Learning to Pray.

Tim Challies post today was quite convicting, simple, yet has really made me consider my time in prayer. He posts a few nuggets resonating in his mind and the Lord is using that to convict me of my lack of prayer, my belief in prayer, and the power of the One whom I am praying to.

Quickly from Challies post:

Pray within your capacity to believe. One pastor said that we often pray beyond our capacity to believe. He used the example of praying for the salvation of his wife’s parents. He and his wife would pray that the Lord would save them, but they were praying without faith; though they knew God could, in theory, do this, they doubted that he actually would. What they decided to do was to pray within their capacity to believe, and so they began to pray smaller, incremental prayers for things they truly could ask in faith. In a similar situation you might pray that the Lord would bring your parents just one Christian friend, or that they would hear the gospel just one time, and so on. And once that prayer is answered, you can then pray for the next, slightly bigger thing. All the while you are ratcheting up your prayers while acknowledging God’s incremental answers to them.

AND

Pray in Jesus’ name. To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray with his authority in a way that claims his power. In prayer I should always be asking, “In whose interest am I praying? What is God’s agenda in this?” In other words, I need to make sure that I have a conscience sense of praying to the Lord, the King, the Sovereign One. I pray not only to this God, but I also pray in his power and with his authority. That merits a “wow!”

Method for Prayer - Matthew Henry

I was browsing articles online and came across this great link. It is Matthew Henry's Method for Prayer (Online Edition).

The following are 13 reasons (listed on the website) it would be good to read this booklet as we learn to pray to our Holy God.

1. Praying scripturally will teach us what prayer is, even while we do it.
2. It will correct "shopping list" views of prayer which abound in the Christian community.
3. It will begin to solve in our own minds the question of "unanswered prayer."
4. It will remind us of just how much there is to pray about day to day.
   
5. It will teach us of the extreme urgency of prayer
6. It will return proportion to prayers long on petition, but short on adoration, confession, and thanksgiving
7. It will instruct us how best to pray for ministers, missionaries, and one another.
8. It will show us the proper way to approach God in prayer.
9. It will remind us of the good things that God does for us (which we, more often than not, take for granted)
   
10. It will remind us to always give thanks to God (which, paradoxically, is so important for our own assurance of His faithfulness in answering prayer).
11. It will begin to engrave in our minds biblical patterns of thought which can help immunize us from the enticing folly of the world's view of life.
12. It will force us to rehearse the solemn warning and precious promises of God (which will do eternal good to our souls).
13. It will move us from our inherent man-centeredness in prayer to a biblical, God-centered way of praying.

Praying for Your Pastor's Wife

While reading today I came across an article by Nancy Leigh DeMoss called 31 Days of praying for your Pastor's wife. She encourages us to pray for the woman that often in the shadow of the man who fills the pulpit. A woman who serves, loves, respects, and prays for her husband, who faces the same challenges as other women in the congregation, and needs encouragement, friendships, support and prayer as any other women would.

I plan to use the outline and ideas she provided as a guide as I pray for my Pastor's wife and would encourage ya'll to use this outline or at least get ideas from the outline to pray for your pastor's wife more specifically. The following are an example of a few of the days and how she encourages us to pray. For the full list check out Revive our Hearts.

Day 1
Pray that your pastor’s wife will love God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength. Pray that God’s Spirit will work in her heart in power, and that she will value and follow biblical priorities. (Deut. 6:5; Matt. 6:33)

Day 20
Ask God to remind her of the hope and refuge God offers her each day. Pray that she will be encouraged in God, knowing that He is a firm, secure anchor for her soul. (Ps. 9:9-10; Ps. 42:5; 71:14; Heb. 6:19a)

Day 28
Pray that she will strive for personal excellence as a “Proverbs 31” woman, and will believe God to accomplish His will in her as a virtuous woman. (Prov. 31:10-31)

Day 29
Pray that your pastor’s wife will be a woman of faith and passionate love for God, not giving in to worries, fears, or an uptight and anxious spirit.
(1 John 4:18; Prov. 3:5-6)

conquering the temptation

For as long as I can remember I have had a problem with feeling sorry for myself and getting myself in a woe is me pattern. I have been praying and thinking about this some this past week. I know this does not glorify the Lord and with His help I can conquer this as He's helped me before; but I've also realize I must take some steps on my own to help myself avoid the temptation to feel sorry for myself. So far I've thought of these steps..

1. More time in prayer and scripture
2. Take medicines regularly
3. Take vitamins regularly
4. Exercise several times a week
5. Get outside more
6. Get away part of a day each week
7. Visit people in the community more
8. Start conversations with others as I am out and about
9. Talk to friends and mentors more often
10. Sing more/Listen to more music
11. Disciple a young lady
12. Preach to myself
13. Minister to those in the church that are sick, hurting, or lonely.
    
14. Don't make myself so busy with these things that it wears me out more than helps

Help me out, I know many at least at times are prone to feel sorry for themselves and have a woe is me attitude. What are some of the steps ya'll take to avoid and conquer this?

I am happy to say that with the Lord's help I am seeing some improvement in my attitude and have been much better in fighting the temptation to feel sorry for myself. I write this not to have others feel sorry, since that is what I am trying to avoid myself. Rather to gain insight from those who have been there, those who are more mature in their relationship with the Lord, those who are older and have more life experience. Or to encourage others struggling with the same.

Pray like Jesus

This morning I was thinking about unsaved family members of mine and how I pray and hope so much that they would be saved, yet in all my and others attempts to share the gospel they are still hard hearted and the Lord has not yet opened their eyes. I was discouraged. But the Lord brought to mind previous conversations I've had with believers on why we need to continue to pray for lost loved ones and a sermon series preached by Mark Driscoll that I listened to while flying back to Lakeshore last week.

The series is entitled "Pray Like Jesus". The series was good stuff and I recommend taking the time to listen, but I was reminded of one thing that he said several times. And it sounds very simple, like duh I should not have to remind myself of this. But God answers prayer. His answers are yes, no, or later.

I am encouraged to think that as I pray no matter what the answer God hears and answers. But there is still that hope within me that maybe God is saying later when I pray for the unsaved. I don't know for sure and no matter the answer he still receives the glory. But I am less discouraged now as I think there is hope that he will regenerate them and that he has heard my prayer. May the Lord's will be done.

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Driscoll's sermons in the series include:
Pray Like Jesus
The Lord's Prayer
The Gethsemane Prayer

Mid - Summer Update

I finally got on top of things and wrote an update...I've been meaning to this since the beginning of summer but since that didn't happen here's my mid-summer update. Lord willing I will be sending the pdf update out in an email shortly.

Mid- Summer Update

We are about half way through the big summer rush. It's been an exciting summer so far. We've seen a lot of progress on our homes. We've recently started framing 2 new houses. We've moved 1 woman into her home and few more are very close, Lord willing by the end of the summer we will have them in. We currently have about 15 homes in progress that we are sending volunteers into week after week. We are doing everything from sheetrock, painting, building porches, trim work, siding, roofing, plumbing, electrical, HVAC...and the list goes on and on.

We will see between 1200 and 1300 volunteers this summer equaling between 48,000 and 52,000 volunteer hours. That's amazing...Praise God he continues to send volunteers this way.

June 1st I began my new missionary appointment with the North American Mission Board. I've transitioned from a Semester missionary to a US/C2 missionary. This Lord willing will allow me to stay in Lakeshore for the next two years. I am excited to see what the Lord is going to do in the future!

I also became an aunt early this summer! My sister had her first child a baby girl, Kailey. She was premature and was in the hospital about 1 month, but was able to come home about a month and a half before her actual due date. Praise God for his healing power and protection for my sister and the baby.

The Church has also begun building me a little house that will make my stay in Lakeshore a little more homey. It is approximately 200 square feet plus a loft for sleeping. The best parts though is the private bathroom and the space I will have to spend time in the Word, undistracted.

Ways to pray for me:

• For a freshness in prayer and Bible Study

• Boldness in sharing the gospel

• Pray for deliverance from loneliness, discouragement and depression.

• Pray for patience as church staff and volunteers work together and patience for others as they work with me :)

• Pray God would be glorified in and through me.

Ways to pray for the ministry:

• That God would be glorified in all that happens through Lakeshore Baptist Church.

• That the Gospel would be spread throughout the Lakeshore community and the Gulf Coast.

• That volunteers would continue to flow through the church

• That finances would continue to come in to keep this operation funded.

I appreciate all the prayers and support from friends and church family. I'm grateful for the opportunity to serve Lakeshore Baptist Church and this community.

Unreached People Groups

You may have noticed in the past few days I've put up a picture and information on my side bar under the heading pray for unreached people groups. There are a number of reasons I decided to add this...not just to make more clutter on the side of the blog (it just looks like clutter because I am not technologically savvy).

In December last year I began praying for unreached people groups around the world. I enjoyed praying and learning about different cultures, different people groups, and reading the stories and prayer requests of missionaries around the world ministering in to these groups. But even more importantly than what I enjoy is God answers prayer - prayers for missionaries ministering, struggling, discipling, teaching, and reaching out to the lost...prayers for people hearing the gospel that their deaf ears and blind eyes would be opened....prayers for new Christian converts dealing with persecution for leaving their former religion....prayers to send missionaries to regions and people group who have never heard the gospel and do not have a Bible in their own language...

There are several great resources to learn from and see prayer requests of missionaries and for people groups and countries that have little or no Christian influence.

The Joshua Project: A site highlighting the people groups of the world that have the least Christian presence in their midst and to encourage pioneer church-planters among every ethnic people group.

The International Mission Board: The SBC mission board has a page on the website devoted to prayer for people groups, missionaries, urban centers, strategic ministries, unengaged peoples, and countries.

Operation World: Is a great resource to learn about countries, but their primary purpose is praying for the countries of the world.

I'm sure there are many other great sites that have prayer requests for countries and people groups, these are just the ones that I happen to be familiar with. May I encourage you to add global prayers to your daily prayer time.