Dr Paul Allen

 1. A Prayer for Loved Ones I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making my prayer with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion on the day of Jesus Christ. It is suitable for me to feel this way about you all because I hold you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my imprisonment and in the defence and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus. And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. —Paul the apostle, Philippians 1:3–11 2. A Prayer for Family and Friends Have mercy, oh Lor...

OUR THOUGHTS GO OUT - SIMPLE POLITICAL NONSNESE The sharp ache of missing Mom ailed me again as I dreaded her absence at upcoming gatherings. Though it’s been over two years since Mom went home, some moments make our loss feel like it was yesterday.  Remembering the time that’s passed underscores God’s faithfulness through his people who have shouldered our family’s pain. It makes me want to do likewise. As the body of Christ, we can do more than just “think of” those grieving this Christmas. We can seek to comfort them like Christ comforts us. Here are five practical ways. 1. Ask about their grief. The Bible explicitly tells us to “weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15). If we’re to take that instruction seriously, we’ll seek to anticipate the times our brothers and sisters are weeping. We know weeping is likely as the holidays approach and traditions highlight gaping absences in our homes. But what should we do if our grieving friends or family never bring up their loss? Keep in ...

Prayer is not simply a soliloquy, a mere exercise in therapeutic self-analysis, or a religious recitation.   Prayer is discourse with the personal God Himself. There, in the act and dynamic of praying, I bring my whole life under His gaze. Yes, He knows what is in my mind, but I still have the privilege of articulating to Him what is there. He says: “Come. Speak to me. Make your requests known to me.” So we come in order to know Him and to be known by Him. There is something erroneous in the question, “If God knows everything, why pray?” The question assumes that prayer is one-dimensional and is defined simply as supplication or intercession.  On the contrary, prayer is multidimensional. God’s sovereignty casts no shadow over the prayer of adoration. God’s foreknowledge or determinate counsel does not negate the prayer of praise. The only thing it should do is give us greater reason for expressing our adoration for who God is.  If God knows what I’m going to say before I ...

Does prayer make any difference? Does it really change anything? Someone once asked me that question, only in a slightly different manner: "Does prayer change God's mind?" My answer brought storms of protest. I said simply, "No." Now, if the person had asked me, "Does prayer change things?" I would have answered, "Of course!" The Bible says there are certain things God has decreed from all eternity. Those things will inevitably come to pass. If you were to pray individually or if you and I were to join forces in prayer or if all the Christians of the world were to pray collectively, it would not change what God, in His hidden counsel, has determined to do. If we decided to pray for Jesus not to return, He still would return. You might ask, though, "Doesn't the Bible say that if two or three agree on anything, they'll get it?" Yes, it does, but that passage is talking about church discipline, not prayer requests. So we must t...

If seeing and embracing the sovereignty of God causes us to pray less, we have not yet understood his sovereignty or prayer. Providence does not make prayer optional or incidental, but vital and indispensable. Not because God couldn’t do it another way — God does all that he pleases however he pleases — but because the sovereign God has chosen, precisely and wisely, to hang many of his plans on the prayers of his people. Did anyone love and herald the absolute sovereignty of God like the apostle Paul? And yet he says in 2 Corinthians 1:11,  “You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.” He also calls believers to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17), and to pray “at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Ephesians 6:18). The pages of Scripture, and of history, are filled with the power and necessity of prayer, because the all-powerful God has chosen to hear and ans...

What hasn’t yet changed in your life because you haven’t started praying for it? Prayerlessness, of course, comes in varieties. Some almost never pray, proving that prayer is nothing more than a formality, a greeting card to God when they have time. Others only pray when they have some desperate and immediate need, treating prayer like a crisis-response line (and largely neglecting prayer otherwise). Others may pray regularly, but their prayers slowly devolve into repeated phrases that taste stale, impersonal, removed from real life. Even the best among us can sometimes swing between treasuring prayer when we think we really need it and skipping prayer when life seems to be going well. Prayer, however, is not the last resort, but the first line of defence, because God is not the last resort, but the one to whom we look first. Prayer is powerful because God is the most powerful agent of change in any of our lives. Oh, what peace we often forfeit Oh, what needless pain we bear All becaus...

Prayer has always been the way God has chosen to show himself strong on behalf of those who called upon him. If prayer is powerful and has that kind of value, then the practice and habit of prayer ought to set a whole new direction for each of us.  The brief expositions that follow illustrate how three Old Testament prayers instruct us in this principle. As you continue reading, I suggest you have your Bible open to the appropriate passages, so you can refer to the text of each prayer.  Abraham (Genesis 18:22–23)  In many ways, Abraham’s prayer for his nephew Lot and the cities of the plain is one of the first formal prayers of intercession and serves as a model for how we, too, ought to pray.  The Lord himself reveals to Abraham that he is about to judge the cities of the plain (where Lot had gone to live) because a serious “outcry” of evil had come up to God (Gen 18:20–21). Abraham never doubts that the people’s wickedness is deserving of judgment. But, he argues, ...

Christians often use a simple acrostic as a guide to prayer: A.C.T.S. Each of the letters in this acrostic stands for one of the key elements of prayer: (A) Adoration (C) Confession (T) Thanksgiving (S) Supplication But not only does this acrostic remind us of the elements of prayer, it shows us the priority we ought to give to each. The first element of prayer should be adoration or praise. The Psalms, which are inspired by samples of godly prayer, are heavily weighted on the side of adoration. I've noticed over many years that as we grow in the discipline and in the delight of prayer, it seems that we naturally spend more and more of our time on this first element. Second, prayer should include confession of our sin; as we remember who we are when we come into God's presence, we see that we have come short of His holiness and have need of His forgiveness. Third, when we pray, we should always give thanks, remembering the grace and mercy God has shown toward us. Fourth ,...

I want to pray more this year. More than ever before. God promises that he hears and actively responds to prayers as we come to him in the name of Jesus. We have not, because we ask not. I’m resolved to pray biblical prayers for myself and others. I’m responsible to pray for the members of my church family because I’m a member of the family and James commands us to “pray for one another” (James 5:16). As a pastor, I’m to be devoted to not only the ministry of the Word, but also the ministry of prayer (Acts 6:4). As a friend, I want those I love to experience the joy of the Lord. But there’s the problem: My praying through a list of names and needs often feels more like reading a shopping list than meaningfully communing with the Father in heaven. As a Christian who cares a lot about theological accuracy, I’ve found that if I pray a biblically grounded prayer request then I’m content with that even if I’m not really meaningfully pleading or connecting with God. There has to be ...

We have to guard against taking a fatalistic view of prayer. We cannot allow ourselves to dismiss prayer from our lives simply because it might not seem to have pragmatic value. Whether or not prayer works, we must engage in it, simply because God Himself commands us to do it. Even a cursory reading of the Bible, particularly the New Testament, reveals a deep emphasis on prayer, supplication, and intercession. It is inescapable that prayer is an expected activity for the people of God. Furthermore, our Lord Himself is the supreme model for us in all things, and He clearly made prayer a huge priority in His life. We can do no less. Whether or not prayer works, we must engage in it, simply because God Himself commands us to do it. But it is also true that Scripture teaches us that prayer does "work" in some sense. Let me cite three examples. We all know that the apostle Peter boldly declared that he would never betray Jesus, that he was ready to go to prison and eve...

On  June 17 , Dylan Roof murdered nine people who had gathered for prayer at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The Supreme Court legalized so-called same-sex marriage nationwide on  June 26 . Finally, July 14 saw the release of disturbing undercover footage of a Planned Parenthood director discussing the sale of tissue and organs from aborted babies. A second video — no less unsettling — emerged last week, with more likely to come. In the face of these developments, we shouldn’t fall into alarmism or fear-mongering. Jesus has promised that the gates of hell will not prevail against his church (Matthew  16:18 ). Nor should we exaggerate the plight of the American church, as though our sufferings were on a par with what believers elsewhere have experienced under Boko Haram or ISIS or Kim Jong-un. Things may seem bad in America, yes. But not as bad as they could be. And yet, we can’t deny that the American church faces opposition...