We run our website the way we wished the whole internet worked: we provide high quality original content with no ads. We are funded solely by your direct support. Please consider supporting this project.

Let Us Pray

First Advent and first candle is lit

Per Ola Wiberg via Compfight

It’s appropriate to pray and reflect and run to God when tragedies like the one in Newtown, CT take place. We wanted to share a couple of things we found helpful around the blogosphere as we struggle through our sadness.

T.C. Moore shared some thoughts on Darkness, Advent, and Newtown CT on his blog. Really helpful perspective.

From the article:

Advent isn’t a pill we take to quickly forget the darkness, or ignore the darkness. No, Advent grants us the space to dwell in-between tragedy and deliverance. It gives us time to reflect, feel the weight of the pervasive darkness in this world, and hope for a Savior to come into the world and rescue us. It is a reminder that though the Savior has come, and Jesus is that Savior, we still live in-between his Advent into the world and his Return to shine his light on darkness—destroying it forever.

Until then, we pray, we grieve, we remember, and we hope.

And here are some prayers from David Smith to help us to focus our hearts towards healing and compassion.

Let us pray.

Related Reading

Why? The Question That Cannot Be Answered

Yesterday Greg sent out the following flurry of tweets: To provide some background to these tweets, the following illustration will prove helpful: They mystery of evil and an eight-second interval Let’s assume that there is an eight-second interval between two cars. Now let’s try to explain why there is this eight-second interval at this particular…

Life and Death in Haiti

Sometimes it’s important to hear about other lives, much sadder and difficult than our own, to reorient us to what is most important. In this season of elections that can be so divisive and in an economy that seems so fragile and creates hardship for many of us, it’s important to remember that we are…

Are angels involved in answering prayer?

READER: In Daniel 10 we read of an angel telling Daniel that he was delayed from giving him the answer to his prayer because of spiritual warfare going on. My question is, are angels always involved in answering our prayers?

Podcast: Why Does Prayer Feel So Fake?

Greg talks about practicing a prayer discipline and battling against feelings of superficiality in prayer.  http://traffic.libsyn.com/askgregboyd/Episode_0335.mp3

Your Spiritual “Say-So”

In yesterday’s post, I summarized what Jesus and the rest of the Bible says about prayer. For many, that is enough. “God said it, I believe it, that settles it for me.” But for others, like myself, the practice of petitionary prayer raises a number of theological questions that need to be answered. The trouble is…

Why Prayer Matters

Two questions about prayer: What possible difference can prayer make to an all-good and all-powerful God? Why would an all-wise God leverage so much of his will being done on earth on whether or not his people talk to him? These questions began to be resolved for me when I began to think about prayer…