A Leader's Prayer

"Do not pray for easy lives; pray to be stronger men!  Do not pray for tasks equal to your power; pray for powers equal to your tasks.  Then the doing of your work shall be no miracle, but you shall be a miracle".
Phillip Brooks - 19th century preacher

Do you pray for what you believe that you can accomplish or do you ask God to accomplish greater things than you could ever accomplish?

Seeking God's heart

"Grant me, O Lord, to know what I ought to know; to love what I ought to love; to praise that which is most pleasing to Thee; to esteem that which appeareth to Thee valuable; to abhor that which is filthy in Thy sight.
Suffer me not to judge according to the hearing of the ears of ignorant men; but to determine upon matters, both visible and spiritual with true judgement and, above all things, ever to seek Thy good will and pleasure".
Thomas A' Kempis - The Imitation of Christ

Make this my prayer, oh God.  Make this the cry of my heart.

Prayer

"We take up our prayer with flighty thoughts, willy-nilly, and rush to get it over with, as if it were an incidental, though unavoidable, bother--- and not the center of our life, as it should be"
Theophan the Recluse

This is convicting and I must admit that I am often guilty as charged.

George Bush - All religions have the same God

George Bush was asked on Nightline if he believed that he prayed to the same God that Muslims and those of other beliefs do. His answer: "I do, I do believe that there is an Almighty that is broad enough and big enough and loving enough that can encompass a lot of people". (As reported by Christianity Today)

For all of the good that we saw in former President Bush's personal faith, it seems that he believes in the same universalism as President Obama and many other leaders of our time. Bush also stated that the Bible is probably not literal, but that you can learn a lot from it.

What are your thoughts on the many today who claim that all religions pray to the same God?

The power of prayer

If you believe that God works through the prayer of His people, than this is for you.

A friend of mine, Shayla Johnson, is involved in organizing a web based prayer initiative for President Barack Obama. IN PRAYER 365 asks you to sign up to pray for the president for a ten minute time period. Whether you believe in the President's public policies or not, we can all agree that praying for him is a valuable use of our political energy. So join in and sign up to pray for President Obama.

Do you believe that prayer is a powerful way to affect things on earth? Do you trust God enough to spending time communicating with Him?

Reaching the unreached

Yesterday in our church, we had the privilege of hearing from this young man Samuel Weber. He has a sincere heart from the unreached people of the world and is seeking prayer support along with financial support. I have enjoyed meeting and getting to know Sammy a bit over the past month.

It was also a reminder of the many people in the world who have never heard the name of Jesus.

Contact me if you would like to pray for Sammy regularly and I will put you in touch with him.

Do you think that the church is focused enough on taking the Gospel to the ends of the earth?

Prayer

"The goal of prayer is not to gratify our selfish desires, but to align our wills with God's purpose".

John MacArthur