Category Archives: Prayer

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7 Simple Suggestions for Morning Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

I have two simple maxims on the place of prayer in pastoral ministry: 1) prayer is the greatest work, and 2) prayer is the hardest work. The Lord Jesus set the model for us. His life of prayer was full of dependency, consistency, and expectancy. A desire to pastor “like Jesus” calls for careful attention to His prayer life.

While you can’t properly call it a prescription, one unassailable description of Jesus’ prayer life was His affinity for praying early in the morning. Mark famously recounts Jesus’ patter in prayer in 1:35 saying, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed” (cf. Luke 4:42).

A Commendation, Not a Command

In a sermon entitled “Christ the Example of Ministers” Jonathan Edwards exhorts,

The ministers of Christ should be persons of the same spirit that their Lord was of: the same spirit of humility and lowliness of heart; for the servant is not greater than his Lord. They should be of the same spirit of heavenly-mindedness, and contempt of the glory, wealth, and pleasures of this world. They should be of the same spirit of devotion and fervent love to God. They should follow the example of his prayerfulness; of whom we read from time to time of his retiring from the world, away from the noise and applause of the multitudes, into mountains and solitary places, for secret prayer, and holy converse with his Father; and once of his rising up in the morning a great while before day, and going and departing into a solitary place to pray, Mark 1:35.

If someone wants to quibble with the Northampton Man they would probably do so with his three-fold use of “should” in the above paragraph. Many might take Edwards’ language of “should” as a binding command—and they probably should! After all, the word does ordinarily communicate duty. But I want to rescue, what is in my estimation, Edwards’ wise counsel. Minsters of Christ love to model their lives after Christ. So while we ought not command morning prayer of others, we can commend it.

There is an arresting power in pastors so desperately dependent on God they long to see their God’s face first thing in the morning. Consider the spiritual blood-earnestness of M’Cheyne who wrote,

I ought to pray before seeing anyone. Often when I sleep long, or meet with others early, it is eleven or twelve o’clock before I begin secret prayer.  This is a wretched system.  It is unscriptural.  Christ arose before day and went into a solitary place.  David said, “Early will I seek thee,”  and, “My voice shalt Thou hear in the morning.”  Family prayer loses much  of its power and sweetness, and I can do no good to those who come to seek from me.  My conscience feels guilty, my soul unfed, my lamp not trimmed. Then, when in secret prayer, the soul is often out of tune.  I feel it is far better to begin with God—to see His face first—to get my soul near Him before it is near another.

Yes, it does seem better to begin the day with Him.

Praying Like Jesus Prayed

A modern author, full of grace and mercy, who sounds a similar call is Paul Miller in his book A Praying Life. He says, “Jesus’ pattern of morning prayer follows the ancient rhythm of the Hebrew writers who bent their hearts to God in the morning.” A sample from the Psalms echo the biblical commendation I’m trying to draw out:

  • “O Lord, in the morning you hear my voice; in the morning I prepare a sacrifice for you and watch.” (5:3)
  • “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning.” (59:16)
  • “But I, O Lord, cry to you; in the morning my prayer comes before you.” (88:13)
  • “Let me hear in the morning of your steadfast love, for in you I trust. Make me know the way I should go, for to you I lift up my soul.” (143:8)

With Jesus and the Psals in mind Miller goes on to offer the following “seven simple suggestions for how you can spend time with your Father in the morning”:

  1. Go to bed. What you do in the evening will shape your morning. The Hebrew notion of a day as the evening and morning (see Genesis 1) helps you plan for prayer. If you want to pray in the morning, then plan your evening so you don’t stay up too late. The evening and the morning are connected.
  2. Get up. Praying in bed is wonderful. But you’ll never develop a morning prayer time in bed. Some of my richest prayer times are at night. I’ll wake up praying. But those prayer times only began to emerge because I got out of bed to pray.
  3. Get awake. Maybe you need to make a pot of coffee first or take a shower.
  4. Get a quiet place. Maybe a room, a chair, or a place with a view. Or maybe you do better going for a walk. Make sure that no one can interrupt you.
  5. Get comfortable. Don’t feel like you have to pray on your knees. For years I was hindered from praying because I found it so uncomfortable to pray on my knees.
  6. Get going. Start with just five minutes. Start with a small goal that you can attain rather than something heroic. You’ll quickly find that the time will fly.
  7. Keep going. Consistency is more important than length. If you pray five minutes every day, then the length of time will slowly grow. You’ll look up and discover that twenty minutes have gone by. You’ll enjoy being with God. Jesus is so concerned about hanging in there with prayer he tells “his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up” (Luke 18:1, NIV).

That’s helpful and simple counsel. May you put it to discerning use in your ministry.

Don’t doubt the power of devoted morning prayer. It may just be the spiritual catalyst your ministry is missing.

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8 Hindrances to Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

William Gurnall warned, “The Christian’s armor will rust except it be furbished and scoured with the oil of prayer.” The great battle of each day is a spiritual one and much of it is fought on the Plains of Prayer.

The Wicked Worm loathes to hear God’s children storming the throne in confidence and so he wars with particular force to keep us off our knees. In what ways does he do this? How are we tempted to backslide in our life of prayer? What are some common hindrances to prayer we should know? Sound answers to these questions are aids in The Great War.

Hindrances to True Prayer

Joel Beeke is pastor who models experiential theology. That is, he knows theology is meant to live in our hearts—it is to be experienced. He knows when to warn, when to command, and when to comfort. Case in point: his recent post on common hindrances to prayer. Here’s wise pastoral counsel married to the truth of God’s word. I only took the highlights from each point, so make sure to read it all after the jump.

  1. Little sense of sin. The man who sees his state may truly cry to God for mercy.
  2. Pleading on grounds outside of Christ. Too often our hearts rest on something else than Christ, often our own self-righteousness. We must learn to seek Christ alone and pray in His name alone. The Father’s heart is opened to the sinner in Christ.
  3. Separating prayer from the Word. The promises of God in Scripture are the substance of our prayers.  Robert Murray M‘Cheyne said, “Turn the Bible into prayer.”
  4. Unbelief. We must learn to rest in and believe that God is a rewarder of those who seek Him in faith.
  5. Too busy. Maybe we are busy even with lawful activities. We still must make use of the means of grace diligently, making all other activities secondary.
  6. Lack of dependency on the Spirit. Ask the Spirit to groan within you and teach you to pray (Rom. 8:26). Without the Spirit, Thomas Boston said that men pray “like [deaf] people making a roar.”
  7. Spiritual dryness. Recognize that you may often not feel like praying, but happily prayer does not depend on your feelings. The command still stands: “Be faithful in prayer” (Rom. 12:12).
  8. Shame on account of sin. When we are ashamed of our lives and evil hearts, we often avoid coming to God in prayer. But this is precisely the time we must go to God (Gen. 3:8; Heb. 4:13). Humble yourself before Him, and plead the merits of the Son!

Read it all here. May you persist in prayer this day!

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A Ministry of Growing Power

Powerful Preparation

“A ministry of growing power must be one of growing experience.

“The soul must be in touch with God and enjoy golden hours of fresh revelation. The truth must come to the minister as the satisfaction of his own needs and the answer to his own perplexities; and he must be able to use the language of religion, not as the nearest equivalent he can find for that which he believes others to be passing through, but as the exact equivalent of that which he has passed through himself. There are many rules for praying in public, and a competent minister will not neglect them; but there is one rule worth all the rest put together, and it is this: Be a man of prayer yourself; and then the congregation will feel, as you are entering an accustomed presence and speaking to a well-known Friend.

“There are arts of study by which the contents of the Bible can be made available for the edification of others; but this is the best rule: Study God’s Word diligently for your own edification; and then, when it has become more to you than your necessary food and sweeter than honey or the honey-comb, it will be impossible for you to speak of it to others without a glow passing into your words which will betray the delight with which it has inspired yourself.”

– James Stalker, The Preacher and His Models: The Yale Lectures on Preaching, 53-54. HT: Murray Capill.

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Time to Intrude

The Great Intrusion

Satan’s wormy deceits are rarely little more than efforts to get us to believe the same ol’ thing: that we are autonomous. He wants us to believe we aren’t accountable to anyone but ourselves, that we are the only sovereign over our soul.

And prayer is the great intrusion upon Satan’s self-sovereignty campaign. It’s one way to whip the Worm.

Here’s how it works.

ANNOUNCING HIS GLORY

Although it can’t properly be called “proclamation,” prayer does preach. It announces to our souls and to the cosmos that God is the only Sovereign in the universe. He alone lives in total self-sufficiency and independence. He is not served by human hands as if He needed anything, but He gives life and breath to all things. He created all things and sustains all things, thus He is able to provide all things.

He alone is the sovereign God of all, so we announce His all-knowing, almighty character by bowing down to pray.

RENOUNCING OUR GREATNESS

Prayer not only announces, it also renounces. It is the ordinary work of renouncing our own self-sovereignty project. We are weak, needy, and utterly helpless to change any of the spiritual conditions we face. Great knowledge and power is beyond our grasp. The treasures of wisdom and knowledge are not in us, nor is unimpeachable goodness or justice.

So we pray to renounce any purported ability to govern or rule our lives.

THE GREAT INTRUDERS

I long to see a generation of pastors come to be known as The Great Intruders, brothers who storm the gates of hell each day in their prayer closets. Our daily intrusions on the Dark Kingdom prepare us to skillfully marshal the Lord’s army each Lord’s Day for that week’s offensive assault on the Worm’s castle.

Will you join me today and intrude upon the Dragon’s designs?

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Naturally Awful

LutherHave you ever heard the story of Martin Luther’s famous, yet apocryphal, devotion to prayer amidst the business of life?

The story usually has someone asking Brother Martin what he would be doing the next day. Luther answer this question by saying something like, “Work, work from early till late. In fact I have so much to do that I shall need to spend the first three hours in prayer in order to be able to get it all done.”

In his little book Enjoy Your Prayer Life Michael Reeves says, “Tales like this turn our bones to jelly because we know we’re not like that. So to prove we are all sinners, and therefore naturally awful at prayer, here’s a real quote from Luther that will comfort you.” At perhaps the busiest time of his life he wrote to his good friend Philipp Melanchthon:

You extol me so much . . . Your high opinion of me shames and tortures me, since – unfortunately – I sit here like a fool and hardened in leisure, pray little, do not sigh for the church of God . . . In short I should be ardent in spirit, but I am ardent in the flesh, in lust laziness, leisure, and sleepiness . . . Already eight days have passed in which I have written nothing, in which I have not prayed or studied; this is partly because of temptations of the flesh, partly because I am tortured by other burdens. – Luther’s Works, Vol. 48

Reeves concludes, “Even Luther, a man who valued prayer very highly, was a real person, a real sinner.”

And real sinners will always struggle at prayer.

So let us take heart. Our struggles are not unique; they need not cripple us. May you rise today with the Spirit’s power and storm the throne of grace. The Father delights to hear from His children, even those that haven’t spoken with Him in quite some time.

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4 Corporate Prayers

A Praying Church Podcast

30 I appeal to you, brothers, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in your prayers to God on my behalf, 31 that I may be delivered from the unbelievers in Judea, and that my service for Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 so that by God’s will I may come to you with joy and be refreshed in your company. 33 May the God of peace be with you all. Amen. – Romans 15:30-33

WRESTLING TOGETHER IN 2015

My adjustment of 15:30 says, “I urge you, Imago Dei, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayer to God for me—and not just for me, but for the entire mission and ministry of this church.”

What Paul has in mind, in our text, for Christians is a soul-aching, heart-burning wrestling in prayer. It’s devoted. It’s persistent. Faith fills it; dependence motivates it; love controls it. But in many ways, I won’t be able to get you to join in the struggle unless you see and agree with the needs I’m about to line out.

Think about it this way: consider the last time in your life when you were zealous in prayer. What as driving that unusual zeal? I bet it was unusual need. One such instance in my life that came to mind this week was earlier this year when an old childhood friend died in a car accident. He left behind a young wife and a son who was just a few months old. The notion of a child growing up and never knowing his dad was gripping – maybe even crippling – and that need compelled unusually earnest prayer.

Urgent need drives urgent prayer. Here then are four urgent needs we, the elders at IDC, are wrestling for in prayer this year and we are urging our church, by the Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, to strive together with us in prayer.

Devotion to gathered worship. As best as we can tell it seems that a large subset of our members will miss, for one reason or another, at least 20 out of the annual 52 Saturday gatherings. This is something we must pray about. Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.” In light of this verse, one of the things we covenant to as a church is, “We will not forsake the assembling of ourselves together.”

We are encouraging our congregation to examine its orientation toward Saturday night. We are not expecting every member to get a “Perfect Attendance” ribbon at the end of each year, instead – because of Hebrews 10:25 and our church covenant – I want to encourage them to an ordinary prioritization of gathered worship. The corporate gathering is the ordinary means by which Christian discipleship occurs, it is the power center of a local church’s mission, and it is the hub around which our church unity revolves. So to be gone from gathered worship with great frequency means not only missing out on this “atomic power” of discipleship, but it also means putting one’s soul in a dangerous place. As Hebrews 10 says, it’s commitment to corporate worship keep us close to Christ as we await His return.

Zeal in evangelism. The Risen Christ gave us clear marching orders for our corporate mission, “Go into all the world and make disciples by proclaiming the gospel of Christ in the power of the Spirit.” We are praying this year for God to awaken our hearts to the glory of Christ and the plight of men. In the next five years 50,000 people are projected to move into McKinney, with almost another 50,000 coming in the five years following. We stand on the precipice of an unusual opportunity for gospel proclamation. But even if such statistics weren’t true, evangelistic opportunities abound in our area for so many of us. Here then is the primary prayer: that every church member at IDC would share the gospel more in 2015 than any other year to date. Some in our church may just we wading into the evangelism waters, while others might be swimming in the deeps for the first time. The coresponding prayer is for God to awaken our eyes not only to the local need, but to the global need and some would be compelled to go to the nations.

Delight in discipling relationships. Jesus didn’t merely tell us to proclaim His gospel by His spirit, we do that disciples would be gathered into churches so they might worship the Lord and obey His commands; that they might grow as disciples. We long to be a disciple-making church and evangelism is the door that opens unto the house of discipleship. The weekly gathering is like the furnace room, but it’s not all. So we are praying for broad relationships among church members to build one another in Christ. Be it through a small group, regular hospitality, The Upper Room, Women Discipling Women, or just casual, yet regular meetings to discuss spiritual things. We are praying for great delight this year in discipling relationships.

Supernatural provision of a permanent home. The first three are spiritual realities and the final one is a physical reality. And here’s why I add the adjective of “supernatural” to God’s provision of a permanent meeting space. Clearly any provision of a space will be a work of God, but supernatural helps – I hope – us understand how much we need His mighty hand to move in this area. One of the top developers in the metroplex recently told me McKinney is probably the hottest market in the entire country. We are indeed small fish in an ocean of whales right now. But our God rules over even the whales of real estate. Just as a young family inevitably longs for their first home after renting a space, so too do we long for a place where we can call home. With patience and wisdom we look to him to direct our steps. So we are asking the church to pray for the elders and the Future Building Team as we labor and lead in this area.

— This post is adapted from my recent sermon, “A Praying Church.” —

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He’s Got It

“A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.” – John Owen

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The Heart of Prayer

The Heart of Prayer

Question 185: How are we to pray? Answer: We are to pray with an awful apprehension of the majesty of God, and deep sense of our own unworthiness, necessities, and sins; with penitent, thankful, and enlarged hearts; with understanding, faith, sincerity, fervency, love, and perseverance, waiting upon him, with humble submission to his will.

So goes The Larger Catechism’s, well, rather large answer to a simple question. But it is oh so good.

I long to have that kind of heart in prayer.

HEARING THE HEART IN PRAYER

The Scriptures are full of examples of what faithful prayer looks like in content, but the distance of innumerable centuries means we don’t know what those prayers sounded like. Sure, we can hypothesize. The Westminster Assembly give a good thesis above. How I would love to hear the heart of the great apostle, the prophets and kings of old, and our Lord Jesus as they prayed to the Father. What warmth we would have heard.

More important than what is prayed is how one prays. The Pharisees surely could have cleaned the floors of righteousness with their prayers of dogmatic eloquence. Yet, I’m sure what we would have heard was cold dogmatism emanating from their cold heart.

How’s your heart in prayer? Warm in God or cold towards God?

In his recent book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God Tim Keller offers numerous stories to illustrate how Christians throughout the centuries have struggled and succeeded in prayer. Three anecdotes in particular stood out and challenged me to consider my heart’s ordinary disposition in prayer.

WHAT JOHN MILLER SAID

The first offers a sagacious and long lasting aside from Jack Miller. Keller writes,

A pastor and friend of mine, Jack Miller, once said he could tell a great deal about a person’s relationship with God by listening to him or her pray. ‘You can tell if a man or woman is really on speaking terms with God,’ he said. My first response was to make a mental note to never pray aloud near Jack again. I’ve had years to test out Jack’s thesis. It is quite possible to become florid, theologically sound, and earnest in your public prayers without cultivating a rich, private prayer life. You can’t manufacture the unmistakable note of reality that only comes from speaking not toward God but with him. The depths of private prayer and public prayer grow together. (23-24)

I wonder how often I pray toward God but not with God.

HOW JOHN MURRAY PRAYED

A second story about John Murray illuminates the power of sincere and reverent prayer. Keller says,

A teacher of mind, Edmund P. Clowney, once told me that he went to one of his own teachers, John Murray, to discuss a private matter. Murray offered to pray for him, and when he did, the power of the prayer was stunning. Murray’s address combined intimate familiarity with a sense of God’s absolute majesty. The presence of God was instantly palpable. It was clear that Murray knew both the nearness of God as well has his transcendence. . . . As encouraging as this experience was for Ed, it was also deeply convicting. Just hearing Murray pray to God revealed to him that his own prayers were wooden, formal, mechanical. He knew little of familiar conversation with God in his presence. (73-74)

Have you ever heard such awe-filled familiarity at the throne of grace? I long to have a soul saturated with fearful confidence in taking hold of God. How easy it is to resort to the meaningless drivel of common forms and familiar patterns.

WHAT LUTHER’S FRIEND HEARD

The final anecdote involves the legendary prayer life of Martin Luther.

Veit Dietrich, one of Luther’s friends, wrote: ‘There is not a day on which he does not devote at least three hours, the very ones most suitable for [work], to prayer. Once I was fortunate to overhear his prayer. Good God, what faith in his words! He speaks with the great reverence of one who speaks to his God, and with the trust and hope of one who speaks with his father and friend.’ (89)

May they say the same of us! God, give us faith and fear to come to You, our Father and Friend, during the best hours of our day.

If someone listened to your prayers, what would they hear about your heart?

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The Essence of a Man

“A minister may fill his pews, his communion roll, and the mouths of the public, but what that minister is on his knees in secret before God Almighty, that he is and no more.” – John Owen

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The Ablest Man

“Appoint the ablest man to pray, and let the sermon be slurred sooner than the approach to heaven. Let the Infinite Jehovah be served with our best; let prayer addressed to the Divine Majesty be carefully weighed, and presented with all the powers of an awakened heart and a spiritual understanding. He who has been by communion with God prepared to minister to the people, is usually of all men present the most fit to engage in prayer.” (Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students, 59).