{"id":5527,"date":"2019-07-01T20:16:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-02T04:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/?p=5527"},"modified":"2019-07-01T20:16:40","modified_gmt":"2019-07-02T04:16:40","slug":"celebration-of-discipline-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/archives\/2019\/07\/01\/celebration-of-discipline-prayer","title":{"rendered":"Celebration of Discipline: Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which is an email I send to the par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants). They are all tagged <\/em>summer\u2010reading\u2010project\u20102019<\/em><\/a>. The sched\u00adule is <\/em>online<\/em><\/a> if you\u2019d like to read along. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"book<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This week\u2019s spir\u00adi\u00adtu\u00adal dis\u00adci\u00adpline is prayer. I found this chap\u00adter a lit\u00adtle dis\u00adap\u00adpoint\u00ading because I\u2019ve read Fos\u00adter\u2019s book Prayer<\/em>, and it\u2019s the best book on prayer I\u2019ve ever read. Most books on prayer make me feel guilty for not pray\u00ading enough, but his book encour\u00adaged me so much that I kept putting it down to pray right away. This chap\u00adter was good, but it\u2019s only the embry\u00adon\u00adic form of Fos\u00adter\u2019s best writ\u00ading on this sub\u00adject. If you like what he says here, order Prayer<\/em> right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few thoughts in response to this week\u2019s read\u00ading:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. First, you should also read this one-page C.S. Lewis essay \u201cIf God Is Sov\u00ader\u00adeign, Why Should We Pray?\u201d<\/a> It will answer ques\u00adtions that I am con\u00adfi\u00addent some of you have. You can also find this essay as chap\u00adter 11 of his book God In The Dock<\/em> \u2014 the ver\u00adsion I linked to is slight\u00adly abridged, so if you own God in the Dock<\/em> I sug\u00adgest you read it there. <\/li>
  2. Sec\u00adond, there are so many tid\u00adbits of advice scat\u00adtered through\u00adout this chap\u00adter that I urge you to just focus on one at a time. Just as a sci\u00aden\u00adtist learns best when they adjust one vari\u00adable at a time, we will gain the most if we incor\u00adpo\u00adrate insights slow\u00adly.<\/li>
  3. Third, I think the sin\u00adgle most impor\u00adtant sen\u00adtence in this chap\u00adter might be, \u201cI deter\u00admined to learn to pray so that my expe\u00adri\u00adence con\u00adformed to the words of Jesus rather than try to make his words con\u00adform to my impov\u00ader\u00adished expe\u00adri\u00adence\u201d (page 37). If that is your men\u00adtal\u00adi\u00adty you will expe\u00adri\u00adence tremen\u00addous growth and see great things.<\/li>
  4. Fourth, some\u00adthing he does\u00adn\u2019t empha\u00adsize as much as I would like is that a huge part of prayer is call\u00ading upon God\u2019s nature (i.e, call\u00ading on the name of the Lord) and call\u00ading upon His promis\u00ades. Our faith is root\u00aded in His faith\u00adful\u00adness, both His faith\u00adful\u00adness to His char\u00adac\u00adter and His faith\u00adful\u00adness to His com\u00admit\u00adments. A great way to do this is by pray\u00ading Scrip\u00adture. Andy Nasel\u00adli has a sol\u00adid arti\u00adcle about this: 12 Rea\u00adsons You Should Pray Scrip\u00adture<\/a>. <\/li>
  5. Fifth and final\u00adly, I very much appre\u00adci\u00adate how he empha\u00adsized pray\u00ading for your pas\u00adtor (page 43). I tell you frankly and with\u00adout shame that I cov\u00adet your prayers. As Paul said in 1 Thess 5:25, \u201cpray for us.\u201d Don\u2019t know how to pray for a pas\u00adtor? Paul basi\u00adcal\u00adly asked the church to pay for his pro\u00adtec\u00adtion <\/strong>and effec\u00adtive\u00adness<\/strong>. Specif\u00adi\u00adcal\u00adly, he asked peo\u00adple to pray for open doors for his min\u00adistry (Col 4:3), the abil\u00adi\u00adty to preach clear\u00adly (Col 4:4), fear\u00adless\u00adness in min\u00adistry (Eph 6:19), Spir\u00adit-led words as he preached (Eph 6:19), that the gospel would spread through his min\u00adistry (2 Thess 3:1), for deliv\u00ader\u00adance from those who wished him harm (2 Thess 3:2, Romans 15:31), favor for his min\u00adistry (Romans 15:31), for deliv\u00ader\u00adance from despair and chal\u00adleng\u00ading cir\u00adcum\u00adstances (2 Cor 1:9\u201311, Philip\u00adpi\u00adans 1:19), for safe and suc\u00adcess\u00adful min\u00adistry trips (Romans 15:32), and for him to return safe\u00adly to a friend (Phile\u00admon 1:22). Pray just a few of those things for me and I\u2019ll be grate\u00adful!<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Next week\u2019s chap\u00adter is on fast\u00ading and it\u2019s super-prac\u00adti\u00adcal. If I recall cor\u00adrect\u00adly, it was the chap\u00adter on fast\u00ading that made the most sig\u00adnif\u00adi\u00adcant impres\u00adsion upon me when I first read this book back in col\u00adlege. I hope it helps you as much as it did me!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Blog read\u00aders: Chi Alpha @ Stan\u00adford is engag\u00ading in our annu\u00adal sum\u00admer read\u00ading project. As we read through Cel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline by Richard Fos\u00adter, I\u2019ll post my thoughts here (which is an email I send to the par\u00adtic\u00adi\u00adpants). They are all tagged summer\u2010reading\u2010project\u20102019. The sched\u00adule is online if you\u2019d like to read along. This week\u2019s \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cCel\u00ade\u00adbra\u00adtion of Dis\u00adci\u00adpline: Prayer\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Some thoughts from Richard Foster's Celebration of Discipline chapter on prayer.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[264,263],"class_list":["post-5527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-resources-reviews","tag-celebration-of-discipline","tag-summer-reading-project-2019"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p6Ded-1r9","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5527"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5533,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5527\/revisions\/5533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glenandpaula.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}