7 More Prayers From “Praying The Promises”

September 18, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

In his book Praying The Promises, Max Lucado shows us how simply we can turn passages of Scripture into intimate and powerful prayers. Here are a few more prayers (the references in brackets are passages that formed the prayer).

Lord, in the midst of my storms, I may doubt Your presence. I may wonder if You are there and if You care. Don’t let me lose hope or lose heart. Deepen my belief in You, even during the storms. Don’t allow doubt to take over. Help me release control of my circumstances and surrender them to You. Jesus is interceding on my behalf, and I am so comforted by this truth. [Luke 22:32; Hebrews 7:25; Matthew 14:23-24]

God, teach me how to live free from condemnation. Teach me how to trust and believe in this promise: in Christ, I am no longer a slave to sin. Free me from guilt and shame. [Romans 3:23-25; Romans 6:6-7; Romans 8:1] 

Lord, thank You for the promise of a temporary tomb. Your power has no limits. You have conquered death. You have promised to make all things new. You are the God of restoration and redemption and regeneration. You are the God of resurrection. In my day-to-day life it can be difficult for me to maintain an eternal perspective. Sometimes I may get bogged down in the worries of today and forget that the best is yet to come. Restore in me the joy of my salvation, God. Renew my mind and my heart so that I will have an eternal perspective of all the worries of my day. They are nothing compared to spending eternity with You. And because of Your promise of resurrection, I do not have to fear death. I will live in faith, knowing that in Jesus, death has been swallowed up in victory. Amen. [Matthew 28:5-6; 2 Corinthians 4:16-18] 

Guide me today, Holy Spirit. Show me where You want me to go, whom You want me to talk to, what decision You want me to make. Help me discern Your voice over my own and others’. Walk closely with me and whisper truth to me. Forgive me when I listen to my own desires and ignore what You are telling me. [John 16:13-15; Galatians 5:25] 

You know all of my needs before I can even ask for them. Sometimes it’s tempting for me to believe I can rely on myself for what I need. Instead of trusting You to provide, I think I can look out for myself. I fear not having enough. And when I do have enough, it never feels like it. But You have promised to meet my needs out of Your glorious riches. Remind me of Your kind and generous provision. Thank You for taking care of me and meeting all of my needs. [Psalm 34:10; Matthew 6:8; Matthew 10:29-31]

Help me to keep eternity in mind, making the most of my days and showing others Your renewing love. [2 Corinthians 4:16-18; 2 Peter 3:13] 

Dear God, You are my unshakable hope. Your promises are unbreakable. You never waiver. You are faithful to the end. My hope cannot be anchored to anything less than Your promises. … Forgive me for those times when I don’t put my hope in You. May I rest in Your promises once again. May any fear, anxiety, or confusion I feel subside in light of You as my anchor. [Isaiah 40:31; Romans 15:13] 

You can check out my review of Praying The Promises by clicking here. I also shared some other prayers here and some quotes from this book here. 

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Prayer Is A Weapon

June 28, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

…the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp, and they held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people (Revelation 5:8). 

Then another angel with a gold incense burner came and stood at the altar. And a great amount of incense was given to him to mix with the prayers of God’s people as an offering on the gold altar before the throne. The smoke of the incense, mixed with the prayers of God’s holy people, ascended up to God from the altar where the angel had poured them out (Revelation 8:3-4). 

No prayer is ever lost.

Every prayer is a weapon. 

Every prayer is an incense of worship before God’s throne. 

I may not see the result of my prayers immediately, but they are all known in Heaven, and they are being stored up for a day when God will unleash His power. 

I must never think my prayers are trivial, temporary, or impotent. 

EVERY PRAYER is a mighty weapon!

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7 Quotes From “The Wisdom Of God”

May 30, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

A.W. Tozer never pulls his punches! The Wisdom Of God is no different as he calls the corporate church and individual Christians back to the biblical understanding of God’s wisdom. Check out my full book review by clicking here. 

“What would wisdom and spiritual understanding, for example, make out of man? Would the man filled with wisdom and spiritual understanding write cheap poetry? I would certainly hope not. What then does he do? Walk around in a brown robe and pull loose from the world, hiding in a cloister or an ivory tower? Absolutely not.

“What is the purpose then of this baptism of the ancient wisdom of God into the heart of a man? The old wisdom man said it was to make a man a friend of God. Paul said, ‘That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with joyfulness’ (Colossians 1:10-11). This is the practical meaning of this infusion of divine wisdom into the man walking with God.” 

“The purpose of God in Redemption is not just to save us from hell. The purpose of God in redemption is to save us unto heaven. To be totally saved, He has to save us from something in order to save us unto something. We are saved from sin, which is the negative side. We are saved unto holiness, which is the positive side. We are saved from hell, but we are saved unto heaven. We are saved from the devil, but we are saved unto Christ.” 

“When we deal with our sin, repent, and the Lord has taken our sin away, we are as wise as the angels and as discrete and as knowing as the seraphs before the throne, for we have an afflatus of that wisdom.” 

“In our day, we have degraded Christianity to be a kind of soft vaccine against hell and sin. We gather people, stick them with a religious needle, and say, ‘If you just accept Jesus you will not go to hell, you will go to heaven when you die. Keep living as well as you can, and when you die you’ll go to heaven.’ Many are preaching what I refer to as a kind of lifeboat salvation, and even the songs today reflected that idea.

“Certainly, this is an inadequate concept of Christianity. The purpose of God in redeeming man was not to save them from hell only, but to save them to worship, and to allow them to be born into that eternal wisdom that was with the Father, which is synonymous with that eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed unto men.” 

“You can promote religion without divine wisdom and power. You can promote your denomination. You can promote and build up your church numerically and financially, but in these ways, you cannot promote true Christianity.” 

“The evangelical church waivers today because it has burst out in two directions: One, in the direction of entertainment and pleasure for the like-minded ones. The other, in the direction of scholarship for the serious-minded. This is the new evangelicalism of today. An effort to do by scholarship what can only be done by wisdom and power. It is a glass eye trying to see.” 

“What I am praying for is that God Almighty would come upon this generation of Christians and make them dissatisfied with the cold, humanistic, intellectual evangelicalism of our time, and make us so thirsty for an afflatus of divine wisdom and power that they press through and receive that baptism.” 

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7 Quotes From “The Pastor In Prayer”

February 7, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

In The Pastor In Prayer we discover that Charles Spurgeon is not only the prince of preachers, but the prince of pray-ers as well. Check out my review of this fabulous book by clicking here.

“Thy grace must give us even to know our need of grace. We are not willing to confess our own sinfulness until Thou dost show it to us. Though it stares us in the face our pride denies it, and our own inability is unperceived by us. We steal Thy power and call it our own till Thou dost compel us to say that we have no strength in ourselves.”

“Thy grace has almost out-graced itself, Thy love has reached its height love to rebels; so to love that even Thy Son could not be spared. O God, we are afflicted in our hearts to think we do not love Thee more after such love as this.”

“O God, we beseech Thee bring men away from all their false trusts to rest in the great sacrifice of Thy dear Son.”

“Oh that we might live so near to the great Shepherd as to be familiar with His voice, to know its tones, that so a stranger we may not follow, for we know not the voice of strangers.”

“Thou art good when Thou givest, and Thou art good when Thou takest away. Thou art good when the night gathers heavy about us. Thou art good when the sun shineth and gladdeneth our pathway. Thou art always good and doest good, and blessed be the name of the Lord from the rising of the sun unto the going down thereof, and through the night watches let His praise be still celebrated.”

“And truly since we have received so many mercies at Thy hand, we do feel that Thou wilt never forsake us in any darkness which may be in our path in the future. Thou hast done too much for us to desert us now. We have cost Thee so much—Oh wondrous price that Thou hast paid for us—and Thou hast spent so much of wise thought, and gracious act upon us, that we are persuaded Thou wilt go through with the work which Thy wisdom has undertaken. But give us faith to believe this when the stormy times come, let us not doubt.”

“Lord, while we work for Thee, always keep us sitting at the feet of Jesus. Let our faith never wander away from the simplicity of its confidence in Him. Let our motive never be anything but His glory; may our hearts be taken up with His love, and our thoughts perpetually engaged about His person.”

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Saturday In The Psalms—No One!

January 27, 2018 — Craig T. Owens

The Lord reigns… (Psalm 93:1).

 

When biblical authors use repetition or parallelism, it’s important to take note. They are wanting to make sure their message is heard loud and clear. They want what they’re sharing to stand out from everything around it. This is sort of how we would use bold or italics, a different colored font, or even a LARGER FONT to make something stand out.

In this Psalm…

…the Lord is clothed in majesty and strength

…He is established, immovable, everlasting, from time immemorial, firm, unshakeable

…“God is mightier than the thunder of the great waters, mightier than the breakers of the sea—the Lord on high is mighty”

…His Word is very sure, lasting forever, holy, unchangeable, endless

The bottom line—

There is no one more sure, strong, reliable, and everlasting than Jehovah God!

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Poetry Saturday—Diary Of An Old Soul

October 14, 2017 — Craig T. Owens
Lord, I have fallen again—a human clod!
Selfish I was, and heedless to offend;
Stood on my rights. Thy own child would not send
Away his shreds of nothing for the whole God! 
Wretched, to Thee Who savest, low I bend:
Give me the power to let my rag-rights go
In the great wind that from Thy gulf doth blow. 


Keep me from wrath, let it seem ever so right:


My wrath will never work Thy righteousness.


Up, up the hill, to the whiter than snow-shine,


Help me to climb, and dwell in pardon’s light.


I must be pure as Thou, or ever less


Than the design of me—therefore incline


My heart to take men’s wrongs as Thou tak’st mine. —George MacDonald






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Just A Whisper

October 11, 2017 — Craig T. Owens 




God stretches the northern sky over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing. He wraps the rain in His thick clouds, and the clouds don’t burst with the weight. He covers the face of the moon, shrouding it with His clouds. He created the horizon when He separated the waters; He set the boundary between day and night. The foundations of heaven tremble; they shudder at His rebuke. By His power the sea grew calm. By His skill He crushed the great sea monster. His Spirit made the heavens beautiful, and His power pierced the gliding serpent. These are just the beginning of all that He does, merely a whisper of His power. Who, then, can comprehend the thunder of His power? (Job 26:7-14)


Take a look at the majesty of creation. Look at the vastness of space. Marvel at the pounding surf of the oceans. Tremble at the earthquake, the hurricane, the volcano.


Then look through a microscope and see the perfection at the smallest scale. Smell the fragrances, thrill at the beauty. Job reminds us, “These are just the beginning of all that God does, merely a whisper of His power.”


Are things troubling you? They don’t even begin to touch the power of God! No matter what you are facing, God’s power is infinitely stronger. Hide yourself in Him. Cling to His love. Rest in His strength.


Fear not, for far greater is your Father in Heaven than anything troubling you!






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A Leader’s Grace And Power

September 7, 2017 — Craig T. Owens 




None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke. (Acts 6:10)


Here’s a truth we can all stand on: The man with an experience is never at the mercy of a man with an argument.


A large group of people wanted to debate with Stephen about his belief in Jesus Christ. I’m sure that these debaters had some excellent points. But they couldn’t win the debate with Stephen because he had something they didn’t have: grace and power from God that was irrefutable!


Stephen’s words were backed up and verified by a lifestyle that was undeniable—


Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed amazing miracles and signs among the people. But one day some men from the Synagogue of Freed Slaves, as it was called, started to debate with him. They were Jews from Cyrene, Alexandria, Cilicia, and the province of Asia. None of them could stand against the wisdom and the Spirit with which Stephen spoke. (Acts 6:8-10)


“Knowing that we have God’s ability in us, should give us the confidence to lead well when others don’t approve of or appreciate our leadership.” —Liz Sarno


A mark of a godly leader is one who demonstrates God’s grace and power that is within him.


This is Part 8 in my series on godly leadership. To read my other posts, please click here.






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8 Quotes From “Paths To Power” by A.W. Tozer

July 26, 2017 — Craig T. Owens 




As I said in my book review, A.W. Tozer’s words frequently make me say both “Ouch!” and “Amen!” Maybe you’ll feel the same thing in these few quotes.


“Left to herself the Church must have perished as a thousand abortive sects had done before her, and have left nothing for a future generation to remember. That the Church did not so perish was due entirely to the miraculous element within her. That element was supplied by the Holy Spirit who came at Pentecost to empower her for her task. For the Church was not an organization merely, not a movement, but a walking incarnation of spiritual energy. …


“In short, the Church began in power, moved in power, and moved just as long as she had power. When she no longer had power she dug in for safety and sought to conserve her gains. But her blessings were like manna: when they tried to keep it overnight it bred worms and stank. So we have had monasticism, scholasticism, institutionalism; and they have all been indicative of the same thing: absence of spiritual power.” 


“The weakness in our message today is our overemphasis on faith with a corresponding underemphasis on obedience. This has been carried so far that ‘believe’ has been made to double for ‘obey’ in the minds of millions of religious persons.”


“In every denomination, missionary society, local church, or individual Christian this law operates. God works as long as His people live daringly; He ceases when they no longer need His aid.” 


“To any casual observer of the religious scene today, two things will at once be evident: one, that there is very little sense of sin among the unsaved, and two, that the average professed Christian lives a life so worldly and careless that it is difficult to distinguish him from the unconverted man.”


“It is always dangerous to isolate a truth and then press it to its limit without regard to other truth.”


“It may be stated as an axiom of the Christian system that whatever makes sin permissible is a foe of God and an enemy of the souls of men.”


“Some time after Pentecost a group of believers met to pray for strength and power to meet the emergency then facing them, and to enlist the help of God on their behalf. ‘And when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and they spake the Word of God with boldness’ (Acts 4:31). Some of these were of the original number filled at Pentecost. It is hardly conceivable that God acted contrary to His own will in filling them again after Pentecost. Still other outpourings are recorded in Acts 8, 10 and 19. All these occurred some years after the original act.


“In brief, the teaching of the New Testament is that the outpouring at Pentecost was the historic beginning of an era which was to be characterized by a continuous outpouring of the Holy Spirit.”


“This anti-emotionalism, though it is sponsored by some good people and travels in pretty orthodox company, is nevertheless an unwarranted inference, not a scriptural doctrine, and is in violent opposition to psychology and common sense. Where in the Bible are feeling and faith said to be at odds? The fact is that faith engenders feeling as certainly as life engenders motion. We can have feeling without faith, it is true, we can never have faith without feeling. Faith as a cold, unemotional light is wholly unknown in the Scriptures.”






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Paths To Power (book review)

July 25, 2017 — Craig T. Owens 




As I read A.W. Tozer’s words I find myself saying two things: (1) “Ouch!” and (2) “Amen!” Tozer’s Paths To Power is a continuation in those responses as he outlines what robs the Church and individual Christians of the power God wants them to have.


Right at the outset, Tozer identifies a key element robbing the Church of power: a lack of obedience in the things God has commanded us. “A knowledge of the truth is not enough,” he writes. “The truth must be followed if we would realize in actual experience the blessedness which is here described.”


Another power-blocker is an unwillingness to let God confront us and help us change. We get stuck in a this-is-how-it’s-always-been rut and then shut our eyes to the times of refreshing God wants to send to us. Other blockers include poor doctrine, putting the Holy Spirit in a box, justifying our sin, and not unleashing our faith, to name just a few.


Thankfully, Tozer also points us to the straightforward cures for all of the blockages to power. If we are willing to open our eyes, ears, and hearts to God’s voice, His unlimited blessings could flow uninterrupted into our lives and churches.


Paths To Power contains only seven short chapters, but the digestion, contemplation, and implementation of Tozer’s cures will be something that will involve a lifetime commitment for those ready for God’s fresh power to be poured into their lives.


I am a Moody Publishers book reviewer.






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