day nine
You Are
I love Pete Greig's writings on prayer, I think he is one of the most honest and real authorities on the subject for this generation.
In his latest book, God on Mute, he addresses how to engage the silence of unanswered prayer. There are so many books on the subject of prayer that tell you how to pray, or why to pray, but few that look at the reasons God remains silent. And how greatly He uses it.
In the chapter on God's will and unanswered prayer, Greig talks about the gradual effects of our prayers in other's lives...how our prayers are never "an impersonal mechanism of forced control."
"We can't change people's minds in prayer as if they were remote-control cars or computers waiting to be hacked. But maybe we can influence their circumstances so as to soften their hearts. In prayer, we appeal to the gentleness of Christ's nature as well as His power and engage with the complex free will of people He loves. That's why prayers for people generally work slowly, like water seeping silently into the tiny cracks of a vast boulder. For a long time, nothing may appear to have changed. Our prayers, resembling mere dribbles of water, appear to be of an entirely different nature than the substance of the rock. But then there comes the first great freeze of winter - some circumstance beyond human control - and overnight, as if by magic, as if struck by lightning, that vast boulder splits open." Pete Greig, God on Mute
Thy will be done Lord,
on Earth as it is in Heaven!
I love Pete Greig's writings on prayer, I think he is one of the most honest and real authorities on the subject for this generation.
In his latest book, God on Mute, he addresses how to engage the silence of unanswered prayer. There are so many books on the subject of prayer that tell you how to pray, or why to pray, but few that look at the reasons God remains silent. And how greatly He uses it.
In the chapter on God's will and unanswered prayer, Greig talks about the gradual effects of our prayers in other's lives...how our prayers are never "an impersonal mechanism of forced control."
"We can't change people's minds in prayer as if they were remote-control cars or computers waiting to be hacked. But maybe we can influence their circumstances so as to soften their hearts. In prayer, we appeal to the gentleness of Christ's nature as well as His power and engage with the complex free will of people He loves. That's why prayers for people generally work slowly, like water seeping silently into the tiny cracks of a vast boulder. For a long time, nothing may appear to have changed. Our prayers, resembling mere dribbles of water, appear to be of an entirely different nature than the substance of the rock. But then there comes the first great freeze of winter - some circumstance beyond human control - and overnight, as if by magic, as if struck by lightning, that vast boulder splits open." Pete Greig, God on Mute
Thy will be done Lord,
on Earth as it is in Heaven!