Reasoning with God

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is excerpted and adapted from a chapter by Randy McKean who now serves as an evangelist and elder in Northern Virginia.

A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me!  My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession. . .” He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”[puppy dogs] “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs [wild dogs] eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”  Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted” (Matthew 15:21-28).

Reasoning with God in prayer is an expression of great faith and God always rewards faith-especially great faith!  This is one of the two times in the New Testament where Jesus commends a person for having “great faith.”  Certainly the Canaanite woman was persistent but, more than that, she reasoned with Jesus.  Initially, no one listened to her plea.  Then she was told “No” with a short explanation.  Eventually she was told “No” again with a further explanation.  At this point, she began to reason with Jesus which demonstrated a deep belief concerning his ability to heal her daughter.  Jesus did not take offense at this-in fact he was quite impressed!  He appreciated her expression of great faith. 

Honest to God

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is an excerpt from a chapter by Dave Eastman who serves as an evangelist in the Chicago Church of Christ. 

How long, O Lord? 

Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?

How long will my enemy triumph over me?

(Psalm 13:1-2).

How many of us have felt this way at some point? It is likely that David wrote this during the time when Saul was hunting him from place to place, a very intense time for him.  What needs to impress us about this prayer of David is not his great faith, nor his meekness before God nor his peace during trial—it is his heartfelt honesty.

The Power of Praise

           For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is an excerpt from a chapter by Leigh Kinnard who serves as a women’s ministry leader in the New York City Church of Christ.              

              Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18).

There is power in praise and in thanksgiving.  There is power in looking at what God has done and then rejoicing and being grateful. If this were not powerful, God would not call for it.  Pray continually.  But what should be the content of those continual prayers?

God Blesses Hungry Hearts

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is the second of two excerpts from chapter by Steve Kinnard who serves as a teacher in the New York City Church of Christ.

When we pray rightly and righteously, it allows God to work powerfully in our lives.  Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).  They will be filled—it will happen.  “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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Matthew 7:7-8).  Those who seek will not be denied. 

Hungering for God

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray  ©1995 by Discipleship Publications International and edited by Tom and Sheila Jones. This week’s post is the first of two we will publish from a chapter by Steve Kinnard who serves as a teacher in the New York City Church of Christ.

            

               As a doe longs for running streams,

                so longs my soul for you, my God.

                My soul thirsts for God, the God of life;

                when shall I go to see the face of God?

                (Psalm 42:1‑2, The Jerusalem Bible)

True prayer is a yearning for God.  The person who rightly prays hungers and thirsts for God.  Most people in the developed world have never really been hungry.  At most we have experienced a self-imposed hunger from fasting.  I once fasted for 21 days on just water.  By the fourth day, I felt really hungry.  Every cell in my body was crying out for food.  But my situation was somewhat artificial.  At any moment I could have grabbed a hamburger or pulled out a “Twinkie.”  With real hunger comes a sense of desperation—and urgency.