Life2gether

Greg Qualls writing for the Resurgence:

1. Set up “triggers” in your life
2. Have a plan
3. Talk to God
4. Write it down
5. Keep it simple
6. Keep it sweet

Go here to see how he unpacks these 6 tips …

Last night as I tucked my kids into bed, we prayed together for God to have mercy on the people in Haiti.  One of my little girls gently asked, “Daddy, why is it called Haiti (HATE-E)?”  It was an honest question.  So I just spelled out the word for her and said it had nothing to do with the word “hate” that she knows is a word reserved for sin and evil.  But I wish I would’ve said something similar to what Al Mohler said here … only summarized in kid’s language like I did below.

Girls, some people think that God sent the earthquake to Haiti because he hates Haiti.  But God doesn’t hate Haiti.  He loves Haiti.  He loves the people in Haiti.  He loves the mommies and the daddies and the little boys and little girls.  Do you remember John 3:16?  It says,”For God so loved the world (all the people in the world) that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.”  

God is a loving King.  But He is also a holy king.  He rules over all.  And one day he will judge all the peoples of the world.  He will punish all the people (from Haiti to Kentucky) who have sinned against him and not believed in his Son Jesus Christ.  God doesn’t hate Haiti.  But God hates sin.  And one day He is coming to judge us for our sin.  So the earthquake reminds us that we must turn from our sin and trust in Jesus.  Jesus is our only hope as he died on a cross to take our punishment and give us eternal life. 

Girls, God loves us and he loves the people in Haiti.  So we need to pray.  We need to pray for the people who got hurt and are sad and alone.  We need to pray for the little kids that don’t have a mommy or daddy.  And we need to pray most of all for the people in Haiti to hear about Jesus and the amazing love he showed them by dying for them on the cross.  Remember John 3:16?  Let’s say that verse together and pray for God to have mercy on the people in Haiti.

Recently I was talking to my twin brother on skype and he brought up a good question to diagnose your prayer life:

What are 3 answers to prayer you’ve had this past year?

This is a great question because it makes us think about what we’ve been asking God to do and whether or not we’ve remembered what He has done.  No doubt, prayer is more than just getting an “answer” from God, but sometimes we need to remember to ask him things like a little child believing that he will answer.  How does a child ask?  Here’s what Paul Miller says in his book, A Praying Life:

• What do they ask for?  Everything and anything.
• How often do children ask?  Repeatedly.
• How do children ask?  Without guile.  They just say what’s on their minds.

May we pray like a child this year believing that God can do more than we could ask or think!

John Piper, from his book, When I Don’t Desire God:

I earnestly recommend that it be in the early morning, unless there are some extenuating circumstances.  Entering the day without a serious meeting with God, over his Word and in prayer, is like entering the battle without tending to your weapons.  It’s like taking a trip without filling the tires with air or the tank without gas.  The human heart does not replenish itself with sleep.  The body does, but not the heart.  The spiritual air leaks from our tires, and the gas is consumed in the day.  We replenish our hearts not with sleep, but with the Word of God and prayer (p. 116).

This made me laugh out loud!!  Supposedly the “Now I Lay Me” prayer was first printed in the 18th century in the New England Primer.  I won’t get into the theology of the prayer(!), but rather encourage you to pray with your kids before bedtime.  I’ve found it to be a great time to recount all the ways God has blessed us that day and how every one of those blessings flows back to Christ and his work for us on the cross.

This is pretty funny, but has a great point.  Kids can teach us so much, can’t they?

Kids Prayers from Granger Community on Vimeo.

Listening to the prayers of these children and youth remind us that ministry to families is messy but so needed.  I can’t think of anything more significant than impacting parents and their children for the sake of the next generation.  It may just be the most strategic way to make disciples.  

Great question … great answer … and even greater challenge for us all.

And here’s the Scripture passage Piper referred to:

You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted to us through the prayers of many. 

~ 2 Cor. 1:11

I’ve mentioned the book, A Praying Life, multiple times now.  Perhaps the greatest step of application for me is the idea of creating prayer cards for family members, friends, people who are suffering, non-Christians, etc.

Here are Paul Miller’s overall guidelines when creating a prayer card:

1. The card functions like a prayer snapshot of a person’s life, so I use short phrases to describe what I want.

2. When praying, I usually don’t linger over a card for more than a few seconds.  I just pick out one or two key areas and pray for them.

3. I put the Word to work by writing a Scripture verse on the card that expresses my desire for that particular person or situation.

4. The card doesn’t change much. Maybe once a year I will add another line. These are just ongoing areas in a person’s life that I am praying for.

5. I usually don’t write down answers. They are obvious to me since I see the card almost every day.

6. I will sometimes date a prayer request by putting the month/year.

Paul Miller’s book, A Praying Life, has affected me deeply.  I cannot recommend it to you enough.  Here’s one section that grabbed a hold of me and hasn’t let go for days.  Next to this quote in the side margin of my book I wrote, “need to meditate on this.”

Whenever you love, you reenact Jesus’ death.  Consequently, gospel stories always have suffering in them.  American Christianity has an allergic reaction to this part of the gospel.  We’d love to hear about God’s love for us, but suffering doesn’t mesh with our right to “the pursuit of happiness.”  So we pray to escape a gospel story, when that is the best gift the Father can give us.

The Father wants to draw us into the story of his Son.  He doesn’t have a better story to tell, so he keeps retelling it in our lives.  As we reenact the gospel, we are drawn into a strange kind of fellowship.  The taste of Christ is so good that the apostle Paul told the Philippians that he wanted to know “the fellowship of sharing in [Jesus'] sufferings” (Phil. 3:10).