Foundations Blog

We’re in a new series called “Foundations” which builds off of Jesus’ metaphor in Matt 7: A house built on sand will never be able to stand BUT a house that’s built on the rock will never be able to fall.

09-22-2021 4:01 AM

Practice #3 PRAYER - Day 3

09-22-2021 4:01 AM
09-22-2021 4:01 AM

This week, we’re in Practice #3: Grow in Prayer. If you can, give yourself 15 minutes to just be with God. Set a timer and put everything else away except for you, your Bible, and the device you’re reading this on.

As we did yesterday, let’s continue researching the six Greek verbs used in the New Testament to describe prayer. Start by visiting this webpage and reading the third and fourth entries which include the words “Pray (4336) (proseuchomai)” and “Pray (2172) (euchomai).” Write down what you learn.

The words you likely listed carry with them

  1. a sense of direction (moving toward God, not away from him or toward anyone else)
  2. An emphasis on expressing a thought (whether verbally expressed or silently expressed)

Evaluate your own prayer life. Does it involve directionality toward God? In other words, when in need, is God the FIRST one you run toward, knowing that prayer with Him is the only solution? Why or why not?

Does your prayer life involve you expressing the real you? Many of us like to censor ourselves before God and present to Him a less-than-complete version of ourselves. Consider how you express your prayers before God.

Laura Murray, in her book “Pray As You Are,” says that “God invites us every day, wherever we are–to pray as we are. The God who created us longs to communicate with us in the everyday, real-deal issues of life. He initiates the conversation repeatedly. The demand of communication is that of a two-way street; a sender and a receiver are required. He starts, we respond, and this ebb and flow of words, language, passion, silences, pauses, movement, and waiting lead to these rich conversations–prayers that come from places we never knew and lead to the untouched depths of our hearts” (pgs. 1-2).

Let’s read from Psalm 139:13-16 from the NET:

13  Certainly you made my mind and heart; you wove me together in my mother’s womb.

14  I will give you thanks because your deeds are awesome and amazing. You knew me thoroughly;

15  my bones were not hidden from you, when I was made in secret and sewed together in the depths of the earth.

16  Your eyes saw me when I was inside the womb. All the days ordained for me were recorded in your scroll before one of them came into existence.

Spend some time thinking about the amazing nature of God’s knowledge of you. He knows you, created you, and loves you. Imagine God to be sitting next to you as a trusted friend or therapist. 

Now pray - express whatever is within you. Speak up with the good, the bad, the questions, the doubts, the confidences, the praise. Just be you - that’s who God wants to connect with today.

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