From Duty To Delight

Is praying a duty or a delight?J. I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom say that it's both; an essential, expected practice as a follower of Christ, but also a privilege and joy. As we start out learning to pray properly, however, the delight often seems to be missing. Here is practical help for active, honest praying that involves all of who we are--heart, hands and head--and moves us to deeper obedience, joy and intimacy with our Father.

Prayer has an important role in the lives of believers. For some, however, prayer has become a chore almost something to be dreaded than eagerly anticipated. Some people get caught up in the "how much/how often" they pray. But it really is not about how many chapters of the Bible you read or how many minutes a day you pray. It is that you read the Bible and you pray. In From Duty to Delight: Finding Greater Joy in Daily Prayer, author Ron Parrish seeks to help you become a person who enjoys spending time in God's presence through prayer someone who finds such joy in devotion that you will lose track of time. From Duty to Delight is written for the average person who struggles to set aside time for meaningful, focused interaction with God. If you feel badly about missing your devotions, if you quickly run out of things to say when you try to pray, if you sometimes find prayer boring, or if you have given up on trying to be a man or woman of prayer, From Duty to Delight can help you find your way to prayer that is fulfilling and that you can look forward to each day.

Duty or Delight? Knowing Where You Stand with God - Member Book is a 6-week, 7-session women's Bible study (print only). Author Tammie Head leads you on a journey of taking your relationship with God from a duty to a delight.

For almost fifty years, through her tireless service to the poor and her courageous witness for peace, Dorothy Day offered an example of the gospel in action. Now the publication of her diaries, previously sealed for twenty-five years after her death, offers a uniquely intimate portrait of her struggles and concerns. Beginning in 1934 and ending in 1980, these diaries reflect her response to the vast changes in America, the Church, and the wider world. Day experienced most of the great social movements of her time but, as these diaries reveal, even while she labored for a transformed world, she simultaneously remained grounded in everyday human life: the demands of her extended Catholic worker family; her struggles to be more patient and charitable; the discipline of prayer and worship that structured her days; her efforts to find God in all the tasks and encounters of daily life. A story of faithful striving for holiness and the radical transformation of the world, Day’s life challenges readers to imagine what it would be like to live as if the gospels were true.

Each of us is hard-wired to pursue our happiness. We long for significant, profound joy. Some try to satisfy it with exotic vacations, high-tech gadgets, career success, sports, academics, drug experimentation, even ascetic rigors. Yet the longing remains. Why? In The Dangerous Duty of Delight, John Piper turns our heart toward the one true object of human desire and happiness: God. Piper shows from Scripture that pursuing our happiness in Christ is not optional for the Christian, but essential. Come along on a journey from desperate desire to infinite delight. Learn how you were created for ultimate satisfaction in Him, and how this new perspective will change your attitudes toward worship, relationships, material goods—and everything. “Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee.” --Saint Augustine

Merit Award, World Guild Christian Living Book Praying is an action that is of the essence of Christian existence. It involves our beliefs, emotions, values, hopes and fears, certainties and uncertainties, knowledge and ignorance. As J. I. Packer and Carolyn Nystrom explain, "Our aim is not just to clarify Christian understanding but to foster Christian living. In real praying, head, heart, and hands go together." With wisdom, humility, and sincerity the authors lead us through different moods of praying, including brooding, praising, asking, complaining, and hanging on. In Praying the authors offer hope for those of us who daydream when we try to listen to God and stumble when we try to speak. Yet they don't just teach us about prayer; they challenge and inspire us to do it by pointing us to a clearer realization of the reality of God and his character. Let Packer and Nystrom guide your praying to our powerful God, and let him move your praying through mere duty to delight.

Looks at the Gospels and examines what Christ requires of his followers in a redemptive-historical context. New and seasoned believers will see God's loving plan for their ultimate satisfaction. Now in paperback.