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In I Timothy 2, Paul challenges Timothy, his young partner, to make prayer his first thing. I think today, Paul might say it like this, "So here's the deal. My heart's desire is that pple would pray everywhere; that people would pray in their cars, and in the grocery store; that pple would pray as they walk the streets and sit in their class; pray in the halls of their apartment building and the streets of their neighborhood; that when they eat out, people would quit asking God to bless their food and ask him to bless their waitress instead.

My heart's desire Paul says is for people everywhere to pray for everyone, to pray for them as though their lives depended on it. Make prayer for others your first thing!

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When I was a kid, church wasn't terrible but it wasn't at the top of my wanna-do list. I was always looking for reasons not to go. You name the excuse I tried to use it. And one of the things my father never said was, "Hey it's up to you. As long as you are in my house, you decide if church is for you." Nope he never said that! Whenever I said, "Do we have to go to church again, he always said, "No we don't have to go to church. We get to go to church." So I showed him. I became a pastor. And what I am today is at least in part because my mom and dad were committed to a mission that went beyond our comfort. They were committed to the mission of seeing the gospel take root in and shape my life. So let me ask you that question, "What's your mission in life?"

Paul's prayer in Colossians 1 is a good mission-prayer!

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In this episode we are looking at a prayer from Paul in the book of Philippians. I’ve called it a finishing prayer. It’s a prayer to finish life well. In Bobby Clinton’s research on leaders, he found that about 1/3 of Christian leaders finish well. He defined finishing well as having a sense of purpose and calling accomplished, ending up more in love with Jesus at the end than the beginning, and not flaming out or burning out; only one out of three! We can do better!

This prayer as a prayer to finish well and a reminder of what it takes!

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All through the New Testament is an often overlooked spiritual discipline meant shape our prayers. It's the discipline of gratitude, thanksgiving to God. "Don’t be anxious, don’t worry about anything," Paul writes in Philippians 4. But in everything hard situation put these two things together, prayer and thanksgiving and God’s peace will guard your heart.

Let’s be honest, it’s easy to pray when we go through stuff that overflows anxiety into our hearts. Even people who don’t believe in God might pray in a situation like that. But the secret sauce to peace over anxiety is thanksgiving. This episode will help us develop our thanksgiving prayer list by looking at 4 categories of gratitude.

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This one is a bit different. A combination of a report on joining with 10 other congregations and two campus ministries for 36 hours of non-stop prayer and worship and another look at my favorite prayer in all of scripture.

Enjoy!

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Sometimes people make a distinction between praying big prayers and praying small prayers. But do you realize that according to Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21, every prayer we will ever pray is smaller than His power to accomplish it. They are all small prayers because He can do far beyond the greatest good we can imagine. Sometimes our problem is that not that we don't believe in God's power, it's that we don't trust his heart. We believe God can do more than we can imagine, we're just not sure He will...at least not for me.

But what if at this very moment, God is whispering, "ask me for more?"

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Ephesians 1:15-23 is a prayer for power, resurrection power that is available for us. Can I tell you why this is so important? It's so important because what we need we can't get on our own. Who we need to become we can't become on our own. We can't know God better...on our own. We need help. We can't find the hope we need in the midst of times that drain the encouragement out of our hearts. We can't make a difference that matters on our own. We need help. We can't experience the glorious riches of community on our own. We can't find a forever home without help. It's too hard. We can try but sooner or latter we'll mess it up, we'll fall short.

That's why I love this prayer, if God inspired Paul to ask for resurrection power, He must want to give us resurrection power. But it's a gift given only to those who recognize they need help. God we need your help!

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In Ephesians 1:15-23, Paul prays a prayer for his friends and in the midst of this prayer are the words, the request, "God give them the Spirit of wisdom and revelation so that they can know you better." Later he will ask God to open the eyes of their heart. His prayer brings to mind the simple question, "How well do I know God?" If there was one and only one question we should ask ourselves
on a daily basis, it might be, "How well do I know him?

Jesus once was overheard praying, he said, "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) Moses spoke with God like a man does with his friend, and yet he cried out to know more of God. Paul said, nothing matters to me more than knowing Christ. I want to know Christ. So how well do you know Him?