Title: Opening to God: Lectio Divina and Life as Prayer Author: David G. Benner Publisher: IVP Books Publishing Date: September 3, 2010 Pages: 180 (Paperback) ISBN: 978-0830835508 How should Christians pray? That question is answered when Jesus gave his disciples the Lord’s prayer, an excellent example of how to pray. Christians model prayers after the Lord’s Prayer, including praise, thanks, …
Tish Harrison Warren’s new book takes us into the underside of the Christian life and into the vulnerability of the darkness.
Facing our mortality—and lack of control—is scary. Fortunately, as Christ-followers we have a third option: pray.
This is how it often feels to work for an institution like the church in 2019. Trends so much larger than myself make my prayers and pastoral work feel meaningless. I’ve been feeling this way about my denomination, the RCA, recently. Each week in our church, we say some version of this refrain: When the person of Jesus Christ is at the center of our lives and our worship, there is space for loving one another in disagreement.
The persecution of Christians throughout the world does not get as much press attention as it should despite the work of significant groups attempting to spread the word.
Just as prayer helps the one who is praying to focus and listen and push distractions aside, crocheting allows for an emptying of what is distracting and cluttering the heart and mind.
I have found that true intimacy with others and with Christ is truly known and experienced when we have opportunities to unconditionally love and accept each other through the depth of apparent transgressions and pain.
Loving God needs to come first. I live for Christ, trying to please Him in what I do and say. But I want to do more than live for Him; I want to live with Him.
Is the psalmist naïve? Is he completely ignorant of suffering in the world? I think not.
Unity, says the Lord, is good and pleasant. But often, unity does not come without a shared vision, a shared understanding. How then, can we shift our understanding—of God, of God’s kingdom, of our role within God’s kingdom work—so that we become more unified with Jesus and our neighbor?
God is good—always, good. But, he is not simple, nor simply “safe.”
But we miss the deepest blessing of prayer, of life with Jesus: that is, Jesus himself. Jesus is calling us: “Sit down a while. Eat with me.”
Pray like David, trusting that the Lord, the Creator of the Universe, hears and is invested in the outcome.
When I come to God in prayer, more often than not, I am changed.
When confronted with distress in others, words dry up in our throats. If the words we seek do come out, they sometimes seem awkward or out of place. Thus, the best commentary on the prayer of Psalm 102:1-12 may be the blank page. Silence.
It was my back pain that got me in the yoga studio, but it is the Psalmist who keeps me coming back. “Be still and know that I am God,” he writes.
Do you think it better to have high expectations of others and risk disappointment, or to have low expectations and have them exceeded regularly?
As this academic year nears its close, I encourage you to use this passage as you pray for and with your graduates.
Prayer is an incubator that provides the spiritual conditions to grow religious passion. Furthermore, prayer reminds us that the Divine presence is near even when our circumstances suggest God is far away.
David’s prayer can serve as a model of how we should pray for our political leaders, especially our newly elected president.
Daily Scripture Texts Psalm 148 Proverbs 8:22-31 1 John 5:1-12 This summer, I spent time sitting at a dog beach in western Michigan. I set up a comfortable spot for myself and watched as my housemates played fetch with their dog, Finley. The other dogs on the beach chased the waves of Lake Michigan up and down the shoreline. My …
When God satisfied Hannah’s desires, she entrusted them back to God. How could someone who prayed in anguish for a child now offer a prayer of praise in giving her son back to the LORD?
Is there a preferable posture when we pray—kneeling, standing, flat on the floor? Hands folded, hands lifted up? Eyes closed or open? What kind of language are we supposed to use? What are we supposed to pray about?
You have the choice to click on the link and read this article. There are people in our world that don’t have that choice. They have no choices -they are told when they can sleep, what and when they can eat, and when they work.
Encouragement for those sending their first child to school.