Pray Each Day With Scotty Smith Using Your Smart Phone

I’ve made it no secret that my own prayer life has been enriched by including the daily prayers of Scotty Smith.  First in his book Everyday Prayers: 365 Days to a Gospel-Centered Faith and now with his daily “prayer blog” Heavenward on TheGospelCoalition.org blog list, I join him in prayer daily.

Things have gotten better – or at least easier – to do that.

If you have a smart phone search your app store – available free on both Apple and Android – for the PrayerMate app developed by Andy Geers.  Click Here to learn more about PrayerMate from Andy himself.

Continuing The Conversation: The Worship of God at Christ Covenant – Part I: Praying Together

We recently had dinner together as a church followed by open discussion in small groups  about new directions for our worship of God at Christ Covenant.  I’d like to continue that a bit in light of what I learned, and to share with those not there.

Praying Together

If prayer is like breathing in the life of a believer, then Praying Together – Corporate Prayer – would be like breathing for the Church assembled.  It should be a part of every gathering.  It should be God-focused, biblical in content, expressive of the life and needs of those gathered and intelligible to all.

Learning to "Pray The Scriptures"

Have you ever heard someone use the expression "praying the Scriptures?"  It's easy to wonder just what they are referring to.  Is it using a Bible text as a special chant?  Is it reading the Bible and calling it prayer?

People at Christ Covenant have heard me mention how my own prayer life has been revitalized and deepened by using Scotty Smith's Heavenward website as part of my regular devotional time.  His April 17th prayer - A Prayer for Measuring the Measureless Riches of Grace - is a great example of "praying the Scripture," in this case Psalm103.  I include the entire post below:

Resources for Your Prayer Life

Cultivating a prayer fruitful life requires more than collecting lists and forms for prayer.  At it's core, prayer is a conversation between the Heavenly Father and His child.  When I look for resources to encourage my own prayer life or to share with others, that is the goal I have in mind.  Does this resource cultivate conversation?  Or does it replace conversation? 

Here are some specific suggestions.

My Devotional "System" for 2012

Whether it is getting up in the morning and getting the kids to school, getting the bills paid on time or getting regular exercise, everyone I know benefits from having a plan or system for taking care of the routine needs of our life.  It's the same for the devotional life:  Here too, I benefit from a system for regular Bible reading and prayer.

As part of our Covenant Renewal focus for January,  we'll be talking about growing our life in areas of spiritual discipline like Bible reading, prayer, service and the like.  But I won't talk a lot during that time  about systems for doing those things.  That's because I know that while a heart that is seeking God can benefit from a system for regular spiritual disciplines, no system of spiritual discipline can overcome a heart that is distracted.  We'll be preaching to the heart in January because that is where the real need is and that is where the Gospel of grace changes us.

Still, systems have their place.  So I thought I'd share mine for those that might be interested.  Let me begin by saying that my system is helpful for me, but I suspect it may not be helpful for most people.  People are different.  I'm a task-oriented, tech-friendly, driven sort of guy.  You can see that in my system.  Different people will need different systems that fit their own needs, habits and goals.  I'd rather have a conversation with you about what works for you than squeeze you into my system, but I'm happy to share where my heart is finding strength each day.

Learning To Pray

I want to pass on to you the most inspiring prayer resource that I have encountered in many years.  "Heavenward" is  a blog by Scotty Smith, pastor of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN.  Each day he posts a prayer.  Each prayer is now a part of own my daily time with my Heavenly Father. There is no better resource for learning to pray from a "gospel of grace" perspective that I have been able to find.

You can go directly to the blog by clicking here.  Once there, mark that in your browser and then pray daily with Scotty, just as I do.  There is even a link on that page to have the prayer emailed to you each day.  Do whatever works best for you, but don't miss the opportunity to see your prayer life grow and the roots of your heart dig deeper into the gospel of grace.  Let me encourage you by giving you a taste of today's prayer: