Prayer is an important part of how we engage in relationship with God. It remains, however, a mysterious practice to many Christians. In this episode, Stan and JP discuss key beliefs about the role of prayer in the life of the believer. They investigate the purpose of prayer and why so many Christians feel frustration around the discipline of prayer.
In this podcast we discuss:
- What prayer is
- The relationship of prayer to God’s foreknowledge
- How we should understand unanswered prayer and disappointment with God
- Why God doesn’t interfere with our free will
- Prayer pitfalls: hat untrue ideas we might have about prayer
- How prayer helps us co-labor with God toward his purposes
- Why we should ask many people to pray for a specific request
- The value of written prayers in our formation
- The possible relationship between our personality type and prayer life
- The role of persistence in our prayer life.
Resources mentioned during our conversation:
- Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life In God (not mentioned, but also see his Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God)
- Dallas Willard, A Paraphrase of the Lord’s Prayer
- JP Moreland, A Simple Guide to Experience Miracles: Instruction and Inspiration for Living Supernaturally in Christ
- Thomas Aquinas, A Prayer Before Study
- James Sire, Learning to Pray Through the Psalms
- James Sire, Praying the Psalms of Jesus
- Chester P. Michael & Marie C. Norrisey, Prayer and Temperament: Different Prayer Forms for Different Personality Types
- C. S. Lewis, Letters to Malcolm, Chiefly on Prayer