Jon Taylor – Lead Pastor

Yesterday we wrapped up our Great Expectations series talking about prayer. I’ll admit – even being brought up in a Christian home and church, I’ve struggled with prayer at times. At different times prayer has been boring, amazing, tiring, energizing, frustrating, a pleasure, hard, easy, done out of obligation, done with great enthusiasm, moving, and a host of other emotions.

But I’ve grown a lot in prayer over the years, and here are some of my favorite resources and tools.

Questions for Jesus – Our most powerful behaviors and strongest giants are powered by unmet desires within for things like love, belonging, justice or significance. The key to lasting change is identifying and filling those desires within your relationship with Jesus.

Face to Face: Praying the Scriptures for Spiritual Growth helps you turn your devotional times into a daily experience of transformation.

Prayer: Does it Make Any Difference? – Philip Yancey explores the intimate place where God and humans meet in Prayer. Polls reveal that 90 percent of people pray. Yet prayer, which should be the most nourishing and uplifting time of the believer’s day, can also be frustrating, confusing, and fraught with mystery.

How to Pray – In this book, Ronnie Floyd invites believers to join him in “Prayer 101,” an introduction to a life-long journey of intimacy with God.

Prayer Journal – Get a Composition Book, and on the top of each page write the name of the person/people you are praying for. Make a line down the center of the page. In the left column, write the prayer request and date first made, one line for each item. In the right column, write the answer to that prayer and the date it was answered. Seeing how God is answering your prayers will really build your trust!

I hope you’ll develop a strong prayer life following the secret formula of Mother Teresa: “My secret is a very simple one: I pray.”