One More Look
Immediately the boy’s father cried out and said, “I do believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 NASB Unbelief – “To live without prayer is to live without God, to live without a soul.”[1] We’ve examined several insights about prayer. We’ve struggled with the idea—and the practice. We’ve confronted our own despondency, frailty, and unworthiness. We…
The God Drug
The Lord is my strength and my shield; in him my heart trusts, and I am helped; my heart exults, and with my song I give thanks to him. Psalm 28:7 ESV Exults – You have probably heard rumors about “the God particle,” the scientists’ dream of finding that “something” that creates life. “Elusive” would be a modest assessment of…
365.2422
God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.Genesis 1:5 NASB One day – The Hebrew syntax isn’t quite the same as the English translation. In Hebrew the final words of this verse are yôm ʾeḥad (literally, “day one”). Since the English versions treat…
Nature Abhors a Vacuum
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – Heschel provides an amazing collection of thoughts about prayer. Here’s the one we will deal with today: “Prayer cannot live in…
Liturgy
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – If prayer is primarily kavvanah, then why memorize the words? Wouldn’t it be more spiritual to simply pour out our deepest…
Begin Again
One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Luke 11:1 NIV Teach us – Heschel wrote: “Prayer as a way of speaking is a way that leads nowhere. The text must never be more important…
Cosmic Prayer
Let the fields be jubilant, and everything in them; let all the trees of the forest sing for joy. Let all creation rejoice before the Lord, . . Psalm 96:12-13a NIV All Creation – “Genuine prayer is an event in which man surpasses himself. Man hardly comprehends what is coming to pass. Its beginning lies on this…
Wait a Minute!
Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall;…
Disappointed
Why are you in despair, my soul? And why are you restless within me? Wait for God, for I will again praise Him for the help of His presence, my God. Psalm 42:11 NASB Despair – Hebrew is earthy. It doesn’t portray the complexity of our Greek-based psychological vocabulary. It describes internal psychic states with tactile…
