Tuesday Prayer: 38

This is my 38th 'Tuesday Prayer' post. I've recently started reading a book by Roy Godwin and Dave Roberts, "The Grace Outpouring: Blessing Others Through Prayer, The Amazing Story of God's Work at Ffald-y-Brenin", a place which a good friend of mine has become very grateful for. The book itself is an interesting read, but this quote struck me early on;

“If we will let the wisdom of God inhabit our thinking, a consistent 'grace first' pattern will emerge in our actions and words. 'Grace first' prayer for healing doesn't search for wrongdoing in a person's life, which needs correcting as a prelude to a miracle. There doesn't seem to be much evidence for that appraoch in the ministry of Jesus. We simply ask that the power of God should touch that life”

I love this, because Godwin's words challenge me in two often-unrelated ways. Firstly, this notion of letting the wisdom of God 'inhabit' our thinking - this is the precursor to praying and living (Because the two are intertwined) in a grace motivated and grace-pursuiing way. This means feeding from God's word, the Bible, and letting it and its stories and truths and challenges and commands and ideas shape the way we think, pray and live.

Secondly, is this interesting observation on prayer for healing. Readers will know that theologically I am a convinced charismatic - even as I am aware of abuses and errors. I think Godwin says something profound here, looking to the model of Jesus for prayer, and pointing towards the truth that all prayer for others is expansion on a simple ask; "that the power of God should touch that life". Prayer is not really about us - it is about God moving in and doing what God will do. A prayer life shaped by God's wisdom and motivated by grace could be one that could change our world...

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Don't forget to check out the previous posts in the series, featuring quotes from Tom Wright, John Wimber, Richard Foster and Don Carson, the great J. C. Ryle and theologians Alister McGrath and James K. A. Smith. Since then, I've shared quotes from Justin Welby, E.M. Bounds, Vineyard Pastor Ken Wilson, C. S. Lewis,  Norwegian O'Hallesby, Paul Miller, John Piper. Recently, we've heard Matthew Henry, Charles Finney, Andrew Murray, Tim Chester, Vaughan Roberts, Oliver O'Donovan, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and John Bunyan. Then we got rather retro, with quotes from Church Fathers John Chrysostom and Tertullian, before returning to more recent thinkers with Rowan Williams, Mike Reeves and Peter Jackson and Chris Wright and Andrew Case, R. C. Sproul, and (representing a slight change of tack) the Westminster Confession. Recently we considered Karl Barth, and Donald Macleod, Mary Prokes,  J. C. Ryle (again!), Andrew Murray,  Martyn Lloyd Jones, and most recently the great missionary Hudson Taylor.