{"id":455,"date":"2016-08-11T06:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-08-11T12:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=455"},"modified":"2016-08-10T17:35:34","modified_gmt":"2016-08-10T23:35:34","slug":"prayer-day-four","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/?p=455","title":{"rendered":"Prayer – Day Four"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>What is prayer? That is the question we have been answering the last couple of days. We have been using Tim Keller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definition of prayer in his book called Prayer<\/em>. 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

Two days ago we focused on the first aspect of Keller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definition, which is knowing the awe of praising His glory. You can read that post here.<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0Yesterday, we focused on knowing the intimacy of finding His grace. That post is here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Today, I want us to focus on the final component of this definition which is knowing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the struggle of asking His help.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a guy. I know the struggle of asking for help. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like to ask for directions. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like to ask for help fixing something in my home. The struggle is real.<\/p>\n

But, asking God for help is not just a struggle for men, but a struggle for all. We like to think we are independent. We like to believe that we can do things on our own. We like to hope, even though we may never say it, that salvation rests in our own hands.<\/p>\n

True prayer, however, is knowing the struggle of asking for God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help. Recognizing that we can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do it on our own. Choosing to pursue God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s power and presence over our own ability and strength.<\/p>\n

Take time today to acknowledge you need God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s help. Write down some specific things in your life you need His help with. Pray for those needs specifically.<\/p>\n

Prayer Focus \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Day Four: Community at Front Range<\/strong>\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for Front Range and all those who call FRCC their home church. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray for God to bring greater unity in our church and for each person to capture the vision of becoming intentional neighbors through knowing and following Jesus. Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s pray God would use our church to impact Castle Rock and the surrounding areas in such a way that people give their lives to Jesus. May we continue to grow in attendance, community groups, serve teams and our relationship with Jesus.\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What is prayer? That is the question we have been answering the last couple of days. We have been using Tim Keller\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s definition of prayer in his book called Prayer. 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 […]<\/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\/455"}],"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=455"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/455\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=455"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=455"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.ernestsmith.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=455"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}