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.

God Enjoys Our Prayers

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 Robyn Williams who serves as women’s ministry leader in the Los Angeles Church of Christ.

Each one had a harp and they were holding golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of God’s people (Revelation 5:8b)

For there to be a relationship, both people must communicate.  God speaks to us through his Word; we speak to God through our prayers.  As we open up our hearts and thoughts to him in prayer, God enjoys hearing our prayers.  They are like golden bowls of incense to him.

Able to Save Completely

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 Marilyn Kreite who now lives in British Columbia.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. . . .He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself (Hebrews 7:25, 27b).

We go through times where we study, we pray, we share our faith.  We see ourselves growing, really changing to be like Jesus.  God blesses us with fruit, and our friends commend us.  It is well with our souls. . .  Suddenly, deep crevices of sin are exposed in our hearts, and the walls of well-being crack and cave in.  Our sinfulness looms larger than life–larger, it seems, than the blood of Jesus can ever conquer.  Tidal waves of doubt assail us. He saved me once from all my sins.  Can he do it again? 

Abba, Father

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 Tom.

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father” (Romans 8:15).

  

God is amazing.  He can shine enough light through a small window to illuminate a whole house.  In three small New Testament verses he opens up for us a whole new way of understanding him and the kind of relationship we can enjoy with him now and forever.  First, we have Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, saying  “Abba, Father, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will” (Mark 14:36).  Then we have Paul, in Romans 8:15 (above) and in Galatians 4:6, saying that those of us who have come into Christ can also cry “Abba, Father.” 

Almighty God

For a few weeks we are featuring material from Teach Us to Pray©1995  by Discipleship Publications International. This week’s post is an excerpt from a chapter by Ron Drabot who now ministers in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Upon taking a ministry staff position at the age of 23 in Columbus, Ohio, I quickly realized that leading, maintaining and growing a spiritual ministry was much beyond what I humanly could accomplish.  A mighty deed such as this required direct help from an Almighty God.

Teach Us to Pray

The next few weeks we will feature material from Teach Us to Pray ©1995  by Discipleship Publications International. This week’s post is an excerpt from the Introduction to the book which was edited by Tom A. and Sheila Jones.

When the disciples said to Jesus, as recorded in Luke 11:1, “Lord, teach us to pray,” for once they were asking for the right thing. If a relationship with God is the most important matter in life, then nothing is more important than knowing how to pray.

Heaven Will Not Disappoint

This week we feature one final chapter from The Promises of God ©1998 by Discipleship Publications International. This week’s post is an excerpt from a chapter written by Tom.

A lot of things don’t live up to our expectations. I remember a family vacation we took when I was a young teen. We had saved for months to go to a golfing paradise. Upon arrival our vision was dashed. The place was a dump. The hotel rooms were dirty. The golf course was worse. The fairways were as hard as rock and the greens were the worst we had ever seen. We played nine holes and asked for our money back. Heaven will not be like that. No one will be disappointed.