Welcome to the online home of Tim Challies, blogger, author, and book reviewer.
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Somewhere out there in the great, wide world, someone is praying for you. He probably doesn’t know you and you probably don’t know him. You may not meet one another for many more years. But he’s praying for you nonetheless and has been for a very long time. He is the father of a daughter. He is the proud father of a daughter who is very precious to him—more precious than anything he owns, more precious than anything he has …
Every now and again I like to share one of the pastoral prayers from Grace Fellowship Church. This particular one was prayed by Paul Martin on a recent Sunday. The context, as is obvious from the prayer, is the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and, perhaps more specifically, the vaccine mandates that are taking root in our city and country. This context provides many opportunities for Christians to disagree with one another and, therefore, to become disunited. This, then, is a prayer …
Buried deep in an old, mostly-forgotten anthology of poetry, I found this little gem from Newman Hall—a poem that expresses in rhyme and meter the longing of many a Christian heart. May it give you words to pray for “those who do not pray, who waste away salvation’s day.” We pray for those who do not pray!Who waste away salvation’s day;For those we love who love not Thee—Our grief, their danger, pitying see. Those for whom many tears are shedAnd …
I expect every Christian would agree that there are times when prayer is a struggle. Though we experience blessed seasons when prayer is the easiest and most natural thing in the world, we also experience seasons when prayer is difficult and when it feels awkward or even ineffective. And for this reason we all sometimes need a little refresher, a little reminder, a little spark. Kevin Halloron’s When Prayer Is a Struggle is meant to console Christians who are struggling …
One key element of our worship at Grace Fellowship Church is a pastoral prayer, in which one of the elders prays for the church and on behalf of the church. Every now and again I like to share one of those prayers. This prayer was prayed last Sunday by Tristan, one of the elders. O God, most high and glorious, who planned to bring salvation through Christ to unworthy sinners like us. We marvel that Christ Jesus so closely identifies and loves …
I have already shared a few of Kathleen Nielson’s prayers for children–young children and adult children. I wanted to share just one more, this one from her collection of prayers for parents of teenagers. After all, is there any time we pray for our children with more fervency than during their teenage years? This is a prayer for matters of first importance. May it give you words to pray for the child you love… O Lord, so many things I’d …
We sometimes make the Christian life more complicated than it needs to be and more complicated than it ought to be. For when it comes right down to it, God calls us to nothing more, and nothing less, than to obey. The only thing that really matters in any context or any circumstance is obedience to God’s will as it is revealed in God’s Word. Thus it is always necessary, and never superfluous, to search the Bible to know the …
I have become quite a fan of Kathleen Nielson’s new set of prayer books for parents. Through four short volumes she provides prayers for parents of young children, of teens, of young adults, and of adult children. This prayer is from the volume dedicated to prayers for young adults and asks the Lord to save an unbelieving child. Break your light upon my child’s heart, O Lord who only said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. You sent …
Joseph died a young man, his eyes hollow, his body gaunt, his stomach distended. He suffered deeply in those final days before he finally succumbed to the great hunger that had already claimed so many members of his family, so many of the people of his land and the ones surrounding it. As his breathing slowed, as his eyes closed, he thought back to a day not too long before. He remembered pleading and praying as his brothers, made mad …
I have, in the past, shared the prayer John Stott would use to begin his day. A number of years ago I excerpted just a small part of it and began to pray that on a regular or even daily basis. I thought I’d share it here in case you would find it valuable as well. It speaks to Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and asks that each would bless in his own special way. Why not make use of …