Making Prayer a Priority

Below are some great words I needed to hear again posted on the DG blog from John Piper's classic book, Desiring God. These are near the end of the chapter on prayer. This book influenced my understanding of God and my relationship to him more than anything I have ever read outside the Bible. If you have not read the book, I encourage you to do so.

DG blog:

Here’s the challenge John Piper issues as he closes his chapter on prayer (chapter 6) in Desiring God:

[O]ne of the main reasons so many of God’s children don’t have a significant life of prayer is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to. If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing’s ever ready. We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the rut. If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you. Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcourse corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer—for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy. (Desiring God, 2003 edition, pages 182–183)

I addition to Piper's book, two of the best books I've read on prayer I highly recommend are:
A Praying Life, by Paul Miller
Approaching God, by Steve Brown

SBS Class - New Study Starts Sunday Sep 26

Pursuing Godliness class: we will begin Session 1 of a new study this Sunday September 26, Gospel in Life-Grace Changes Everything, developed by Tim Keller. We will be using a study guide that can be obtained in class for $6.00. If you know of anyone looking for a new class or who would be interested in going through this study, now would be a good time to invite them.

From the opening words of the study guide:

"Gospel in Life is an eight-session course on the gospel and how to live it out in all of life, first in our hearts, then in community, and ultimately out into the world.

Session 1: City The World That Is

In Session 1 we learn that we are not just to seek prosperity and peace in the city where we live, but we are to seek prosperity and peace for the city, as well. We see the reasons that cities were created, how they have fallen under sin, and how we can be a part of redeeming them—how we are a part of God’s story to redeem and restore the whole world for his glory."

While no preparation is needed before Sunday's class, it would be useful to read in advance a passage from Jeremiah, Ch.29, verses 4-14.

Hope to see you all in class!

Thoughts on Growing in Godliness

Blogger Dane Ortlund compiles here some thoughtful answers from church leaders to the question, What's the Key to Healthy Christian Growth in Godliness?

Helpful reading in light of our class mission and purpose!




HT: Justin Taylor

Moore on God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck

Some provocative thoughts here from Russell Moore on the Glenn Beck event at the Lincoln Memorial. Here is the intro:

A Mormon television star stands in front of the Lincoln Memorial and calls American Christians to revival. He assembles some evangelical celebrities to give testimonies, and then preaches a God and country revivalism that leaves the evangelicals cheering that they’ve heard the gospel, right there in the nation’s capital.

The news media pronounces him the new leader of America’s Christian conservative movement, and a flock of America’s Christian conservatives have no problem with that.

If you’d told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it’s not. It’s from this week’s headlines. And it is a scandal.

Read the whole article here.