but desperation.  He is moved by their desperate cry for help.  What is the message to us?  Our God is not moved by the deeds we trophy, but by the desperation we acknowledge as our own....

     God's heart is moved, not when we protest our innocence by pointing to our inadequate good deeds, nor when we promise that we will do better in the future. Though there is no reason for God to love us, yet he does.  This is the nature of grace that we must treasure to know the joy that God wants for our lives. Until we recognize that there is no reason God will be moved to love us other than the spiritual need we acknowledge, we have no good news to tell others or ourselves. How could it be good news that God waits to love us until we reach an unattainable standard of righteousness, or that he counts our "filthy rags" as meritorious?  Biblical faith is most evident not when we demand that God honor our flawed deeds, but when we trust that he will mercifully respond when we humbly and helplessly cry out, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!"

     Those who cry out in desperation have more hope of moving God's heart than any who would trophy their own righteousness before him.  Those who face the hopelessness of their spiritual condition apart from God's mercy are nearer to experiencing his grace than those who pride themselves on their goodness. Not beyond God's mercy is the homosexual dying of AIDS, who says in a broken spirit, "People may condemn me for a life they do not approve, but to tell you the truth, I would have loved anyone that loved me back."  In fact, such a man may be nearer to expressing what melts the heart of heaven, than I am on the days that my preaching, my position (as a seminary president), and my righteousness, swell my pride to make me think I am deserving of God's blessing.

     To experience God's blessing I must readily and repeatedly confess my own hopeless condition. What makes me willing to do this is the knowledge that it is my desperation that inclines God's heart toward my own.  The awareness that he does not turn away from my desperation will actually draw me to confession and deep repentance. The assumption that God only loves the righteous will tempt me to hide from him (and myself) the flaws under the public veneer of my character and my fears of deeper failures... 

     Our Lord's response to the leper's cry for mercy should compel us to confess our sin to him no matter its degree or persistence. We need not have corrected the wrong in our lives to ask him to forgive us We should not attempt to try and compensate for our sin before we ask him to love us. Remember that Jesus cleansed all the lepers when they cried out for his mercy, even though in his divine nature he could have known that only one would return to thank him.  Neither past failing nor future weakness will dissuade our Savior from showing us mercy when we honestly acknowledge our desperate need for his grace."

     One only needs to glance at the any of the four Gospels to see the truth of what Chapell says.  God inclines his ear and opens his heart to the desperate, but resists the proud. He embraces the sinful man who won't even look up to heaven but in shame cries out, "Lord be merciful to me a sinner," yet refuses to listen to the Pharisee who looks down on that heart-broken man and brags inwardly that he is so much better and thanks God he is not like him.  Pride and self-righteousness (that is, thinking we can make ourselves acceptable to God by our personal deeds and efforts) pushes the divine hand of grace away, it does not (as many curiously think) bring God's favor and blessings near.  We must always remember: "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble."   It is the acknowledgment and confession of our sin, deep need, and personal inadequacy that draws close the grace and mercy of God, and the vain illusion that we have all our moral and spiritual ducks in a row that drives it away.

     If you would like to pray for grace, here is a simple prayer I often use: "Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Eternal God, be merciful to me a sinner." 

For His name's sake,  Pastor Jeff 

Scripture-grounded Take on Suffering in Times of Trial and Difficulty

Greetings Friends!

     Today's "thought" is taken from the daily devotional, "Streams in the Desert" by L. B. Cowman.
     In it we find an interesting, refreshing, and Scripture-grounded take on suffering that I offer to you to encourage you and nurture hope in you in times of trial and difficulty.  This excerpt appears to be a group of thoughts on the redemptive nature of suffering taken from the writings of several different people -- only two of whose names she cites.  As I was reading it on June 19th it struck me as one I would want to share with you. So please, enjoy!

“Grain must be ground to make bread.”

Isaiah 28:28

     Many of us cannot be used to become food for the world’s hunger until we are broken in Christ’s hands. “Grain must be ground to make bread,” and being a blessing for Christ often requires sorrow on our part.  Yet even sorrow is not too great a price to pay for the privilege of touching other lives with Christ’s blessings.  The things that are most precious to us today are things that have come to us through tears and pain" (J. R. Miller).

     "God has made me bread for His chosen ones, and if it is necessary for me to be ground in the teeth of lions in order to feed His children, then blessed be the name of the Lord" (St. Ignatius).

     "To burn brightly we must first experience the flame. In other words, we cease to bless when we cease to bleed.”

     Poverty, hardship and misfortune have propelled many a life to moral heroism and spiritual greatness. Difficulties challenge our energy, and our perseverance, yet they bring the strongest qualities of the soul to life. It is the weights on the old grandfather clock that keep it going. And many a sailor has faced a strong headwind while using it to help him reach port. God has appointed opposition as an incentive to faith and holy service.

     The most illustrious characters of the Bible were bruised, broken, and ground into bread for the hungry.

     Abraham, because he endured affliction while remaining obedient, stood at the top of the class and found his diploma inscribed with the words, ’the father of the faithful.’

     Jacob, like wheat, suffered severe threshing and grinding.

     Joseph was bruised and beaten and had to go through Potiphar’s kitchen, and into Egypt’s prison, on his way to getting to the throne.

     Job was ground to powder like medicine, yet through his sufferings has helped untold millions find hope in their own.

     David was hunted like an animal through the mountains.  Bruised, weary, and footsore, he was ground into bread for the kingdom.

     Paul could never have been bread for Caesar’s household if he had not endured the bruising of being whipped and stoned. He was ground into fine flour for the royal family.

     Combat comes before victory.  If God has chosen special trials for you to endure, be assured that in His heart He has kept for you a special place. A soul that is sorely bruised is one God has chosen to use.”

     It is a somewhat interesting phenomena that the messages I share from the pulpit where I use illustrations from my own life (or from the lives of others) where I or they struggled with pain, hardship, or difficulty, are the ones people say they appreciate the most. Not ones where I speak of my victories, successes, or achievements, but those where I share my struggles with pain, difficulty or trials.  There is, it seems, something universally helpful, desired, and appreciated when people are transparent about struggles, which is not there when one speaks about their victories and successes.  This pattern is so pronounced in Scripture, and my own experience, that it has made me hesitant to ask God (as some do) to be "used in a mighty way."  For it seems that those who have endured the greatest suffering and struggle are the most likely to be used in such a fashion.

     If the immense popularity of the Book of Job, and the transforming power of the sufferings of Jesus tell us anything, they tell us people find one immense help from one who is a friend in suffering. It should assure us that if we as believers experience hardship, it's not because God is angry at us or punishing us, but because God is growing our faith and equipping us for useful service to others in His kingdom.

Living in the Grace of Jesus, Pastor Jeff

Praying with The Puritans

Greetings All,

     This past weekend I attended a conference in Pittsburgh, PA, for the CCO (Coalition For Christian Outreach) where there just happened to be a bookseller.  My curiosity got the best of me, and I walked over to see what books were on the shelves.  I practiced great restraint (for me) and ended up walking out with only four new books to add to my library!  One, which was entitled: "Kneeling With Giants - Learning To Pray With History's Best Teachers," by Gary Neal Hansen, caught my attention.

     I've only gotten through two of it's chapters so far, but I found one section both interesting and helpful.  It's called, "Praying with The Puritans" and encourages us to use their common form of praying by meditation and writing.  Enjoy.

Praying With The Puritans

     "Back in student days, after a bad breakup, my journal saved my sanity. I bought a little black book to hold my dark, grieving thoughts, and in it I poured out lamentation, confusion and anger. I wrote, and wrote, and wrote, until I didn't need to anymore.  A couple years later, I looked back and found that pretty much every page was the same. You could say writing was a kind of therapy, but for me it was prayer. God was listening. Healing came.

     I often pray best with a pen.... Writing in my journal draws me quickly and surely into God's company. God is there, listening, and I find myself understood and accepted. That changes me. It may seem an odd and indirect form of prayer -- I do not start each journal entry with "Dear God" -- but if prayer is conversation, the act of writing allows me to take my part of the dialogue seriously.  It slows me down, and hidden things come to light.  Burdens are lifted. Insights and possibilities emerge....

     To all who resist writing as a way of prayer, I plead for an imaginative openness. A great many people find that writing sparks spiritual growth.... The first time I tried to write in a journal, I found myself so anxious I destroyed every page. I was not afraid that someone would see it. The struggle was with myself. Here were my feelings, the insides of me, spread out on a page. I felt almost naked. Later, and to my own surprise, I tried again. Soon writing in my journal was the way to come honestly to God and find grace. All I can say is that it is worth it to keep coming back to the experiment of prayerful writing...  If this is a new way to pray, it can be a challenge. The good news is that many Christians have prayed this way throughout history.  And there is no better example than the Puritans.

     Now, before you start rolling your eyes, let me say that these sixteenth and seventeenth-century Calvinists from England and then America have gotten a bad rap. We assume the joke is true that a Puritan is defined as someone terribly afraid that someone, somewhere, is having fun.  In literature class we read The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) or The Crucible by Arthur Miller (1915-2005) [neither one of which ever met or had any interaction with a Puritan] and forever after when we hear "Puritan" we picture poor Hester Prynne being judged and shamed, or the horror of the Salem witch trials.  However, if you read what the Puritans wrote about the Christian life, the picture changes. They brought single-minded passion to their pursuit of God. They lived with a focused, prayerful longing to be made new in Christ. They may have been more conscious of sin than most Christians are today, but they were also more aware of God's blessings and grace. These were inner experiences, but I can describe them confidently because when they prayed about them they often did so with pen in hand. Written approaches to prayer were so important to the Puritans that they wrote manuals to teach each other how to do it. 

     The Puritans, as Calvinists, had a very heavy doctrine of providence, believing that God was actively involved in virtually everything in their lives and the world. Today the idea has fallen on hard times. Many assume God is not actively involved, or they look at things that happen in the world and wonder what God could possibly have been thinking. Providence filled John Beadle (an English Puritan who lived from 1595-1667 and wrote "Diary of a Thankful Christian") with a sense of wonder. He claimed that if we only looked, we would see God's name, wisdom, power and faithfulness in every blade of grass and every drop of rain. Nurturing awareness of providence can bring us to awe as well. Believing, as Elizabeth Barrett Browning put it, "earth's crammed with heaven, and every common bush alive with God" makes it more likely that we will notice God at work, take off our shoes, and kneel.

     Beadle lists a number of topics to write about in our journals. Some are more clearly powerful than others, but they all help us move forward in seeing God at work, and giving thanks, knowing God better and loving God more. 

            1.) "Let every man keep a strict account of his effectual calling." "Effectual calling" is the Puritan term for the way God got through and made you a Christian... 

       2.) "Take special notice of all divine assistance.. either in the performance of the duties that are required of us, or in bearing those evils that are inflicted upon us." 
       3.) "Remember, and for that end put into your journal all deliverance's from dangers, either to you or yours."
       4.) "All the instruments, all the people and means that God has in providence at any time used for your good, must not be forgotten." 
       5.) "And finally, mark what returns, what answers God gives to your prayers, and write them down... as most remarkable pledges of His love." 

     When I first became a believer (38 yeas ago) I did this very thing more often (having no idea the Puritans had done it before me). I even have those journals in my possession still, and the answers to many prayers recorded there. But in our fast paced society that habit fell by the wayside. Thankfully, this chapter convinced me I need to pick up my pen and journal again.  You may want to give it a try as well. After all, how could one not benefit from prayerfully writing about God's grace and involvement in their lives, or recording for future days a written record to remind them of His power, providence, intervention, rescue, provision, and daily expressions of kindness?  I dare say it could do everyone nothing but good! 

In His Service, Pastor Jeff

Joyful Blessings Journal

Greetings All!

    
     I came back from my trip to India only to move into a new office down the hall.  As a result over a hundred boxes of books needed to be transported and re-shelved in the new office!  And in that process I came across things that I had not seen for many years! One in particular was a journal I picked up somewhere along the line because of the quotes on each page. That's what I will share today - twenty various quotes from the "Joyful Blessings Journal" that were gathered or selected by Marla Tipton.  I trust that some of them might offer helpful insights and encourage your heart.  Enjoy



"It is pleasing to God whenever you rejoice or laugh from the bottom of your heart."

Martin Luther

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bow lines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover."

Mark Twain

"Worrying is like a rocking chair; it gives you something to do but it doesn't get you anywhere."

Unknown

"You pay God a compliment every time you ask great things of Him." 

Teresa of Avila 

"The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves."

Victor Hugo

"Our Lord has written the promise of the resurrection, not in books alone, but in every budding leaf in springtime."

Martin Luther

"Our life if full of brokenness -- broken relationships, broken promises, broken expectations. How can we live with that brokenness without becoming bitter and resentful, except by returning again and again to God's faithful presence in our lives."

Henri Nouwen

"God often comforts us, not by changing the circumstances of our lives, but by changing our attitude toward them."

S. H. B. Masterman

"If the Lord be with us, we have no cause of fear.  His eye is upon us, His arm is over us, His ear open to our prayer. His grace is sufficient and His promise unchangeable."

John Newton

"A true friend (shares) freely, advises justly, assists readily, adventures boldly, takes all patiently, defends courageously, and continues a friend unchangeably." 

William Penn

"Every now and then it is delightful to have the kind of laugh that makes your stomach jiggle... that sends tears down your face and causes your eyes to squint so it's impossible to see!"

Unknown

"When I think upon my God, my heart is so full of joy that the notes dance and leap from my pen."

Composer Joseph Haydn

"I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar; but I cherish the friend who for me does not even consult his calendar."

Robert Brault

"The thought of You stirs us so deeply that we cannot be content unless we praise You, because You have made us for Yourself, and our hearts find no peace until they rest in You."

St. Augustine

"Consider the postage stamp; its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing until it gets there." 

Josh Billings

"Gratefulness is the key to a happy life which we hold in our hands, because if we are not grateful, then no matter how much we have we will not be happy, because we will always want to have something else or something more."

Brother David Steindl-Rast

"God cannot give us happiness apart from Himself, because it is not there, There is no such thing."

C. S. Lewis

"How often we look upon God as our last and feeblest resource!  We go to Him because we have nowhere else to go.  And then we learn that the storms of life have driven us, not upon the rocks, but into the desired haven."

George MacDonald

"Your worst days are never so bad that you are beyond the reach of God's grace. And your best days are never so good that you are beyond the need of God's grace."

Jerry Bridges

"Happy is the one who has learned to hold the things of this world with a loose grip. Of all classes and descriptions of people on this earth, they are the happiest of whom it may be said that the things most hoped for by them are the things not seen."

Mennonite Writings

With Prayers for the Abundance of God's Grace to You, Pastor Jeff

Churches In Missions

Greetings All!

     This week's "thought" comes to you from a newsletter I received from a man named Paul Hatmacher (seen below with his wife Barbara) who serves as president of an organization called, "Churches In Missions."   I received his Christmas Newsletter and thought that the story he shared was encouraging enough (and challenging enough) to pass it along to you.  As one who has met Paul I can tell you he loves the Lord, is full of faith, and exudes joy. This is the story of his recent bout with pneumonia just after Thanksgiving and his determination to be a missionary even in the hospital.  Enjoy.

     "Speaking of the pneumonia invading my lungs one doctor said: "I've seen ugly CT scans, but yours is among the ugliest."  On the way to the emergency room, I prayed, "Make me a blessing through all this."  The way the Holy Spirit guided me was to thank everyone for anything they did and never complain, whether it hurt or not, and even when they awakened me at 5:45 a.m. to be weighed. I was in the hospital for 12 days, received excellent care and endured some of the strongest medications. But we dare not overlook the blessings that have resulted: The staff constantly asked, "Why are you so thankful and kind?"  That was the Lord's opening for me to share what the Lord means to me and has allowed me to experience.  I shared that in our missionary experiences, we were among people who had nothing, yet they showed joy and gratefulness for everything.

     I related that we had been so blessed with their care and God's blessings that I just had to say "thank you."  I related that I was cured of complaining with a chorus I learned in Sunday School. Every time I begin to complain, I sing or hum the chorus, "Count your blessings, name them one by one."  Can you believe it, for the next few days, every time one of the nurses walked by my room they hummed or sang that chorus! 

     I had the joy of witnessing to at least 4 MD's, and every nurse and aid -- and everyone said: "you are a different kind of patient."  One nurse, after midnight, checked on me and as she was tucking the blankets she began weeping and said, "my life's a mess." I invited her to return when she could and I had the privilege to hold her hands and through her tears lead her to trust Jesus as her Savior. 

     I still have a visiting nurse three times a week and a therapist twice a week and praise the Lord I am getting stronger and the x-ray I had today will reveal the pneumonia is gone... I wouldn't want to go through this again, but it taught me that being a missionary isn't just when we cross the ocean or preach from a pulpit.  We are to be salt and light whatever the circumstance... P.S. - Upon being dismissed from the hospital the Director of that division came by to thank me personally for being an encouragement."

     I share his story because as a pastor I visit hospitals a lot and often hear patients, family members, and the like, expressing just the opposite.  I myself have not always been the most thankful or cheerful of patients. Yet, Paul challenged me to consider that even my hospital stays can be opportunities to be salt and light.  Seeing his joyful demeanor (even when not feeling well) made a nurse comfortable enough to open up with him and give him the opportunity to share about Jesus and lead her to Christ. I wonder if that's not how it should always be for a believer. 

     Too often we can be so focused on the care we get, or what we think it should be as opposed to what it is (especially in light of the cost), that we are led to complain instead of thanking our caregivers.  We look to be served instead of seeking to see it as an opportunity to serve as missionaries in that place.  It would be helpful on such occasions to remember how blessed we are, and that many people around the world would give anything just to have a hospital to go to, never mind the level of care we have here in the States.  So, as a reminder of what we are called to, and the difference it can make if we just determine to respond differently, I pass his story along to you. After all, it is all about what we can do for Jesus and His kingdom.

To God Alone Be Glory,  Pastor Jeff

20 Quotes on Prayer

Greetings All, 

     This weeks "thought" consists of 20 different quotes regarding prayer.  I set them before you because next to reading your Bible, there is surely nothing that could do you more spiritual good than prayer. They are not set before you to see which you consider better, but to encourage you to pray!  Those who first discipled me encouraged me to set aside a focused time to pray at the start of the day and again at the close of the day, with continual spontaneous prayer being offered throughout the day.  And in many ways I found that easy, being converted in the days before smart phones and computers were the rage, and social media filled all of our "empty time" with constant updates, likes, pictures, posts and sometimes needless time-wasting distractions.

     Some of that is good and helpful, but much is very trivial and infringes on time that could be spent in much more meaningful, transforming and beneficial activities. In fact, for many, the vital experience with God in prayer (be it morning, evening or in between) has taken a back seat to social media sites. Many of us now wake in the morning, or end the day, by running to our devices -- be it the smart phone or the computer. Thus, if I could do anything (even in the life of one person) to change that, and encourage you to spend that time in invaluable fellowship with God in prayer, it would be worth all the time of gathering these quotes from well-known pray-ers.

     If there is any habit of the heart that believers need to rekindle, it's prayer. Try it for a day.  Choose fellowship in prayer with your greatest Friend, over scrolling through endless the posts of other friends.  For as F. B. Meyers once rightly stated: “The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.”   May some of these insights help sway you to offer more time with God in prayer. Enjoy.

20 Thoughts on Prayer

"Prayer does not change God, but it changes him who prays."   Soren Kierkegaard

"Prayer makes a man godly, and puts within him the mind of Christ, the mind of humility, of self-surrender, of service, of compassion, and of prayer.  If we really pray, we will become more like God, or else we will quit praying."    E.M. Bounds

"Is prayer your steering wheel or your spare tire?"  Corrie ten Boom

"To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing."   Martin Luther

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work, prayer is the greater work.”  Oswald Chambers

"Rather than set aside daily time for prayer, I pray constantly and spontaneously about everything I encounter on a daily basis. When someone shares something with me, I'll often simply say, 'Let's pray about this right now.'"  Thomas Kinkade

"I have been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom and that of all about me seemed insufficient for that day."  Abraham Lincoln

"To get nations back on their feet, we must first get down on our knees."  Billy Graham

“Time spent in prayer is never wasted.”   Francis Fenelon

“Fervent prayers produce phenomenal results.”   Woodrow Kroll

“Prayer delights God’s ear; it melts His heart; and opens His hand. God cannot deny a praying soul.”  Thomas Watson

 “And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”   Jesus the Christ 

“Prayer is the nearest approach to God and the highest enjoyment of Him that we are capable of in this life.”   William Law

“The right way to pray is to stretch out our hands and ask of One who we know has the heart of a Father.”   Dietrich Bonhoeffer

“The best and sweetest flowers of paradise God gives to His people when they are upon their knees. Prayer is the gate of heaven.”   Thomas Brooks

“O, let the place of secret prayer become to me the most beloved spot on earth.”   Andrew Murray

“When the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.”   R. A. Torrey

“When I pray, “coincidences” happen, and when I don’t, they don’t.”   William Temple

“There is nothing that makes us love a man so much as praying for him.”  William Law

“The greatest tragedy of life is not unanswered prayer, but unoffered prayer.”   F. B. Meyer

     The blessing of prayer in one's life is hard to calculate.  Yet I believe that some day God will reveal the blessings we forfeited, and the life-transforming benefits we turned away, by the times we ignored it; and  in the opposite sense, show us the wonderful things we would never have experienced had it not been for the prayers that we, or others, prayed on our behalf.

In the Bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff