“It would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant…
“Satan dreads nothing but prayer. His one concern is to keep the saints from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, he mocks our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray.” Samuel Chadwick (James 2:19) Philippians 2:9-11 … God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which…
Bitterness is an obvious drain that destroys the person harboring it and defiles everyone around them. But what about things like fear and worry and disappointment and self-pity? “The clearest evidence that God’s grace is at work in our hearts is that we do not get into panics. The one great crime on the part…
“It is as men live that they pray. It is the life that prays. All lack of power to pray aright and perseveringly; all lack of power in prayer with God points to some lack in the Christian life.” Andrew Murray How shall we then live? Think about it… Isaiah 26:3 You keep him in…
I think one of the greatest hindrances to effective prayer happens when we begin to think that God is like us. When we try to bring God down to our level and understanding, we tend to reduce prayer to ‘figuring out the ask/receive system’ in order to persuade Him to do something… and then we…
“Yet even now,” declares the Lord, “return to me with all your heart, and with fasting weeping and mourning; and rend your heart and not your garments.” Now return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in lovingkindness and relenting of evil. Joel 2:12-13 God, who…
Matthew 8:16-17 When evening came, they brought to Him many who were demon-possessed; and He cast out the spirits with a word, and healed all who were ill. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “HE HIMSELF TOOK OUR INFIRMITIES AND CARRIED AWAY OUR DISEASES.” (ref. Isa. 53:4) I’ve always thought…
I pray for revival every day. Pray for revival among God’s people. 2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV) if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. The…
“A lot of fairly mature believers think God is like a genie in a bottle. Let’s ask for something and. poof, it’s going to happen. And if it doesn’t, then somehow He didn’t hear us or we did or said something wrong. God does have a plan; we need to get attuned to it, not…
Are you (any hint of) bitter? “All bitterness is ultimately toward God.” (since at the very least, God who is sovereign allowed ‘it’.) Ephesians 4:30-31 (NASB) Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God… Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Bitterness…