{"id":449,"date":"2016-08-09T06:00:53","date_gmt":"2016-08-09T12:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=449"},"modified":"2016-08-07T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2016-08-08T01:32:14","slug":"prayer-day-two","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=449","title":{"rendered":"Prayer – Day Two"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is prayer? If you had to answer that question, what would you say? There have been many definitions of prayer offered up over the years. One of my favorite definitions is offered by a guy name Tim Keller, who is a pastor and author. He wrote one of the best books I have ever read on prayer called Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In his book, Keller states, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Prayer is both conversation and encounter with God\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6We must know the awe of praising His glory, the intimacy of finding His grace, and the struggle of asking His help, all of which can lead us to know the spiritual reality of His presence.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

For the next three days, I want us to focus on the three main facets of this definition. The first is\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6in prayer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we must know the awe of praising His glory.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d This is simply another way of saying what Jesus says at the beginning of the most famous prayer in history, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name\u00e2\u20ac\u009d (Matthew 6:9).<\/p>\n

Our first goal in prayer should be to know the awe of praising God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s glory. Our goal should be to seek to praise God for who He is. To praise God is to acknowledge and thank Him for what He has done and who He is.<\/p>\n

Take time during your prayer today and praise God for who He is. Tell Him how thankful you are for what He has done. Let Him know how grateful you are for what He has given you. BUT also, take time to praise Him for who He is.<\/p>\n

Prayer Focus \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Day Two: Students Starting Back To School<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

As classes begin for many schools this week, we took time yesterday to pray for the administrators and teachers. Today, let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for our students and families who begin school in the coming days and weeks. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for students to learn and grow. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for parents to be engaged in the life of their kids. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for those who are Christ-followers in our town to live out their faith in the classroom, on the playing field and in the everyday conversations with other students and parents.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is prayer? If you had to answer that question, what would you say? There have been many definitions of prayer offered up over the years. One of my favorite definitions is offered by a guy name Tim Keller, who is a pastor and author. He wrote one of the best books I have ever […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}