Dallas Willard taught us that our relationship with God is interactive and that prayer was a genuine conversation with God. This can be seen in most of his books but Hearing God is perhaps the best example. (By the way, Willard also defined the kingdom of God as this “interactive relationship” and this is a [Read More...]

Two features of prayer rise to the surface in any discussion about prayer: that people of all parts of the world and of all times pray, and that prayer practices shift from one group to another. Those practices reveal, often enough, what each thinks prayer is. But notice how people pray in different ways, from [Read More...]

Lord, We pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, That we may continually be given to good works; Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. From BCP [Read more...]

Many, perhaps most, of us have a favorite book on prayer. Some would appeal to Augustine’s Confessions, others to Gregory of Nyssa or St Bonaventure or Teresa of Avila or to Luther or Calvin, or from our modern times Andrew Murray or A.W. Tozer or a manual like that of Donald Bloesch. What should be in [Read More...]

In the 80s and 90s more and more churches took on board “spiritual disciplines” and began to teach and develop programs about spiritual disciplines. The primary movers of this movement were Richard Foster (Celebration of Discipline) and Dallas Willard (The Spirit of the Disciplines).  Any number of books and programs flow from these two authors, [Read More...]

O God, because without you we are not able to please you, mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. [Read more...]

What is the distinctive element of Christian prayer? Rowan Williams in his little book on the Christian life, called Being Christian: Baptism, Bible, Eucharist, Prayer, contends it is calling God “Father” so that the distinctive element of Christian prayer becomes: “For the Christian, to pray — before all else — is to let Jesus’ prayer happen [Read More...]

I, SMcK, vote for the Lord’s Prayer — it is so familiar, so dear, and so often said that it is impossible to bring fresh light. Here is a post by John Frye: Scot McKnight notes that the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:7-15) is an intrusion into the almost “obsessive organization” of Matthew 6:1-18. Even more, [Read More...]

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy: Increase and multiply upon us your mercy; that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal, that we lose not the things eternal; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns [Read More...]