My wife and I took our three-year old twins to see a local school’s production of The Sound of Music. It was pretty good. Because I’m currently seeking God’s guidance in searching for a new job a particular line from the musical stood out to me this time around. It’s a famous quote: Maria says “When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window.” It’s a nice sentiment (not precisely biblical), but what does it mean? Sure I understand the general concept that sometimes we think we’re out of options but God may have other plans and we just need to look to Him. But why would God open a window? Continue reading →

Click here for Pray Without Ceasing Part I, Part II, or the Prequel: The Fertile Soil of Prayer (which is where you should really start).

Here are the final two tips for how to realistically pray without ceasing. These are the real heart of what I want to say. The meat of the meal.

7. God-ward focus
Don Postema writes, “Prayer is taking time to let God recreate us, play with us, touch us as an artist who is making a sculpture or painting, or a piece of music with our lives.” And I’d like to point out that it’s much easier for both the artist and the medium if it will voluntarily sit itself down on the easel or turn table and stay there a while and let the artist work. Continue reading →

Click here if you missed Part I of Pray Without Ceasing, or the Prequel, The Fertile Soil of Prayer.

Here are the next three tips on how to realistically pray without ceasing.

4. Let Your Actions Be Prayers.
1 Cor. 10:31 “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” The best way I can find to apply this verse is to pray during everything you do. Offer your actions to God.

Brother Lawrence (The Practice of The Presence of God): “The time of business does not with me differ from the time of prayer; and in the noise and clatter of my kitchen, while several persons are at the same time calling for different things, I possess God in as great tranquility as if I were upon my knees at the blessed sacrament.”

If we are acting out something that we’ve been praying about, it is a continuation of that prayer. If I pray, “God please be with Adam who’s mom just died,” and then I give Adam a call to encourage him and be a listening ear, isn’t that basically turning my prayer into an action?” But simple actions can be prayers, too… “practical prayer” – acting on your prayer. Continue reading →

As I was saying (over a month ago) in my post titled The Fertile Soil of Prayer (March 29, 2014), when people think of prayer they often get this feeling deep down in their stomach… a sense of guilt: “I’m not praying enough” “I must not be a good Christian” “If people only knew how little I actually pray”.

We all know that every “good Christian” spends at least 30 minutes a day doing their “devotions”, right? And anything less than that is unacceptable. Especially when you consider that our goal is to “pray without ceasing”!

I’m sure I’m not the only one who often feels like this goal is so unachievable that I might as well not even try to spend time with God. But as I was saying in The Fertile Soil of Prayer my goal has been for us all to shed the guilty feeling or burdensome weight we often associate with prayer and come to see prayer as a gift we get to open. Continue reading →