Posts with the tag “pray”

2 Chronicles 20:6 Lord, the God of our ancestors, are you not the God who is in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. Power and might are in your hand, and no one can withstand you. Scripture Insights The rhetorical question at the beginning of this verse is a reminder that we are not praying to just any run-of-the-mill god. We are calling out to the God of heaven, the one and onl...  Read More

John 17:15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. Scripture Insights At times the world seems to have gone mad. Most of us would rather be transported out of it. “Beam us up, Jesus,” would be our prayer. The disciples probably had similar thoughts. Jesus made some pretty awful predictions about what would be ahead for them: others will try...  Read More

John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you. Scripture Insights Directly from the heart of Jesus, he has called each one of us to bear fruit, to be productive in ministry, and to win people to the Lord. And it all begins with prayer. Our prayers must alw...  Read More

John 14:26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Scripture Insights Have you ever forgotten where you left something? We all have misplaced an item. Our human nature is to forget. Backtracking is a way to remember where that item is. I begin by reversing my actions in my mind and reme...  Read More

Luke 18:1 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. Scripture Insights As a children’s pastor, a favorite song was “Pray,” by Mary Rice Hopkins and Gary Hopkins. “Pray” tells how Daniel, Jonah, Abraham, Sarah, and Jesus faced every challenge with prayer. The chorus states when we need a friend, are in trouble, or need to talk to someone, we ...  Read More

Luke 10:2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” Scripture Insights Farmers understand this metaphor all too well. I once made my living as a potato farmer in the San Luis Valley of Colorado. We invested a lot of energy and work to get every potato into the bin before winter. We knew wha...  Read More

Luke 6:12 One of those days Jesus went out to a mountainside to pray, and spent the night praying to God. Scripture Insights Jesus is a great example on whom to model our life of prayer. Practical applications come to the one who spends time delving into the different practices of his prayer life. This passage from Luke highlights one of those practices—spending time alone with his Father for sign...  Read More

Genesis 1:3 And God said . . . Scripture Insights Our first encounter with God in Scripture is in the creation account of Genesis 1. Notice that all God’s actions in these verses originate from his voice. Nine times in twenty-nine verses we find the words “God said . . .” At the spoken word of God, the universe and all it contains came into being. When God speaks today, I think we can all agree th...  Read More

Mark 11:25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Scripture Insights Jesus links our privilege of being forgiven by God to our responsibility to forgive those who offend us. In Luke 11:4, the correlation is just stated “forgive us . . . for we also forgive everyone.” In Matthew 6:14-15, after Jesus tea...  Read More

Matthew 26:41 Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Scripture Insights “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil” (Matt. 4:1). Before beginning his public ministry, Jesus established the spiritual discipline of prayer and fasting, which helped him to resist temptation. Prayer was the means thro...  Read More

Matthew 7:7-8 Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Scripture Insights Our four children grew up knowing they could ask Roxanna and me for anything. They grew up that way because we gave them permission to ask us for anything. Now...  Read More

This then is how you should pray: . . . Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. . . . For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Confessing sin—other people’s sin—is an obsession in our culture. Conversations regularly turn to the details of someone’s transgression. I think the little boy overheard in prayer had it rig...  Read More

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. Jesus spoke these words from a hillside with his disciples and a crowd around him. The verse for today is from the Sermon on the Mount (Matt. 5–7). It is found in a section where Jesus is talking about fasting, praying, and giving. Jesus b...  Read More