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(Yesterday on the blog If Just One Person Returned)
Why I Quit Praying for God to “Use Me”
Alex Early: “I became a Christian at the age of 15 and knew I was called into vocational ministry within 90 days. So, one prayer that I picked up on by leaders around me and started praying myself was this—’God, please use me in this world for your glory and our joy.’ It sounds right and even biblical. Yet, to be quite honest, I didn’t pray that prayer from a heart that was content with God.”
The Prayer Stump
I appreciate this one. “My husband chiseled out what he calls a prayer stump from the trunk of a fallen tree. Its back behind our house where he is hidden from human eyes. It’s an uncomfortable seat, an earthly throne of sorts, where he brings our children and grandchildren to a much higher and greater Throne.”
5 Reasons We Don’t Pray
“None of us feel as though we have ‘arrived’ when it comes to prayerful communion with our heavenly Father—but few of us do the searching work of pondering why that is. Honestly, if we give it some thought, it is rather obvious why prayer is hard and why we struggle to do it. Here are five of the most significant reasons why we don’t pray…” You will probably identify with some of these.
Silence is Not Violence
“What if the world needs fewer words, not more? What if silence is not violence and extra words are nothing more than virtue signaling?” This is well worth thinking about.
More: What God Wants for You
“Our dreams are fiddling and fickle. They’re also small, like gains of dusty sand on a vast shore. No offense. I’m not trying to belittle you (or myself, for that matter). You may have some ‘respectable’ dreams in the world’s eyes, maybe even some respectable dreams in the eyes of the church. But they’re probably not good enough. God probably wants more for you.”
A Pandemic of Disunity
Randy Alcorn has some valuable thoughts about unity through the pandemic. “Believers’ love toward each other is the greatest proof that we truly follow Jesus. If we fail to live in loving oneness, the world — or to bring it closer to home, our family, and friends — will have less reason to believe the gospel.”
Flashback: Do You Set an Example in Your Conduct?
All the time, in every way, in all of life, God challenges you to be an example of godliness to other Christians.
People treat God’s sovereignty as a matter of controversy, but in Scripture it is a matter of worship. —J.I. Packer