Tag: prayer

The Daily Prayer Project>Online

~ Scott Fowler ~ Leave a comment

cropped-copy-of-the-daily.pngWhat is it?

Typically, it is a five week program designed to help those who struggle to maintain a meaningful daily prayer time to establish a beachhead in the Secret Place.

What is the process?

 There are a couple of foundational “lectures” based on the principles found in the book Contending for the Habit of Daily Prayer, and then a twenty-one day period begins in which you make every effort to:

  • Pray every day
  • In the same place
  • At the same time
  • Pursuing intimacy with Jesus first and foremost

Every seven days, in a group of people who also are in the project, you answer the questions:

  • Did you pray every day last week?
    • (If not, what hindered you?)
  • When you did pray, was it in the same place?
  • Was it at the same time?
  • Did you pursue intimacy with Jesus first?

How will we do this online?       

What about the 21 day period?

For the 21 day accountability period we will either access a free conference call, Zoom, or perhaps create a text group. We’ll cross that bridge when we know who is participating.

Advertisement

Intimacy First!

~ Scott ~ Leave a comment

Can you put it into wordsHad a great reunion of sorts with some of the DPP family this morning! I really love this group of people. I’m proud of them and thankful for them.

I just felt that I should invite as many from the DPP family as possible to come this Sunday to talk about The Foundations of Our Pursuit of Intimacy With Jesus. Ten of them came and it was a joy!

We talked about

  • putting our desire for intimacy with Jesus into words.
  • the progression from praise to worship to intimacy.
  • allowing ourselves legitimacy in prayer by thinking about ourselves as God thinks of us, which, if we are saved, is as righteous. God thinks of us as righteous.
  • how our prayers for others will be more effectual when they flow from a place of intimacy with Jesus.
  • how we have been conditioned to think of intimacy in terms of “doing” and how that doesn’t work in our human relationships and that it doesn’t work in our relationship with God.

Want to be part of the Daily Prayer Project family? Just call 631-265-2485.

Liquid Prayers

~ Scott Fowler ~ 6 Comments
From Charles Spurgeon, “Treasury of David”
“The Lord has heard the voice of my weeping.” Psalm 6:8
Is there a voice in weeping? Does weeping speak? In what language does it utter its meaning? Why, in that universal tongue which is known and understood in all the earth, and even in Heaven above. When a man weeps, whether he is a Jew or Gentile, Barbarian, Scythian, bond or free — it has the same meaning in it. Weeping is the eloquence of sorrow. It is an eloquent orator, needing no interpreter — but understood by all.
It is sweet to know that our tears are understood, even when words fail. Let us learn to think of tears as liquid prayers, and of weeping as a constant dropping of importunate intercession which will surely wear its way right into the very heart of God’s mercy, despite the stony difficulties which obstruct the way. My God, I will “weep” when I cannot plead, for You hear the voice of my weeping! 1

NOTES

1 https://www.gracegems.org/2013/08/liquid.html

O God, do something in our days!

~ Scott Fowler ~ Leave a comment

“Look at the nations and watch—and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told.” Habakkuk 1:5

Isn’t this what we want? We want Him to do something in our days. That’s what Habakkuk wanted, but he wanted God to follow his plan. Instead, God began to let Habakkuk in on what He wanted to do.

What is the key to answered prayer? Pray the heart of God. How can we do that? We must first know the heart of God. How? Answer this: How have you gotten to know the heart of your spouse, your children, your brother or sister? Your best friend? Through time spent with them. Real time; intimate time. It’s no different with God.

Great Reunion!

~ Scott ~ 4 Comments

It was a joy for me to gather with so many of you this morning for our DPP Reunion! If you missed it—you missed it!

I hope you were encouraged, maybe even reminded of some things. I also hope you can see how many other precious people have gone through the project as you have.

Of course, as I have said from the start, the Daily Prayer Project is not a one time class or event, it is an initiation into a community.

In 2018,

  • I hope to develop DPP 2.0 for those who have completed the initial project.
  • I am looking forward to a youth version of the project
  • Looking for our first young adult group
  • Will schedule a spring and fall reunion.

So,

  • be encouraged.
  • Take the DPP again.
  • Look for some of these developments to come about.
  • Participate on the website. (I will soon post a how-to video for those who have struggled with posting on the blog.)

Remember:

  • No guilt
  • Be honest with yourself about your efforts to pray
  • Keep the vision in focus

When You Think You Have Surrendered It All

~ Scott ~ 2 Comments

Phil 3I have been struggling lately in prayer and not able to pinpoint the problem.

There’s not always a problem just because you don’t feel a certain way in prayer. The lack of emotion in your prayer time is not always a reliable indicator of how your prayer time is going. Think about it: My connection to those closest to me does not disappear just because I have a day where I don’t feel emotionally close to them or am distracted by the details of life. Genuine love and intimacy persist through such temporary things. But after a while, if things don’t get back to normal, it is wise to prayerfully examine your own heart and thinking.

In my case, I️ have been suspecting that the problem was distraction. Not phones ringing, or interruptions, but, in this case, a competing distraction.

This particular distraction is noble, useful, and, in my case, done for upright reasons. Yet, because it is something I️ also happen to enjoy immensely, it can be a distraction.

I️ have been praying for a few weeks now, asking the Lord to show me what He would have me do about this noble distraction. I feel that He gave me Philippians 3:7-8 (which you can see in context in the attached graphic).

But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.As a result, I am examining the distraction in light of what really matters. Will He teach me to pursue this noble activity in a different way or give it up altogether? If He has me to give it up, what will have me do instead? Perhaps it is the doing that is the problem! We will see. For now, I am still wrestling but I understand the struggle now and will continue to pray about it until He wins!

Until There is Room to Run!

~ Scott ~ 1 Comment

Picture the Secret Place as an immense wilderness.

You enter into it for the first time only to find that there is only a small square of grass on which to stand. There is more land, to be sure. Abundantly more! But it is fraught  with thorns and thistles, dangers and difficult places, and even enemies! It is overwhelming. You repeat a few perfunctory prayer requests and leave in discouragement.

But then somehow word comes to you of new possibilities for the Secret Place; at least they are new to you.

“The Secret Place is yours,” someone said. “It only needs to be cultivated!”

“How?” you have the presence of mind to ask.

“The Secret Place is about intimacy with Him!” you are told. “In fact,” the messenger says, “if you can receive it, the Secret Place is a reflection of your intimacy with Him. It cannot be cultivated by more and more petitions, and intercession won’t do it either. The Secret Place is cultivated by pursuing intimacy with Jesus!”

Seeing that you still could not understand, the messenger continued,

“You see, there are three ways we can look at the Secret Place that can help us to understand why it is so important and why the enemy fights so hard against anyone who would try to tarry there.

“First, the Secret Place is actually the Holy of Holies.”

“Hebrews 10:19-22 says,

19 Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, 21 and since we have a great priest over the house of God, 22 let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith (NIV84)

“When Jesus died, a ‘new and living way’ was opened for us ‘through the curtain.’ The curtain refers to ‘the veil’ that hung between the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies–a room only the high priest could enter and then only once a year. That curtain or ‘veil’ was torn into two pieces, from top to bottom, as it hung there on the day Jesus was crucified.

50 And when Jesus had cried out again in a loud voice, he gave up his spirit. 51 At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom (NIV84).

“So now, because of Jesus, we are allowed to enter into the Holy of Holies. But don’t stop there in your understanding. Yes, in the Old Testament, the Holy of Holies was a room, but now, when we enter into the real Holy of Holies, we are entering into the Presence of God! But what is the Presence of God if not God Himself?

“So, the second way we can look at the Secret Place then, is to see it as Christ Himself!”

“We are entering into Him. Because we have been saved and called righteous by faith, we are already in Him. But that is akin to only standing in the doorway: we are ‘in’ but we can go so much deeper! However, petitions won’t take us further, nor are intercessions the path to deeper places! Those must flow out of our intimacy with Him!

“The third way we can see the Secret Place is to see that it is a reflection of our own hearts.”

“In other words, our hearts are the wilderness we encounter in the Secret Place and as we allow the Holy Spirit to cultivate the wilderness of our hearts into a place where He can move freely we find that the Secret Place becomes a place where we can run!”

 

There is a Reason it’s Called Contending!

~ Scott ~ 4 Comments

Sometimes in the Project someone will describe the difficulties they had in praying IMG_1062the week before every day/set time/set place, and I remind them “that’s why I named the book ‘Contending for the Habit of Daily Prayer.” It is a daily battle.

When you have had to struggle for prayer or you feel you have been attacked by the enemy because of prayer, don’t be surprised! That’s contending!

Whose Door Is It Anyway?

~ Scott ~ 2 Comments

In Matthew 6:6, the NIV says:

But when you pray, go into your room, close the door

However, the literal Greek is: “καὶ  κλείσας  τὴν θύραν σου” which is “and shutting the door of you.” Put into proper English, it translates to: “and shutting your door”

What’s the big deal?

First, I felt like the Lord reminded me to “shut the door.” In other words, don’t slide on the vision for prayer I have been promoting to others. Shutting the door means intentionally choosing to isolate myself from the outside world in order to be alone with God. Shutting the door means shutting out distractions—even important ones—and shutting myself in with God. Praying on the train, or in my car while I’m driving, or as I go throughout the day are simply no substitute for shutting myself in with God!

There’s one more thing…

It’s your door. Put another way: It’s your choice! We either make the choice to drag our flesh into the Secret Place—kicking and screaming if necessary—or we don’t. Let’s choose to do it.

This is an awesome approach to daily spirituality from Rae at “Real as the Streets”

~ Scott ~ 1 Comment

Brace yourself! Rae is transparent and straight forward, but if you can handle that, she is also sincere. I liked this post when I saw it. So, Daily Prayer Project students check it out.

I’m not saying it replaces what we have been talking about. But, as a way of pursuing intimacy with Jesus, this can fit into your time in the Secret Place.

via I’m So Over Using SOAP! | Real as the Streets