Don A. Carson tells of this story about prayer in his book Call to Spiritual Reformation:

Two years ago at a major North American seminary, fifty students who were offering themselves for overseas ministry during the summer holidays were carefully interviewed so that their suitability could be assessed. Only three of these fifty- 6 percent!- could testify to regular quiet times, times of reading the Scriptures, of devoting themselves to prayer. It would be painful and embarrassing to uncover the prayer life of many thousands of evangelical pastors.

But we may probe more deeply. Where is our delight in praying? Where is our sense that we are meeting with the living God, that we are doing business with God, that we are interceding with genuine unction before the throne of grace? When was the last time we came away froma period on intercession feeling that, like Jacob or Moses, we had prevailed with God? How much of our praying is largely formulaic, liberally larded with cliches that remind us, uncomfortably, of the hypocrites Jesus excoriated? [Read more...]

Day 5 of Prayer and Fasting. Tonight we prayed for the NATIONS of the world.

“Build up, build up, prepare the road!
Remove the obstacles out of the way of my people.” –Isaiah 57.14

Back off Satan, this nation belongs to Jesus Christ!

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. –2 Chronicles 7.14

We stake our claim over this nation, we raise up the banner of Jesus over this land, we declare the righteousness of Christ over the Philippines. The powers of darkness have no other option but to back off and flee. Let the nations of the world know that Jesus is God over the Filipino people!

Don A. Carson on pursuing God more than His blessings:

When it comes to knowing God, we are a culture of the spiritually stunted. So much of our religion is packaged to address our felt needs—and these are almost uniformly anchored in our pursuit of our own happiness and fulfillment. God simply becomes the Great Being who, potentially at least, meets our needs and fulfills our aspirations. We think rather little of what He is like, what He expects of us, what He seeks in us. We are not captured by His holiness and His love; His thoughts and words capture too little of our imagination, too little of our discourse, too few of our priorities.

In the biblical view of things, a deeper knowledge of God brings with it massive improvement in the other areas [of our lives]: purity, integrity, evangelistic effectiveness, better study of Scripture, improved private and corporate worship, and much more. But if we seek these things without passionately desiring a deeper knowledge of God, we are selfishly running after God’s blessings without running after him.