"I would know what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me."

Job 23:5

All of us come across things we do not understand about God. Some of them certainly bother us. I recently talked with a close friend who was struggling with one of those things. I told him I thought he might gain deeper insight than those of us who do not struggle with his particular question. But I don't believe that is always the case. I think it depends on how you pray about the issue that is bothering you.

Are you praying to understand? This is fundamental. I started to say there are things that can only be understood, if God explains them to us. But that statement is too narrow. We can never understand anything about God, if God does not reveal Himself to us. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says the things of God are "spiritually discerned."

The next principle of prayer that must apply here, is to come to Him in worshipful humility. Expressions of this need to be cut into several facets. Let me propose a parable for you to chew on. This is the kind of problem that puzzles us, and can frustrate or anger us. And while this is told as a parable, some of you know of something similar that has happened.

Suppose a group of young people are on a church bus on their way to an outing when an out-of-control truck hits them killing every young person on the bus. And suppose some of them had not yet understood the gospel, and would have that night. If God knew about this before it happened, before any of those young people were born, even before the foundation of the universe, why did He not prevent it?

My first application of humility here is the recognition that God is good. The problem is of course an example of the philosophical conundrum, "If God is all powerful and good, why do we still find evil in the world?"

But if good truly exists, there must be an ultimate good and an ultimate perspective of good. Just as life must have a living source, and intelligence must have an intelligent source, so goodness must come from an ultimate personal good. Abstract concepts come from persons. Persons do not spring from concepts. The ultimate source of good is God. If God were evil there would have to be someone higher than God to pronounce him evil. An evil being would not be God. If there is no ultimate good, there is no way we can say with any authority, "That is good." or "That is evil."

This does not solve the problem, but it gives us a starting place. Trusting His goodness, we can humbly come to God, asking Him to help us understand.

The next facet of humility is patience. There is no question that we live in a fallen world. The Bible explains that our world was cursed because of sin. I don't think I would need the Bible to tell me things are not right or fair. The good suffer and the wicked prosper. I am part of that evil. I love the story of The Times asking the question, "What is wrong with the world?" G.K. Chesterton reportedly wrote back.

"I am.

Sincerely,

G.K. Chesterton."

God's  promise is that in His infinite wisdom and power He will make all things right in the end. I am glad that He waited to condemn evil until I received the grace purchased by the blood of Jesus.

We also need to come with the humility to admit that we will not be able to understand many things about God and the universe. The book of Job in the Old Testament deals with a similar problem. And it is interesting to me that even after everything was restored to Job, the reasons for his calamity were never explained to him. He was never even given the explanation readers are given in the first chapter. And in fact philosophical answers are seldom what we need when we ourselves are hurting. To some extent all of us are the mother of a child on that bus. When you are hurting, you need God's embrace more than you need answers.

However, in the context of understanding such problems, there are some philosophical issues that must be addressed. The problem of this parable assumes some things that are not in evidence. First, it assumes that death is the worst possible thing that could happen to these young people. Death is terrible. The Bible clearly teaches that death is our enemy. (1 Cor.15:26) But the purpose of life is for people to come to know Christ as savior not length of life or other blessings in the here and now. If you were on a sinking ship, your greatest concern would not be how long you managed to stay on the ship before waves sweeping over the deck forced you into a life boat.

That is not to say we are not to hate death, evil and the unfairness of this world. Jesus was angry at the tomb of Lazarus. But even if I can't imagine how God can bring good out of some evil, He promises to do so. This is part of the reason Jesus had to die the way He did. If you were one of his disciples at the cross, you would surely have cried out against the unfairness of the whole event. And you would have felt there was no way God could bring any good out of that. Jesus laid down His divine privilege and unfairly bore our judgment.

And the parable assumes that God should have prevented these young people from this tragedy because they were good kids doing good things. But the Bible does not teach that good people, from our limited perspective, will always be sheltered from evil. And none of us are made right with God because we go to church or do good things. As Christians we do good things because we have been made right with God.

However young or old the people on that bus were, they were infected by the evil that our hearts choose. They would have been sinners deserving condemnation. And those young people would almost certainly have had more opportunities to repent than young people holding up a convenience store. Whose death is more unfair in the light of eternity?

Now I added something to this story. I said some of these kids might have understood and taken advantage of the gospel that night. I admit this is serious. Lack of opportunity to accept Christ is certainly the worst unfairness in our world. It is also the worst evil in me. I have been a hindrance to people coming to Christ. There are people who may well have been saved, if I had explained to them the gospel. There are people whose lives would have been radically different, had I faithfully and fervently prayed for them.

I am aware that I have not fully answered the question. And if I have soothed your anger about some evil, I may have done you a disservice. The unfairness all around us certainly angers God. We join Him in such anger. But rather than aiming our anger at God, we should cry out to God to intervene in the lives of those who suffer. I want God to do whatever is necessary to make me an instrument of His grace in redeeming society and bringing people to faith in Him. Still, I thank God that my own redemption includes His grace in the lives of those who would be lost, if I were their only hope.

http://daveswatch.com/

http://watchinginprayer.com/

Valentine’s Day is an excellent time to communicate to your grandchildren that you love them and pray for them regularly.

Send a Valentine card to your grandchildren.

Write this prayer or your own prayer in a card.

Dear God, give ________ a good heart:

♥   a heart that is gentle, tender, and teachable

♥   a heart that loves You

♥   a heart that wants to obey You   

♥   a heart You can use for Your glory

In Jesus name, Amen.

____________________________________________________

Here’s another Valentine’s Day idea for grandparents is to use show and teach love for others to their grandchildren.

For example, send them a Valentine with two five-dollar bills (or whatever amount you desire.) One five-dollar bill is your love gift to them; the other five-dollar bill is for them to show love forward to where they see a need. This will give you an opportunity to discuss different options of how they can show love to others. Then ask them to report to you how they showed their love forward.

“Dear Friends, since God so loved us,

we also ought to love one another” I John 4:11.

I coordinate a group of friends who read a Bible chapter each day and comment on a private Facebook group. Last week, as we were reading through the Psalms, the subject of awakening with a song came up again. I’ve written on this before, but it attracted my attention again as I thought about this week’s Manna. My mother woke-up with a hymn or praise song on her mind every morning, and she prayed often that God would give me her song. He did. I don’t sing it very well, but “I will sing unto the Lord, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Ps. 13:6). Almost everyone in my family was/is a musician except me, but I can still sing unto the Lord. I just hope that after the Lord hears me sing, He will still be inclined to deal bountifully with me. A Chinese proverb says, “A bird does not sing because it has an answer. It sings because it has a song.” While answers are few and sometime far between, fresh, God-sent songs are daily. How about you? Anyone else start the day with a God-given song?

Have you ever realized too late that you missed an opportunity to witness? Most of us have done that. What do you do about it? I suggest that you pray.

Of course, the enemy of our souls is doing everything he can to debilitate you with guilt feelings. You need to confess that as sin. Agree with God and thank Him for His forgiveness. Then ask Him to help you be alert for the next opportunity. The enemy may be telling you that God will never trust you again. But Satan is a liar. In fact, I have noticed that God uses missed chances to bear witness, to alert me to another opportunity coming up.

Another important factor in being alert for opportunities to share a witness for Christ is regularly praying for lost people. Have you made a prayer list of lost people God has brought into your life?This will help you be ready the next time God opens a door for you to tell someone about Jesus. 

But the most important thing you can do to be ready to give a witness is to pray without ceasing. There are a number of applications to this command given us in 1 Thessalonians 5:17. But the most pertinent to this point is praying for people all around you. Develop the habit of praying for everyone you see when you walk down the street, into a store, into your office or the bank, when you are filling your car with gas or returning books to the library. As you pray you will begin to see people as God sees them. You will be more alert to their longings and hurts and needs. And you will be more in tune with the Holy Spirit as He prompts you to speak and gives you the words to say.

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

http://daveswatch.com/

Your passionate, powerful, privilege

You are not letting your passionate, powerful, privilege go to waste are you? Please stay tuned for a minute and I will explain this question. In this brief space we will review Jesus’ passion and power in prayer. It should whet your appetite for private and public prayer participation which will in turn have a similar effect on your friends.

Jesus’ private prayer practices and his answers caused his disciples to ask their great teacher for a lesson in prayer. His pattern covered the basics so thoroughly that many millions have memorized his prayer pattern. Fewer have studied and benefited from his personal prayer in John 17, asking the Father to unite us by his Spirit as an insider, and for us to publicly wear his badge of love which identifies us as his disciples. His prayer prepared obedient disciples for Pentecost and subsequent revival and evangelism.

Jesus’ unmistakable passion for his Father’s house of prayer for all nations fuels my own passion for prayer. He did not hesitate to cleanse the house of prayer from abuses, so that it could be redeemed for kingdom uses.  How many churches do you know in McKinney that open their doors daily to host regular corporate prayer, demonstrating prayer is their foundational, first priority? I am aware of one. There is a lot of room in McKinney for regular, creative, praise and thanksgiving-based prayer venues.

Personal, public, and persistent prayers of God’s people are desperately needed in our community and world today. Your prayers will be much more enjoyable and effective when they are praise- based, Bible- fed, and Spirit- led.  Since the Word of God IS the Sword of the Spirit, lets’ read, meditate, and pray some of God’s prayers, patterns, and principles recorded in His Word!  These, including giving Him thanks, are sure fire ways of praying in His will. 

All types of prayer are beneficial as illustrated in the famous ACTS acronym: Adoration; Confession; Thanksgiving; Supplication.  We have the privilege to join the 2 greatest intercessors of the Godhead; Jesus and the Holy Spirit.  “Who will say they are not right? Jesus Christ died. Yes, he was raised from death. He is at the right side of God. And he talks (intercedes) to God for us.”  Romans 8:34 “Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.” Heb. 7:25  “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”  Rom. 8:26

As we close our thoughts together, let’s review some attitudes of prayer that attract the Holy Spirit.  These include: humility, servanthood, brokenness, honesty, holiness, desperation, hunger and thirst for God, and vulnerability.  As you allow God to work such qualities in and through your life, perhaps you will rise to seek or start a prayer venue as a leader or follower to serve, inspire, and equip other body members in experiencing the vulnerability James instructs:   ^“Make this your common practice: Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you can live together whole and healed. The prayer of a person living right with God is something powerful to be reckoned with.”   James 5:16

There are two questions every believer must deal with in their Christian life. The first is: "Why aren't I bearing more fruit for the Kingdom of God?" The second is more troublesome: "Why does a good God allow evil and suffering in the world?" 

As He sits by the sea one day, Jesus answers both questions. In the parable of the sower, He reveals the believer's four-step growth progression towards fruitfulness. We know the first two: "wayside" hearers who do not understand the Word, and "stony" believers, or those who love the Word but have no root in themselves to persevere. It is the third type of believer we can learn from. 

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There are many legitimate motives for praying. But it is important for us to remember that the ultimate purpose of prayer is the purpose of life for a believer. I have written before on Psalm 27:4. It has been a powerful encouragement in my life. This is one of the Scriptures that shines light on the purpose of prayer. It reads,

"One thing have I asked of the Lord. That will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to inquire in His temple."

The first purpose of prayer is life-long intimacy with God. David asked to live in the house of the Lord. Even when we come to God with needs, we must first seek God's nearness in our suffering, in distress, in need. His promised nearness, intimate fellowship with Him in Jesus, is better than the relief of our suffering. Recognizing God's presence erupts into worship. We are not to come to God simply because we desire good things He may give us. We come to gaze in wonder at His beauty. He is the heart and focus of joy."

And we come to inquire of God. Inquiring in His temple does not mean we listen to God so we can decide if we want to follow Him. We seek God's wisdom so our thinking, and indeed our lives, will be transformed in His presence. This may be something you struggle with. What is the point of prayer if I am to pray for His will rather than mine? But self-centered prayer misses all that is ultimately good and right and satisfying in life.

Let me ask you who read, to pray for my blog. I believe what I have written today and on other days is crucial for your prayer life. Next week I will write on being prayerfully alert for opportunities to speak about Christ. And I have begun writing a blog for the week after that, on praying about things we cannot understand or accept about God. This is actually part of the book Spiritual Intelligence that I hope to publish this year. Pray that God will use these truths in our lives.

http://daveswatch.com

watchinginprayer.blogspot.com/

By Jennifer Kennedy Dean

From The One Year Praying the Promises of God

Fear flees when faith is activated. No matter how intimidating your circumstances appear, you don’t have to succumb to fear. You can exercise explosive faith.

The LORD said to Joshua, “I have given you Jericho, its king, and all its strong warriors.” Joshua 6: 2

As God was speaking these words, the Israelites were standing outside the fortified city of Jericho. It was surrounded by two parallel walls about fifteen feet apart. Jericho was no illusion. There it stood— fortressed, barricaded, impenetrable. To the Israelites’ physical sight, taking Jericho was difficult, if not hopeless. Cities such as Jericho had convinced ten of the twelve spies sent to scout out the land forty years earlier that Israel could not conquer it (see Numbers 13: 27-28). Fear activated by the sight of such an intimidating obstacle had already stolen forty years as well as an entire generation of people. Now, everything their eyes could see told them that this was still a lost cause.

But when God spoke to Joshua and called him to battle, he said, “I have given you Jericho” (emphasis added). The verb tense indicated that it was already a done deal. Finished work. Just waiting for the people’s obedience to bring that completed promise into their experience.

The writer of Hebrews tells the story in a few well-chosen words: “It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for seven days, and the walls came crashing down” (Hebrews 11: 30). When the people obeyed the Lord’s command and marched around Jericho for seven days, the walls fell.

When the promise of God comes into contact with our faith-fueled obedience, an explosion of power results. Walls fall. Obstacles disappear. Enemies flee.   

You may be looking at a Jericho today. Maybe something in your life looks too big for you. Your enemy might be pointing out all the reasons why your obstacle will win the day. If so, remember this: when God calls you to battle, He has already won the victory. The only way your Jericho will stand is if you believe your limited perceptions instead of God’s Word and slink away, missing the opportunity to see God’s power in action.   

RESPOND

What obstacles in your life look too big for you right now? What changes in your perception if you redefine your circumstances by what your heart knows instead of what your eyes see?

Above my writing desk in my tiny office at home is a wall-art stencil, a quotation that my husband gave me last Christmas. It reads: “Pray about everything. Worry about nothing.”  
​
Like many women – mothers especially – I have a tendency to worry. I think my hubby hoped a “subtle” reminder on the wall might cure me of the habit!  
​
Daily I have worked under the silent supplications of this verse. Yet today, a year later, the verse came alive, jumping off the wall and into my spirit as if to find its true voice. And I felt compelled to give voice to this verse, which comes directly from Jesus:

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The Church Prayer Leaders Network (CPLN) is an organization devoted to helping prayer leaders grow their churches in prayer.  Led by Jon Graf (who also publishes Prayer Connect), CPLN provides a number of resources for prayer leaders - whether on a church staff or volunteers - and also for other leaders interested in growing prayer.  An excerpt from their website explains their purpose:

The Church Prayer Leaders Network is for anyone who desires to see his or her church make prayer foundational to its entire ministry. Though designed specifically for the person in a local church (pastor or layperson) who has been given the task of leading prayer, the site and network is much broader than that. If you are in any type of ministry in your church, and have a heart for encouraging others to grow in prayer, this is for you. Pastors, small group leaders, intercessors, elders, youth and children's workers, worship leaders--anyone who leads and wants prayer to be central to what they do--will benefit from joining the CPLN.

Our desire is to encourage, challenge, and equip you to be a champion of prayer in your church.

Among the resources available on CPLN's website, you'll find:

• A link to the Connection! Daily devotional (which we've covered in a previous Spotlight)
• Articles and prayer ideas to help prayer leaders promote prayer within their churches
• Pray the Word, a collection of scriptural prayers to pray for your church
• Subscription to Prayer Connect, a bi-monthly magazine for prayer leaders and intercessors

Besides the website, CPLN offers memberships for individual or churches.  These memberships include subscriptions to Prayer Connect and discounts on prayer resources at www.prayershop.org (Harvest Prayer Ministries).

One of the most interesting aspects of the CPLN ministry is their regional prayer conferences (we highlighted the Midwest Prayer Conference in a previous Spotlight).  These conferences are great opportunities for prayer, learning, and networking and provide great spiritual retreat experiences.  They're hosted by churches - see the "conferences" page on their website for more information.

The life of a prayer leader can be a lonely one, especially in churches where prayer is a relatively small ministry (which would be most churches).  CPLN is a great way to be reminded that as a prayer leader, you're not alone; and it's a great source for resources to help you honor God through growing your prayer ministry.

Pray.Network Spotlight by Andrew Wheeler.

See Andrew's website at www.togetherinprayer.net

I remember hearing Roy Fish, Evangelism Professor at Southwestern Seminary, speak at an Evangelism Conference. In the middle of his message he said something that struck home for many of us in a way we had not really thought about before. He said, "One of the most powerful witnesses you can ever give to someone is giving them a good book to read.”

Have you ever thought about books as a tool for preparing people to receive a witness of the gospel? In one of the essays in his book, God In The Dock, C.S. Lewis said, "The young atheist needs to be careful what he reads, if he wants to maintain his faith."

I have a list of writers that I pray for every day. My list includes some of those authors who have written books that have powerfully impacted my life. I pray every day for Davis Bunn, Phillip Yancey, Tim Keller, Bodie and Brock Thoene and others. I also pray for God to use books whose authors are no longer alive. I need to add to this list. I also have some writers who are just beginning to write. What is God preparing to do through them?

And now I have a personal and practical prayer request for you. I just finished the first draft of a third novel in a series. And a non-fiction book I have been working on for several years about ready to be released. Pray with me that God's Spirit will move on and through these books.

And in preparation for the release of these books the Kindle edition of my other books are being offered free this weekend, beginning Thursday, January 14, 2016. Share this with your friends and family. Pray for many to take advantage of this. And pray for God to use these books in the lives of many people. These books can be accessed at Amazon.com on the book page of my website.

http://daveswatch.com/

http://watchinginprayer.blogspot.com

I am the National Prayer Director for Christian Grandparenting Network and I have a dream to form a movement of A Million Praying Grandparents who will commit to pray intentionally and regularly for their grandchildren and their parents. I want to share my dream/passion with you because I believe you too, share my concern for our grandchildren growing up in the broken world we live in today.

The mission of Christian Grand parenting Network is to mobilize grandparents throughout the world to commit to pray daily for their grandchildren and their grandchildren’s parents. In Christian Living Today, a magazine for senior adults, Editor, Randy Swanson, wrote a few years ago  “The role of grandparenting is becoming more important than anyone would ever have imagined. The rescue of our culture may well rest on the shoulders of today’s grandparents.”1

Our Grandchildren are our primary mission field. Can you imagine the impact o a MILLION or more Praying Grandparents committed to Intentionally pray for their grandchildren can have on their grandchildren and the world.

If you grasp the urgency of our time, then I urge you to signup for the Million Praying Grandparents, linking arms in prayer for the next generation. As a way of saying thanks for that commitment, you will receive free printable copy of a Million Praying Grandparents Prayer Resource to help you intentionally pray for your grandchildren using God’s Word.

I will appreciate it if you will share my vision of a Million Praying Grandparents uniting in prayer for their grandchildren with your friends. Will you encourage your friends to become a part of the Million Praying Grandparents movement to impact the next generation to know and follow Christ wholeheartedly?

Perhaps at no time in history is a call for intentional prayer more urgently needed than today. 

Will you go to the Million Praying Grandparents website http://www.millionprayinggrandparents.com and follow the instructions to sign up to be a part of the Million Praying Grandparents movement?

Lillian Penner

National Prayer Director

Christian Grandparenting Network

lpenner@christiangrandparenting.net

"This gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."  -- Matthew 24:14, NIV

If you're looking for a way to impact the spread of the kingdom worldwide on a daily basis, then regular prayer for the unreached peoples is the most strategic difference you can make.  And there's probably no more comprehensive resource on praying for the unreached than the Joshua Project (http://joshuaproject.net).

The Joshua Project was originally formed in 1995 as part of the AD2000 and Beyond Movement, whose purpose was to see the Gospel spread to the entire world.  From 2001 through 2005 the Joshua Project was informally associated with multiple different ministries, finally becoming a ministry of the US Center for World Mission (now Frontier Ventures) in 2006. 

The Joshua Project website includes this paragraph on purpose and mission:

The original Joshua Project list was a cooperative and globally accepted list of the largest unreached ethno-linguistic people groups and related ministry activity data. The Joshua Project list attempted to provide a clear goal of pioneer church-planting among the largest unreached peoples. Joshua Project has since expanded this list to all unreached / least-reached peoples regardless of size and moved from a purely ethno-linguistic to an ethnic people focus.

A major focus of the Joshua Project is to provide information to enable prayer for unreached people groups.  The site provides multiple prayer resources, including prayer calendars (some by region and some by country), prayer guides and videos, prayer cards and other prayer ideas.  Their "unreached people group of the day" resource is available both as an e-mail subscription and as an app for both iPhone and Android.  Additionally, this resource includes a customizable widget that can be embedded on a website to promote prayer for the unreached.

If you've never considered praying regularly for the spread of the gospel beyond its current borders, maybe this is the year that God is calling you to a new commitment to the worldwide spread of his kingdom.  If you're sensing God's call in this area, the Joshua Project website may be the best place to start.

"With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."  -- Matthew 19:26

Pray.Network Spotlight by Andrew Wheeler.

See Andrew's website at www.togetherinprayer.net

When you give your worries and cares to God it frees you up to enjoy life. You can sit back and relax knowing that God is always going to take care of you!

At the beginning of a new year it is worthwhile to consider God's perspective of time. While we indeed pray to the God who cares about you every day and every moment, we also pray to God who holds all of history in his hands.

In Isaiah 46:10,11 God says, "I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish my purpose. . .  I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.’"

God sits above time. And He hears and answers prayer from that perspective. Look with me at Romans 8:26-30.

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified."

This is a powerful passage to meditate on at this or any time of year. I am convinced that you will get more out of this by memorizing these verses and praying over them than by anything I can write here.

But let me point out some important truths about prayer in this passage. When does God hear and answer your prayers? God who is omniscient heard your prayer before the beginning of time. In His great love God invited you to pray before the foundation of the universe. God planted you as a prayer warrior in this moment of history. And He does whatever needs to be done down through the tapestry of history to answer your prayer.

God created beings that could love Him by giving us choice. But angels and men have chosen evil over God. And now we live in a broken world. Yet God has promised to weave His goodness into a tapestry of good in the lives of His own people. A poem on John 8:32 from my book I AM has the lines

"Then you will come to know and understand

All that you longed for, but you couldn’t be."

God is working everything together in your life for good.

And God is weaving the glorious tapestry of your eternal destiny. The final verse that I printed from Romans 8 tells us that God has justified those whom He has called. And everyone whom He has justified, He has already glorified. God also hears your prayer from the end of time. And He sees His completed glory in your life and in all of history.  

http://daveswatch.com/

I have just completed a book called, "Government and Its People -Why the Church should participate in Government." I have also created a study guide for it. Right now I have it up on Amazon and working to get it in a Kindle format. 
The book is my thesis on why the Church should participate in government at every level. I have based my argument on the fact that 90% of the prophets and patriarchs were all government officials in different times and cultures.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1?ie=UTF8&text=Mary+Salamon&search-alias=books&field-author=Mary+Salamon&sort=relevancerank

I am excited about this book. It is a timely piece for 2016. I hope you will find this a worthy message. I am available to speak and teach on one of the most critical issues of our day.

If you're like me, the new year is a time when you evaluate your life, including your spiritual disciplines.  I often change up spiritual disciplines a bit at the beginning of the year in order to keep my time with God fresh.

If you're looking for a different way to start the year in prayer, you might want to consider Pray the Word, by Tiece King.  Published by Prayer Shop Publishing (the publishing arm of Harvest Prayer Ministries), Pray the Word is a collection of 90 days of prayers taken directly from Scripture.  Each prayer features a combination of several scripture passages related to the prayer topic for the day.  The prayers are a combination of thanksgiving and praise for the promises of scripture, entreaties to God to fulfill promises of scripture, petitions for God to help the reader obey scripture, etc.  The specific passages from which the prayers are taken are listed at the end of the day.

The prayers in Pray the Word are deep dives into Scripture, not just casual "drive-bys" of a favorite passage.  They can serve as the starting point for a deeper meditation on the scriptures and a consideration of how the reader's life lines up with the scriptures.  They can lead to times of repentance and confession, outbursts of praise, declarations of commitment, and many other aspects of relationship with God. 

Pray the Word is available as a 31-day or 90-day devotional in paperback or e-book format.  The 31-day version is available at prayershop.org; all versions are available at Christianbook.com.  A companion app containing 31 days of prayers is available for both iPhone and Android.  The app focuses on prayers around specific topics, providing lists of prayers for Lent and Advent as well as several other topics.

Praying Scripture is a great way to get "unstuck" if your prayer time has become routine, and Pray the Word is a great resource to help you pray scripture.  You may even find that you approach the reading of Scripture differently, turning passages you read into prayers more regularly as a result of praying this way.

Pray.Network Spotlight by Andrew Wheeler.

See Andrew's website at www.togetherinprayer.net