Pastor Reflects on His "Mama's" Love and Prayers

E. V. (Ed) Hill, who pastored Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Los Angeles, tells the story of how "Mama's" love and prayers changed ...

The True Intention of Prayer

In The Higher Happiness, Ralph W. Sockman describes the true intention of prayer: "We use prayer as a boatman uses a boat hook: to pull the boat ...

Woman's Persistence Results in Calls from the Governor

Pastor Lee Eclov writes:

I was surprised to read a Facebook posting from a friend in South Dakota named Diane. She wrote, "Had a nice surprise last ...

Thomas Merton on the Uselessness of Planning Our Own Answers to Prayer

What is the use of praying if at the very moment of prayer, we have so little confidence in God that we are busy planning our own kind of answer to our ...

A Writer's Reflections on Offering His First Prayer

A. J. Jacobs, a writer living in New York, decided to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one year. To prepare, he bought a stack of Bibles and ...

Prayer: Where Two Struggles Meet

If prayer stands as the place where God and human beings meet, then I must learn about prayer. Most of my struggles in the Christian life circle around ...

Prayer Works Even from "Far Away"

Peter Charpentier, a minister in Hammond, Louisiana, shares a story of how God used his youngest son to teach him a valuable lesson about prayer and the ...

Fractured French and a Lesson About Prayer

Timothy Jones writes in “The Art of Prayer:”

We don't like to stand speechless or stammering before God, but that doesn't mean God ...

Eugene Peterson on Prayer as Answering Speech

Prayer is answering speech. The first word is God's word. Prayer is a human word and is never the initiating and shaping word simply because we are ...

Petitions That Honor Our King

Travel back 200 years in Christian history to John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-pastor and hymn writer. He would receive almost unbelievable answers ...