MINISTRIES SERVING PASTORS

I have had this as a recommendation for the last month or so but will continue to promote it for the beginning of the New Year. If you haven't started on a daily prayer guide yet, this could be a good resource that will help you with your "time at His throne." This is not a devotional guide, but an excellent book that will assist you in your quiet time.

A few months ago, Cindy and I were visiting Alongside Ministry in Michigan to learn more about how they provide a place for pastors, missionaries and their families to find respite, renewal and restoration in their calling. While we were there, I found a "book" on one of the end tables in the apartment they provided for us in our overnight visit.  Picking up "Seeking God's Face ~ Praying with the Bible through the Year" by Philip F. Reinders, I was intrigue with the format of the daily readings and how it not only engaged me with the Word, but how it helped guide me into a quiet time. The foreword by Eugene Peterson was certainly another reminder of how easy it is "to pretend to pray" but more importantly how rewarding it is to spend a quiet time with the Lord in prayer that is authentic. Here are a few thoughts from Peterson.

Seeking God’s face melds prayer and scripture into companionable guide for becoming a participant – both listening and speaking end in the great salvation conversation that is the Christian Gospel. 

Prayer is a natural and authentic substratum (foundation) of language. But there is an irony here: prayer, language at its most honest, is also the easiest form of language to fake. We discover early on that we can pretend to pray, use the words of prayer, practice the forms of prayer, assume postures of prayer, acquire a reputation for prayer, and never pray. Our “prayers,” so-called, become a camouflage to cover up a life of nonprayer.

The most frequent distortion of prayer takes place when we fail to listen to God's Word to us. We do all the talking, demanding that God do all the listening. If we are going to get the story straight, it’s important that we let God have the first word, and really listen; I mean really listen. Jesus' story of the soils is the story about prayer: "He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

This prayer guide has a unique format to guide you in your moments of a daily prayer. As Reinders wrote, "Each day contains a number of elements for you to pray with, either quietly or aloud. Again, consider the whole time a prayer, a gently conversation with God who loves you."

You can click here to go to a website for the daily guide or purchase the book which I highly recommend.  Either way as Reinders said, "Enough talk about prayer; now go and seek God's face in prayer. Commune with the Father, Son and Spirit, and give my greetings to God."