Four questions to ask about prayer

Last night was our corporate church prayer meeting. Our usual format is to have a short time in the word and using that time as a prompt to our prayers. Having been helped by Tim Keller's book on prayer in which he notes Martin Luther's method of meditating upon the word to prompt his prayers, we decided to take Luther's lead.

Luther asks four key questions of any given text:

1. What does the text demand of me?
2. How does this text lead me to praise or thank God?
3. How does this truth lead me to confess and repent?
4. How does this truth prompt me to appeal to God?

Given our limited time in the text, we decided to apply this fourfold method to the passage we most recently heard preached: Daniel 4 (you can listen to that here).

Using Luther's method, we had a excellent opening time of prayer. We knew what the text demanded of us because we had heard it preached days before (q1 amounted to a brief sermon recap). The rest of time helped us apply that truth in a number of different ways and led to a helpful time of praise, confession and supplication.

It's well worth using as a method in your own quiet times and personal prayers.

Happy Reformation Day

Today is the day (or, night) that many will turn their attentions to trick or treating and reveling in all things spooky. Protestants, however, have (or, should have) something far more significant to celebrate: Reformation Day.

Reformation Day remembers the hammering of Martin Luther's 95 Theses to the door of All Saints Church, Wittenberg on 31st October 1517, and the events that transpired thereafter, sparking The Protestant Reformation. For a brief round-up of the history and importance of Reformation Day, see here and here.

The legacy left by Luther extends far beyond those active in the Protestant churches. The effects of the reformation live on throughout the Western world and had a profound impact on society that is still felt today.

So, whilst the rest of the world indulges in Hallowe'en, let us not forget the importance of Reformation Day. If Hallowe'en was initially intended to turn our minds to departed saints, who better to remember than Martin Luther and the events that sparked the Protestant Reformation?

HAPPY REFORMATION DAY!