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).

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?

Answers to Specific Prayer: When God Provided Cigarettes in a Soviet Jail

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

As I was reading Rod Dreher’s, Live Not By Lies: A Manual for Christian Dissidents, I came across a story about a specific answer to prayer that I had to pass along to you. It’s the story about how Alexander Ogorodnikov, who was unjustly thrown into prison by an oppressive Soviet government, saw God work in an unusual way. He was one of the most famous dissidents of the late Soviet period (195). Although he was a rising start amongst the communists, even catching the attention of the KGB, he converted to Christianity in his 20’s and ended up in prison.

Dreher quotes Ogorodnikov, telling one of his stories from prison:

When they put me in the cell with the other inmates, I said, ‘Peace be with you!’ One of the prisoners asked if I was a Christian. I said yes. He told me to prove it. Another inmate said, ‘We are the scum of the earth. We don’t even have cigarettes. If your God will give us cigarettes, we’ll all believe in him.

Dreher continues,

Ogorodnikov told his fellow prisoners that the body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, and smoking fouls it. But, he continued, God loves you so much that I believe he would even give you cigarettes as a sign of his mercy. Ogorodnikov asked them all to stand and pray together for this. Everybody laughed, but they stood respectfully as he led them in prayer.

Ogorodnikov continues,

That cell was very crowded, but it became very quiet. We prayed for fifteen minutes, then I told them the prayer was over and they could sit down. At just that moment, the guards opened the cell door and threw a bunch of cigarettes into the cell.

It was incredible. There was the sign I had prayed for. The prisoners shouted, ‘God exists! He exists! And that is when I knew that God was speaking to me too. He was telling me that he had a mission for me here in this prison.

As I read this story I couldn’t help but think about what the psalmist said in Psalm 115:3, “Our God is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases.” God is often more eager to answer our prayers than we are to offer them. I pray this story encourages you to pray for the specific things on your heart today, whatever situation you find yourself in.

Answers to Specific Prayers: God Solves A Difficult Staffing Issue

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Practical Ministry, Prayer, UncategorizedPosted on No Comments

Specificity leads to visibility. When we get specific with our prayers we give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible to us in a way he wouldn’t without our specific prayers. And when God becomes visible to the eyes of our hearts and minds, hope, peace, and so many other life giving realities increase.

One of the ways God often helps his children pray with greater confidence and specificity is by hearing about how other people prayed specifically and saw God work. To this end, I’d like to tell you about how God answered an employers work, prayer request about 5 or 6 years ago.

The employer found himself in a situation that many employers find themselves, with an employee that wasn’t a good fit. He was wrestling with how best to handle that situation. With the company being a small business, relationships were deeper. Deep relationships brought great joys, but the challenges were great too. He knew, for the sake of the business, he had to remove this person from their role. But how could the employer have this difficult professional conversation without ruining the personal friendship?

While there are certainly different approaches that someone can use in this kind of situation, this particular employer started praying that the employee would find another job on her own that she was excited about, and that it would happen within 30 days. He wrote the prayer down and prayed it daily, during his normal devotion time. About a week and a half later, the employee came to him and told him about a new opportunity that she would be taking!

The employer was so grateful that God answered his specific prayer in a way that helped him both professionally and personally. But even more importantly, when you hear him talk about what happened, you understand that the experience of God’s love and control was even greater than the specific answer. The day that his prayer was answered was a day he sensed the powerful, “I’m-working-at-your-work-too” presence of God. And as he walked in this awareness of God’s presence and power, it ignited more hope in his heart. God’s greatness was more recognized in his heart which caused the size of his other problems to decrease there too. He walked home in hope that day. That hope drove him to ask specifically for God to do more with other problems and plans on his heart.

I know what some of you are thinking. Maybe that employee would have moved on anyways? Perhaps. It’s possible God would have done that without the employer’s specific prayer. But that’s not what happened. The employer prayed specifically. And because he prayed specifically, he, in a very real sense, saw the invisible God at work. Specificity leads to visibility. Of course, God doesn’t always answer our prayers with a “yes,” but he always does what’s best. That’s why we offer our specific requests with childlike trust.

What specific problems and plans are on your heart and mind today that you can turn into specific prayers?

Feeding The Hungry: Redemption City Church, Cul2vate, & Jesus

by Jed CoppengerUncategorizedPosted on No Comments

Around 1 out of 6 Tennesseans are hungry. 1 out of 6! That means over 1 million of our fellow Tennesseans have stomachs that are growling each week and can’t make it stop the way many of us can. And hunger, of course, doesn’t just impact your stomach, it impacts your ability to focus, listen, relate, your inner sense of well-being, and more. These problems are particularly felt developmentally by the 1 out of 4 children that make up Tennessee’s hungry population. If we reduce hunger, we reduce so many other problems that plague our neighbors.

That’s why, starting this year, Redemption City Church will be using a portion of our 30.9 acres to grow thousands of pounds of food that we’re going to give away in the name of Jesus. No, we’re not growing food because we want to be farmers. We’re farming because we want to be like Jesus who both SHARED God’s love verbally and SHOWED God’s love practically.

We know this is true because Matthew summarized Jesus’ ministry by saying, “23 And he went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom and healing every disease and every affliction among the people” (Matt. 4:23).

Jesus drove this point home when he said that at the end of time we will answer for how we treated the most vulnerable around us. He said, “35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers,[f] you did it to me’ (Matt. 25:35-40).

Later, Jesus’ brother, James, emphasized that saving faith is a working faith or it’s a dead faith. He wrote, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” (James 2:17).

There are, of course, many other passages in the Bible that tell us that Christians who have a saving belief in the gospel should make a practical difference in the lives of those around them. Christianity is compassionate or it’s counterfeit.

From the very beginning of Redemption City Church in 2013, we have sought to be a people that SHARE God’s love verbally and SHOW God’s love practically. We’ve seen God do amazing things as we’ve built houses for people in need, fed the hungry, provided clothing and education to those who desperately needed it, and supported missionaries who do the same.

But we feel like God is calling us to something more, something unusual.

That sense of leading started in 2018, when God gave Redemption City Church over 23 acres of Williamson County farmland through the generosity of Frank and Francis Ingraham. Immediately, we started asking God to make clear how we could best use this gift—farmland that I grew up working on—to advance his kingdom purposes. About 8 months later God led us into conversations with a local non-profit doing amazing work called Cul2vate.

Over the past 5 years, Cul2vate has been growing food to feed the hungry and using the chronically employed to do it, helping equip them to get back to the life God created them for. Cul2vate was founded by and is led by a childhood friend of mine, Joey Lankford, who also worked on the Ingraham farm with me.

Just when we were praying for a partner that could help provide the needed expertise to grow food on this kind of scale and help people along the way, Cul2vate was looking for an opportunity to multiply what they’re doing somewhere else. The timing was perfect!

After agreeing to work together, this past December we launched our “Hope for the Hungry” initiative, asking you to give $15,000 to get it started. This money would cover costs like putting in a small gravel parking pad, purchasing needed tools, seeds, and more. And you responded by giving over $27,000!!! Yes!

Then, this past Sunday, I spent half of my normal preaching time to interviewing Joey at Redemption City Church. I thought it was so important for everyone to hear his powerful story of walking away from everything the world could offer to give his life away through this ministry. You can listen to it here.

This past Sunday we also began asking for 250 people to commit to work 1 hour a month for 7 months, starting mid-March, to provide hope for the hungry. You don’t, of course, have to be a farmer, just willing to provide hope for the hungry in practical ways. You’ll plant seeds, pull weeds, harvest food, and deliver food, just to name a few of the key jobs. Families, groups, and anyone else, can do this together. It’s going to be something you’ll never forget.

Will you pray that God would use our efforts to provide physical and spiritual hope to the hungry this year? We believe that we need God’s help to advance God’s purposes, so we pray.

Will you be one of the 250 people who sign up to help 1 hour a month for 7 months? If so, let us know here. Signing up in this way will enable us to get the needed information to you as easy as possible.

God is going to do amazing things through this new ministry effort. I’d love for you to be a part of it. Check out the Cul2vate’s video below to learn more about this awesome ministry (btw, Dr. Coffey, who you will meet in this video, will be volunteering full-time at RCC’s property!).

4 Childlike Traits That Every Christian Needs To See God Work Through Prayer

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

God can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime. Whether creating the universe with a word, splitting the Red Sea for the Israelites, enabling Daniel to walk out of a lion’s den unscratched, raising Lazarus from the dead with a word, walking Peter out of prison the night before he was supposed to be executed, the Bible portrays a God whose power and love is unstoppable and unending.

That’s why we pray. Or, at least, that’s one of the reasons we pray.

Unfortunately, most people don’t have a daily prayer life. The reasons for this lack of prayer are many, but the proposed solution to it usually includes something along the lines of “I’ll try harder” or “I need to be more disciplined.”

But I’ve found over the years that a change in prayer life won’t happen in any lasting way by simply trying to be more disciplined. I’ve had more success in my own prayer life and in helping others with theirs, in trying to be more childlike, not more disciplined.

It’s interesting that when Jesus taught on prayer, he didn’t start by telling us to be more disciplined, he said to be more childlike. When he teaches us to say, “Our Father,” he is teaching us to think of prayer as a Father-Child conversation. Jesus didn’t call people to a higher, more sophisticated spiritual level to pray differently, he told them to act like children.

As I’ve meditated on this truth over the years, it’s radically changed my prayer life from a “once in a while” prayer life to an “every day, throughout the day” prayer life. This change hasn’t happened because I’m strong, but because I’m more aware of my weaknesses. The more you grow up in Christ, the more childlike you become. And I’ve found that there are four childlike traits that every christian needs to see God work through their prayers.

Childlike Faith

Just about every child has a moment or a stage where they think their parents can do anything. That’s the feeling Jesus wants us to have about “Our Father in heaven” (Matt. 6:9). Because he is “in heaven,” he is unstoppable. Jesus is connecting the Father we speak to in prayer with the God “who is in the heavens and does whatever he pleases” (Ps. 115:3). Why is this so important? Because your view of God determines your practice of prayer. If you think he can help you today with your work, relationships, finances, or whatever, you’ll ask. If you don’t, you won’t. Battle the specific sin of unbelief that says, “God can’t really make a difference in my life enough today for me to ask him for that help in prayer.”

  • What does your prayer life say about God’s abilities?

Childlike boldness

Most kids go through a long season where they don’t think twice about barging into their parents’ room in the middle of the night. Whether it’s a bad dream, they can’t find their blanket, or something else, they never apologize for the disruption. That’s a boldness that no one else could get away with. And that’s precisely what you need to have, especially once you understand the greatness of God. God’s power is matched by his love. That’s why we can ask the amazing God who “is in heaven” to give us “daily bread” (Matt. 6:11). Because he’s “our Father” we can approach his throne like a child, boldly (Heb. 4:12).

How can we, an unholy people, approach a holy God? Because Jesus bought our access with his blood. Our childlike boldness is a blood-bought boldness. He took our place on the cross to secure a space for us in his family. Because of this, we can be bold as we talk to God, asking God anything and everything.Do your kids get organized before they talk to you? Hopefully, not normally. Do they only talk to you about subjects that are “proper”? Nope. When you’re bold like a child, you feel the freedom to talk to God about what’s really going on in your life.

  • What does your prayer life say about God’s love? Do you have a high enough view of God’s love that you think he will help you today if it’s best for you?

Childlike Specificity

The older I get, the more I struggle to come up with “gift ideas” for Christmas and for my birthday. It didn’t used to be this way. When I was a kid, I could throw out all kinds of worthless things I was dying to have. My kids are the same. Most are. I believe God uniquely loves specific prayer requests from his kids. Why? When we get specific with our requests, we give the invisible God an opportunity to become visible in our lives in a way he wouldn’t be able to without that request. Specificity leads to visibility. Don’t know what to get specific about? Pray your problems. Pray your plans. Pray your Bible. Fight the “vague prayer syndrome” and write down specific enough prayer requests that you’d know it, if God answered it.

  • If God answered every one of your specific, written prayer requests, what would be different for you, your loved ones, your church, and the world?

Childlike Trust

“Ouch! I’m telling!” I heard my youngest son say, just before he made his way into the kitchen. After he told me what happened, I said to him, “I’ll take care of it.” With that, his countenance changed and he joyfully walked right back where he came from. I overheard him self-righteously say to his sibling, “Dad said he’ll take care of it.”

He didn’t, of course, know “how” or even “when” I’d take care of it. Frankly, shout out to imperfect parents like me, he didn’t know “if” I would take care of it. He simply knew “who” would take care of it. Because he knew who would take care of his problem, he walked out of that conversation without the burden he brought into it.

That burden-relieving, peace-producing, change-you-right-where-you-are-from-the-inside-out kind of interaction in prayer only happens when there is an unshakable trust in the one to whom you just presented your problem. That’s childlike trust. That’s wrapped up in the “your kingdom come, your will be done” (Matt. 6:10). If you have a God who is great enough to do something about your problems and plans, you have a God who is great enough to have a better way forward that you don’t understand. That’s why you have to trust God to do what’s best with your request. If you don’t trust him, you won’t rest. You won’t experience the “peace that transcends all understanding” (Phil. 4:6-7). Thank him for doing what’s best with your request before you know what he’ll do with it because you know WHO you’re talking to, not HOW he’ll handle it.

  • Is there any area where you need to trust God to do what’s best for you, even if it’s the thing you most fear?

How different could this year be, if we started asking the God who can do more in a moment than we can do in a lifetime, to help us everyday? How different might our relationships, work, inner sense of well being, churches, country, world, be if we starting acting like children who have a Father in heaven who does whatever he pleases?

5 Simple Steps Christians Take To Experience God’s Power In His Word

by Jed CoppengerBible, Christian living, Redemption City ChurchPosted on No Comments

God’s words are powerful. Whether creating all things with his words (Gen 1), bringing a dead man to life with his words (John 11:38-44), or calling Abram to himself with his words (Gen 12:1-3), just to name a few examples that show the power of God’s words, God wants us to know that his words are unlike any other words in the world. The words recorded in the Bible are “breathed out,” authored by, him (2 Tim 3:16). That’s why, when the writer of Psalm 119 was struggling and felt like his life was “in the dust,” he prayed that God would “give him life through his word” (Ps 119:25).

Unfortunately, most Christians are missing out on the power available to them in God’s word. Last year, a study conducted by Lifeway Research found that, “A third of Americans who attend a Protestant church regularly (32%) say they read the Bible personally every day. Around a quarter (27%) say they read it a few times a week.” The numbers go even further down when less frequent church attendance.

I’m not sure how many of the 62.2 million “Protestant Christians” (that is, non-Catholic Christians) would be considered “regular attenders,” but let’s just say for the sake of this post that all of them are. That would mean that about 43.54 million of them are walking through the day without the amazing power (not to mention wisdom, grace, love, etc.) that is uniquely found in God’s word.

Think about how different the flavor of American Christianity would be if that many people were being empowered by God’s word? How different would our relationships be? How much more hopeful do you think we would be? More loving? More at peace? The list could go on and on. When we leave our Bibles on the shelves we leave a lot of power on the table.

That’s why I LOVE helping people get into God’s word on a daily basis. I want to see more people experiencing God’s power on a daily basis. And listen, while reading through the Bible in a year is an awesome goal to pursue, I’d encourage you to prioritize daily Bible reading. If you are in God’s word each day, but don’t make it through in a year, that’s a WIN!

If you want to experience God’s powerful presence in his word, I’ve found that the following 5 steps help Christians experience God’s power in his word.

Find The Right Bible – When I worked for a Bible publisher, we saw a study that said that Christians choose their Bibles for about 4 different reasons. Some Christians chose their Bible because of it’s cover, some the type of translation, and others chose the translation their pastor preached from. Whatever your reasons are, look on Amazon and find what you like best. If you’re new to Bible reading, I highly recommend you use a study Bible (ESV or CSB). These study bibles enable you to understand God’s powerful word with greater confidence and ease.

Use A Bible Reading Plan – Most people engage with God’s word consistently when they have some kind of plan. I’d encourage you to start in the NT and read a Psalm a day. But for a wide range of plans, check out this help list from our friends at the Gospel Coalition. As you start a plan, if you are connecting with a particular passage, please feel the freedom to “get behind.” I’ve spent weeks coming back to a passage of Scripture plenty of times. When I was tempted to try to “catch up” by reading a large portion of Scripture quickly, I had to remind myself that it’s not about “keeping up,” it’s about a daily encounter with God in his word.

Observe, Interpret, And Apply – When you read the Bible with a few key questions in the back of your mind, it increases the impact of the Bible reading in your life. That’s why so many Bible readers have been helped by observing, interpreting, and applying the passage that they are reading. When they observe the passage, they ask “what does it say?” When they interpret the passage, they ask “what does it mean?” When they apply the passage, they ask “how should I respond?” For a little more information about how to think about this, read this helpful post.

Find And Prioritize A Regular Devotion Time – Identify and prioritize the best time for you to spend 15-30 minutes in reading God’s word. I’ve found that going to bed a little earlier so that I can get up a little fresher, pays off big time with my Bible reading. Maybe you’re more of a night owl. However you are wired, find a time to get into God’s word. Whatever it is, understand that the Enemy wants to do anything he can to stop you from taking these simple, but significant steps (Eph 6:10-20).

Ask God To Help You Do What He Says – Once you understand what God is telling you to do, ask him to help you do it. Don’t just read your Bible, pray your Bible. Ask your heavenly Father to help his “kingdom come” in whatever specific way you happen to be reading about that day.

God has fresh, unlimited power available for you each day in his word. Ask him to help you experience it as you experience him each day in 2020.

Father, Cause Your Holiness To Shine

by Jed CoppengerHomepage Slider, PrayerPosted on No Comments

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I remember exactly where I was when it happened. I was standing just outside the front door of one of my favorite Mexican restaurants. When it happened, I stopped my conversation, turned to it, and took it in. The “it” that happened was the rare appearance of the sun in January in Mid-TN.

You see, here in Mid-TN we have winters filled with gray, cloudy, energy depleting skies. We don’t get much snow or ice. Just gray skies.

Everything just seems worse in this kind of situation. Sure, we still get around and do all that needs to be done. But it just isn’t as fun, easy, or energizing as it is in the Spring or Summer when the sun is shining about everyday.

The sun, of course, still shines in the winter. It doesn’t take winters off. It’s just not visible, except for those rare moments when it’s energizing, life-giving beams break through the clouds like it did for me that day.

That’s what this prayer is all about. It’s about praying that the glory of God’s awesome, life-giving, energizing holiness would shine through the “gray skies” that have covered our hearts since sin entered the world. We aren’t praying that God would become awesome and able to shine. No, he always has been, is, and will be awesome. We’re praying that we could see and experience more of the awesome holiness that is always true of him. We’re praying that his glorious “beams” would break through all of the “grayness”of  our sin that has covered our hearts, lives, and world. We’re praying for more of the one Being we actually need. We want to see more of him. We want increased capacities to love him, enjoy him, and serve him.

Father, cause your holiness to shine…

3 Ways To Ignite Your Prayer Life

by Jed CoppengerPrayerPosted on No Comments

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Why do atheists pray? Sure, not all atheists pray. But 34% of atheists said they’ve prayed. 34%! Isn’t that amazing?! I think it is. But I don’t think it’s that surprising. After all, there is something unusually beautiful about the idea that you could see miracles take place simply because you asked. There’s something incredibly attractive about the notion that your problems and plans could be handled by an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving, and all-present God!

Yet, for many Christians, prayer is almost non-existent. For most Christians, prayer plays practically no role in their lives. Why is this the case? Some Christians probably haven’t been taught how to pray. Others, perhaps, have never tried to learn anything about prayer. Most, probably, are just too busy to pray. Whatever the reasons are for the lack of prayerfulness amongst us, I think we’d all agree they don’t justify our silence. I think we’d all agree, perhaps, that it makes no sense for the church to fail to ask our infinite God with his infinite resources to help us with our overwhelming problems and ambitious aspirations.

That’s why we’ve spent the last month reflecting on “5 Life-Changing Prayers” and will spend the next few weeks on a #30DaysOfPrayer journey! But in order to get started on this journey rightly, I think there are at least three truths that we need to take to heart.

First, prayer happens when we realize that God’s a Father who can help with anything and we’re childlike enough to need that help in everything. Prayer starts when we have a low enough view of ourselves that we realize that we need help and have a high enough view of God that we think he can help us. Ultimately, prayer is about identity. It’s about how we view ourselves and God. If you don’t think God can help you, you won’t ask him for help. If you don’t think you need help, you won’t ask for help. Often times then, our doctrine of God—our understanding of God—is our prayer problem. Other times, our doctrine of humanity—our understanding of ourselves—is our prayer problem. Recover a biblical view of God and humanity by realizing that we need God’s help enough to ask and he’s competent enough to make a difference. We need to realize that God’s a Father who can help with anything and we’re childlike enough to need it in everything.

Second, prayer happens when we use our desperation as a starting point for our prayers. When you face problems, ask God to solve them. As you feel pressures, ask God to relieve them. God intends for your problems to ignite your prayer life. Paul Miller rightfully and insightfully said, “prayer isn’t for the disciplined, it’s for the desperate.” That’s exactly what we see in Scripture as the Israelites “cry out” to God by the Red Sea, at Jericho, in the face of giants, and more. That’s what we read as the church “cries out” for Peter before he is executed. It’s what we’re told the Spirit enables us to do as we “cry, Abba, Father.” When you cry out, you are desperate. Let your desperation ignite your prayer life.

Third, prayer happens when we use our aspirations as a starting point for our prayers. When you dream about your life, ask God to cause those dreams to come true. When you make plans and set goals for your life, ask God to do the heavy lifting. Our aspirations are designed to ignite our prayer life. In Acts 1, the people of God pleaded with God to advance his kingdom purposes in the world. They asked God to move in their midst. And in Acts 2, God moved in ways they had never seen, could never bring about, and never could have imagined. Without the prayer in Acts 1 there would be no Pentecost in Acts 2. When you think about your plans, ask God to bring them to life. Ask him to enable you to have an impact that goes above and beyond your competencies.

Everybody can grow in their prayer life. We’re praying that kids, students, and adults ask more of God and see Him work in miraculous ways. Let’s prepare our hearts for this Saturday’s launch of #30DaysOfPrayer!