Douglas McKelvey on What to Pray When a Dream Dies

by Jed CoppengerBible, Book Summary, Christian living, Church, Ministry, Practical Ministry, Prayer, QuotesPosted on No Comments

Douglas McKelvey’s Every Moment Holy vol. 1 provides liturgies, or prayers, for all kinds of different situations. I thought I’d share the one he wrote for “The Death of a Dream.” In it, he skillfully and beautifully puts into words what so many feel when this happens and how they should process it in the presence of a good God. This prayer could be something you pray for almost any disappointment. I hope it encourages you like it encouraged me.

O Christ, in whom the final fulfillment of all hope is held and secure,

I bring to you now the weathered

fragments of my former dreams,

the rent patches of hopes worn thin,

the shards of some shattered image of

life as I once thought it would be.

What I so wanted

has not come to pass,

I invested my hopes in desires

that returned only sorrow

and frustration. Those dreams,

like glimmering faerie feasts,

could not sustain me,

and in my head I know that you

are sovereign even over this–

over my tears, my confusion,

and my disappointment.

But I still feel,

in this moment,

as if I have been abandoned,

as if you do not care that these hopes

have collapsed to rubble.

And yet I know this is not so.

You are the sovereign of my sorrow.

You apprehended a wider sweep with wiser eyes

than mine. My history hears the fingerprints of grace.

You were always faithful, though I could not always trace quick evidence of your presence in my pain, yet did you remain at work,

lurking in the wings, sifting all my

splinterings for bright embers that might

be breathed into more eternal dreams.

I have seen so oft in retrospect, how

you had not neglected me, but had, with a

master’s care, flared my desire like silver in

a crucible to burn away some lesser longing,

and bring about your better vision.

So let me remain tender now, to how

you would teach me. My disappointments

reveal so much about my own agenda

for my life, and the ways I quietly demand

that it should play out: free of conflict,

free of pain, free of want.

My dreams are all so small.

Your bigger purpose has always been

for my greatest good, that I would

day-to-day be fashioned into a more fit vessel

for the indwelling of your Spirit,

and molded into a more compassionate

emissary of your coming Kingdom.

And you, in love, will use all means to shape

my heart into those perfect forms.

So let this disappointment do its work.

My truest hopes have never failed,

they have merely been buried

beneath the shoveled muck of disillusion,

or encased in a carapace of self-serving

desire. It is only false hopes that are brittle,

shattering like shells of thin glass, to reveal the

diamond hardness of the unshakeable eternal

hopes within. So shake and shatter

all that hinder my growth, O God.

Unmask all false hopes,

that my one true hope might shine out

unclouded and undimmed.

So let me be tutored by this new

disappointment.

Let me listen to its holy whisper,

that I may release at last these lesser dreams.

That I might embrace the better dreams you

dream for me, and for your people,

and for your kingdom, and for your creation.

Let me join myself to these, investing all hope

in the one hope that will never come undone

or betray those who place their trust in it.

Teach me to hope, O Lord,

always and only in you.

You are the King of my collapse.

You answer not what I demand,

but what I do not even know what to ask.

Now take this dream, this husk,

this chaff of my desire, and give it back

reformed and remade according to

your better vision,

or do not give it back at all.

Here in the ruins of my wrecked

expectation, let me make this confession:

Not my dreams, O Lord,

not my dreams,

but yours, be done.

Amen.

6 Questions Every Leadership Team Should Be Able to Answer: Insights from Patrick Lencioni

by Jed CoppengerBook Summary, Christian living, Church, Ministry, Practical MinistryPosted on No Comments

One of the major tasks of any leader is creating clarity. Patrick Lencioni, in his classic The Advantage, argues that in order for leaders to create clarity, leaders need need to make sure everyone they are leading is clear on six questions. These questions, he argues, aren’t unusually insightful. Rather, the insight is that “none of them can be addressed in isolation; they must be answered together.” He continues, “Failing to achieve alignment around any one of them can prevent an organization from attaining the level of clarity necessary to become healthy.”

What are the six questions?

  1. Why do we exist?
  2. How do we behave?
  3. What do we do?
  4. How will we succeed?
  5. What is most important, right now?
  6. Who must do what?

Answering these questions, he asserts, “may well be the most important step of all in achieving the advantage of organizational health.” Whether you lead in the local church or outside of the local church, I think these questions are absolutely worth wrestling with.

C.S. Lewis on the Importance of Accessible Communication

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Church, Culture, Evangelism, Ministry, Missions, Practical Ministry, QuotesPosted on No Comments

Our business is to present that which is timeless (that which is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow) in the particular language of our own age. . . .

We must learn the language of our audience. And let me say at the outset that it is no use at all laying down a priori what the “plain man” does or does not understand. You have to find out by experience. . .

You must translate every bit of your Theology into the vernacular. This is very troublesome and it means you can say very little in half an hour, but it is essential.

It is also the greatest service to your own thought. I have come to the conviction that if you cannot translate your thoughts into uneducated language, then your thoughts were confused. Power to translate is the test of having really understood one’s own meaning. A passage from some theological work for translation into the vernacular ought to be a compulsory paper in every Ordination examination.

—C. S. Lewis, “Christian Apologetics” [1945], in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1970), 96.

Christ and Culture: The Call to be Salt and Light in a Decaying and Darkening World

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Church, Culture, Evangelism, Ministry, Missions, Practical Ministry, PrayerPosted on No Comments

Alasdair MacIntyre, in his book, After Virtue, argues that Western culture is in a situation very similar to the cultural moment when the Roman Empire fell. Rather than being governed by reason, faith, or some combination of the two, our culture is governed by emotivism. Emotivism is the concept that moral choices are simply expressions of choosing what “feels right,” not because there is an objective right and wrong. Because of this, our culture is unraveling.

In a culture like ours, where realities as simple and obvious as identifying a person’s gender with their biological sex is rejected and seen as hateful, not just by the periphery of society, but the major institutions, it is difficult to avoid agreeing with MacIntyre’s point. If our culture can’t agree on the fact that boys should compete against boys, and girls should compete against girls, that only women can have babies, and that people and businesses should be able to make decisions and policies accordingly, how can we improve many of the much more complex areas of our culture? It’s a dark time.

That’s why I believe it’s important for all Christians to think more thoroughly and carefully about what it means to be a Christian in this culture. In the midst of the cultural chaos, Jesus provides a pathway forward. He’s brought the church through more difficult times, enabling them to be both faithful and fruitful. I believe he is doing the same today. But it won’t be easy. To help, I think Christians need to return to Matthew’s Gospel and reorient their lives accordingly.

Matthew’s Gospel as a Playbook for Cultural Engagement

When Jesus stood on the side of that Galilean hill delivering what we now call, the Sermon on the Mount, the people of God were not in a position of cultural power. They weren’t in a position of strength economically, politically, or any other meaningful cultural measure. They didn’t hold positions in the elite institutions of the times, as James Davidson Hunter and others have argued are important for cultural change. They weren’t winning the battle of ideas culturally, as Francis Shaeffer and so many others have tried to help so many world changers do. In fact, the first followers of Jesus were unmistakably vulnerable politically, economically, medically, professionally, and relationally as they carried out their lives under the harsh rule of Rome.

And yet, it was to those powerless people, that Jesus set out a vision, one that focused on creating a people that are salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, that has undeniably changed the world. In order to be salt and light, his followers had to be prayerful (Matt 6:9-13), principled (Matt 5-7), and practical (Matt 8-9). They were to be prayerful because prayer, more than anything else, shows whether we really believe that we need God’s help to advance God’s mission in our day-to-day lives They were to be principled because just as creation unraveled with the rejection of God’s powerful word (Gen 3:1-6), it will be restored by God’s powerful word. And, finally, Jesus’ followers are to be practical, they are to make a difference practically in the lives of those around them, because Jesus loves to use “good works” like feeding the hungry, caring for the poor, and more, to adorn the gospel and all its world changing realities (Titus 2:10). Christians don’t need cultural power to bring about cultural change because Christians follow a king whose kingdom, and all its power, is not of this world—that created this world (Jn 18:37).

But it’s important, as we seek to follow Jesus’ plan for being salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, being a prayerful, principled, and practical, that we don’t miss out on the rest of Jesus’ plan revealed in Matthew’s gospel. In a culture marked by “expressive individualism,” it’s easy to skip the following parts of Matthew’s gospel, which show that Jesus is advancing his mission through a people, a church, that he is building (Matt 16:18). Why is this so important to see? Because Jesus’ mission advances most impactfully when his followers commit to one another to carry out his mission in local churches. These local churches aren’t supposed to be just another group of people who share the same preferences. They are a people who share the same faith in the crucified and risen Lord. They believe that Jesus’ body and blood, and his indwelling Holy Spirit, is enough to change their relationship with God and others.

Matthew’s Gospel doesn’t end numerically better than it starts. When Jesus meets his disciples on a hill in Galilee there are less present than when he delivered his Sermon on the Mount. But a decline in numbers doesn’t always mean a decline in influence. The major difference, obviously, was that Jesus was now the crucified and risen Savior—one whose hands were marked by eternally healed scars. His promised presence provides the key to advancing his disciple-making, and, consequently, world changing, purposes (Matt 28:18-20).

Matthew’s Gospel, which some scholars argue is the most read book in all of the Bible, provides a playbook for cultural change—one that doesn’t depend on cultural credibility, but the power and presence of the risen Lord.

Following the Mission of Christ throughout the History of the Church

A surface level reading of the book of Acts and the rest of the New Testament reveals unmistakably, that the followers of Jesus were prayerful, principled, and practical, as they sought to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world. Local churches were started and the results were stunning. No one, no matter how well positioned culturally, in those cultures had the intellectual and spiritual resources to get people, as divided as they were culturally, to love and serve one another sacrificially like brothers and sisters, to do unmistakable good to all types of people. Little by little, life by life, the gospel began to change the world. The light was pushing back the darkness.

Christians enjoyed with gratitude all of the good things in their lives and culture given by God (Jms 1:17). Because the Fall hasn’t erased all of the goodness of God’s creation, there is much to be enjoyed. They also rejected many of the ideas and lifestyle choices that were evidence of the Fall and the ongoing powerful presence of sin in our broken world. And, finally, they sought to enhance or improve their lives, the lives around them, and beyond, fighting to bring all things in submission to the Lordship of Christ (Eph. 6:10-20).

This same trajectory was followed beyond biblical times through every phase of church history, starting with the Patristic period (30-590), then the early Medieval period (590-1054), the late Medieval period (1054-1517), the Reformation (1517-1689), and the Modern Period (1689-Present).

During the first part of the Patristic period, Christians combatted heresies, launched what would eventually become hospitals, cared for forsaken children, and more. During this period, Augustine, wrote the City of God, where he provided a devastating critique of pagan culture and one of the greatest writings in the history of the church.

During the early Medieval period, as Christians lived in a world where Rome had been conquered by the barbicans, they faced new cultural challenges with the beginning of Islam in 622, the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, and countless other challenges. Benedict’s “strategic withdrawal” from much of the surrounding culture, provided resources that Christians greatly needed in the centuries to come, as Rod Dreher has helpfully observed in The Benedict Option.

Christians launched educational institutions that have continued until today during the late Medieval period. The most prominent example, of course, is Oxford, which was started in 1096. Christians also dealt with major abuses in the church, advanced Bible translations at the cost of their lives, and the Crusades.

Christians entered the 1500’s as a major cultural force, for good and for ill. They had come a long way from that small hill in Galilee. Much good and much harm had been done in Jesus’ name. There was a need for major change. Starting with Martin Luther, the Reformation, created all kinds of amazing glimpses of “light in the darkness.” The five solas revolutionized how Christians approached being “salt and light” in a decaying and darkening world. The importance of “vocation” was elevated for all Christians. Abraham Kuyper helped followers in all seven spheres of culture see how to bring them under the Lordship of Jesus.

Finally, in the Modern period, with the rise of the Enlightenment challenge, Christians experienced religious toleration, advanced world missions, started major educational institutions (like Harvard was in the 1600’s to train ministers), and more. The first and second Great Awakening took place. George Mueller revolutionized orphan care in England. William Wilberforce fought the slave trade. Book publishers were started. Jesus advanced his cause through his church. Of course, Christians continued to make major, sinful errors. The role of many Christians in the slave trade remains, most likely, the greatest hypocritical sin of this period.

While this embarrassingly succinct overview of church history is admittedly simplistic, I include it to help provide historical perspective that shows every Christian at every time, has had challenges and opportunities to be salt and light—to be prayerful, principled, and practical. The Spirit of Christ has powerfully advanced the Father’s purposes through Christ’s blood-bought, imperfect church.  

The Church as Salt and Light in a Decaying and Darkening World

Over the last 75 years or so, as Christian thinkers have tried to help Christians understand how best to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world, the most substantial efforts have started by wrestling with how best to define “culture.” H. Richard Niebuhr’s, Christ and Culture, arguably the most influential work on its subject since it was written, does. Francis Schaeffer, Charles Colson, Nancy Pearcy, Andy Crouch, James Davidson Hunter, just to name a few thinkers, all spend time reflecting on the best way to define “culture.”

Hunter, in To Change the World, argues that most definitions can be categorized either as idealists or materialists. Idealists define culture primarily in intellection, worldview terms. These thinkers do a fantastic job showing what Richard Weaver voiced, in 1948, “ideas have consequences.” We change culture, in this view, primarily, when we change how people think about the world.

Materialists, like Andy Crouch, aren’t materialists in the sense that they don’t believe in God and the supernatural. Rather, they identify culture primarily with what is made of the creation. Hence, the title of Crouch’s book is Culture Making. We change culture, according to this approach, when we create new cultural goods, whether that is a sweater, a song, or whatever.

Hunter highlights what he believes are strengths and weaknesses that are found in each approach. As expected, Hunter provides what he believes is a better way, one that focuses more on the importance of institutions and networks. Perhaps he could best be described as an institutionalist. How do we change the world? By being faithfully present in the institutions and networks around us.

For our purposes, following Abraham Kuyper’s lead, I think it’s most helpful to think about culture as what’s found in the seven spheres of culture: religion, family, education, government, media, arts and entertainment, business, and online. In all of these spheres, I think it’s helpful, although somewhat arbitrary, to recognize that there are different levels of participation in each sphere: thinkers, doers, and consumers.

With this idea of culture, the question, then, becomes, how do we relate to what exists in these various spheres, with these various levels? While Niebuhr’s 5-fold typology is incredibly influential, I think that T.M. Moore, in his Culture Matters, provides a helpful way to think about how Christians engage with their culture: cultural indifference, cultural aversion, cultural trivialization, cultural accommodation, cultural separation, culture triumphalism. As each category is thought about, he notes, “No one adheres to any of these six models as the exclusive or even self-conscious approach to culture matters.” In short, culture is so complex, that there are times when we need to employ each of these approaches as we try to be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world.

I think that the task before us is the same as the task before those first followers listening to the crucified and risen Lord Jesus deliver his Great Commission. We should be prayerful, principled, and practical as we seek to advance the cause of Christ in partnership with other believers in local churches.

As Christians think about the messages, institutions, people, and all the rest, around us in all seven spheres, at every level in those spheres of culture, we should enjoy the good gifts of God in our culture with gratitude, resist the evidences of the Fall in our culture around us and inside of us, and improve every aspect of the culture for the glory of Christ. Let’s not run from the battle, let’s engage with it. But let’s fight, not as the world fights, but as our Lord fights, with truth and grace—prayerful, principled, and practically.

Some of the issues before us are obvious and some are not. That’s why it’s important to remember, as the New Testament church had to be reminded of, that we see through a glass dimly (1 Cor 13:12; Rom 14). Let’s remember that it’s not just important that we are right, we must be loving (1 Cor 13:1-7). If the Apostle Paul and Barnabas didn’t agree on the best way to move the cause of Christ forward, we’ll have our struggles to get along too.

Christians are a part of their culture, even as they are called to represent Christ in their culture, enjoying the good, rejecting the bad, and bringing all things in alignment with Christ (Eph 1:10). When we do this prayerfully, principled, and practical, we can be salt and light in a decaying and darkening world.

How to Pray for Help with Your Heart Idols

by Jed Coppenger21 Days to Childlike Prayer, Bible, Christian living, Practical Ministry, PrayerPosted on No Comments

The Apostle Paul says that we have “exchanged” what we should hallow, or worship, in our hearts with things we shouldn’t. He says, “because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Rom. 1:25).

Notice that Paul doesn’t say that we “quit” or “stopped” worshiping (worshiping is simply another way of describing “hallowing”). He says that we “exchanged.” Your heart is designed by God to hallow the true God. But, because of sin, we “hallow” other things.

I saw the inescapable hallowing function of the human heart most clearly in my kids when they were going through the “Night-Night” stage. The “Night-Night” is what they called a specific blanket that they loved most. It’s the blanket that helped them to transform from terrified to tranquil, from unstable to stable, from loud to quiet and content.

We called it the “secret weapon.” When we dropped the kids off in the Children’s Ministry on Sunday mornings. We told the workers, “if they won’t stop crying, break this blanket out, and they’ll be fine in a minute or so.” The “Night-Night” was undefeated.

And there’s the thing about the “Night-Night.” There was nothing special about the blanket. We didn’t put anything on the blanket, like special oils or fragrances or anything illegal, to get them to like those blankets. All of the kids were given multiple blankets and all of the kids would choose just one of those blankets that would “work.”

It wasn’t about the blanket, it was about their hearts. Their hearts ascribed a certain value on those blankets that wasn’t true about those blankets. It was the kiddy version of what Paul was talking about.

As we get older, we leave our blankets behind, but our hearts are still making the same silly exchange—hallowing the creation over the Creator. We base our inner sense of well-being on people’s opinions, how much money we have in the bank, how “in control” we feel, and the like.

Do you know what your “Night-Night’s” are?

The Bible calls these “Night-Night’s” idols. And everyone struggles with them. Tim Keller, in his book Counterfeit Gods, describes these idols as “anything more important to you than God. Anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God.”

What might these be? Not usually bad things. They are typically good things.

Some people’s hearts and, therefore, days, are controlled by the idol of approval. If they are affirmed like they want, then they feel good about life, where it’s headed, and the journey they’re on. If they’re not affirmed, then they feel frustrated, angry, scared, embarrassed, worthless, or some other life-taking emotion.

The Bible affirms the goodness of approval in others eyes in passages like Proverbs 22:1, “A good name is to be chosen rather than great riches, and favor is better than silver or gold.” But sinful hearts have to be careful that this good thing, a “good name,” doesn’t get turned into a God thing that we have to have, that we base our heart’s contentment on. Jesus’ name was slandered by almost everyone, but his satisfaction was taken away by no one. If people’s opinions controlled his purpose, and not his heavenly Father’s opinion, he never would have did what was necessary on the cross to bring salvation to the world.

Do you tend to make an idol out of people’s opinions?

Other people don’t worry about what people think that much. Instead, their hearts and, therefore, their days, are controlled by the idol of productivity. If they are performing like they want to be performing, then they feel good about life, where it’s headed, and the journey they’re on. If they feel unproductive, behind, or anything like this, they feel frustrated, angry, scared, embarrassed, worthless, or some other life-taking emotion.

God is “pro-productivity.” He works, designed humanity to work, created the standards for productivity, and provided tons of instruction on how to work in the Bible. Jesus did the greatest work ever imaginable by purchasing salvation for sinners. But God didn’t create any work, or work process, that he wants you to replace him with. In fact, he commanded us to “rest” from our work so that we’d be reminded that it’s his work that makes the kingdom advance.

Do you tend to make an idol out of working?

But there are other people who don’t care if they are productive or if people have a high view of them, they struggle, instead, with the idol of comfort. If they are resting like they want to be resting, then they feel good about life, where it’s headed, and the journey they’re on. They’re more patient and loving towards people when they are in this place. But if they feel uncomfortable, overbooked, or anything like this, they feel frustrated, angry, scared, embarrassed, worthless, or some other life-taking emotion.

God is “pro-comfort.” He knows that rest is a good thing, which is why he commanded that we “rest” each week. But he wants us to know that our “rest” has limits. He wants us to be productive (Col. 3:23).

Do you tend to make an idol out of rest?

Another major way that people take good things in our lives and replace God with them is with possessions. People that struggle with the idol of stuff, feel good about life, where it’s headed, and the journey they’re on, if they have a certain level of “stuff.” There bank account needs to be at a certain level. Their car, apartment, house, or whatever, needs to look a certain way. If they aren’t at their “level” of stuff, then they feel frustrated, angry, scared, embarrassed, worthless, or some other life-taking emotion.

God loves “stuff.” After all, he created it! But he doesn’t want us to value “stuff” more than we value him.

Do you tend to make an idol out of stuff?

Everybody struggles at the heart level with some or all of these realities.

When you pray for God’s name to be hallowed, his kingdom to come, and his will to be done, you are praying for help in these areas of struggle in our hearts.

Do you ask God to help you overcome your heart idols?

For people who are prone to worship and hallow the god of people’s opinions, ask God to make your heart hallow his name so much that when others’ opinions change, your joy and hope and expectancy doesn’t; or if everyone is happy with you, that you don’t start caring about their opinions more than his.

For people who make an idol out of work, ask God to make your heart hallow his name so much that when you don’t feel productive, your joy and hope and expectancy doesn’t disappear, and your since of well-being isn’t gone; or if you feel super productive or refreshed that you don’t replace him by finding more joy in accomplishment than in him.

For people who make an idol out of comfort, ask God to make your heart hallow his name so much that when you feel overbooked or maxed out, your joy and hope and expectancy doesn’t disappear, and your since of well-being isn’t gone; or if you feel super refreshed that you don’t replace him by finding more joy in your circumstantial comfort than in him.

For people who make an idol out of possessions, ask God to make your heart hallow God’s name so much that when you have less than you want, your joy and hope and expectancy doesn’t disappear; or if you have more than you want, you’re your heart doesn’t replace God with the stuff he is providing you.

When you pray for God’s name to be hallowed, you are praying that our hearts would be free. You’re praying that you would be like Jonathan Edwards was when he was fired and it was said of him, “his happiness was out of reach from his enemies.” In that moment, his heart hallowed the right God.

This post includes content from my book, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time.

The Secret to a Deeper Encounter with Christ: How Praying Your Problems Turns Problems Into Platforms

by Jed Coppenger21 Days to Childlike Prayer, Bible, Practical Ministry, Prayer, Redemption City ChurchPosted on No Comments

Jesus wants to help people pray their problems. Every request in the Lord’s Prayer starts with some kind of problem. We say, “Hallowed be your name” because his name isn’t being hallowed as it should—which is a problem from heaven’s perspective. We request, “Your kingdom come, your will be done,” because his kingdom does not seem to be here, and his will isn’t really being done. That’s a problem. Then there’s a provision problem that leads to us ask “Give us this day our daily bread.” A then a guilt problem that causes us to plead, “Forgive us our debts.” And because we have a problem with evil, we ask God to “Deliver us from evil.”

This isn’t, of course, the only place where problems are prayed. When Israel was enslaved in Egypt, they prayed their problem. They “cried out to God.” Similarly, you “cry out” when you have a big problem. When Hannah was burdened by her childlessness, she prayed her problem with tears (1 Sam. 1). When Nehemiah heard that the walls in Jerusalem were broken, he cried out to God in prayer (Neh. 1). When Peter was one day away from being executed by Rome, the church prayed him out of prison (Acts 13).

The book of Psalms is filled with examples of people praying their problems. In Psalm 69, the writer pleads, “Save me God, the water was risen to my neck.” The writer of Psalm 5 is so overwhelmed by his problems he can’t find the words, so he says, “Consider my sighing and I’ll watch expectantly.” Psalm 51 is based on a guilt problem where the author is looking for grace. In Psalm 22, the writer feels forsaken. In Psalm 55, the writer feels betrayed by a friend. The Bible shows people praying their problems over and over.

Thankfully, Jesus says, “Come to me all you who are weary and heavy laden…” (Matt 11:28). What makes you “weary” and “heavy laden”? Problems.

Do you pray your problems?

Most people don’t. Most people initially either try to run away from their problems or run to their problems—flight or fight. Those that run away from difficulty, usually try to escape to some other, safer world. Whether that “other world” is online, at the gym, with comfort food, or in a bottle, it never solves problems and sometimes creates new ones.

Those who run to the problem in their own strength typically just overwork, get angry, burn out or burn things down. Sure, they can handle more problems than most, but everybody eventually runs into more problems than they can handle on their own.

Jesus doesn’t want you to run away from or to the problems. He wants you to run to the Father with your problems. When you learn to pray your problems, you learn the secret to praying “without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17). Your prayers are unceasing because your problems are unceasing. Whether your prayers seem little or big, God wants his children to bring every one of them to him. Because with each specific problem prayed, they give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible in their lives. So, turn your problems into prayers.

What problems do you need to pray?

Here’s an awesome truth. When you pray your problems, you turn your problems into platforms. What’s that mean? It means that when you ask God to do something in regards to a specific problem (like asking him to solve a financial, health, relational, or professional problem) you turn that problem into a platform where you can see something of God that you couldn’t without that problem.

That’s what the Apostle Paul is trying to explain to the Corinthian Christians in 2 Corinthians 12. After saying that he asked God to remove a problem, one that he called a “thorn in his flesh,” God told him, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Cor 12:9). Paul points God to his problem and God points Paul to an experience of his grace and power. Where is God’s power, something everyone wants to experience? It’s experienced most in our weakness, in our problems. Problems are platforms.

This truth is the reason why the Apostle Paul goes on to let the Corinthian Christians know that he actually looks forward to the next problem because he knows that when God is brought into our problems through prayer, problems turn into platforms that enable us to see and experience God in a way that we wouldn’t without those problems. He says, “For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Cor 12:10). He is “content” or “delights” in what? Weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. I’m not sure what your list of “things I like to avoid” is, but my guess is that things like these are on it.

Why does Paul feel so differently about his problems? Because he sees something we don’t see. He understands that problems can become platforms when we pray our problems. And when this happens, it changes how you view your difficulties. You see that God uses your problems to prepare you for his power and presence.

Paul, of course, didn’t look forward to every aspect of those problems. He wasn’t crazy, although he certainly sounded a bit like it in this passage. Earlier in this letter to the Corinthian Christians he let them know that he’d been tortured for Christ and that there were times where he and his companions were “so utterly burdened beyond [their] strength that [they] despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, [they] felt that [they] had received the sentence of death. But that was to make [them] rely not on [themselves] but on God who raises the dead” (2 Cor 1:8-9). Did you see it? There were parts of the problem that he hated. Those parts made him “despair of life itself.” But, he says, in that awful experience, God was extending grace that enabled him to grow—learning how to rely even more heavily on the God who “raises the dead.”

Paul prayed his problems and it turned his problems into platforms. Do you do the same?

This post includes content from my book, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time.

Specific Answers to Prayer: A 3rd Grader Prays His Bully Problems and Pancake Dreams

by Jed Coppenger21 Days to Childlike Prayer, Bible, Christian living, Church, Ministry, Practical Ministry, PrayerPosted on No Comments

Nobody likes hearing stories of kids getting bullied, much less a 3rd grader whose dad is out of the country for work. But that’s what was happening. Life can be tough in 3rd grade.

The boys mom saw someone share online that they were enjoying my book, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer. So she decided to get her and her 3rd grader a copy.

After the first week of readings, the 3rd grader got a specific answer to prayer that thrilled him.

The boy came home from school happier than usual. His mom wondered what was going on. It turns out that he prayed that day that he wouldn’t be bullied at school in a way that he was expecting to be. And God answered his specific prayer with a “yes”! he was so happy.

Hilariously, he also prayed that God would provide pancakes at lunch that day. As he told his mom the story of the day, he told her that the pancakes, unfortunately, weren’t served. But the boy said, “I guess it wasn’t what was best for me.” If you’ve read week 1, you know that he is communicating the heart of childlike trust.

When I heard this story, I was so moved. I hated that this boy is getting bullied, that he is facing it without his earthly Father. But I loved how his mom was leading him spiritually. I was thrilled that as a 3rd grader, he was already praying his problems, praying with specificity, and praying with childlike trust (specific “no’s” require childlike trust).  

The 3rd grader believes his heavenly Father loves him enough and is powerful enough to help him with his bully problem and his pancake dreams. God is glorified by that. What does your prayer life say about your belief in God’s love and power?  

Pride Doesn’t Pray: How Remembering Our Childlike Identity Removes Prides Power

by Jed Coppenger21 Days to Childlike Prayer, Bible, Christian living, Church, Practical Ministry, PrayerPosted on No Comments

Pride doesn’t pray. Pride doesn’t think it needs God’s help. Pride thinks that more will be accomplished today by skipping a time of prayer and starting to do the tasks for the day. What’s pride sound like? “I’d love to pray, but I don’t have time to pray. I have so much to do.” That’s pride. It’s the default, heart posture for most of God’s children. Want to know how strong pride’s grip is on your heart? Your prayer life, more than anything else, shows how much pride is in control of your heart. 

One of the keys to a flourishing, daily prayer life is battling the pride that stands in the way of it.

That’s why it’s so important, as we think about how Jesus started his teaching on prayer, that we don’t just focus on how Jesus led us to think, in the Lord’s Prayer, about God’s identity as “Father,” but also on its implications for our identity. When we really grasp that Jesus’ Father is “Our Father,” we realize that means we are his children. Jesus wants his disciples to pray, and, in order for that to happen, he teaches them to embrace their childlike identity.

Thinking of yourself as a child isn’t offensive to us, but it was to Jesus’ original listeners. It would have been a shot to their pride. Jesus knows this. He intends this. Because prayer won’t happen until pride is recognized and turned from. Daily prayer happens when we see through the delusions of pride that say we don’t need to ask God for help.

If you want to learn to pray, you simply need to remember who you are. You’re God’s child. Embrace your blood-bought, childlike identity. Bring all of the problems, plans, dreams, frustrations, to a heavenly Father who actually can make a difference. You don’t have to be strong to have the prayer life you were made for, you just need to grow in your awareness of your weakness. Jesus says “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Our prayer lives show how genuinely we understand that. Jesus’ emphasis on childlike prayer is an attack on our daily, deadly pride.

The next time your pride tries to persuade you not to pray, remember how Jesus described you. You’re a child—a child that’s at the stage of dependency where you need to ask your Father for “daily bread.” You need God’s help with your other problems and plans too. Don’t just listen to the inner calls to “get going!” Stop, talk back to your prayerless pride. Compare what you could accomplish today to what God could accomplish today. And don’t stop until you’ve slowed down enough to see how God can do more in a moment than you can do in a lifetime.

This post includes content from my book, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time.

4 Reasons Why I Wrote “21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time”

by Jed Coppenger21 Days to Childlike Prayer, Bible, Christian living, Ministry, Practical Ministry, Prayer, UncategorizedPosted on 2 Comments

Charles Spurgeon was one of the greatest preachers in the history of Christianity. He was known as the “Prince of Preachers.” If you’ve ever read one of his many available sermons from the 1800s, then you can understand why so many are still impressed with his preaching ministry.

But it was prayer that Spurgeon believed gave his gospel-centered ministry such power. That’s why he said, “I would rather teach one man to pray than ten men to preach.” Spurgeon knew how God loved to work through prayer to show his power and presence. Spurgeon also knew of the tendencies of Christians, even pastors and leaders, to overlook it. Christians prize eloquence, insight, and activity.

It took many years and challenging seasons for me to finally share Spurgeon’s love for prayer. Since that difficult time, few things have brought me greater joy than praying and helping others learn to pray. These joys led, eventually, to the writing of 21 Days to Childlike Prayer. While I love and am thankful for other great books on prayer, I wrote my book for the following four reasons.

To provide a book on prayer that’s accessible even for new Christians – One of my favorite parts of being a pastor is helping people who have never prayed, learn to pray. Accessibility marked Jesus’ ministry, the Apostles’, Spurgeon’s, and, hopefully, this book. When Jesus taught his disciples about prayer, he pointed them to the relationship between a Father and a child. He didn’t say that they needed to become more spiritually sophisticated to have the prayer life he wanted them to have. They just needed to become more childlike. That’s what this book is all about. And that’s why the chapters are short and written in an accessible manner. I am passionate about helping as many people as possible learn how prayer helps them experience the power and presence of God in their problems and plans.

To provide a book on prayer that challenges seasoned pastors and ministry leaders – As a ministry leader and pastor, I didn’t have much of a prayer life. Many pastors and leaders I’ve known have struggled in similar ways. It’s easy to move through years of ministry without prioritizing prayer. Through a difficult season, I found the prayer life I’d looked for my whole life. I want to help leaders learn the things I learned without going through what I went through. Jesus doesn’t want his church being led by prayerless men and women. While I wrote the book in an accessible way, I believe it is substantive enough to challenge any pastor and ministry leader. I get so excited thinking about more and more pastors and leaders praying their problems and plans with specificity and childlike trust.

To provide a book on prayer that groups of people can read together – Jesus designed prayer to take place personally and in groups. We know that because he starts his teaching on prayer with the plural, “Our” Father. 21 Days to Childlike Prayer includes reflection questions and exercises at the end of each chapter that would serve a group discussion. Some books on prayer call for churches, families, and other groups to pray together. This book is designed to help make those biblical calls a reality. I’m thankful that Harvest House, the publisher of the book, shares this desire. They are offering bulk pricing to help foster group praying (50% off and free shipping for purchases of 15 or more books – email Kathy.Zemper@harvesthousepublishers.com). I hope this book can help unite groups of people’s hearts with God and each other, providing a unique, shared experience that they can walk through together.

To provide a book on prayer that will help Christians bring more glory to God – When people believe in a God capable enough, loving enough, and wise enough, that they push pause on their lives to simply pray, God is glorified. Our prayerful actions communicate that we believe in a powerful, awesome God. When we don’t pray, we communicate the opposite. We communicate that God is irrelevant since he is unable to help us with our problems and plans. When we bring specific requests to God, he is glorified as a God who can really make a difference, in specific ways. When we walk away from our prayer times with him without the burdens we brought into it, God is glorified as a God who really can be trusted. I want God to get the glory that he deserves and uniquely gets from childlike prayer. I’m praying this book increases the glory that God uniquely gets from a praying people.

Today, on the launch of 21 Days to Childlike Prayer, I’m praying that that God would use this book to help his children make prayer a daily, life-giving, burden-relieving, joy-producing reality. I’d love for you to buy a copy. And I’d greatly appreciate it if you would pray at least one prayer on behalf of the book. Ask God to answer at least one specific prayer of each person who reads 21 Days to Childlike Prayer, during their 21 day journey. The book is 21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time. Grab a copy here today.