A Pastor's Honest Prayer

In her book Holy the Firm, Annie Dillard writes of attending a small church with some 20 people:

The minister is a Congregationalist and wears a white ...

Discouraged Preacher Hears from God

I had been preaching for more than two decades, and I should have been at the top of my game. The church I served ran up to 1,500 on Sunday mornings, ...

Persevering Prayer for a Drug-Addicted Son

In Pray! magazine, Jennifer Kennedy Dean tells this story:

Several years ago, Mary (not her real name) came to me for prayer. She was desperate and afraid. ...

Augustine's Mother's Prayer Answered

In his book Legacy of Sovereign Joy, John Piper writes:

At the age of 16 in the year 371, Augustine sneaked away from his mother in Carthage. During the ...

The Prayer Train

Our prayers lay the track down on which God's power can come. Like a mighty locomotive, his power is irresistible, but it cannot reach us without ...

The 1,000th Prayer

I cannot tell you why a prayer that has been prayed for ten years is answered on the 1,000th request when God has met the first 999 with silence.

The Discipline of Prayer

The paradox of prayer is that it asks for a serious effort while it can only be received as a gift. We cannot plan, organize or manipulate God; but without ...

Praying the Ten Commandments

In "A Simple Way to Pray" (1535), Martin Luther writes:

If I have had time and opportunity to go through the Lord's Prayer, I do the same ...

Taking Advantage of the Floor

When life knocks you to your knees--well, that's the best position in which to pray, isn't it?