Author: Jonathan Dodson
Is Your Mission Driven by Prayer?
I’ve been thinking about prayer a lot lately. I’ve been convicted that if prayer is the engine of mission, then I’m not as missional as I thought! On Sunday, I confessed that I’ve been engaged, in the words or Richard Lovelace, in horizontal communication at the expense of vertical communication.
The proportion of horizontal communication that goes on in the church (in planning, arguing, and expounding) is overwhelmingly greater than that which is vertical (in worship, thanksgiving, confession and intercession…The old midweek prayer meetings for revival have vanished from the programs of most churches or have been transformed into Bible studies ending with minimal prayer. – Dynamics of Spiritual Life, 153
How about you? Horizontal better than your vertical? Maybe we need to bring the old mid-week prayer meeting back! How about your missional communities or small groups? Have they devolved into Bible Studies that simply tack prayer on at the end?
And how about your praying? In order to grow in my intercessory praying, I told our church that if they filled out a card with a prayer request I would pray for them once a week for the rest of the year. It’s already increased my joy in prayer and in mission. I plan on doing this several times a year.
Also, I can’t recommend enough Paul Miller’s book A Praying Life. It takes prayer off of top-shelf spirituality and places it in the everyday person’s hands. Insightful, gospel-centered, and inspiring.
- Here is a blog post I wrote on Jesus, the Most Dependent Human Being Ever inspired by Miller’s insights.
- A post on Three Types of Prayer.
Gospel 3D Video
I am experimenting with some home videos…
Three Types of Prayer
We had a great time of teaching on prayer and praying together on Sunday. In the sermon we discussed three types of prayer and mentioned some resources. Note that the three types of prayer are present in the Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Here they are:
Prayers of Communion (Matt 6:9-10) – fellowship with the triune God through worship and thanksgiving. Prayers of communion are lingering over God’s greatness and goodness with gratitude.
- Praise God for his attributes: immensity, sovereignty, trinity, mercy, kindness, goodness,
- Thank God for his acts: creation, provision, salvation, protection, suffering, trial
- Meditate on his promises:
Prayers of Confession (Matt 6:12) – confession of sin, repentance, and hopeful faith in Christ. Being honest with God about who we are (sinners) and who he is (Savior).
- Confess sinful thoughts, actions, or feelings towards God or others
- Repent from valuing, cherishing, desiring, trusting in that person or thing or event
- Receive God’s perfect forgiveness and grace for our God-belittling sin
- Trust in the truth and grace of the gospel, that Christ is more desirable and trustworthy than these other things, no matter how good they are
Prayers of Petition (Matt 6:11, 13) – requests for all kinds of things in Jesus name for Jesus’ fame. Prayers of petition are an opportunity for our desires to be aligned with God’s desires, not our will but his will (Matt 6). All of our requests, in the end, should move us closer to his will.
- For wisdom
- For healing
- For provision
- For mission
Here are some helpful books I mentioned on prayer, including one by Tim Chester. The primary book I referred to is A Praying Life, by Paul Miller. Here is a blog post I wrote on Jesus, the Most Dependent Human Being Ever inspired by Miller’s insights.
