Midnight Moments

In the life of a Christian, a few main activities are generally thought of as necessary for spiritual health: reading your Bible, fellowship with other believers, and prayer. Reading your Bible is a key measure in learning the heart and character of God and how we are to interact and respond to Him. Fellowship with other believers gives us accountability and encouragement in our walk with Christ. Prayer at the most basic level is communication with God. It is this last spiritual "discipline" I would like to engage in discussion about for this blog. So often prayer becomes ritual or a list of "God do this" and "God fix that". In regards to ritual prayer, this is clearly missing the point of prayer. Prayer is both commanded and explempified in Scripture. Jesus Himself prayed to God on several occasions. Many of these moments He would escape the crowds that followed Him to hear His teaching and pray in private to the Father for renewed spiritual strength. In ...

A few years back, after committing to my call to seminary and ministry, I had a breakdown. A close friend was on a rocky spiritual path, straddling the fence between God and the world and about ready to fall off on the side of world. I had had countless conversations trying to convince her of the potential God had for her life and everything she would be throwing away by walking away from God's call on her life. She was not the only one of my friends I had had these sorts of conversations with, and time has convinced me she won't be the last. I remember breaking down in my dad's office at church and telling him, "I'm so tired. I'm not making any difference in her life and I'm sick and tired of beating her over the head with the truth when she doesn't care." He somberly looked at me and with pain in his voice told me, "Welcome to ministry." Have you been there? You're exercising everything in your power-- prayer, lectures, pleading, bi...