Pray Network Forum

Last week I dealt with the first of four questions of How Do We Know. I had to begin with the question, “What do you know?” My second question may be preliminary to the first. It is about thinking. And while our thinking should proceed from what we know, our thoughts and attitudes often determine our convictions.

Question #2

“What do think, and why do you think it?”

Our attitudes and opinions need to be examined. Often what we know or believe we know is preceded by attitudes. It may offend some of you for me to say most of our politics are made up of opinions. This is true however traditional or radical you think your ideas are. Some years ago I gave a man a gospel booklet in effort to explain the gospel to him. As he looked at it he blerted out, “You know, the Jews killed all the prophets.” It is also true that all the Old Testament prophets were Jewish. I am not exactly sure what either of these things have to do with the gospel. But I suspect he wanted to start any religious conversation by defending his hate for the Jews.

I went to a state college. And although I did not think or pray about it at the time, I am convinced that I went to the school where God wanted me to study. Most of my professors and many of my friends made no profession of faith at all. It was invigorating for me to feel like I was going against the stream of thought around me. But for many years after graduation, I would begin to think about something I had come to believe and discover it was not right in any way and totally incompatible with my Christian faith.

All of us are tempted to cling to whatever facts seem to bolster whatever we think in the first place. That is why it is so important to regularly examine our thinking. Simply asking the question, “Why do I think that?” is often enough to alter the course of our thinking in ways that protect us from pitfalls. I suggest that you start asking yourself this question and see if you do not detect thinking that is faulty in your own opinion.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

In a time of crisis a friend put her writing note on her front door to keep people from bothering her. “Writing In Progress; Please don’t disturb.” But she admitted to my wife and I that she was not trying to write. Have you ever been too unhappy or too sick to write? I suspect all of us have. And that is a shame. We get our deepest insights in suffering and sickness. You probably remember the quote from C.S. Lewis' The Problem of Pain, “Pain is God's megaphone.”

God often speaks most clearly through pain or illness, even if it is only a sinus infection. While you are hurting, you will often be too distracted to hear Him. So it is important to pray for insight as you begin to recover. Giving thanks ought to be natural in such a time. Thankfulness is also a key to insight. And it is important to spend time thinking about it while the memory is fresh, maybe still hurting some. This is a crucial time to read books like The Problem of Pain or Philip Yancey's books, Where is God When It Hurts, Disappointment With God, or The Gift of Pain. Even a good novel may mean more to you while you are recovering.

And this is a great time to write. I often get my best insights while I am writing. And that is an important time to touch the hearts of readers whether they are hurting or not.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

A colleague asked a Christian worker for a copy of the Bible because she has close friends who are believers and is curious to know what it has to say. Pray that she will actually read the Word with an open heart, and that God will speak to her and open her eyes to the Truth in reading the Word. 

Have you ever been too sick to pray? I doubt it. Unless you were unconscious, you were not. You were probably never hurting too much to cry out to God. You were never too upset to pray. When you most upset you had to tell God.

But did you pray as much or as fervently after you began to feel better? I seldom have, and that is a shame. God often speaks clearly to us through illness, even if it is no more than a cold. But it is hardest to hear His voice when we are distracted by discomfort. When you are feeling a little better, you need to pray for sound insights. That is the time you will be able to fathom the depth of what God has been saying.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

Today I want to share a guest blog written by my friend Alexandria who desperately needed a praying grandparent. Please read it all the way through. You will

 see the urgency for grandparents to cover their grandchildren with prayer. It is an understatement to say that for some people life can be so horrendously painful. Feeling as though they spend all or most of your energies fighting to survive the battles that sap your strength.

My life has felt like that in many ways, and even as I talk about it here, it still pains me as I look back and survey the many potholes and washed out roads that represent where I have been, and what I have come through. As I reminisce, I find there could have been a better way, and perhaps I could have lived a different life...if I had a grandparent praying faithfully over my soul as I walked through childhood toward the ever pulling future, wishing that Hope would somehow find me and set me free.

From the time I was young I had a sincere desire to be good, to obey and to please, and so I put forth my efforts in that direction, as imperfectly as that was. Now I am not saying that I was a perfect child, but my heart wanted...longed for peace and order so badly that I was practically willing to do whatever it took to be in that space. The problem was, the house I grew up in was anything but that, and the anger that resided overflowed the walls that held us in and broke our hearts as if they were glass. It was a pattern for us kids, and it left us scrambling between episodes, wondering what the next trigger would be the blow-up. Would it be between my parents or laid out upon us kids, molding us against our wills, to people who were afraid and confused and well, broken...wounded and desperate for a place of love and safety.

But those places of safety never came, and we were left to try and navigate the anger and the violence as best as we could. But without a Godly intervention, we fell apart while trying to hold ourselves together, and thus began the continuation of this pain as we grew up into adults, defacing our perspectives, and keeping us from that peace that only Christ can bring into any one of our lives.

I know that my story, unfortunately, is not an isolated or rare occurrence in this world. I know there are all kinds of horrific things that happen to many people in all walks of life. I know and understand that it can be so overwhelming as we look on, wringing our hands, desperate for God to fix what we cannot even begin to fathom happening. It's easy for the desperation of others to become our desperation in that sincere desire to spare others the pains of injustice, or any difficulties that chafe against those we hold closely in our hearts.

But there is a weapon, and there is hope, and a way to make a difference, a big one, it's called prayer. I ended up spending my whole life falling into one abusive situation after another, but my broken compass and my search for that oasis from the pains of life never appeared. My quest to survive was hindered by the fact that I did not think that God could love a person like me. I could not believe that He wanted me as His own. Such deep scars surrounded my life and pains that made me feel so ashamed and so unworthy of love no matter who it was from, even God Almighty. 

Today, I am thankful to say that I have come to know the power of prayer. I have come to see how prayer has totally been the vehicle through which the power of Jesus is being called into my life. He is making old things new and leading me to that long awaited place of love and mercy that is so amazing and experienced through knowing Jesus as my Savior. He has lifted me out of the darkness, and He continues to heal me and strengthen me to glorify Him...and I know beyond a doubt that God began knocking on my door when He placed people in my life that began to pray for me. For me, I so desperately needed a miracle.

I have come to know Lillian Penner along this journey, and I am greatly touched by her dedication of encouraging grandparents to pray for their grandchildren. I am still just a mom, but I see with such great perspective how life is impacted when we pray faithfully for each other, especially the children. There probably is not a more fervent prayer that those that are planted from a deep love in the heart for those that God has blessed you with your grandchildren.

I want to encourage you to pray for your grandchildren, pray as though their lives depend on it. (Because like me, someday it just might.) We need to hold them up before our Heavenly Father and stand in the gap for these children so that Satan may not have a foothold in their lives that leads them into paths of destruction. If it was possible for me, a girl who longed to do what was right but ended up falling into sin over and over again, not only from others against me but my sins that were clouded by pain and destruction, then it can happen to anyone. It is life changing when we go to the Lord in prayer, not only for those we pray for but for us who seek His power and will to come against the darkness in this life we must live through.

Jesus never promised any of us an easy life, but He did promise us His love and power through the cross. It's time to draw on the greatest act of Love in the history of humanity, by pouring out ourselves for these precious children in prayer, calling upon the power of the cross to do its phenomenal work!

Guest blog by Alexandra Perse

I have developed “Thirty-one Scriptures to Pray for Grandchildren” that many grandparents have found helpful to pray for my grandchildren. Just by joining the mailing list on the right side of this page for grandparenting blogs and prayer suggestions and I will send you a free downloadable copy of “Thirty-one Scriptures to Pray for your Grandchildren.”   

I saw it again last week. Someone posted on social media, “We are in need of prayers sent our way.” I’ve written about this before, but it keeps reoccurring, apparently from folks who understand their need for prayer, but don’t understand prayer. The Bible is clear that all prayer is to be offered to the Father, to and in the name of the Son, in, with, and through the Holy Spirit. Consider the following scripture passages: “When you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father . . . In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father” (Matthew 6:6, 9). “Whatever you ask the Father in My name . . .” (John 15:16). “It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us” (Romans 8:34). “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit . . .” (Ephesians 6:18). “Praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20). The great evangelist R.A. Torrey wrote, “To sum it all up, the prayer that God answers is the prayer that is to God the Father, that is on the ground of the atoning blood of God the Son, and that is under the direction and the power of God the Holy Spirit.” I realize that for some, this is just a misuse of words, but if prayer is really serious, let’s try to get it right. Don’t send prayer to another person, nor request prayer be sent to you from another person. Prayer is about a receiving Father, a providing Son, and a directing Spirit.

Question #1

“What do you know, and How do know it?”

When someone asks me if I know anything, I am tempted to answer in jest, “I don’t even suspect anything?” The fact is many people today think you cannot know anything in relation to spiritual matters. That is nonsense. How could you know that it is impossible to know anything? The primary argument against spiritual knowledge began with men like David Hume who believed anything that cannot be proved in a scientific laboratory is mere sophistry. Following in Hume’s trail the philosophic school of Logical Positivism put forth the assertion, “No statement is meaningful that cannot be proved true or false.” The problem with that was, like Hume’s proposition, that it failed its own test. That statement cannot be proved true or false.

Such thinking evolved into the notion that you do not know anything that is possible to doubt. That too defeats itself. Humans have an infinite capacity to doubt. I can doubt that all other people exist. I can even doubt my own existence. But these are not reasonable doubts. They do not correspond to any of the information gleaned by our five senses, social interaction, or reasoning. It is possible to know certain things with some measure of accuracy. And it is important to discern the foundations of your knowledge.

There are at least four sources of human knowledge. We have some instinctive knowledge. You may not have the amazing instinct of a migrating bird. But you are born with some knowledge. At least you were born knowing how to frown, blink, and cry aloud. And you instinctively knew what frowning or crying meant. You have sensual knowledge that you gain from your five senses. Possibly my earliest memory comes from crawling into a red ant bed at the end of our dirt driveway. I learned quickly to avoid ant beds. You also have instructional or informational knowledge. What you are taught may be the easiest of these sources to question. How do I know something I am taught is true? But a person who can not learn from those who teach him, will not survive to adulthood. We have spiritual knowledge, knowledge that is planted in us by the Spirit of God. The majority of this may come after a person is indwelt by the Holy Spirit upon conversion to Christ. But I suspect the fact that most people on earth and in all history have believed in God or in supernatural reality is evidence of spiritual knowledge. I also think the fact that all persons are aware of right and wrong and generally agree on what is right or wrong is spiritual knowledge. And you have reasoned knowledge. Interestingly enough, this knowledge can only come from something else that you already know.

Ask yourself what you do know, especially about spiritual things, and decide how you came to know each of these things. Does something seem to be self-evident? Was it confirmed by personal experience? Did some knowledge come from revelation or scripture that you have come to trust? Did you reason it from other truths in which you have been convinced? If you cannot come to some foundational truths that other knowledge can be based upon, you will not know anything. This is true in all areas of learning.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

"Power to do the impossible resides in the spirits of those who know Me," I heard the Lord whisper early yesterday morning. I am more convinced than ever that every day that we neglect God is a day that we give more ground to the enemy. What is deposited in us cannot be taken from us, but in order to be effective against the world's daily assaults, in order to do the impossible, we must tap into God's power at least daily! 

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After the children in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe get into Narnia they discover that Lucy's friend, Mr. Tumnus, has been arrested for “fraternizing with humans” and other high crimes against the white witch. They don't know where to turn to find secret friends. Luckily a Robin finds them and leads them along.

After they have followed it for some distance, hopping from tree to tree, Edmond pulls Peter aside and points out that they don't know anything about this bird, and they don't even know which is the right side.

Peter is taken aback at first. But then he answers, "But Robins are good birds in every story I've ever read."

"Yes," Edmond answers. "But how do we know?"

Edmond has already shown himself to be a self-centered stinker. And although the other children don't know it yet, he has become an out and out traitor. But Edmond actually did a good thing by forcing Peter to think about why he believed what he did.

We live in a skeptical world. But its challenges help us tighten grip on how we know truths that are so important for believers.

For the next few weeks I want to encourage you to ask yourself some questions that will help you get a grip on the foundations of your own thinking.

1. What do you know?

and

How do you know it?

2. What do you think?

and

Why do you think it?

3. What do you want?

and

Why do you want it?

4. What do you believe?

and

Why do you believe it?

Let me encourage you to begin thinking about these questions. I will deal with one of these pairs of questions each week. And I would like you to share these questions with anyone who will think or talk with you about them.

I am not primarily posing these questions as a defense against those who might challenge you. But I believe anchoring your own convictions will prove to be a powerful apologetic. I pray for God to make our knowledge steadfast in His love, in His grace, in His revelation, in Himself.

http://thinkinginthespirit.blogspot.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://writingprayerfully.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

Grandparents Day of Prayer and National Grandparents Day are similar but not the same. To understand their similarities and differences, we need to examine both, starting with National Grandparents Day.

National Grandparents Day

After a three-year battle that began in 1970, West Virginia housewife Marian McQuade convinced her state Congress to commemorate grandparents with a special day. This commemoration honored grandparents, provided them an opportunity to express their love for their grandchildren and raised community awareness about the gifts grandparents can offer.

Five years later, the United States Congress passed legislation declaring the first Sunday after Labor Day as National Grandparents Day. They selected September because September denotes the autumn season of life. President Jimmy Carter gave his endorsement by signing the proclamation.

Grandparents Day of Prayer

In 2010, author Lillian Penner suggested that a day of prayer to coincide with National Grandparents Day. Thanks to Mrs. Penner’s efforts, churches around the world observe Grandparents Day of Prayer. They encourage grandparents to pray for their grandchildren, both in private and corporate settings.

Do you recognize the importance of praying for your grandchildren? Do you want to encourage others to be praying grandparents? If so, may I suggest hosting an event to celebrate Grandparents Day of Prayer?

You may want to host a prayer breakfast or a luncheon following your morning worship. Or you may want to offer an afternoon tea or evening dessert in your home. Perhaps your minister is willing to address the importance of praying grandparents and set aside a special prayer time during the worship service. The possibilities are endless. It is imperative; however, grandparents gather to pray for their grandchildren.

Conclusion

 Both Grandparents Day of Prayer and National Grandparents Day occur on the first Sunday after Labor Day. This year's date is September 10th. Both commemorate the vital role grandparent’s play in the family. The fundamental difference between the two is Grandparents Day of Prayer encourages grandparents to pray for the hearts, souls, and minds of their grandchildren.

We are asking grandparents throughout the world to unite in prayer for their grandchildren and their parents. We have two ways that you can participate on our website. www.grandparentsdayofprayer.com

1.    Click on “I will pray” button and give if you will commit to join us as a prayer warrior on Grandparents’ Day of Prayer.

2.    If you are willing to organize an event in your church, home, or retirement complexes, etc. click on “To find out more about becoming a volunteer” to follow the process

 If you realize the urgency for a Day of Prayer for our grandchildren and their parents, will you help us call grandparents to join in prayer on September 10th? Christian Grandparenting Network is prepared to provide step-by-step guidelines, resources and online tools for creating successful events.

Please check our website http://www.grandparentsdayofprayer.com for more information, testimonials, promotional materials and free downloads.

For additional information or if you have any questions, please contact me.

Thank you for your considering participation in this event.

Guest blog by Sherry Schumann, Co-Prayer Director for Christian Grandparenting Network

If you have questions or additional information, email Lillian Penner lpenner@christiangrandparentinng.net or Sherry Schumann sherry@christiangrandparenting.net

How to Pray if You're Type "A" 5/17/2017 Having a “Type A” personality has become synonymous with being perpetually occupied, moving quickly from one task to the next, or prioritizing tasks at the expense of relationships. Type A’s are typically happier when busy, value efficiency, and maximize the use of their time. I know what I’m talking about. I am one.

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