Grace for Every Need

Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant. (Psalm 86:16)

Future grace is the constant plea of the praying psalmists. They pray for it again and again to meet every need. They give us a beautiful model of daily dependence on future grace for every exigency.

They cry out for grace when they need help: “Hear, O Lord, and be merciful to me! O Lord, be my helper!” (Psalm 30:10).

When they are weak: “Turn to me and be gracious to me; give your strength to your servant” (Psalm 86:16).

When they need healing: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am languishing; heal me, O Lord” (Psalm 6:2).

When they are afflicted by enemies: “Be gracious to me, O Lord! See my affliction from those who hate me” (Psalm 9:13).

When they are lonely: “Turn to me and be gracious to me, for I am lonely and afflicted” (Psalm 25:16).

When they are grieving: “Be gracious to me, O Lord, for I am in distress; my eye is wasted from grief” (Psalm 31:9).

When they have sinned: “O Lord, be gracious to me; heal me, for I have sinned against you!” (Psalm 41:4).

When they long for God’s name to be exalted among the nations: “God be gracious to us and bless us . . . that your way may be known on earth” (Psalm 67:1–2).

Unmistakably, prayer is the great link of faith between the soul of the saint and the promise of future grace. If ministry was meant by God to be sustained by prayer, then ministry was meant to be sustained by faith in future grace.

John Piper 

Plan for Prayer

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)

Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer?

Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.

If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing is ready.

We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the same old rut.

If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you.

Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer — for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.

John Piper 

Prayer is the Key that Opens the Morning

“And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.” MATTHEW 6:13

 
PONDER THIS

What is wrong with so many of us is that we wake up in the morning and everything’s going fine. We jump out of bed, we get dressed, and have our breakfast. We gulp down some hot coffee. We get in the car and go to work. Everything is just fine. We think we’ve got it made, and then here comes the enemy—and we fail.

We fall and we come to the end of the day and we pray, “God forgive me.” And we should! Every time you pray that in sincerity and in truth, God does forgive you. But why do we keep on asking Him to forgive us for the same thing? You ask God to forgive you, and He does. Then you fall again and say, “God forgive me,” and He does.

The reason we keep asking God to forgive us for the same thing is that we’ve only learned part of this prayer in Matthew 6. We’ve learned to pray, “God forgive us,” but we’ve not learned to pray, “Lord lead us, lest we fall into temptation. Deliver us from evil.”

The best way to deal with your sin is not to try to clean it up at the end of the day, but to prevent it from coming at the beginning of the day. This prayer is not the lock that closes the night; it is the key that opens the morning. Pray in the morning for daily deliverance.

What are some of the ways you get ready spiritually each day? How do those things prepare you for the spiritual battles ahead?
What are some reasons you don’t prioritize getting ready spiritually each day?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a reminder for yourself to get spiritually ready each day. Make this preparation a habit.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers

Plan for Prayer

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)

Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer?

Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.

If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing is ready.

We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the same old rut.

If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you.

Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need midcourse corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer — for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.

John Piper 

Trusting God Through Prayer

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

MATTHEW 7:7-11

 

PONDER THIS

There’s no substitute for prayer. Not enthusiasm. Not eloquence. Not energy. There is no substitute for prayer. The reason many of us fail and the reason many of us are poverty-stricken in our spiritual lives is we’ve never learned to pray. May God help us to pray!

Why do we pray? We invite God to be a part of our lives so we can delight ourselves in the Lord. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that we are, “Workers together with Him.” God loves us so much that God gives us the privilege of participating in His kingdom work through prayer.

Now, God can work without our prayers, but we cannot work without God, and it is prayer that causes us to depend on Him. God does not want us to live independent of Him. If God simply blessed us without our asking, what would that do? It would teach us to live independently from God. But God wants you to abide with Him. And that’s the reason God taught us to pray—to invite Him to take control of our lives moment by moment.

How often do you go to God in prayer?

What would it look like to invite God to be a part of every aspect of your life through prayer? What would change?

PRACTICE THIS

Pray and invite God to control every part of your life today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are You Demanding of God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“When he heard that Jesus had come out of Judea into Galilee, he went to Him and implored Him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, ‘Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will by no means believe.’ The nobleman said to Him, ‘Sir, come down before my child dies!’”

John 4:47-49

 

PONDER THIS

The man in today’s passage initially had a self-centered faith. Look again in verse 49. What’s he interested in? The welfare of his child. Is there anything wrong with that? No. And I will promise you if I have a sick child, I’m going to be bombarding Heaven in prayer. But this man had yet to bow at the feet of Jesus Christ and worship Him. So many of us are so concerned about our health, our welfare, our children, our families, and our future. There’s nothing wrong with asking God to bless us. But strong faith is interested primarily in the glory of God and the heart in its right relationship to Him. This man was interested in the physical, not the spiritual, in the temporal, not the eternal.

Faith is not dictating to God. Faith is hearing God, believing God, and acting on what God says. This man was a nobleman. He had been used to telling people what to do. He had many servants. But that’s not how it works with God. Faith is not about us telling God what to do. How many of us demand of God before we take a moment to worship Him?

What do you pray about the most? What does that tell you about your faith?

When have you been self-centered in your faith? How can you know?

PRACTICE THIS

Discuss with a fellow Christian how your life would change if you were primarily interested in the eternal over the temporal.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Prayer Fortifies Our Dependence on God

PRAY OVER THIS

“The LORD is righteous in all His ways, gracious in all His works. The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.” Psalm 145:17-18

 

PONDER THIS

One day I had the pleasure of taking a private flight to get to a speaking engagement. We were flying over Arkansas and the pilot said, “Do you know how to fly an airplane?” I said, “No, I don’t.” We were sitting side by side. He said, “Would you like to try?” I said, “Yes, I would.” And so, as we passed the time flying over Arkansas, he let me fly that airplane. Of course, he was sitting right there. He could fly it without me, but I couldn’t fly it without him. He had his hands on the controls. I had my hands on the controls. He was allowing me to participate with him where he didn’t need me, but I needed him desperately. That was a delightful experience for me!

And that’s the way prayer is. God can do it without you. God knows exactly what you need before you ask Him. But God enables you to be one with Him, and He teaches us a dependency upon and a fellowship with Him. We are to pray not to impress God, not to inform God, but to invite God and to enjoy God. God is not going to force a relationship on you, but He desires fellowship with you.

Have you invited God into your everyday life through prayer? Why or why not?

How have you realized your dependence on God? How has that changed your perspective?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to God and acknowledge your dependence on Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Are Your Spiritual Ears Tuned to Hear God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” Romans 8:11-14 

 

PONDER THIS

Do you remember anticipating Christmas as a child? Perhaps the Christmas tree was decorated and in the family room. Maybe your family hung stockings by the chimney. There were presents under the tree, and you could hardly wait until Christmas morning. In Scripture, there was a man who was waiting for Christmas like this. His name was Simeon. He was looking, waiting, longing, and anticipating the coming of Jesus Christ into this world. Then one day, God led him to the temple to meet the Messiah, baby Jesus.

Did you know that the same Spirit that led Simeon to the temple so long ago to meet the Lord Jesus and hold Jesus in his arms is the same Holy Spirit who wants to guide you? Are you sensitive? Can God speak to you? How about your prayer life? So often in our prayer lives, we’re telling God things. We think God’s some sort of heavenly Santa Claus. We come with a shopping list of the things we want, and we say, “Now, listen, Lord, your servant speaks,” when we ought to say, “Speak, Lord; Your servant is listening.”

What does your prayer life look like? What are things you most often pray about?

Do you crave to see God work the way Simeon did? Why or why not?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some time in prayer to listen to God rather than only speaking to Him.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Plan for Prayer

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)

Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer?

Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.

If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing is ready.

We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the same old rut.

If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you.

Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid-course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer — for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.

John Piper 

What Kind of Prayer Pleases God?

“This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.” (Isaiah 66:2)

The first mark of the upright heart is that it trembles at the word of the Lord.

Isaiah 66 deals with the problem of some who worship in a way that pleases God and some who worship in a way that doesn’t. Verse 3 describes the wicked who bring their sacrifices, “He who slaughters an ox is like one who kills a man.” Their sacrifices are an abomination to God — on a par with murder. Why?

In verse 4 God explains, “When I called, no one answered, when I spoke, they did not listen.” Their sacrifices were abominations to God because the people were deaf to his voice. But what about those whose prayers God heard? God says in verse 2, “This is the one to whom I will look: he who is humble and contrite in spirit and trembles at my word.”

I conclude from this that the first mark of the upright, whose prayers are a delight to God, is that they tremble at God’s word. These are the people to whom the Lord will look.

So, the prayer of the upright that delights God comes from a heart that at first feels precarious in the presence of God. It trembles at the hearing of God’s word, because it feels so far from God’s ideal and so vulnerable to his judgment and so helpless and so sorry for its failings.

This is just what David said in Psalm 51:17, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.” The first thing that makes a prayer acceptable to God is the brokenness and humility of the one who prays. They tremble at his word.

John Piper 

Do You Have Dangerous Zeal for God?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” Philippians 4:5-7

 

PONDER THIS

There is a zeal that is divisive, destructive, and deadly. You can take a hammer and build a house with it, or you can cause someone harm with it. Anything taken to an extreme can become bad. We need to learn the difference between zeal and moderation. Let your moderation or your gentleness be known unto all men. Zeal and moderation are not enemies; they're friends.

That doesn’t mean we compromise our beliefs, but we need to learn to live by grace. The cause of Christ has been hurt by misguided zeal many times. When Jesus was in Samaria, the Samaritans were mistreating the Lord Jesus Christ. James and John were with Jesus, and they became very zealous for Jesus. They said to Him in Luke 9:54, “Lord, do You want us to command fire to come down from heaven and consume them, just as Elijah did?” But Jesus turned, and rebuked them, and said, “You do not know what manner of spirit you are of. For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives but to save them” (Luke 9:55-56). The manner of spirit they had was that of a misguided zealot. They saw the way the Samaritans were living, and they said “Lord, let’s get them.” The cause of Christ has sometimes been hurt far more in the house of its friends than in the house of its enemies.

What is an issue that easily riles you up? How can you guard against misguided zeal?

When have you been tempted to take justice into your own hands?

PRACTICE THIS

Talk to another Christian who knows you well and ask where you tend to have misguided zeal. Ask your friend to keep you accountable for submitting those things to God.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Prayer Bonds Us With God

PRAY OVER THIS

“For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen.” Romans 11:36

 

PONDER THIS

What is the origin of effectual prayer? Its roots are in the purpose of God. The prayer that gets to Heaven starts in Heaven. “For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things.” Prayer is God’s way of getting Heaven’s will done on Earth, not man’s way of getting man’s will done in Heaven.

Why has God allowed us to pray? Have you ever thought about that? Prayer is so mysterious. God knows what we need before we ask Him, so why should I ask God for what He already knows I need? Could God do it without our praying? He will not do it without our praying, and if we don’t pray, we will not have, for the Bible says, “You do not have because you do not ask” (James 4:2).

But God has given us the privilege of working with Him. God, in His administration of the Universe, has called us laborers together with Him. When we pray, we have the privilege of working with God. And through prayer, we also bond with Him. If we didn’t pray, many of us would never think about God. Many of us would take His blessings for granted. But God wants us to be perpetually dependent upon Him, so He teaches us to pray.

What aspects of prayer have you struggled with?

How has prayer grown your relationship with God?

PRACTICE THIS

Take some intentional time in prayer to focus on God and His will, which is found in His Word.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Why Do We Pray?

PRAY OVER THIS

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

 

PONDER THIS

Why do we pray? To invite God to be a part of our lives so we can delight ourselves in the Lord. The Bible says there in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that we are, “Workers together with Him.” God loves us so much that He gives us the privilege of participating in His kingdom work through prayer.

God can work without our prayers, but we cannot work without God, and it is prayer that leads us to depend upon Him. God does not want us to live lives independent of Him. If God simply blessed us without our asking, what would that do? That would teach us to live life independently from God. But Jesus said, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). God wants you to abide with Him. That’s the reason He has taught us to pray; to invite Him to take control of our lives.

The devil cannot keep God from answering. So, what will he do? He will endeavor to keep you from asking. But our Lord in today’s passage says, “Ask, seek, and knock.”

What kind of things do you pray about? What things do you not pray about?

Who do you know who lives as an example of someone who abides in Christ? How do you observe them doing this?

PRACTICE THIS

Consider some things you do not pray about enough. Bring those matters to God in prayer today.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Plan for Prayer

“If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. . . . These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.” (John 15:7–8, 11)

Prayer pursues joy in fruitful fellowship with Jesus, knowing that God is glorified when we bear fruit in answer to prayer. Why do God’s children so often fail to have consistent habits of happy, fruitful prayer?

Unless I’m badly mistaken, one of the reasons is not so much that we don’t want to, but that we don’t plan to.

If you want to take a four-week vacation, you don’t just get up one summer morning and say, “Hey, let’s go today!” You won’t have anything ready. You won’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned.

But that is how many of us treat prayer. We get up day after day and realize that significant times of prayer should be a part of our life, but nothing is ready.

We don’t know where to go. Nothing has been planned. No time. No place. No procedure. And we all know that the opposite of planning is not a wonderful flow of deep, spontaneous experiences in prayer. The opposite of planning is the same old rut.

If you don’t plan a vacation, you will probably stay home and watch TV. The natural, unplanned flow of spiritual life sinks to the lowest ebb of vitality. There is a race to be run and a fight to be fought. If you want renewal in your life of prayer, you must plan to see it.

Therefore, my simple exhortation is this: Let us take time this very day to rethink our priorities and how prayer fits in. Make some new resolve. Try some new venture with God. Set a time. Set a place. Choose a portion of Scripture to guide you.

Don’t be tyrannized by the press of busy days. We all need mid course corrections. Make this a day of turning to prayer — for the glory of God and for the fullness of your joy.

John Piper 

How to Plead for Unbelievers

Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved. (Romans 10:1)

Paul prays that God would convert Israel. He prays for her salvation! He does not pray for ineffectual influences, but for effectual influences. And that is how we should pray too.

We should take the new covenant promises of God and plead with God to bring them to pass in our children and our neighbors and on all the mission fields of the world.

God, take out of their flesh the heart of stone and give them a new heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)

Circumcise their heart so that they love you! (Deuteronomy 30:6)

Father, put your Spirit within them and cause them to walk in your statutes. (Ezekiel 36:27)

Grant them repentance and a knowledge of the truth that they may escape from the snare of the devil. (2 Timothy 2:25–26)

Open their hearts so that they believe the gospel! (Acts 16:14)

When we believe in the sovereignty of God — in the right and power of God to elect and then bring hardened sinners to faith and salvation — then we will be able to pray with no inconsistency, and with the confidence of great biblical promises for the conversion of the lost.

Thus, God has pleasure in this kind of praying because it ascribes to him the right and honor to be the free and sovereign God that he is in election and salvation.

John Piper 

Prayer Is for Sinners

“Lord, teach us to pray.” (Luke 11:1)

God answers the prayers of sinners, not perfect people. And you can become perfectly paralyzed in your praying if you do not focus on the cross and realize this.

I could show it from numerous Old Testament texts where God hears the cry of his sinful people, whose very sins had gotten them into the trouble from which they are crying for deliverance (for example, Psalm 38:4, 15; 40:12–13; 107:11–13). But let me show it from Luke 11 — in two ways:

In this version of the Lord’s Prayer (Luke 11:2–4), Jesus says, “When you pray, say . . . ” and then in verse 4 he includes this petition, “and forgive us our sins.” So, if you connect the beginning of the prayer with the middle, what he says is, “Whenever you pray, say . . . forgive us our sins.”

I take this to mean that this should be as much a part of all our praying as, “Hallowed be your name.” Which means that Jesus assumes that we need to seek forgiveness virtually every time we pray.

In other words, we are always sinners. Nothing we do is perfect. As Martin Luther said, on his deathbed, “We are beggars. This is true.” Even if we have achieved some measure of obedience before we pray, we always come to the Lord as sinners — all of us. And God does not turn away the prayers of sinners when they pray like this.

The second place we can see this is in Luke 11:13: “If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

Jesus calls his disciples “evil.” Pretty strong language. And he did not mean that they were out of fellowship with him. He did not mean that their prayers could not be answered.

He meant that as long as this fallen age lasts, even his own disciples will have an evil bent that pollutes everything they do, but doesn’t keep them from doing much good as they rely on his grace and power.

We are simultaneously evil and redeemed. We are gradually overcoming our evil by the power of the Holy Spirit. But our native corruption is not obliterated by conversion.

We are sinners and we are beggars. And if we recognize this sin, renounce it, fight it, and cling to the cross of Christ as our hope, then God will hear us and answer our prayers.

John Piper 

Prayer Reveals Your Priorities

PRAY OVER THIS

“Then she made a vow and said, ‘O Lord of hosts, if You will indeed look on the affliction of Your maidservant and remember me, and not forget Your maidservant, but will give Your maidservant a male child, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall come upon his head.’”

1 Samuel 1:11

 

PONDER THIS

Do you know why so many parents’ prayers are unanswered? People say, “Well, I pray for my child, and God just doesn’t seem to hear my prayer.” Let me ask you a question. What are you praying for your children? What is your desire for your children? Think about it. Are you praying for health? Success? Popularity? Fame?

There are many people who feel it would be a tragedy if God were to make a missionary out of their child. I can remember people talking to my parents, to convince them to discourage me not to go into the ministry because they thought it would be a waste. Many don’t equate ministry with “being something” in the way they hope for their children. How many of you are praying, “God make my son important. Make my daughter famous”? We must regularly examine our priorities.

If you are honest, what are your greatest priorities for your children or the children you are close to in your life?

How do these compare to God’s priorities for them?

PRACTICE THIS

Take time today in prayer, submitting the children in your life to God. Ask Him to lead them according to His priorities and not your own.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers 

Don’t Be Like the Mule

Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you. (Psalm 32:9)

Picture God’s people as a farmyard of all sorts of animals. God cares for his animals, he shows them where they need to go, and supplies a barn for their protection.

But there is one beast on this animal farm that gives God an awful time, namely, the mule. He’s stupid and he’s stubborn and you can’t tell which comes first — stubbornness or stupidity.

Now the way God likes to get his animals into the barn for their food and shelter is by teaching them that they all have a personal name and then calling them by name. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go” (Psalm 32:8).

But the mule will not respond to that sort of direction. He is without understanding. So God gets in his pick-up truck and goes out in the field, puts the bit and bridle in the mule’s mouth, hitches it to the truck, and drags him stiff-legged and snorting all the way into the barn.

That is not the way God wants his animals to come to him for blessing and protection.

One of these days it is going to be too late for that mule. He’s going to get clobbered with hail and struck by lightning, and when he comes running, the barn door is going to be shut.

Therefore, don’t be like the mule. “Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle.”

Instead, let everyone who is godly come to God in prayer at a time when he may be found (Psalm 32:6).

The way not to be a mule is to humble ourselves, to come to God in prayer, to confess our sins, and to accept, as needy little farmyard chicks, the direction of God into the barn of his protection and provision.

John Piper 

Prayer’s Exclamation Point

All the promises of God find their Yes in him. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Prayer is a response to promises, that is, to the assurances of God’s future grace.

Prayer is drawing on the account where God has deposited all his stores of future grace.

Prayer is not hoping in the dark that there might be a God of good intentions out there. Prayer banks on the promise of God, and goes to the bank every day and draws on stores of future grace needed for that day.

Don’t miss the connection between the two halves of this great verse. Notice the “that is why”: “All the promises of God are Yes in Christ. That is why (therefore) we pray Amen through him, to God’s glory.”

To make sure we see it, let’s turn the two halves around: When we pray, we say Amen to God through Christ, because God has said a decisive Amen to all his promises in Christ. Prayer is the confident plea for God to make good on his promises of future grace — for Christ’s sake. Prayer links our faith in future grace with the foundation of it all, Jesus Christ.

Which leads to the final point: “Amen” is a full and precious word in times of prayer. It doesn’t mean primarily, “Yes, I have now said this prayer.” It means primarily, “Yes, God has made all these promises.”

Amen means, “Yes, Lord, you can do it.” It means, “Yes, Lord, you are powerful. Yes, Lord, you are wise. Yes, Lord, you are merciful. Yes, Lord, all future grace comes from you and has been confirmed in Christ.”

“Amen” is an exclamation point of hope and warranted confidence after a prayer for help.

John Piper 

Depending on God Through Prayer

PRAY OVER THIS

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7

 

PONDER THIS

Prayer is God’s way of causing us to be dependent upon Him. If God just gave us what we needed without our asking, we would cease to be dependent on Him. Prayer is a way of binding us to Him. Asking God for what we need ought to be just as natural as breathing. Don’t get the idea you can only ask God for spiritual things, and you take care of the secular things. Can you imagine Jesus dividing His life into the secular and the sacred? Everything is important to God. You may say, “Well, this is beyond God,” or “This is too small for God to deal with.” No! Can you think of anything too big or too small for God to notice? Ask Him for any desire of your heart. You may say, “What if I want something that I shouldn’t?” You can still pray about it. You can say, “God, I want something You don’t want. Fix my want-er.” Pray about everything.

How easy or difficult do you find it to pray to God about everything?

What are some obstacles that keep you from praying to God about everything?

PRACTICE THIS

Make a list of everything that is weighing on your mind this week. Take time to pray about everything on this list, no matter how big or small.

LWF Dr. Adrian Rogers