PRAYER You pray in your distress and in your need; would that you might pray also in the fullness of your joy and in your days of abundance. Kahlil Gibran
Sermon Illustrations
WE CANNOT MERELY PRAY We cannot merely pray to you, O God, to end War; For we know that you have made the World in a way That man must find his own path to…
NEWTON ON PRAYER The great and devout scientist, Sir Isaac Newton said, "I can take my telescope and look millions and millions of miles into space, but I can lay it aside and go into…
SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE I am inspired by the practicality and rigor of Dallas Willard's book entitled The Spirit of the Disciplines (Harper & Row, San Francisco, 1988). Willard writes: "My central claim is that we can…
GRACIAS I have found a number of helpful passages in Henri Nouwen's book Gracias! It is the journal he kept while spending a six month pilgrimage in Bolivia and Peru. It is an insight into…
PRAYER Prayer is the ongoing cry of the incarnate Lord to the loving God. It is eternity in the midst of mortality, it is life among death, hope in the midst of despair, true promise…
MOTHER TERESA When I met Mother Teresa in Rome, I saw immediately that her inner attention was focused constantly on Jesus. It seemed that she saw only him and through him came to see the…
SOLITUDE AND SILENCE Seek for a convenient time to search your own conscience, and think often of the benefits of God. Abandon curiosity and read such matters as shall stir you to compunction of heart…
PRAYING FOR THINGS OR GOD? I remember one day in Tibet, when I was in prison. The stones of that prison were like flowers. There was nothing in these stones, but His presence changed them,…
TWO ANSWERED PRAYERS -- OR LARCENY? Margaret Burke went to St. Jude's Church daily for nine days in February 1984 to ask St. Jude, the saint of desperate causes, to help her keep her home.…
HAWAIIAN PRAYER In the book Walking On Water there is a quote by a Hawaiian Christian, Mother Alice Kaholusuna: "Before the missionaries came, my people used to sit outside their temples for a long time…
BUSINESSLIKE PRAYER The president of a major Twin City, Minnesota company was saying the evening prayer at dinner one evening at home. It became a fairly long prayer, and at the end he forgot where…
AN ANSWER TO A MOTHER'S PRAYER At one point during the winter of 1940, my husband, a house painter, was temporarily unemployed because of the weather, and the textile plant where I worked was closed…
GOD BE IN MY HEAD God be in my head and in my understanding. God be in mine eyes and in my looking./God be in my mouth and in my speaking. God be in my…
INTERCESSORS Intercessors are the powerful ones. Intercessors pray for others until God releases His grace and resources upon them. Intercessors wage spiritual battles with the unseen forces of darkness -- and win. Intercessors sometimes rise…
THE LORD'S FORGIVENESS Psalm 51:11 "Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me." The most vivid experience of that anguished prayer and its answer that I can recall came…
MINISTERING OUT OF THE QUIET I get so much personal help from Christianity Today's Leadership Library Series of books. A recent one was by Eugene Peterson, pastor of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Bel…
PRAYER'S STRENGTH Prayer covers the whole of man's life. There is no thought, feeling, yearning, or desire, however low, trifling, or vulgar we may deem it, which, if it affects our real interest or happiness,…
BEGIN THE DAY WITH GOD Every morning lean thine arms awhile Upon the window sill of heaven And gaze upon thy Lord. Then, with the vision in thy heart, Turn strong to meet thy day.…
SPIRIT MOTIVATED PRAYER Dr. Raymond Edmond of Wheaton College had not been in Uruguay as a missionary very long when he became deathly sick. In fact, the Uruguay nationals had his grave dug, and were…
