Teaching Time

I have been blessed with the opportunity to teach at our church for our monthly mid-week service in March. I am thrilled.

I am planning to talk about prayer during this service, but with a twist. Praying Scripture has become one of my favorite styles of prayer and so I will be talking about some tools to help with this discipline. I will also work through one of my favorite passages that I often pray.

As I have begun working on my message/lesson I have been confronted by the truth that unless we are spending time in the Word, as well as praying, we are just carrying on a monologue. I know that personally there have been times when I have neglected getting into the Word and spent my "personal time" with God strictly in prayer. This creates a problem. I begin doing all the talking and it becomes a bit boring and tiresome and then in my weariness I give up on hearing from God, though the reality is that I never gave Him the chance to speak to me.

I believe that God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit through other means than just scripture, however if we are not able to verify the Holy Spirit's promptings against the Word of God we will be at a huge disadvantage in fully knowing the will of God. Anytime God speaks to us outside of scripture we have to confirm it in scripture. That is hard to do if we are not in the Word and studying it.

The great thing about praying scripture is that it is a fabulous combination of prayer and being in the Word. It is great for when I want to pray through a passage in an attempt to hear what God wants to say, as well as when I am praying in belief that God will fulfill the promises I am speaking back to Him. It helps to keep my prayers centered in Truth.

I am sure that as I continue to prepare you will get more "teaching times" from me. :-) Feel free to ask questions or dialogue with me on the subject. It helps me as I prepare, plus I love a good conversation.