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A Prayer for the Election Season

by | Oct 27, 2020 | Prayer

A Prayer for Election Season

I’ll confess — this election season has led me to struggle with gratitude for my country. Much of the time, I have felt cynical and critical, not grateful.

The good news in the midst of the bad news is that God has given us the gift and privilege of prayer. Today and in the coming days, I invite you to join me in prayers of gratitude and repentance concerning what we see in America.

 

GOD, OUR RULER,

You have honored us to be citizens of your eternal kingdom,

and yet you have appointed us as your ambassadors

of reconciliation in this earthly country.

WE

confess that too often we have looked to political leaders

to satisfy our needs. We have neglected to show hospitality to strangers,

and we have failed to love, both our neighbors and our enemies.

 

gratitude for citizenry

GRACIOUS KING

we thank you and praise you

for the privilege of

living in this country.

WE LOOK FORWARD

to the day

when we will bow together

as one body composed of people

from every tribe, tongue, and nation,

CONFESSING

Jesus as Lord.

We are confident that the

zeal of the Lord of Hosts will do it!

In Jesus’ ruling name we pray.

Amen.

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Why We Need to Pray God’s Story

by | Sep 25, 2018 | Gospel living, Prayer, Spiritual Growth

Why We Need to Pray God’s Story

Beginning to Pray God’s Story

Is this series on spiritual graces encouraging and refreshing you? I hope so. Today I want to offer some hope to energize your prayer life. Here is my story: On a cold January night 40 years ago, I sat on a hard rock, looked up at the starry sky and spoke a simple prayer, God, I need help! That was my feeble attempt to acknowledge my desperate need for a Savior. I had only an inkling of how deep my sin nature ran and how impossible it was to earn my own salvation, but God heard these three little words and moved powerfully through them.

Continuing to Pray God’s Story

For years after I called Christ Savior, I handwrote lengthy prayers in a journal and talked to Jesus all day long. “What’s the answer to number 3 on this Calculus test? Or, if you won’t give me the answer, could you just show me how to do it?” (You might say such a request either reflects my shallow faith or my deep understanding that Jesus is the Redeemer of all things, including Calculus!) My #prayer story: Desperation had become dullness. Passion had become passivity. What's your #story with #prayer? Share on X More years went by.  One day I acknowledged that my prayers had become a rote presentation of a laundry list of prayer requests, mostly about someone’s distant relative. Desperation had become dullness. Passion had become passivity. I knew I was supposed to pray as a Christian, but I was struggling to find the energy and the words. I needed to learn to pray all over again. Then I discovered a very important key to prayer:

4 Ways Understanding God’s Story (The Bible) changes our prayer; prayer changes our understanding of God’s Story.

  1. God’s Story helps us remember there is a bigger story. If life is only about the here and now, our little story, if there’s nothing more beyond what we can touch and see, why would anyone pray? Such nearsightedness is perhaps what leads people to “send positive thoughts” rather than the go-big-or-go-home act of prayer.
  2. God’s Story shows us how to pray:What should we pray about? God’s big story shows us that we should pray many things, including these:
  • Thanking our Creator (Phil. 4:6).
  • Harmony in relationships, with God and with others (Eph. 4:2-3).
  • Confession of sin (1 John 1:9).
  • Grieving that things are not as God created them to be (Psalm 88).
  • Redemption of people and this entire cosmos (Romans 8:23).
  • Christ’s return and the wonderful end of the story which is really just the beginning of real life (Revelation 21:1-5).

3. God’s Story gives us a basis for praying. Pray for restoration of broken things. Not broadly. Right here, right now. Lord, restore my understanding of Calculus because you are a restorer of broken things.

4. God’s Story informs our prayers through specific stories.For example, “Lord, don’t let me be cynical like Sarah was when she believed you wouldn’t provide her the promised child!” (See Genesis 18:12). Or, alternatively, “Lord, let me be like Sarah, laughing hilariously at your surprising ways — bringing improbable babies after the story seemed long over.” (See Genesis 21:6).

Try this exercise to pray God’s story!

Take 5 minutes. Write down a situation in your life or the life of someone you know, perhaps something you’ve been praying for. For each of these questions, you will need to write short simple sentence or phrase answers. Connect it to the Big Story of Scripture. Here are some sample questions you can ask to do this:
  • Where do you see the image of God? Where is there shalom (wholeness, peace, harmony, beauty)?
  • What brokenness exists?
  • Is someone moving toward another god to make life work?
  • What redemption has taken place? What redemption are you praying for?
  • What prayer for future restoration might you pray?

A Prayer about Praying

Lord, God, it is pretty astonishing that you’ve not only allowed us, but welcomed us into your presence, to talk with you personally about the things that matter to you and the things that matter to us. We confess, too many times we are simply too busy running our own lives to stop and talk with you about them. We confess, we are often confused about how or what to pray. Help us, Lord, to enjoy this great privilege you have given us as our heavenly Father. In Jesus’ name and by your Spirit, we pray, Amen!

How Spiritual Disciplines Can Become Spiritual Graces

by | Sep 4, 2018 | Bible study, Prayer, Spiritual Growth

How Spiritual Disciplines Can Become Spiritual Graces

Re-thinking spiritual disciplines

As many students and teachers get back to school, it’s a prime time to return to or develop good routines. This month at Living Story, I’ll share some encouragement and tools for spiritual disciplines, looking at the means God uses to grow us as Christians. Be sure to subscribe if you want to receive all of the posts in your inbox.

I confess, as a young Christian back in the 70’s, I got the wrong impression about what we often called our “spiritual life.” For example, I thought things like having good quiet times (whatever that meant) or memorizing Bible verses would make me a better Christian and more acceptable to God. Thank goodness for the great gospel news that God loves us because he loves us, not because we are “spiritual giants,” which I definitely was not.

The good news/bad news of spiritual disciplines

The good news is that I learned that my so-called spiritual labors did not save me. Thankfully, that work was done by Jesus on the Cross.

The bad news is that somehow I, along with many other people got the idea that being saved by grace alone meant we didn’t need to be diligent about reading our Bibles.

I used to think being saved by grace alone meant it didn’t matter if I didn’t read my Bible very often. #spiritualgrowth Share on X

Why we need spiritual disciplines:

At the office, the school, the playing field, and of course, on the internet, our culture bombards us with stories about who we are and what we should be. These stories tell us how to spend our money and our time. They often make us feel that we don’t measure up. Then, after we’re beaten down, they teach us how to regain our lost self-esteem.

In the midst of these mixed messages, we desperately need to know the one True Story Scripture tells. This Story reminds us:

  • A glorious God created us in his image, so we have incalculable value.
  • This same glorious God loves his people and pursued us to make us his own.
  • Christ came and died to set us free from our sins. (Gal. 5:1).

We desperately need to know the Story of Grace Scripture tells. #Biblestudy #grace Share on X

Knowing God’s story will help us when neighbors think we’re odd for going to church on Sunday mornings, or when co-workers think we prioritize our family over our work (we do!). We will remember that we do live differently because we are citizens of heaven, not citizens of this earth (Phil. 3:20).

Spiritual disciplines: our means of living God’s story of grace

Spiritual disciplines, like Bible reading and memorization, prayer, and attending church, among others, matter deeply to our calling to worship and enjoy God forever! Next week we will continue this series by looking at practical suggestions for developing and refining practices for immersing ourselves in The Story — the Bible!

A PRAYER ABOUT SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINES

Holy God, forgive us for the ways we have misunderstood and abused your grace, mercy, and love. Help us to enjoy the good gifts you have given us to grow more and more like Jesus. We want to be like him; please help us to root ourselves in good soil. In Jesus’ precious name, Amen

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How to Meditate for Ordinary Christians

by | Feb 23, 2016 | Prayer, Scripture

How to Meditate for Ordinary Christians

Love & Meditation

It’s the LAST week of February. I don’t know about y’all, but this one’s flown for me. What that means is it’s time to wind down our “love” focus (who am I kidding — y’all know this whole blog is about Living the Story of God’s Love for Us;-)!

So what, you might ask, does Christian meditation have to do with love? Well, think about it this way — when you love someone, do you meditate on them? Do you think about them frequently, if not, in the case of early love and crush love — constantly? I think meditation is one of the ways we not only express our love for God but also grow our love for God.

Now here’s the problem — for me. Maybe for you? Somewhere along the way, Christian meditation became intimidating to me, something seemingly so high-minded only a monk with super-spiritual credentials could do. Somewhere along the way, Christian meditation became intimidating to me, something seemingly so high-minded only a monk with super-spiritual credentials could do. Share on X

As a young Christian, I learned verses like…

Ps. 1:2: “But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night…”

and

Ps. 104:34: “Let my meditation be pleasing to Him; As for me, I shall be glad in the LORD.”

I was taught that meditation was simply slowing down and thinking about God, particularly by dwelling on Scripture.

When I read Eugene Peterson’s Eat This Book, I loved his analogy of meditation as like a dog with a bone:

“He gnawed the bone, turned it over and around, licked it, worried it. Sometimes we could hear a low rumble or growl, what in a cat would be a purr. He was obviously enjoying himself and in no hurry. After a leisurely couple of hours he would bury it and return the next day to take it up again. An average bone lasted about a week.”

Learning to Love Meditation

The key to rediscovering and reclaiming meditation as a spiritual practice is to bring it back down to earth. Share on X It will also require that we do the seemingly impossible in our time — slow down and chew on a portion of Scripture.

 

“The key to rediscovering and reclaiming meditation as a spiritual practice is to bring it back down to earth.”

Here are 4 methods that have helped me learn to love meditation:

  1. Read a portion of Scripture aloud several times.
  2. Write the Scripture down in a prayer journal. (Or on prayer cards).
  3. Play with the verses in a way that forces me to slow down and think about them. I am a kinesthetic learner in part, so using my hands to interact with the Word helps me to do this (Drawing, cutting and pasting, lettering, etc.)
  4. Don’t overcomplicate it. The hardest part about meditation is the time and concentration it requires – much more than skimming a Facebook or Twitter feed but way less than watching a 30-minute sitcom on TV.

I AM NOT AN ARTIST:-)!
But that doesn’t mean I can’t “do art” and share it. In the same way, I am not a super-spiritual person, but that doesn’t mean I can’t do meditation. Below are 2 meditations I did with Bible journaling, my camera, and some digital software. The whole time I “played” with these, I thought about who God is and how much I love him.

Do you have some helpful methods that help you meditate on Scripture? I’d love to hear them.