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The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray. Samuel Chadwick
Recent Entries
God? Who Needs Him?May 31, 2013
Self-sufficient humanism. Paul saw it coming – “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
Imago Dei
September 12, 2012
So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
Why Can't I Pray?
August 18, 2012
The bible gives us several reasons, but according to Jeremy Taylor, a deceitful heart is at the root of prayerlessness.
It's Not Rocket Science
July 23, 2012
To keep in step with the Spirit should be our daily quest. And if we are successful at that, all of life falls into place.
Theological Steak
April 10, 2012
These words by P. T. Forsythe on the magnificence of Christ's work are to theology what Ruth's Chris is to a good steak.
Describing the Indescribable
February 11, 2012
What we have in Christ will take all eternity to describe. But for one segment of one sermon, a great preacher made a mighty attempt.
Making Sense Of It All
January 30, 2012
Where are things headed? Is there rhyme and reason to the endless cycle of summer, fall, winter and spring? Is there a plan in place, or is randomness the explanation?
"And In This Corner..."
November 17, 2008
And being in agony He prayed more earnestly and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Luke 22:44
Was there ever an hour before or since like that hour in Gethsemane? Remove this cup....not what I will..."he who knew no sin" would soon be a sinbearer.....his knowledge that God can do anything, even apparently, to alter a plan that had been set in place since before the foundation of the world!
The weight of the world was on His shoulders - literally - and the Son of God felt every pound of it. This verse conveys total commitment, maximum concentration. Jesus is crying out to His Father, and the energy expended seems to rival that required to create the heavens and the earth.
Who has not slid into prayer with the same ambivalence we give to talk radio? If it's interesting, we'll stay tuned, until we are distracted by something else. God forbid that we actually call in and argue for our point of view!
But prayer is combat. So Says Jacque Ellul. Guilles of Assisi said that anyone who runs away from prayer "is like a man who runs away from battle."
Richard Sibbs, the Puritan pastor, said that "prayer is a kind of wrestling and contending with God, a striving with Him."
Samuel Rutherford urged us to do "holy violence with God in prayer."
Listen to Jonathan Edwards in a sermon entitled Christ's Agony, as he applies for us the take away from the example of Jesus.
How should we pray? "....not in a cold and careless manner, but with great earnestness and engagedness of spirit, and especially when we are praying to God for those things that are of infinite importance, such as spiritual and eternal blessings."
"Such were the benefits that Christ prayed for with such strong crying and tears, that he might be enabled to do God's will in that great and difficult work that God had appointed him, that he might not sink and fail, but might get the victory, and so finally be delivered from death, and that God's will and end might be obtained as the fruit of his sufferings, in the glory of God, and the salvation of the elect."
"When we go before God in prayer with a cold, dull heart, and in a lifeless and listless manner pray to him for eternal blessings, and those of infinite import to our souls, we should think of Christ's earnest prayers that he poured out to God, with tears and a bloody sweat."
"The consideration of it may well make us ashamed of our dull, lifeless prayers to God, wherein, indeed, we rather ask a denial than ask to be heard; for the language of such a manner of praying to God, is, that we do not look upon the benefit that we pray for as of any great importance, that we are indifferent whether God answers us or not."
"The example of Jacob in wrestling with God for the blessing, should teach us earnestness in our prayers, but more especially the example of Jesus Christ, who wrestled with God in a bloody sweat. If we were sensible as Christ was of the great importance of those benefits that are of eternal consequence, our prayers to God for such benefits would be after another manner than now they are. Our souls also would with earnest labor and strife be engaged in this duty."
"There are many benefits that we ask of God in our prayers, which are every whit of as great importance to us as those benefits which Christ asked of God in his agony were to him. It is of as great importance to us that we should be enabled to do the will of God, and perform a sincere, universal, and persevering obedience to his commands, as it was to Christ that he should not fail of doing God's will in his great work."
"It is of as great importance to us to be saved from death, as it was to Christ that he should get the victory over death, and so be saved from it. It is of as great, and infinitely greater, importance to us, that Christ's redemption should be successful in us, as it was to him that God's will should be done, in the fruits and success of his redemption."
Was there ever an hour before or since like that hour in Gethsemane? Remove this cup....not what I will..."he who knew no sin" would soon be a sinbearer.....his knowledge that God can do anything, even apparently, to alter a plan that had been set in place since before the foundation of the world!
The weight of the world was on His shoulders - literally - and the Son of God felt every pound of it. This verse conveys total commitment, maximum concentration. Jesus is crying out to His Father, and the energy expended seems to rival that required to create the heavens and the earth.
Who has not slid into prayer with the same ambivalence we give to talk radio? If it's interesting, we'll stay tuned, until we are distracted by something else. God forbid that we actually call in and argue for our point of view!
But prayer is combat. So Says Jacque Ellul. Guilles of Assisi said that anyone who runs away from prayer "is like a man who runs away from battle."
Richard Sibbs, the Puritan pastor, said that "prayer is a kind of wrestling and contending with God, a striving with Him."
Samuel Rutherford urged us to do "holy violence with God in prayer."
Listen to Jonathan Edwards in a sermon entitled Christ's Agony, as he applies for us the take away from the example of Jesus.
How should we pray? "....not in a cold and careless manner, but with great earnestness and engagedness of spirit, and especially when we are praying to God for those things that are of infinite importance, such as spiritual and eternal blessings."
"Such were the benefits that Christ prayed for with such strong crying and tears, that he might be enabled to do God's will in that great and difficult work that God had appointed him, that he might not sink and fail, but might get the victory, and so finally be delivered from death, and that God's will and end might be obtained as the fruit of his sufferings, in the glory of God, and the salvation of the elect."
"When we go before God in prayer with a cold, dull heart, and in a lifeless and listless manner pray to him for eternal blessings, and those of infinite import to our souls, we should think of Christ's earnest prayers that he poured out to God, with tears and a bloody sweat."
"The consideration of it may well make us ashamed of our dull, lifeless prayers to God, wherein, indeed, we rather ask a denial than ask to be heard; for the language of such a manner of praying to God, is, that we do not look upon the benefit that we pray for as of any great importance, that we are indifferent whether God answers us or not."
"The example of Jacob in wrestling with God for the blessing, should teach us earnestness in our prayers, but more especially the example of Jesus Christ, who wrestled with God in a bloody sweat. If we were sensible as Christ was of the great importance of those benefits that are of eternal consequence, our prayers to God for such benefits would be after another manner than now they are. Our souls also would with earnest labor and strife be engaged in this duty."
"There are many benefits that we ask of God in our prayers, which are every whit of as great importance to us as those benefits which Christ asked of God in his agony were to him. It is of as great importance to us that we should be enabled to do the will of God, and perform a sincere, universal, and persevering obedience to his commands, as it was to Christ that he should not fail of doing God's will in his great work."
"It is of as great importance to us to be saved from death, as it was to Christ that he should get the victory over death, and so be saved from it. It is of as great, and infinitely greater, importance to us, that Christ's redemption should be successful in us, as it was to him that God's will should be done, in the fruits and success of his redemption."
