Prayers Part 6

"Your eye is a lamp for your body. A pure eye lets sunshine into your soul. But an evil eye shuts out the light and plunges you into darkness. If the light you think you have is really darkness, how deep that darkness will be." Matthew 6:22-23
Place your hands over your eyes and pray that you would have the strength to only look at things which are good and pure.

Prayers Part 5

The Bible also says that "if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong." We know that God throws our sin "as far as the east is from the west." Now that you've confessed, stand with your arms stretched in front of you and your palms up. Picture yourself letting go of a heavy load and thank God for forgiving you.

Prayers Part 4

The Bible says that "all have sinned; all fall short of God's glorious standard." In other words we all mess up. think through the last week and find the moment where you messed up the worst. Think through your conversations, the things you've done with friends, the things you've done while alone, your thoughts, and your actions. When you've found the moment you're most ashamed of, kneel and spend 45 seconds apologizing to God.

Prayers Part 3

In the Old Testament God is often known as the great "I AM." He is the one who always was, who always is, and who is to come. He is Lord of the past, present, and future. Stand up and face the back of the room. Let this symbolize you facing your past. Think through moments where you have seen God work in the past. Pray to God with sentences which start with "God, I saw you working when..." After you have remembered the times when you have known him to be faithful in the past, ask him to continue to be faithful in the future.

Prayers Part 2

Close your right hand into a fist. Then think of five things you are thankful for. As you think of each, raise a finger until your entire hand is open. Then spend 30 seconds saying thank you to God.

Prayers part 1

Tonight we are doing something called "Prayer Experience" with our students so I thought over the next few days or week I would share some of those prayers here.

Dear Jesus, send your Spirit on us so that we will be taught to pray. Prayer is hard, requiring great effort, but when done, effortless. I confess I  have never liked to pray. Prayer is too much like begging. So I have to pray that your generous Spirit will teach me to beg. I beg you to help all of us discover that our lives are constituted by prayer, so that we may be in your world one mighty, joyous prayer. Make us so rested by such prayer, so content to be your people, that we kill no more. Amen (Stanley Hauerwas)

The 25 Best Neil Young Songs of All Time :: Blogs :: List of the Day :: Paste

Paste Magazine recently put out a list of the best Neil Young songs. I was reminded how much I love his music! He is a reminder that a simple, honest story communicates so well, a lesson for us preachers.
The 25 Best Neil Young Songs of All Time :: Blogs :: List of the Day :: Paste