Part 19 – How Do I Pray and What Is Fasting?
As one opens the Bible and turns to the pages of the New Testament, one is struck by the sheer number of references and exhortations calling God’s people to prayer. As Christians, we cannot dispense of this holiest discipline since it is the very lifeline not only of the Christian but of the Church. Yet sadly, the prayer meeting has almost disappeared from view and if there is one, it is the least attended meeting of the week. What is prayer? Prayer in its most basic form is talking to God and includes in its function petitions, supplications, intercessions, praise, thanksgiving and worship. In this nineteenth teaching part, we examine some of these functions and explore practically and theologically the question, ‘How do I pray?’
Finally, there are times in our lives that call for desperate action; times of great calamity or urgent needs where prayer alone does not seem to cut it. It is during these times that we may resort not only to heightened times of prayer but enjoin to our prayers the discipline of fasting. We shall seek also in this teaching then to bring some practical help and guidance to this matter and in so doing, clear up some of the misconceptions surrounding prayer and fasting.
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Part 18 – Why Do Christians Suffer?
Of the top ten questions of all time, it ought to come as no surprise to us to learn that they’re the same as they’ve always been from the dawn of time; “What is the real meaning of life?” “Is there a God?” “What happens when I die?” Despite the exponential advances in technology, economics, medicine and science over the last half a decade; man with all his worldly wisdom is still no closer to being able to provide adequate answers to these crucial questions, nor will he ever be. This is because principally they’re not scientific questions nor are they even philosophical ones. Fundamentally at their core, they are theological questions. However, since man has cast off the wisdom of God in his own professed wisdom, man will search in vain to find the answers his soul so desperately seeks for and will never find them in this world. We could well add into the list of greatest questions of all time, “Why is there suffering in the world?” and more specifically, the question bearing the title of this teaching; “Why Do Christians Suffer?”
In this eighteenth teaching part, we seek to provide a Biblical answer to the question of Christian suffering.
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