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.

Planting Roots Vision Video

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Church, Ministry, Missions, Practical Ministry, Prayer, Redemption City Church, UncategorizedPosted on No Comments

What is the Planting Roots Initiative? 

Planting Roots is an initiative to raise money, above and beyond normal giving, to build a church building at our 4095 Clovercroft Rd. property–helping us make disciples, train leaders, and feed the hungry more effectively.  

Our goal is to build an 11,800 sq ft facility that will expand our ability to make disciples, train leaders, and feed the hungry. It will include a larger worship space, lobby, kid space, and bathrooms. It will have a few offices, a kitchenette, an equipping room, and, as is the current practice, it will be able to be used for student ministry on Wednesday nights. Also, the building will include the necessary infrastructure (parking, sewer, landscaping, etc.). The building will be built as Phase 1 of a multi-phase building plan, that will allow the church to be positioned to build efficiently in the future, as the Lord continues to grow Redemption City Church. 

Why are we doing it? 

Redemption City Church exists to be a present preview of and pathway to the future Redemption City (Rev. 21-22)–a city where all of life is centered around the Redeemer. That’s why we are on a mission to make disciples, train leaders, and feed the hungry. Planting Roots is an initiative to help Redemption City Church, who has rented facilities over the past 8 years, build a building that will enable us to be a preview of Redemption City in the decades to come on property we own. 

How can you help?

1. Pray – Because we believe and have seen God do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, we pray. Join us in asking God to lead us, grow us, and provide financially for us. Pray that God moves in the hearts of people in a way that leads them to live at a level of generosity that can only be explained by God’s gracious work in their lives. 

2. Participate Every Week in the Planting Roots Sermon Series – Every week is an important week at Redemption City, and this is especially true this sermon series. We have been prayerfully planning for this series for quite some time. Prioritize Sunday morning attendance so that we can make the most of this journey together. 

3. Commit to Give a 3 Year, Above-and-Beyond Financial Gift and Give Part of It February 27, 2022 – We want everyone who calls Redemption City Church their home to invest in the vision of planting roots by giving a sacrificial 36 month financial commitment above and beyond their regular tithes and offerings, and to give part of that on Commitment Sunday on February 27, 2022. 

4. Invite Others To Join the Effort – We are praying for God to use people in our spheres of influence to partner with us prayerfully and financially in our Planting Roots Initiative. Would you help us spread the word throughout your relational world online and in person about this kingdom advancing opportunity to help build a building for a church that makes disciples, trains leaders, and feeds the hungry?  

Answers to Specific Prayer: Kidnapped Missionaries in Haiti Praying with Specificity

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

Last year, the Mawozo gang abducted missionaries, demanding $17 million for their release. By God’s grace, they made it out alive.

As I was reading an article about the events, I couldn’t help but notice how much prayer played a part in their ability to endure and escape.

Weston Showalter, a spokesman for the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries, shared what he heard from the missionaries themselves.

He said, “in times when they faced fear and danger during the night, they prayed that God would wake believers around the world and nudge them to pray for them. And that truly did happen. On this side, we hear of people who were awakened at night with a sense of urgency to pray.”

Showalter also communicated the fact that “hostages set up an around-the-clock prayer schedule, each praying for a half-hour during the day and an hour at night.”

The missionaries prayed because they believed in a God big enough to do “whatever he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). This is a beautiful picture of the childlike faith it takes to pray. And the specificity in their prayer lives led to visibility, seeing the invisible God, when they heard of others taking the action, getting up in the middle of the night, that they prayed for. Awesome!

Praying like this also enabled them to focus on representing God’s purposes as God’s children in this moment. Showalter noted, “The missionaries assured the hostage-takers of their love for their souls. They pointed them to Jesus. They hostages spoke to the gang leader on several occasions, boldly reminding him of God, and warning him of God’s eventual judgment if he and the gang members continue in their ways.” This is a beautiful picture of communicating God’s truth and love.

The story also says that the hostages prayed for an opportunity to escape. “On several occasions, they planned to escape, but they had decided if specific things didn’t happen, they would accept that as God’s direction to wait. Twice when they planned to escape, God gave clear signs that this was not the right time. On both occasions, on the very minute they had discussed, the exact thing took place they had requested as a sign. God was at work, but the timing was not right.” Then, on December 15, God provided one, and enabled to walk by many guards. Incredible!

God helped Peter escape because of the prayers of God’s people. It seems he still works these kinds of miracles today.

The Vague Prayer Syndrome: What It Is and What To Do About It

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

The older I get, the harder it is for me to come up with a Christmas list, birthday list, and a Father’s Day list. I’m not sure why it’s so hard. Maybe it’s because I buy what I want? Could be that I know that it hurts the budget? Maybe it’s because I don’t want to make sure I ask for the best possible thing and I don’t feel like I have time to really think it through? I’m not sure. But it’s a challenge for me. And from talking with others, it’s a challenge for them.

You know who this isn’t a challenge for? Kids. When it is time for them to come up with a “gift list,” they have no problem at all. They know exactly what they want. They have no regard for the budget. None! They don’t think about whether or not it is “wise” for them to use their limited number of “presents” on that circled option in the magazine they keep showing you. Children know how to ask for stuff and they know how to ask with specificity.

Part of embracing a childlike identity involves embracing specificity. It means that we learn to get specific with prayer requests. And as easy as that sounds, I’ve found in my life and the lives of those I’ve helped learn to pray, that it is difficult. It takes a good deal of work to help people pray with specificity.

Why? Because most people suffer from what I call, the “Vague Prayer Syndrome.” The “Vague Prayer Syndrome” is where you only pray vague prayers. Those vague prayers are so vague that you would never really know if they were answered by God in any meaningful way. These prayers are general prayers that don’t create any expectancy for an answer or any excitement when they are answered.

As someone who still battles the “Vague Prayer Syndrome,” I know what it sounds like—“God be with us today…” Or, “Bless this food…” The great news is that God answered those requests with a “yes!” How do I know? Because he promised us in Scripture that he would “be with us” and “bless us.”

Do you ever pray prayers like this? Do you only pray like this?

It’s perfectly fine, of course, to pray these prayers. But when you learn to get specific with your prayer requests, God becomes real in your heart and life in a way that he never would without that specificity. And when he becomes real in your life, when you get a glimpse of him working specifically in your life, it changes you. Fearful people experience peace. Bored people find purpose. Frustrated people find patience. Empty people get filled. People reach goals that are beyond their abilities to bring about.

I’ve seen it over and over in my life and in the lives of the people around me. That’s why we say, “Specificity leads to visibility.” When we get specific, the invisible God becomes visible in our lives in a way that he wouldn’t without that specific request. How do you see the invisible God? Get specific with your requests.

Instead of just saying, “Make today go great,” say, “Cause someone to encourage me by the end of the day.” Or, in regards to that staffing effort at work, say, “provide a new employee this week that we know is the one.” Here are some other examples:

God, will you send someone to encourage me today?

God, will you make my encounter with ___________ encouraging tonight?

God, will you cause my parents speak to me more kindly in the mornings this week?

God, will you make my boss affirm my work on this project this week?

God, will you make this physical ailment go away by Thursday?

When God answers those requests, you see God working in your life in ways that lift your heart out of the mess of the world. You start to really believe you have a Father in heaven that cares about you and your problems and plans. You start to awaken the childlike faith your heart was made for.

This is exactly what you see throughout the Bible. When you read the Psalms, you see them specifically praying that God would deliver them from specific fears, help them overcome a specific enemy, revive their soul, and more. The Israelites prayed for a specific deliverance from Egyptian oppression when they were slaves in Egypt. They prayed specifically for God to save them when they had their backs up against the Red Sea and an Egyptian military coming after them. Daniel specifically asked for deliverance from the Lion’s Den. Jonah prayed specifically for God to get him out of that fish’s stomach. Nehemiah prayed that God would help him build a specific wall. And the list could certainly go on. In all of these situations, they knew if God answered those prayers. And because they were specific with their prayers, when the invisible God answered their prayers, they “saw” him in a way that they wouldn’t have without that specificity. Their specificity led to visibility.

The same is true for us. When you are bold enough to pray specific prayers, you give God an opportunity to become visible—real—in your life, in a way he wouldn’t without that specificity.

Ask God to work in specific ways, by specific times, and watch him work. Will he always give you a yes? Of course, not. But many times he will. And when he does, you’ll find that your sense of his presence in your life is greater than any prayer request he grants.

This post includes content from my forthcoming book, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer: Changing Your World One Specific Prayer at a Time (pub. Jan. 18, 2022).

Towards Healthier Disagreements: 4 Practices to Avoid

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

When the biblical idea of “unity and diversity” becomes a reality amongst Christians, most figure out that it is a lot messier than it sounds. There’s enough sin present amongst believers to make unity impossible, apart from a massive influx of heart-transforming grace. 

One of the temptations in the midst of the friction is either to be, as Ken Sande so helpfully pointed out, a “peacefaker” or a “peacebreaker.” Peacefakers ignore problems that should be dealt with. Peacebreakers create problems. Jesus, of course, calls us to be “peacemakers.” Peacemakers face and fix problems with the grace of God for the glory of God. 

As we all attempt to be the peacemakers that Jesus intends for us to be, I thought it might be helpful to offer a few practices that we should avoid. 

Demonizing – It’s okay, in a world where we “see through a glass dimly,” to disagree. We should expect it. One of the temptations we need to avoid is the temptation to demonize those we disagree with. Demonizing is not just questioning their perspective; it’s questioning their motives. They have bad motives instead of the pure motives we have. C’mon. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. You love receiving the benefit of the doubt, and so do others. 

Narrativizing – Narrativizing is putting people in a “narrative” or “group” because they said something that has been said by that “narrative” or “group.” Just because someone says something that has been said by a movement you don’t like doesn’t mean that they are a part of that movement. If you don’t want to be put in a movement you dislike, then do your best to avoid doing that to others. It’s intellectually lazy and dishonest.

Propagandizing – Propagandizing often happens when we exaggerate to advance a particular perspective. Exaggerating is a form of lying. Don’t exaggerate others’ perceived misdeeds or your own perceived successes. Nobody likes to have serious conversations with people who misuse the truth in this way. This is especially tempting when the person does not share your perspective.

Catastrophizing – We live in a world that acts like every little problem is the end of the world. Peter messed up more than once. The mission can still move forward even when leaders mess up doctrine or practice. It doesn’t mean it isn’t important; it means that it isn’t ultimate. Respond appropriately.

The answer for biblical unity isn’t less disagreement; it’s healthier disagreement. If we are going to be peacemakers, we need to avoid these four problematic practices. 

The God-Glorifying Grit of Lottie Moon

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

Lottie Moon bravely and faithfully served as a Southern Baptist Missionary to China in the early 1900s. As news of her death made it back to the U.S., summary descriptions of the way she ministered in China were produced. I love this one from the Foreign Mission Journal from the International Mission Board. It read,

“She labored on bravely whether alone or surrounded by her coworkers.”

I thank God for Lottie Moon and her God-glorifying grit. May God help us all advance Christ’s mission in a similar manner in our day.

Reading Through The Bible in 2022

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

Do you have a Bible reading plan for 2022? If not, I’d love to commend to you the one I’m using. The plan was created by one of my heroes, Robert Murray M’Cheyne, a pastor from Scotland in the 1800s. He had a passion to help his people know God, which is why he was so passionate to know God’s Word.

M’Cheyne’s plan, called Daily Bread, provides a systematic way of reading the Bible at about 4 chapters a day. Over the course of the year, his plan takes you through the Old Testament once, the Psalms twice, and the New Testament twice. You can access the reading plan here.

As you make your way through the Bible, I pray that your experience will be the same as the Psalmists experience when he wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path” (Ps 119:105).

Answers to Specific Prayers: God Miraculously Changes The Heart Of The Owner Of The Building That Redemption City Church Meets In

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

I couldn’t believe what I heard. The owner of the building that our church, Redemption City Church, was leasing, said that he wanted to sell the building he was leasing to us. Not only that, our conversation happened to be just a few days before I was going away with my family for a month long sabbatical, that was gifted to us by our church. I was supposed to “totally disengage,” but it was going to be hard to do that with the possibility of a move on the horizon.

Having been given an 8 day notice and a 23 day notice from previous location owners, I’d learned to handle these with some level of faith and prayer. I prayed my problems with specificity and trusted God to do what’s best with my request, as I wrote in, 21 Days to Childlike Prayer. But I sure wish I didn’t get that phone call.

Thankfully, the owner said he wasn’t in a rush. He promised that he wouldn’t kick us out. We planned to talk when I got back in town a month later.

Fast forward a month. When I returned from the trip, I had a couple of scenarios that I was going to pitch to him. I felt pretty good about both of them. Neither were accepted.

The owner told me that he was talking to a potential buyer, but that they wanted to work with us. Although it was kind of him to think of us in this way, and it really was, we explored contingencies. We got really close on a place, but it strangely fell through.

We kept doing our best to be a “preview of the future Redemption City” at Redemption City Church, and kept praying about our location situation.

I’ll never forget where I was when I got the phone call from the owner. I can see it all playing out in my head as I write this post. I didn’t answer the call. I didn’t think it would be wise to talk to him in a place of fear. So I started praying throughout the day, that God might allow us to stay in our place.

With fear and trepidation, I called the owner. He wanted to give the church the 2 year lease I asked him for back in August! He had never given a 2 year lease in all his years of renting the building to churches. Amazing!

Not only that, but the week I received this great news, I happened to be preaching on “Persistent Prayer” from the Sermon on the Mount! You better believe all of this story made its way into the sermon and was met with applause.

Specificity leads to visibility. By getting specific, the invisible God became visible, he became unmistakably present (of course he is always present, but our awareness of his presence isn’t always great).

What specific prayers do you need to start praying? What specific prayers do you need to be encouraged to continue to start praying?