CCC Church Blog

We are in our last week of the Love to Pray experience.  I hope that it has informed, inspired and increased your prayer life.  The topic in this last week is an important one.   I think many people grow discouraged or weary in their praying when they do not see results.   We are practical people who want to see something happen.   I have heard so many people say, “What difference does my praying make?  Nothing seems to change.”   What do you say to people who raise that question?  

Sometimes I think we are looking in the wrong place for results.  We look to our external world to see if prayer is working.  Did the person we prayed for get a job, or get better from a sickness?   When we don’t see tangible results visible to the eye, we may become discouraged.  Yet much of what prayer accomplishes happens beyond the view of our eyes.  Things begin to change within.  Our character is shaped and formed.  Fruit of the Spirit begins to grow within.  Long before anything is visible in the external world, something is going on inside.  It is a bit like a seed that is planted.  For a long time it may appear that nothing is happening until that germinating seed bursts through the soil with shoots that begin to show.  

Throughout these 8 weeks I have kept a prayer journal with two columns.   In one column I write requests and in the column next to it I record answers.  The heading over the one is “Ask”  and over the other “Receive”, based on Jesus words “What ever you ask in my name you will receive.   It has been faith building to see things I have written in the Receive column, but there are a number of items there that are blank.  I have prayed and not seen the answer, not received the thing requested.  

I need to perhaps add a third column to the prayer list that records something like the quality or character issue that God is developing related to that request.  Words like patience, perseverance, and peace might begin to appear in that third column.  

The primary thing God wants to do in us through prayer is not simply give us everything we ask for but to form us as His people into the image of His Son, our savior Jesus.  What Christ-like character has God been forming in you through out these 40 days?

One of the best ways to learn a new skill is to get close to someone who has mastered it and learn from them.   We can learn to pray by observing closely those who are masters in prayer.  This week we will pay attention to some of the people of scripture who are Heroes of Prayer.   As we look at how and where and when they prayed we can find help for our own prayer practice.  However,  if we are really to learn from them we need to put into practice what we have observed.   You know that someone can tell you how to do something, or you can observe someone doing something and still not really get it until you have attempted it yourself.  

The Apostle Paul wrote; Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.   Note that he says its not enough to simply hear, receive, or learn, we need to put it into practice.   In fact, it could be said that if we have not put it into practice we have not fully learned it. 

What are some of the things you are observing this week from these heroes of prayer that you want to put into practice?   What steps will you take so that it may become a part of your prayer life?

This week we will be looking at some prayers from scripture that can serve as models and examples to instruct and inform our praying.  We started by looking at the Lord’s Prayer.  

This Prayer is so familiar that we sometimes miss the scope and power of the prayer.  A while ago I cam up with an alliterative path to follow as I pray the Lord’s Prayer.  It goes like this:

Person  Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name

Purpose  Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Provision  Give us this day our daily bread.

Pardon   Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors

Protection  Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil

Praise  For thine is the kingdom the power and glory forever Amen.

Most every morning before I get our of bed I pray this pathway.  First I ask that my relationship with the Father will be real and personal.  Then I pray that His purposes will be accomplished in and through me today.  Next, I pray that God will supply my needs and then I ask that He forgive my failures and help me to be forgiving.  I go on to pray for his protection over me and those I love and end with praise for who He is.  

You know I like alliteration and this row of “P”’s helps me to start my day with the model prayer of Jesus.  So  how do you use the Lords Prayer?

We must be half way through our Love to Pray material for I am at the stapled center of my book.  Actually we are more than half way through this 40 day adventure.   The time has moved quickly.   This week we are thinking about prayer as a way of life.   One of the ways to define prayer is a conversation with God.  In  a good conversation there is speaking and listening.   A good conversation engages the mind and heart.  Sometimes a conversation will help one to make decision and sometimes a conversation will just help one feel loved.  

There are times in our lives when we don’t feel like talking.  We may just want to be alone or we may be focused on a project.  In a good friendship there is a recognition of those times.  Good friends don’t always have to be in conversation to be in a good relationship.  Sometimes they will just be together or will work together.  Other times they may be in each others presence but not focused on the other.  I wonder if our relationship with God has a similar dimension?   Can we sometimes just “be” with God and not talk with Him?  

I have tried to work at the discipline of “practicing the presence of God”.  Since God does not often intrude in our lives I find I need to “be still and know” that he is God.  While in these moment there are no words of prayer there is a communion  or an experience of being with God.  

This weeks readings will focus more on the active aspect of prayer rather than just being with God.   In Day one we read about how God would walk with Adam and Eve in the garden in the cool of the day. Did you take a walk with Jesus last evening?   How did it go? 

Continue to share your thoughts and learnings here so that we can keep a conversation going about what we are learning and experiencing.   I look forward to your comments. 

Well, here we are in week four already of our Love to Pray experience.   This week we will focus on praying for others- we call it intercession.  I know some are very organized in their intercession, while others pray for people in a more spontaneous way.  What about you?   Please share with the group how you go about praying for others.    Do you use a prayer list?  How do you keep it up to date?  Do you record answers to prayer?  How do you use the e-prayer list?   What works well for you?   What are some things you think you might try to improve your intercession?

I have lots of questions here for us to respond to.  I think we will learn more and get more from this experience if we all participate, so please leave a comment  and tell us what you are thinking.  

As we begin week three of our experience, I hope you are learning a lot about prayer.  More than that, I hope you are finding greater satisfaction in your prayers and seeing more fruit from your prayers.  This adventure is not intended to just make us more knowledgeable about prayer but to give us experiences in prayer that will shape our praying in the days ahead.  

This week the theme of our readings is “Claiming God’s Riches.”   We sometimes forget that we have been entrusted with a great treasure.  ”We have this treasure in jars of clay”  2 Corinthians 4:7.   When we do not claim God’s riches we miss out.    It is a bit liking having a bank card to a full bank account but never accessing the account.  James said “You do not have because you do not ask God”.  We are learning that it is ok, even good, to ask God for what we need and even what we want.  We will also pray that He may refine our desires so that we want what He wants.  

I think we will discover that God is for more generous than we may have imagined.  God, as our Loving Father, desires to give good gifts to His children. 

What do your think you may begin asking God for as you realize that He will give good gifts to those who ask?  What are the “desires of your heart”? (Psalm 37:4)

Please share here your reflections and insights of this week.

In the first week of our Love to Pray experience we were just laying the ground work and establishing the foundations for prayer.  Our daily reflections gave to us things to think about as we considered the importance of prayer and the privilege of prayer.  In week two we are going to be examining the Requirements of Prayer.   Sometimes our prayers are ineffective because we have not paid attention to some of the requirements.  

Now that we have a good start in this experience I would like to hear from you.   It would be great if everyone could log in and offer a comment either about something you have learned in our reading so far or some experience in prayer that you had this week.  

If any of have difficulty logging in please contact me and I will try to help. 

We got started with our prayer adventure last night.   We will actually start using the “Love to Pray” guide on Monday, May 26.  Begin with Day 1 then.  I appreciate that you are willing to give priority to the “Love to Pray” experience.  Try to keep up with each day’s experience.  I would encourage you to get a notebook where you can write responses to the “Reflect” section on each day and where you can keep track of prayer lists.   

I am hopeful that this blog can be a place where I can not only share information and input with you as we go along, but also a place for you to leave comments and interact with each other.   We are engaged in this prayer adventure so that we might deepen our prayer life.  May God give us grace so that might happen for each and all of us.