Category Archives: Prayer

Psa 13 – How long, O Lord? (sermon notes)

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Text: Psalm 13

Ever experienced an unresponsive landlord, lover, parent?  Here, the psalmist is confronting an (apparently) unresponsive God!

1. Protest, vv1-2

A threefold problem: circumstantial (enemy), personal (troubled thoughts), spiritual (God has gone AWOL).

How do you feel about that?

  • happy with God all the time?
  • never known God on intimate terms?
  • used to low expectations?
  • disrespectful?

David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’ (1 Sam 13:14; Acts 13:22).

Marghanita Laski: ‘What I envy most about you Christians is your forgiveness; I have nobody to forgive me.’ …

Prayer postures

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‘Hands together, eyes shut tight.’

That’s the way generations of children were taught to pray.

Curiously, many different prayer postures are described in Scripture, but not that one.

William Hendriksen (New Testament Commentary on The Pastoral Epistles) lists the following:

  1. Standing: Gen. 18:22; 1 Sam. 1:26; Matt. 6:5; Mark 11:25; Luke 18:11; Luke 18:13…
  2. Hands Spread Out or/and Lifted Heavenward: Ex. 9:29; Ex. 17:11, 12; 1 Kings 8:22; Neh. 8:6; Psalm 63:4; Psalm 134:2; Psalm 141:2; Is.
…

Ten top tips for leading a time of prayer

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With thanks to Tim Chester:

  1. Say that anyone can pray, but nobody has to pray.
  2. Suggest people keep their prayers short, but don’t wait for others.
  3. Don’t get people praying in groups if unbelievers are present so they are not pressured into praying before they are ready.
  4. Suggest people pray for one thing at a time (but pray more than once) and encourage people to listen to others so the time of prayer has the feel of a conversation.
…

Matthew 18:20 – ‘Where two or three are gathered…’

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Matthew 18:20 “Where two or three are assembled in my name, I am there among them.”

Christians regularly appeal to this saying in order to reassure themselves that, no matter how few their numbers when they gather for public worship or for prayer, Jesus himself will be present.

Matthew Henry:

‘Every believer has the presence of Christ with him; but the promise here refers to the meetings where two or three are gathered in his name, not only for discipline, but for religious worship, or any act of Christian communion.’

…

Praying for unbelievers

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Tim Challies has helpfully drawn together some ways in which the Bible can guide our prayers for unbelievers.

Here’s a summary:-

1. Praying for them

We begin with prayers for salvation. Each of these prayers seeks the same thing, but in a different way or from a different angle or using different language. Each of them is grounded in a specific text of Scripture.

‘Pray that God would circumcise their hearts,‘ Deut 30:6.

‘Pray that God would give them a heart of flesh,‘ Ezekiel 11:19.…

Praying the Psalms politically

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John Goldingay writes:-

In his book Where Your Treasure Is: Psalms that Summon You from Self to Community, Eugene Peterson studies “psalms that shaped the politics of Israel and can shape the politics of America” [or Great Britain]:

2            the unselfing of America
87          unself-made
110        unself-centered
93          unself-government
46          unself-help
62          unself-assertion
77          unself-pity
14          unself-righteous
82          unself-serving
114        unself-sufficient
45          unself-love

He comments, “writing about prayer is not prayer; neither is reading about it.…

Psalms: Prayer Book of the Bible

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Psalms: The Prayer Book of the Bible (Augsburg Fortress, 1970, Kindle Edition).

by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Do the Psalms, as Holy Scripture, primarily represent the thoughts, feelings, experiences and longings of those by whom, and for whom, they were originally composed?  Or do we draw a straight line from each psalm to our own experience, and appropriate each prayer as if ti were our own?

Neither, says Bonhoeffer.

In this short book, Bonhoeffer argues that the Psalms should be understood, first and foremost, as the Prayer Book of Jesus Christ. …

Praying the Psalms in Christ

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In his recent (2017) book Teaching Psalms – Volume One – from text to message – Christopher Ash develops a forthrightly Christocentric approach to reading, praying, and preaching from this part of Holy Scripture.

What follows is a summary, mainly in my own words.  I have made no attempt to offer any critical comment.

Why we must pray the Psalms

  1. We need to be taught to pray.  Prayer does not come naturally or easily, even to the believer. 
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Acts 4:5-31 Praying under pressure – sermon notes

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Praying Under Pressure, Acts 4:5-31 (esp. 23-31)

The healing of the crippled beggar, 3:1-10 – Peter’s speech to the people, 11-26 – Peter & John brought before the Sanhedrin, 4:1-7 – Peter’s reply, 8-12 – They are warned to stop speaking in the name of Jesus, 13-17 – Peter refuses, 18-22 – They return to their fellow-believers, who offer a remarkable prayer.  So:-

1. Be clear who you are praying to, vv24-28

This is the longest part of the prayer!…