Nothing brings us to God more quickly than our questions. And we have them. They tumble out of hidden places in our hearts. They loom larger than life when something unexpected life crashes in to change what we wanted. I’ve carried questions that I didn’t feel like God was answering for years. I still have a few and will probably have more. However, I have learned that the way I ask my questions will either take me closer to God or create a distance. Don’t misunderstand

The biggest disconnect in our prayer and the most common reason we don’t experience change through prayer is because we talk more than we listen. Lloyd Ogilvie, Presbyterian minister who served as chaplain to the U.S. Senate in the 90’s, learned something transformational about his prayer life. He realized that he spent 90% of his prayer time talking to God and 10% listening. He decided to reverse it by listening 90% and talking 10%. Do you know what happened? He found mor

It was a Bible study on the story of David that opened a door for the most important lesson about prayer I think I have learned. I had come to the sad part about David’s selfish adultery and the lives he destroyed trying to get what he wanted. The prophet Nathan confronts David with a story. When David understands his actions from God’s perspective, he understands with deep grief what he has done in God’s eyes. Poet that he was, he left us a record of his confession. (Psal

Transformation is a change so deep and formative that what it brings is literally all new. New is God’s best work. He uses His unlimited resources and all knowledge to produce an outcome or share a perspective that is so different from what we thought, we call it new. When I talk about the kind of prayer that accomplishes this, I use this definition: Transformational prayer opens a connection with God so that He can inform me about what I think, want, need or plan to do. Her

How long can you go without speaking to someone you live with or someone you care about? Probably not very long. We find ways to talk with those we love and want to hear from. So why do we shove talking with with God into a corner or put it in a closet to take out when we’re supposed to or when we get desperate? Prayer is not a quick fix, a miracle cure, or a short-cut to spirituality. Prayer is the communication between best friends. It is the house with an unlocked door.

The tension was beginning to build for Jesus. The Pharisees followed his every move, waiting to pounce in public. Jesus was becoming too popular with the people. That always riles those who think they are in charge. To make matters worse, Jesus was getting away with breaking their rules. If the people believed their rules weren’t important, why did they need the Pharisees? Add to this external pressure, the internal priority that Jesus knew he must choose a group to mentor

The New Year, with its blank slate, is both intimidating and exhilarating. This year I am borrowing one of my favorite prayers from Philippians as my compass. I call it “The More of What Counts” prayer. And this is my prayer: that . . . love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ. Ph

If I could only pray one prayer for the rest of my life, I would choose this prayer! Search me . . . know my heart Test me . . . know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything . . . that offends you, Lead me along the path of everlasting life. Psalm 139:23-24, NLT This prayer includes everything we need to ask God to do in order to let Him clean and transform our heart. It is a meticulous but not insensitive search for anything that stands between us and the person God would g

Can prayer make dreams come true? It depends on whose dreams they are! I discovered this prayer when I was single for longer than my dream had provided. I thought I had found my formula for making dreams come true. Just pray what I wanted and if my faith was big enough, my dream was waiting for the taking. But that’s not the way it works. My problem was that I forgot to add God to my dreams until after I had created them, detailed them, timed them and handed them over to God

How do you decide what is best? Flip a coin? Make a pro and con list? By what “feels” best? Pray about it? Of course we know the “right” answer is to pray about it. But I have listened to many people who thought they were letting prayer direct them when they were only praying their wants until they convinced themselves why they could have them. That’s not prayer. In my favorite letter from Paul to his beloved Philippians, I found the prayer that always helps me when best

What prayers have shaped your life? How did you learn them? What happens when you pray them? In the next months, I want to share ten prayers from scripture that have shaped my life as well as my understanding of what true prayer is. They help me know how to pray and what to pray for. The first prayer is a good prayer to follow our journey to Easter. I call it The Resurrection Power Prayer: Pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who beli

God, Only you are over all kingdoms and their leaders. Only you know every heart and motive. Only you can weave your will using people and processes we protest. We pray that you will again use current complexities and divisions in ways that surprise and humble us. To be known as a land of plenty demonstrates how you have blessed us. To be known as a divided land demonstrates how much we misuse your gifts. In the same way that Isaiah, Jeremiah, Hosea and other prophets raised