A Praying Life

Ancient people would not have been snookered by Disney’s message to “Have faith in yourself.” Both the Greeks and the Jews knew the world was a dangerous, chaotic place. Neither were naive about how treacherous and fragile life was. But the similarities end there. The Greeks accepted the chaos. The Jews brought the chaos to God in their lamenting.

Individualism goes back to the Judeo-Christian heritage, all the way back to Psalm 23 and God’s tender care for me. When the Good Shepherd loves me, I have dignity and worth. I have value as an individual. But modern secularism has taken the Shepherd out of Psalm 23, leaving just me trying to create my own dignity and worth. It is my money; I earne

Below is a partial list of kingdom prayers that we seldom ask, followed by a more in-depth discussion. Change in others (too controlling, too hopeless) Change in me (too scary) Change in things I don’t like in our culture (too impossible)

Prayer is where I do my best work as a husband, dad, worker, and friend. I’m aware of the weeds of unbelief in me and the struggles in others’ lives. The Holy Spirit puts his finger on issues that only he can solve. I’m actually managing my life through my daily prayer time. I’m shaping my heart, my work, my family—in fact, everything that is dear

I often find that when God doesn’t answer a prayer, he wants to expose something in me. Our prayers don’t exist in a world of their own. We are in dialogue with a personal, divine Spirit who wants to shape us as much as he wants to hear us. For God to act unthinkingly with our prayers would be paganism, which says the gods do our will in response t

A principal source of cynicism comes from looking up at Christian leaders who have gotten Jesus’ kingdom mixed up with their own. Ministry itself can create a mask of performance, the projection of success. Everyone wants to be a winner. In contrast, Jesus never used his power to show off. He used his power for love.

So why did I appear so calm? Because I was praying, quietly to myself, over and over again: Father, Father, Father. At other times I will pray the name of Jesus or the name Christ. Sometimes I find myself praying a short phrase, such as Come, Spirit.

Many Christians pray mechanically for God’s kingdom (for missionaries, the church, and so on), but all the while their lives are wrapped up in their own kingdoms. You can’t add God’s kingdom as an overlay to your own.

While sitting like this, spiritually numb, a thought suddenly came to me: Put the Word to work. I got some three-by-five cards, and on each one wrote the name of a family member, along with a Scripture that I could use to shape my prayers for that person. I began developing a stack of prayer cards that allowed me to pray through my life—for loved o