God help me to love. Help me to love people like me. Help me to love people different from me. Holy Spirit make me a lover of my enemies. Make me love those who accidentally offend me. Make me love those who hate me. Jesus, may I love when it is inconvenient. May I love when it interrupts. May I love when it hurts. Amen?
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Pray for Creativity
What do you pray for? One of my kids, during our family prayer times, has begun to ask, “God help us to learn and be creative.” I love that prayer. I need it. Our family needs it. Our community needs it. Yeah, our country and world need people who seek God for learning and creativity.
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Lectio Divina
Want to grow your prayer life? Have you heard of Lectio Divina? Lectio (as it is sometimes called) is an ancient form of prayer and Bible reading that has its roots all the way back in the second century. The idea is to invite the Holy Spirit to speak to you through God’s Word. Lectio Divina means “Divine Reading.” If prayer is a new spiritual discipline for you or maybe just was not emphasized in your background, it might be stretching for you. This is okay. Don’t get frustrated. A quick search will give you all kinds of information on the topic. There are multiple ways to do Lectio, but…
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Hearing God’s Voice
A friend once shared with me that God was calling him to move across the country and go to seminary. I responded by asking him, “What is her name?” He then told me the name of the girl he was interested in. There is a skepticism to the idea of hearing God’s voice. At least for me, I struggle a bit with the concept, both in my life and when I hear others talk about hearing from God. Can God speak so specifically to us? Does God want to speak directly to us? No matter our background view on this subject, we must learn to align our views with Scripture, rather…
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A Struggler’s Prayer
Thank you, God, for this opportunity to trust you.
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How Are You Growing Your Prayer Life?
Last month, I mentioned how I’m growing in my prayer life. One of the things I am doing to grow is going to a church that believes in prayer. The second thing I am doing is using the prayers of others, primarily through prayer books. Initially I did not like this idea. I come from a background that believes prayer is a conversation and you shouldn’t pray someone else’s prayer. You would never talk to your spouse from a memorized script would you? Well then you should not talk to God like this either. Then I realized that I get cards for my wife all the time with someone else’s…
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Prayer Life
Our prayer life is one of the most important parts of our journey with Christ. I have not always believed this. I didn’t grow up with this belief. Prayer, for most of my life, has been more like wishing someone good luck. You are thinking about them. You care. But the words do not really do anything. As I align my beliefs on prayer with Scripture, I am coming to the conclusion that prayer is more than well wishes. Prayer changes things. No, God is not a distant Santa Claus waiting to grant our every wish. He is however, an attentive Father who longs for his children to talk to…
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Grateful Productivity
Can you believe people have their Christmas trees up already? There should be a fine for that or something. Thanksgiving people! Don’t skip Thanksgiving. Our pastor mentioned this week how Thanksgiving doesn’t fit well in our American holiday schedule. Specifically, he said there isn’t a market for it. Christmas is huge and Halloween is growing to become pretty big itself. (He sat on Halloween for a minute, and made some hilarious sarcastic points, but we’ll move on.) Thanksgiving is the third wheel, though, isn’t it? Thanksgiving is a holiday about being thankful for what you have, not buying more and more. You can’t sell being grateful. Or can you? I’d…
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Fasting Options
The next few weeks our church is fasting as a congregation. The leadership has asked us to give up something and be in prayer with a focus on “humbling ourselves before God, seeking understanding and praying for the areas in our city we want to see changed.” I am pretty excited to see how God works in and through our church during this time. Depending on the length of a fast, one can abstain from food altogether. Some other options include: Skipping a meal(s) over course of the fast. Cutting out “choice food,” like meat, sweets, etc. Avoiding various activities. For this fast, I will be giving up social media…
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Vacation with Purpose
I have an idea. As you head out on vacation this summer, why not do something that matters? Perhaps you would consider connecting with a local nonprofit to serve one afternoon. Another option might be to pray for the people you run into…mostly to yourself or with those with you, but you may run into someone needing you to pray with them. I’m not suggesting you turn your vacation into work. Rather, just add some purpose to your trip. Help someone. Make a difference. I’m still thinking this idea through. What are some more ideas for someone to serve others while on vacation? Please share in the comments section or…
