Ever feel like your prayers are hitting the ceiling? Psalm 77 captures that struggle—and shows us a surprising path forward. If you’re tired, discouraged, or doubting, this reflection might be exactly what your heart needs today.
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prayer
Many people think that it’s the leader who makes or breaks a small group. But a great small group is usually the result of one or two group members who make the difference. The Bible’s one another commands lay out practical steps that can help you turn your group into the community it’s designed to be.
When people think of church, they usually think of the place where you sit, listen, and sing on a Sunday morning, but church was intended to be much more. Church can be a lonely place if you never get past the crowd. You need relationships with other Christians you can invest in and be supported by. You need people to pray for and who will pray for you. You need a place where you can experience the family of God, not just a meeting with God. Small groups, or what we call life groups, are where those things happen.
I’m old enough now to remember when the Lord’s Prayer was recited every morning in the public schools that I attended. Repeating those words every day influenced how I thought about God, to some extent, but it didn’t really teach me how to pray. If I recited a 10-line poem to my wife every day and that represented the sum total of our communication, I’m not sure we’d still be married! In the same way, just reciting the Lord’s Prayer isn’t how we speak to the God who invites into a relationship. Besides, right before teaching the disciples this prayer, Jesus warned them against mindlessly repeating empty phrases (Matthew 6:7), so it’s clear that mere repetition wasn’t His goal. The Lord’s Prayer doesn’t tell us what to pray so much as it teaches us how to pray. Let me share 3 ways it can do that.
Prayer is often criticized by people who don’t pray. Part of the criticism comes from unbelief and an unwillingness to see value in unseen things. But part of the criticism comes from the perception that people pray as a cop-out. Instead of doing something, they ‘pray about it.’ I think the criticism is well-founded. But the problem isn’t with prayer; it’s with a passive approach to prayer that asks God to adjust His behaviour when we’re not willing to evaluate our own. When we pray, we should ask whether our prayers have legs, in other words, whether we’re willing to do our part and examine our behaviour. Sometimes, God may ask us to be the answer to our prayers. He may also reveal actions and attitudes that are hindering our prayers. Rightly understood, prayer is active, not passive. Consider the way the Bible describes the connection between our prayers and our actions.
I had a friend whose prayers made me uncomfortable. Listening to them praying often made me feel like I had walked in on an argument between two close friends. They’d say things like, “I’m pretty mad at you right now, Lord,” and, “I get so frustrated wondering what on earth you’re doing!” The emotions were raw and unfiltered. There was anger, impatience, sadness and pain. And when there was joy and gratefulness, you knew it was coming from the heart. Their prayers made mine feel very polite and superficial, in comparison. They made me question the depth of my prayers and the freedom I felt in my relationship with God. While this kind of prayer has a time and a place, if we never learn to talk to God honestly about the depths of what we think and feel, then we’ve probably never really learned to pray. There are several reasons that God seems to prefer honest prayers to polite ones.
Many people get tongue-tied giving thanks before a meal and feel that their prayers run out of steam (and words!) after just a few minutes. While it’s true that just praying helps you get more comfortable and natural in prayer, I believe that God has given the prayers of Scripture to not only teach us to pray but to guide our prayers. They give us words to express our thoughts and desires to Him.
Today, it’s more common to hear about people fasting for non-religious reasons than for religious ones. The 5:2 diet, the 16/8 method and the warrior diet all incorporate fasts with an aim to weight loss and improved health. But the popularity of the methods may outweigh the actual research of their health benefits. Regardless, it probably says something about our culture that people are more apt to fast for their body than they are for their soul. In the Bible, fasting simply involves voluntarily going without food for a day or more in order to set aside time for prayer and express your hunger for God and desperation to hear from Him. If you haven’t been introduced to biblical fasting, or if it’s been a while since you fasted yourself, let me give you some encouragements from Scripture.
On Saturday, I attended the Wonder Worship Conference along with seven members of our worship ministry. For me, it was an opportunity to reflect on what God is doing in this area of the church. This week, I’d like to look at some of the lessons people should learn from the contemporary worship movement. Next week, I’ll address some of the lessons I feel people should learn from what I’ll call the traditional worship stream. My hope is that as people on both sides of this discussion are able to listen to each other in light of Scripture, our preferences will give way to greater unity in how we approach this topic. So, let’s start with what you should learn from the contemporary worship movement even if you don’t like guitars and drums.
Last week, I took a course in church revitalization. As the name suggests, it was about restoring to life to churches that have lost their vitality. Over four days, four pastors shared lessons and insights they had learned in leading their churches through renewal. What was so refreshing was that none of them pointed to gimmicks or novel ideas. The course focused on the fundamentals but with clear strategies on how to grow in them. Whereas 20 years ago churches were talking about shorter sermons, skits, interpretive dance and avoiding words like sin or hell, today growing churches are focused on prayer, evangelism, discipleship and glorifying God. The conversation has changed – for the better! Let me share one of their stories.