Archives For Prayer

Don’t Just Pray About It.

Erik Raymond —  May 8, 2013 — Leave a comment

There is something beautiful about the simplicity of kids. I remember after planting our first garden our little girls woke up early in the morning to run outside and see if anything had grown. After all, we had just put seeds in the ground 20 hours prior!

Their eager expectation is instructive.

In the 5th Psalm we read of a believer exercising highly developed prayer reflexes. He is crying out to God. His heart is overcome with weightiness. It is the type of thing that is first on his mind as he awakens in the morning (Ps. 5.1-2). The concern, burden, anxiety, and desperation of the soul continue to bubble up within him.

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Some Practical Help for Leading a Prayer Meeting

Erik Raymond —  April 3, 2013 — 5 Comments

In retrospect, prayer meetings are romantic. After all, what seems to be common to every revival and season of gospel renewal? People praying. God moves a few people to begin praying and then he powerfully answers them. Consider Charles Spurgeon, arguably one of the most influential preachers in church history, when asked about the secret to his success, he reportedly said, “My people pray for me.” God uses prayers. God uses prayer meetings.

If they are romantic in retrospection then prayer meetings are also intimidating in planning and seemingly complicated in execution. Several months ago I wrote a post arguing why prayer meetings were important and why pastors should lead their churches by insisting on regular meetings of prayer (Why You Should Attend a Prayer Meeting). I received a lot of feedback, none negative but most discouraged. People universally agree on the need for the meetings but get discouraged by the tone or the direction of the time.

In this post I want to highlight a few areas that I believe are important to helping get a meeting off the ground. These are items that grew organically out of our own context as we wrestled together with what we are trying to build. I sat down with another one of our pastors and we analyzed why our meeting was not being well attended and thriving. We had to ask and answer some hard questions. A lot of it came back to us as leaders. In the last year we have seen our group steadily increase and become a vibrant band of men who regularly sacrifice time to meet early in the morning for the purpose of frontline prayer. It is awesome. God is using it greatly!

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God Unties the Knots of Our Hearts

Erik Raymond —  March 26, 2013 — 1 Comment

Often times Christians struggle with prayer because they forget the wonderful intimacy that comes from their relationship to God. We forget the access and we forget his love.

Jesus taught us to call God our Father (Mt. 6.9) and the Holy Spirit compels our hearts to cry out to God calling him Father (Rm. 8.14-17). This new relationship of being God’s child brings a new heart cry. It is the cry of intimacy, expectation, familiarity, and love.

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There is a Sermon in Their Outstretched Arms & Cries for “Daddy”

Erik Raymond —  January 31, 2013

When you are a little kid you are very aware of your parent’s presence. As a Dad I see this when my two little toddlers sense me tiptoeing out of the room and then proceed to chase me down. At this stage in their lives they have weighed the cost of me doing a load of laundry or fetching something out of the basement against them being alone. And they have sided with the latter in every case. They are aware of and cherish their parents’ nearness.

There are many ways to apply Jesus’ teaching that we must become like a child in order to enter the kingdom (Mt. 18.1-6). The picture of a child fully trusting in and enjoying their parents with admirable simplicity comes to mind. Along with this a child’s awareness and cherishing their parent’s closeness and care. More to my point, another implication of becoming like a child is being aware of and cherishing God’s nearness to us.

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Don’t Look Past the Privilege of Prayer

Erik Raymond —  January 11, 2013

We take a lot for granted. Advances that once seemed like life-changers are now staples. It’s hard for us to imagine but there was a first day with electricity, running water, and the Internet. Now these privileges are expected.

In the Christian’s life the same could be said of prayer. Prayer is not an unalienable right of all people, like voting in America when you turn 18. Instead, prayer is a blood-bought privilege for those who trust and treasure Jesus.

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A Prayer for a New Year

Erik Raymond —  January 1, 2013

Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in thy service to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains,
sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from thee,
but may rely on thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth thy praise,
testify thy love,
advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with thee, O Father, as my harbor,
(with) thee, O Son, at my helm,
(with) thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.

Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to thy calls,
my heart full of love, my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me,
thy comforts to cheer me,
thy wisdom to teach,
thy right hand to guide,
thy counsel to instruct,
thy law to judge,
thy presence to stabilize.

May thy fear by my awe, thy triumphs my joy.

(Valley of Vision, p.112)

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A Simple (but profound) Way to Pray

Erik Raymond —  October 30, 2012

I’ve often been asked for a helpful resource on prayer. There are many contemporary books that are especially helpful (i.e. here and here). Over and over again I have been served by the straighforward pastoral counsel by Martin Luther to his barber. Luther outlines how he used the Lord’s Prayer, The 10 Commandments, and The Creed, as a framework, even a scaffolding for his prayers. His thoughtful letter has continued to shepherd me.

Here is an example:

First, when I feel that I have become cool and joyless in prayer because of other tasks or thoughts (for the flesh and the devil always impede and obstruct prayer), I take my little psalter, hurry to my room, or, if it be the day and hour for it, to the church where a congregation is assembled and, as time permits, I say quietly to myself and word-for-word the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and, if I have time, some words of Christ or of Paul, or some psalms, just as a child might do.

It is a good thing to let prayer be the first business of the morning and the last at night. Guard yourself carefully against those false, deluding ideas which tell you, “Wait a little while. I will pray in an hour; first I must attend to this or that.” Such thoughts get you away from prayer into other affairs which so hold your attention and involve you that nothing comes of prayer for that day

If you have never read this letter I highly recommend you do so. (link)

R.C. Sproul made a children’s book out of it (link) and Carl Trueman wrote a helpful article at The Gospel Coalition on this topic (link).

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