Mark Driscoll offers up a good review of Rick Warren’s prayer at the inauguration yesterday.
The invitation for Warren to pray at the inauguration of Barack Obama was met with criticism from seemingly every side. Regardless, he did what 1 Timothy 2:1–3 commands: “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.
Jospeh Farah didn’t mention 1 Timothy when he gave reasons for supposed Biblical resistance to Obama in a piece entitled “Pray Obama Fails“. Maybe, we should spend more times spreading the Good News and brining Glory to God. We are called build Christ’s Kingdom, not a kingdom of our own. Coincidentally, the recent White Horse Inn (Jan 18, 2009) looked at Augustine’s The City of God. Farah might want to listen!
JP Moreland writes about How to Detect Answers to Prayer: The Discipline of Journaling over at Scriptorium Daily.
I want to take a look at the importance of identifying and remembering answers to prayer.
…
Of the two tasks—identifying and remembering answers to prayer, the latter is relatively easy to discuss, so I will focus most of our attention on learning to identify answers to prayer. Regarding remembering answers to prayer, for over thirty-five years, I have kept a prayer journal. I do not write in it daily. Sometimes I do and sometimes I only write in it once every couple of weeks. What I make sure to do, however, is to record and date important prayer requests I shall concentrate on and recording in detail the date and circumstances associated with a positive answer to them. Over the years I have accumulated an incredible record of answers to prayer (and of prayers that were not answered as I had asked). My faith has been deeply strengthened by looking through this journal from time to time. The journal has been crucial because, otherwise, I would forget the incidents and the incredible, supernatural details that were a part of them.
Really good advice.
Don’t you just love how the mainstream media (MSM) enjoyed reporting the results of a Harvard study showing prayers had no effect on heart patients?
Come on, who are you kidding Harvard? I thought you had a Divinity school? The researchers should have checked out Deuteronomy 6:16 “Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.”
I really like this quote from Southern Baptist professor, Mark Coppenger:
“It’s my experience that God actually prompts our prayers” Coppenger, distinguished professor of apologetics at Southern Seminary, said. “But I don’t see Him cooperating in a test.”
I rejoice that God is sovereign.
