Limited time to read? Read what sustains and transforms you. In order to make disciples, we must be disciples. And disciples must have a direct relationship with God. We cannot expect to be disciples if we don’t regularly talk with and listen to God. We must understand that he is not only Savior but is also Lord. He speaks to …
Prayer, Chronic vs. Acute and the Desperate Choice
The Solution for Desperate Choice Desperate choice calls for desperate prayer. With prayer, I always mix chronic and acute needs. Ongoing issues, circumstances, obstacles, and constraints list the chronic needs that I face where prayer provides daily sustenance until my deliverance. Acute needs are those immediate needs, things happening right now where I need help, right now. God knows what I …
Forgetting to Breathe and Preventing Spiritual Anorexia
Preventing Spiritual Anorexia: Believing Differently Preventing spiritual anorexia as I have written before, requires seeing differently, we must believe differently. Changing what I believe is usually difficult. Fasting used as a focal lens for prayer and as a tool to help me understand my true dependency upon God can aid me in shifting and changing my framework of beliefs. Getting …
The Heart of Plan B
The heart of plan B? In Prayer II, Believing is Seeing, I wrote: ‘Those of us who are intensely analytical, like me, need to practice patience and persistence in prayer and avoid going to plan B before God has given us an answer. We need to wait for God’s answer. We need to make sure beliefs, thoughts, and actions align. …
Take Up Your Cross
Take Up Your Cross ‘Take up your cross’ is a central concept in practical Christianity and daily discipleship. And yet much of the time, I don’t wake up and start the day thinking, ‘take up your cross.’ Since I set the alarm for 3:00 am— a 6:00 am flight to Austin—I first tried to remember if I fixed the coffee …
Chief of Sinners
Chief of Sinners Paul describes himself as the chief of sinners. This also refers to an experience all maturing as disciples must go through. A day will come when all of us will think of ourselves as the chief of sinners. My stepfather, one of the top ten blessings in my life, and I agree on many things. As a …
Listen to God
Few Christians dispute the need to listen to God, but Oswald Chambers wrote in the February 12 writing of My Utmost for His Highest that we frequently do not listen to God. ‘We don’t consciously and deliberately disobey God—we simply don’t listen to Him.’ Rather than to listen to God, Chambers goes further to say we prefer to listen to …
How to Pray, Prayer IV
So we’ve talked about our concept of God, believing is seeing, and what to pray for. I find that many people when they ask how to pray are looking for a structure or framework. Matthew 6:9-14 and Luke 11:2-4 are good frameworks or structures for how to pray. I’ve been practicing the ACTS method for so long, I don’t remember …