The True Intention of Prayer

In The Higher Happiness, Ralph W. Sockman describes the true intention of prayer: "We use prayer as a boatman uses a boat hook: to pull the boat ...

A Writer's Reflections on Offering His First Prayer

A. J. Jacobs, a writer living in New York, decided to obey the Bible as literally as possible for one year. To prepare, he bought a stack of Bibles and ...

Prayer Works Even from "Far Away"

Peter Charpentier, a minister in Hammond, Louisiana, shares a story of how God used his youngest son to teach him a valuable lesson about prayer and the ...

John Ortberg on the Importance of Spiritual Weaning

Stillness is always a prerequisite for receptivity. Telephones and television sets cannot receive messages when they are too filled with static and noise. ...

Missing the Sustenance of God Because of Self-centeredness

Pastor David Shelley shares a personal story that illustrates well the fact that though we were created to hear the words of God and to respond to them, ...

Fractured French and a Lesson About Prayer

Timothy Jones writes in “The Art of Prayer:”

We don't like to stand speechless or stammering before God, but that doesn't mean God ...

Eugene Peterson on Prayer as Answering Speech

Prayer is answering speech. The first word is God's word. Prayer is a human word and is never the initiating and shaping word simply because we are ...

What We're Thinking About as the Day Begins and Ends

The Ketchum Global Research Network asked 1,000 U.S. adults (ages 25–54) what they think about the most while they shower. Here were the top four ...

The Importance of Intentionality

Alan Kraft writes in “Good News for Those Trying Harder”:

Not long ago, I read that a person my age should drink 16 glasses of water a day. ...

How the Internet Creates a "Permanent Puberty of the Mind"

Before Shane Hipps became a Mennonite pastor, he was a former strategic planner in advertising. In both vocations, he has learned a great deal about how ...