Each year people make what are called New Years Resolutions. The reason, supposedly, for making these resolutions is that people are hoping to resolve something they did or didn’t do in the last year. Sometimes there was a mistake or sometimes they could have done better. Sometimes they didn’t do anything at all. The problem with resolutions is they are often done half hearted and we are only slightly committed to them. Mind you we may have good intentions to resolve these missteps, but rarely do we have any real conviction about them.

When I tarted this series on prayer, I wanted to address some misconceptions about prayer, and some habits many Christian have developed that are not productive. Our misconceptions come to us from a number areas such as poor teaching, personal challenges and a lack of understanding of the character and nature of God from the scriptures. 

With Christmas almost upon us, I wonder what most Christian parents are communicating to their children about Christmas and its importance for them and the body of Christ?

In this series on prayer, I have dealt with a number of reason why people struggle so much with having a fulfilling prayer life. In this article I want to talk about two very big hindrances to Christians having real faith when they pray. These two subjects have been taught by many pastors and teachers over the years because in the body of Christ no one wants to be labeled as a teacher of wrong concepts or theology, and because these teachers have been trained to embrace reformed theology in particular. In my mind, these teachings are damaging to not only the practice of prayer but to evangelism and reaching unbelievers.

This is the fourth article in a series on prayer.  I am attempting to explore the vast  insights the scripture gives us if we would only open the scriptures to find them.  The topic of prayer, based on my experience, has few believers practicing because of misguided teaching in the greater body of Christ. Believers say they understand prayer and yet practice it either infrequently or poorly. The subject of prayer deserves a lot more attention. Jesus said his house was to be called a house of prayer, not of preaching or worship, even though those are important items and functions in a healthy church. Real healthy prayer is the gateway into the presence and provision of God. If you have not read the first three articles please do so now so you can see the foundation points on my understanding on the importance and practice of prayer for each believer. Look at what the disciples ask Jesus one day about prayer and how to pray according to the will of God.

If there is a topic that Christians should know about it should be prayer. Unfortunately, the average believer generally gropes around in the spiritual darkness expressing their desires to God with the hope he will listen and possibly answer. How sad that a topic like prayer is so misunderstood and so poorly practiced when Jesus expressed the utmost confidence in the power of prayer to change our circumstances in life. 

In the first article under this same title I shared how prayer should be a top priority of all believers and yet I fear it is often the least practiced discipline of the Christian faith. At best it is often a desperate means of crying for help from a God we barely know.

I have been thinking about writing about whether prayer really works or not for some time now. I found myself studying a great deal about prayer from scripture and books I haven’t read in years. I wanted to, as it were, “Hit All The Bases” on the subject rather than giving some flash-in-the-pan quick answers.

As we have been exploring the ethical issue of lying I have tried to cover the subject from a biblical perspective which states that God first and foremost hates lying. Why? Because at its core lying is about deception and harm. In part four I started to unpack different people from scripture that lied, and it would seem did not suffer for it.

In these articles on the subject of lying we have attempted to understand the why and the why not of telling the truth all the time. Making a hard law out of something the scripture does not teach is wrong but many times we try to justify a truth that seems right to us without really investigating the “Whole Truth” of God’s Word. Take, for example, the law of God about committing adultery. The pharisees who wanted to trap Jesus used the law of God against him so they brought a woman caught in the act of adultery to be judged by him. They thought they had him over a barrel where he would have to uphold the law and agree to stone the woman or show mercy and prove he was a law breaker. Jesus turned the tables on them and exposed their hypocrisy! If you haven’t read the first three articles please do so before reading this one or it will not make sense.