Quotes on Prayer

As I sit at my local public library writing my sermon for Sunday, I thought I would share some quotes about God answering our prayers.

 

There are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers.
Saint Teresa of Avila, Roman Catholic nun

If God listened to the prayers of men, all men would quickly have perished: for they are forever praying for evil against one another.
Epicurus, Greek philosopher

 

I certainly know that I would not be able to survive if it were not for the fact that I am being upheld by the prayers of so many people.
Desmond Tutu, social rights activist and retired Anglican bishop

 

Expect to have hope rekindled. Expect your prayers to be answered in wondrous ways. The dry seasons in life do not last. The spring rains will come again.
Sarah Ban Breathnach, author

 

The only time my prayers are never answered is on the golf course.
Billy Graham, evangelist and preacher

 

I have lived to thank God that all my prayers have not been answered.
Jean Ingelow, English poet and author

 

My mother was a Sunday school teacher. So I am a byproduct of prayer. My mom just kept on praying for her son.
Steve Harvey, comedian and TV personality

 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

 

I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favor to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love. Isaiah 63:7

 

A Celtic Prayer

Here is a beautiful prayer from the Iona community in Scotland.

You are above me O God
You are beneath
You are in air
You are in earth
You are beside me
You are within
O God of heaven
You have made your home on earth
In the broken body of Creation
Kindle within me
A love for you in all things.
Amen.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has looked favorably on his people and redeemed them. Luke 1:68

Four Demands of Prayer

As I was tidying up this weekend in preparation for friends coming over, I noticed my textbook* for a course in Reformed Worship sitting in the midst of all of my theology books (so many books, so little time!!)  I took it off the shelf and sure enough, there is a whole chapter on prayer!  How we pray as individuals and as a community was important to the reformers because their understanding of prayer helped shape how we worship today in the Protestant tradition. 

This chapter outlined 4 demands that prayer requires of us, including:
1. We have to show up! (In other words, we need to make time to pray).
2. We have to pay attention. 
3. We have to tell the truth.
4. We must look for the outcome. 

The final point resonates with me this week as I prepare to preach on the challenge of maintaining a prayer relationship with God even when things aren't going the way you want them to. 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Answer me when I call, O God of my right! You gave me room when I was in distress. Be gracious to me, and hear my prayer. Psalm 4:1

* Once a librarian, always a librarian! I couldn't post this without giving you the full citation for the book - Howard Rice and James Huffstutler. Reformed Worship. Louisville: Geneva Press, 2001.

Listening for God

“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.”  Mother Teresa

This quote from Mother Theresa is challenging because we like to be in control of our lives, don’t we? I, like many people, prefer to be in the driver’s seat when I am in a car and I think that all of us would much rather be in the driver’s seat of our lives rather than letting someone else be in control. By putting ourselves in the hands of God, we are in effect surrendering to him and therefore, we have to acknowledge and accept his divine will. This means not only giving up control of who drives the car, but also where the car is going! As hard as this is to do, it is actually quite liberating when you let yourself fall into God’s hands and listen for his voice in your heart. 

As I prepared in the fall of 2011 to resign from my full-time job in order to finish my studies at seminary, I was very nervous about the future would hold. As a woman with a family, this decision affected more than just me and I was worried. But God was in control and it was liberating to watch the Holy Spirit move through our lives! This time was certainly a humbling experience for me as God manifested himself in many ways throughout my journey towards ordination and I wish that I had been able to trust him sooner! 

Our ability (and inability) to surrender all to God has to do with trusting God and listening for him.  Sometimes that comes as a loud gong or a quiet whisper but however it comes, we need to be open to listening for the presence of the Spirit in our midst. Our conversations with God in prayer will help us build this trust so that we can listen with a willing heart.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

“For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:11-13

Martin Luther on Prayer

Today is Reformation Sunday when we celebrate our reformed heritage through the Protestant Reformation. I thought that it would only be fitting to share with you something that Martin Luther wrote about prayer in 1535. He wrote a small booklet called “A Simple Way to Pray” for his barber and friend Peter Beskendorf. In his opening to this booklet, Luther tells his friend, “I will tell you as best I can what I do personally when I pray. May our dear Lord grant to you and to everybody to do it better than I!”

Luther wrote Beskendorf that he used the Bible as his guide to prayer and he often prayed the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and the Creed. He also recommended using the words of Christ or of Paul or the Psalms to pray.  

What I like about Luther’s writing is his remarks about saying Amen at the end of a prayer:  

“Finally, mark this, that you must always speak the Amen firmly. Never doubt that God in his mercy will surely hear you and say “yes” to your prayers. Never think that you are kneeling or standing alone, rather think that the whole of Christendom, all devout Christians are standing there beside you and you are standing among them in a common, united petition which God cannot disdain. Do not leave your prayer without having said or thought, “Very well, God has heard my prayer, this I know as certainty and a truth.” That is what Amen means.” 

Amen! 

Yours in Christ, Emma. 

 “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.” Martin Luther

Poem about Prayer

I have had a few people send me poems about prayer since I started this sermon series, so I thought that I would share this with you.  It is a powerful little poem that reminds us that God is always with us and that prayer is an important part of our relationship with Him!

The Difference by Grace L. Naessens

I got up early one morning

And rushed right into the day
I had so much to accomplish
That I didn’t take time to pray

Problems just tumbled about me

And heavier became each task
“Why doesn’t God help me?” I wondered
He answered, “You didn’t ask”
 
I wanted to see joy and beauty
But the day toiled on gray and bleak
I wondered why God didn’t show me
He said, You didn’t seek”

I tried to come into God’s presence

I used all my keys at the lock
God gently and lovingly chided
“My child you didn’t knock”

I woke up early this morning

And paused before entering the day
I had so much to accomplish
That I had to take time to pray

Yours in Christ, Emma.

I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that, with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us who believe, according to the working of his great power. Ephesians 1:17-19

Prayer of Comfort

Yesterday our congregation lost a long-time member so I thought that it would be only fitting to post a passage from Scripture that gives us comfort and strength in our grief and assures us of our hope through Jesus Christ.

“Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.”Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?”Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (John 14:1-6)

This is the passage that I read to this member earlier this week as she squeezed my hand. May God be with her family as they grieve her passing and may they find strength and comfort as we lift them up in prayer.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 8:38-39)

I love this Psalm because it captures the longing that we have for God as well as the hope that we have in Him. When we are hungry for God's presence in our lives, He is always there. 

As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and behold the face of God?
My tears have been my food day and night,
while people say to me continually, “Where is your God?”

These things I remember, as I pour out my soul:
how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God,
with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival.
Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.
(Psalm 42:1-6)

Yours in Christ, Emma.

Train yourself in godliness, for, while physical training is of some value, godliness is valuable in every way, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come. 1 Timothy 4:7b-8

One of the most challenging verses of the Bible for me is Psalm 46:10a which says "Be still and know that I am God!" While I believe with all my heart, mind, and soul that God is God, it is the 'be still' part that I struggle with. I am always on the go and even when I am at home, I am hardly ever still. This is because of who I am and because of the society in which we live. Being busy is seen as a good thing. It is almost a status symbol these days - the busier I am, the more important I am. This is true in our personal and work lives and believe it or not - in our church lives too!

But we need to heed the advice of the Psalmist and listen for God in our midst. Being still and taking time in prayer to listen for God's movement in our lives and in the life of the church is crucial for us to do. In our prayer lives, this means taking time to pray when nothing else is going on and to listen for the Holy Spirit. Is this hard to do? Yes. Is it necessary? Absolutely! If we don't do this, how will be able to figure out what God has in store for us? 

Yours in Christ, Emma.

But those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31

With our technological issues now resolved, I have no excuse but to keep the commitment that I made in church on Sunday!

One of the most powerful ways to pray, especially when you are not sure what to say to God, is to pray using the Bible. There are hundreds of prayers in the Bible and in the coming weeks, I will be sharing some of them with you. Even though the prayers contained in the Bible come from a particular individual from a very different time and place from us, that doesn't mean that these prayers aren't relevant for our lives today. 

The Psalms are a wonderful place to start on a journey of praying through Scripture. Take Psalm 23 as an example. This Psalm is one of the most well known passages of the Bible, but have you ever thought of it as a prayer? It is a prayer of praise to God who is with us as our Shepherd in the midst of trials of life. The Psalmist praised God for providing for his needs and leading him in the right path. God is also praised for protecting us against our enemies and walking with us in the shadow of the valley of death. Psalm 23 is a prayer of thanksgiving that reminds us of the assurance and hope that we have through our triune God.

Yours in Christ, Emma.

First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed throughout the world.
Romans 1:8

Yesterday was supposed to be my first day of blogging about prayer, but due to technical difficulties with our blog, today is day one!

During part one of a three part series on prayer, we talked about how the Lord's Prayer is a wonderful model for us to use in our own prayer lives.  I shared an acronym - P.R.A.Y. - that is a very helpful (and easy!) way to remember how to pray.  If you don't know what it stands for, check out my sermon on our web site. 

Here are a few other acronyms:
ACTS = Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, and Supplication
APE = Always Pray Everyday
ASAP = Always Say A Prayer
CHAT = Confess, Honour, Ask, and Thank (courtesy of Jim Nicodem, author of Prayer Coach)

Yours in Christ, Emma.

I thank my God every time I remember you,  constantly praying with joy in every one of my prayers for all of you, because of your sharing in the gospel from the first day until now. I am confident of this, that the one who began a good work among you will bring it to completion by the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1:3-6