Why Pray?

Why pray? What motivates us to pray day after day? Are you the type of person who has no problem praying when things are difficult, but struggles to remain faithful once things are good again?

Jesus deals with the issue of our motivation when he said, “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (John 14:13 ESV) In this verse we can clearly see what motivates Jesus to answer our prayers. Instead of emphasizing his empathy or his deep desire to make our lives peaceful and prosperous, Jesus purposely highlights the ultimate aim of answered prayers. Take note of the word “that” in the scripture above and take time to ponder how important it is that God is glorified in our answered prayers. Doing this can suddenly drain your prayers of selfish ambition and fill them with a more noble desire to see God continually exalted.

Too often we are motivated to pray because we view prayer as a tool of unlimited potential in our hands and forget that prayer has a greater purpose as a tool in the hands of God. Prayer and answered prayers are not meant to be tools that enable us to build self-sufficient lives. Prayer was never meant to stop with you and remain in your prayer closet. Instead of looking selfishly at your problems, weaknesses, and trials as obstacles to well living, start looking at them as opportunities for God to receive more glory.  

If you struggle in your prayer life, ask yourself a simple question: “What keeps my prayer life alive, driven, and passionate?” If it’s a veiled pursuit of selfish gain your prayer life will never be what God intended it to be and be held hostage to the continual state of flux. The lasting motivation to a strong prayer life is the active pursuit of seeing God glorified through answered prayers. Clearly, God gets more glory when he remains the object, motivation, and aim of our prayers!

Current View: Fjällbacka, on the Swedish west coast

My experience with a horrible church

Have you ever been in a church service that made you cringe? Have you ever been involved with a church that continually tried your patience, zapped you of your inspiration, and generally left you with a feeling of discontent? Have you ever struggled loving people in your church who seemed insufferable, annoying, or altogether evil? If so, you and the Apostle Paul have a lot in common.

I’m currently teaching through the book of I Corinthians, and after weeks of learning about Paul’s least favorite church, I am left astonished at Paul’s persistent love and patience with his non-spiritual misfits. Truthfully, I doubt anyone would willingly choose to be a part of the church in Corinth. The list of wrong behaviors and dangerous theologies that prevailed within the church are enough to make any Christian cringe. And yet, despite their numerous sins, perhaps the most self-destructing sin was their sin of spiritual pride. Pride in their own spirituality, and spiritual gifts, was essentially a serious threat to their own spiritual survival and the gospel itself.

Paul remedies this great spiritual sickness with words of compassion and instruction. Instead of hurtful and humiliating criticisms, Paul writes to the dysfunctional church with words laced with love. Through Paul’s writings to this church, we are all reminded that humiliating a brother or sister because of their sins, weaknesses, or shortcomings is never a healthy way to treat someone. Rather, when we are a part of an underachieving church or are confronted with a troublesome brother or sister, we should follow Paul’s example. Let your words, even to the worst of sinners and in the worst of churches, always be words laced with love and godly encouragement.

Paul sought to provoke the Corinthians to a greater level of humility and sincerity not by showing them what they were not, but reminding them of what they were in Christ:

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. (I Cor 1:18)

A new way to communicate an old message

From email to blogposts, I’m transitioning from one medium to another to stay in contact with you who have previously received my devotionals (in addition to any one else who is interested). I look forward to getting back to writing about my spiritual musings and hopefully they are as enjoyable to read as they are to write. One of the benefits of using a blog, verses communicating solely by email, is that you, the reader, have a chance to interact with the posts and share your own thoughts and feelings. 

My hope for this blog is that you find yourself growing spiritually through insightful and thought provoking posts. While most of my posts will be concise scripture devotionals, I will also take time to reflect on personal and social issues. If there is a particular topic that you would be interested in reading about in this blog, please feel free to email me and inform me of the issues that your are interested in.

I will attempt to keep this blog updated weekly, but due to time constraints and my 11 month baby marshmallow man, I don’t know if I will be as precise as your favorite watch. In any case, I vow to do my very best to keep you fed with a steady diet of spiritual musings and meditations. Enjoy!