Archive for the 'Prayer' Category
3 Components in My Daily Time with God
I believe one of the most essential parts of Christian discipleship is teaching people how to have a time with God daily. When my sons were elementary age boys, I taught them these things.
If we can teach our son to throw a football or our daughter gymnastics, we can teach our children how to have a daily time with God. If we can teach our friends how to close a business deal or how to decorate a home, we can teach our friends how to walk with Christ daily.
I will stay brief today even though there is so much more to share.
Component #1: Practice Prayer
Prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer is not just you talking to God, but it involves you listening to God. Daily, I begin my time with God in prayer. Practice prayer.
Whether you are a rookie or a seasoned veteran in your spiritual life, prayer is one of the great disciplines in the life of the believer. Develop your prayer life. Learn how to pray.
While I am no authority on prayer, I do pray and believe in the power of prayer. Prayer built upon the Scriptures takes it to another level.
Take the time to organize your prayer life. When you do, you will find your prayer life becoming much more meaningful and perhaps even extended.
Interweaving with prayer is the second component in my daily time with God…
Component #2: Read the Bible
The most transforming discipline in my walk with Christ is the daily reading of the Bible. Nothing is more powerful than the Holy Scriptures. When the Scriptures speak, our God is speaking to us.
From my youngest years, I was taught the value of the Bible and its impact upon my life. Read the Bible daily.
The increasing impact of the Scriptures happened to me when I began to read the Bible through each year and since 1990, I have read the Bible through at least one time annually. In this last decade or so, it may be closer to one and one-half times per year.
The point is this: The more I read the Scriptures, the more I want to read the Scriptures. Faith is built upon the Word of God, not upon the words of others. In this noisy world filled with voices that amplify negativity and forecast constant doom, I must have the Bible, God’s Word, consume me daily.
It is the Bible that anchors my faith. It is the Bible that sustains and ignites my prayer life. It is the Bible, the Word of the Living God, that serves as my filter to separate all untruth from my life.
Component #3: Keep a Journal
In 1990, God led me to not just read through the entire Bible, but to daily begin one of the most meaningful practices I have done in my walk with Christ. When I have completed my daily prayer and Scripture reading time, I close my time with God by writing no less than a one-page prayer to God.
This prayer to God that is written down in a journal daily often becomes a documentation of God working in my life. I have volumes and volumes of these prayer journal books that go back to this daily discipline that I began in 1990. Still to this day, I do this. The only change is that on most days, the letters exceed a page or two.
There is something powerful about transferring your greatest burdens and most special moments with God on to the pages of a journal.
Back to the Basics
How is your daily time with God going? Maybe today is a reminder that it is time to go back to the basics of walking with Christ daily.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer
*******
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, President of the National Day of Prayer, and founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
Follow Dr. Floyd on Twitter and Instagram @ronniefloyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.
Prayer Always Precedes Great Things
I believe one of the most encouraging biblical principles we discover through reading the Scripture is that prayer always precedes great things.
Do you believe this? Do you pray like you believe this?
Prayer Always Precedes
Consider this brief list of moments when this biblical principle is illustrated throughout the Scriptures:
- Prayer preceded Abraham being called to a land where he did not know where he was going.
- Prayer preceded Moses experiencing the glory of God in his life.
- Prayer preceded Joshua seeing the sun stand still and the moon stop.
- Prayer preceded David defeating his enemies.
- Prayer preceded Jabez having his requests answered by the Lord.
- Prayer preceded Daniel receiving the power and insight to interpret dreams.
- Prayer preceded Elizabeth having her baby boy, John.
- Prayer preceded Zechariah prophetically declaring that his and Elizabeth’s boy, who we know as John the Baptist, would one day prepare the way of the Lord.
- Prayer preceded Mary understanding that God had miraculously placed His Son in her womb.
- Prayer preceded Jesus seeing the heavens open up, the Holy Spirit descend upon Him, and God declaring aloud that Jesus was His Son and He was pleased with Him.
- Prayer preceded Jesus being arrested, beaten, flogged, and crucified, dying in our place.
- Prayer preceded the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the church on the day of Pentecost.
- Prayer preceded the explosion of the gospel on the day of Pentecost and the gospel advance that would follow.
- Prayer preceded evangelism and the Lord adding to the church daily.
- Prayer preceded the preaching and teaching of God’s Word and fellowship of God’s people.
- Prayer preceded the demonstrative works of God that occurred through the early church.
- Prayer preceded the appointment and sending of leaders, and the planting of gospel churches.
- Prayer preceded the words Paul wrote to the churches he poured his life into as a missionary and preacher of the gospel.
- Prayer preceded John in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day on the island of Patmos and receiving the messages of God to the seven churches of the Revelation.
These are just a few instances of how prayer preceded so many great things that occurred in the Scriptures.
Great Things
Do you want to see God do great things in and through your life?
Do you want to see God do great things in your marriage and through your children?
Do you want to see God do great things in your church?
Do you want to see God do great things through your career?
Do you want to see God do great things through your finances?
Do you want to see God do great things in times of need in your life?
Do you want to see God do great things in our nation and around the world?
Do you want to see God revive His church and awaken America?
Do you want to see God use you to advance His gospel and His causes?
Then Pray
When you prioritize the importance of prayer in your life, you will begin to see God do great things in and through your life. It is not about your age or stage in life; nor is it about your location or vocation. It is about your commitment to prayer in your life.
Do you know why?
It is a biblical principle that has been verified not only in the Bible, but throughout history.
Prayer always precedes great things.
Now is the Time to Lead,
Ronnie W. Floyd
Senior Pastor, Cross Church
President, National Day of Prayer
*******
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the Senior Pastor of Cross Church, President of the National Day of Prayer, and founder of the Cross Church School of Ministry.
To request an interview with Dr. Ronnie Floyd
contact Gayla Oldham at (479) 751-4523 or email gaylao@crosschurch.com.
Visit our website at http://ronniefloyd.com
Follow Dr. Floyd on Twitter and Instagram @ronniefloyd
Dr. Ronnie Floyd is the President & CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee.