Tales And Prayers For New Life In Christ

More than 500,000 copies sold! Updated and expanded! Prayer is hard. Often, unless circumstances demand it—such as an illness or saying grace before a meal—most of us simply do not pray. This kind of prayerlessness can leave us with a distressed spirit and practical unbelief characterized by fear, anxiety, joylessness, and spiritual depression. A Praying Life is a prayer guide that has encouraged thousands of Christians to pursue a vibrant prayer life full of joy and power and has helped them learn how to pray faithfully and courageously. A life of prayer invites you to a life of connection to God. When Jesus describes the intimacy that He seeks with us, He talks about joining us for dinner (Revelation 3:20). This book reminds readers that prayer is simply making conversation with God a rhythm of daily Christian life. A Praying Life includes chapters about: How to deal with unanswered prayer How to start a prayer journal Does prayer make a difference? Now with added chapters addressing prayers of lament and further guidance for using prayer cards, Paul Miller invites you to foster prayer that regularly hopes, trusts, and expects God to act. Learn to develop helpful habits and approaches to prayer that will enable you to return to a childlike faith and witness spiritual growth today! “This book will be like having the breath of God at your back. Let it lift you to new hope.” —Dan B. Allender, PhD, author of Bold Love

Each story, complete with a synopsis, a link to the liturgical calendar, and a corresponding scripture, offers us a glimpse into the mystery of life and faith.

A compassionate, shame-free guide for your darkest days “A one-of-a-kind book . . . to read for yourself or give to a struggling friend or loved one without the fear that depression and suicidal thoughts will be minimized, medicalized or over-spiritualized.”—Kay Warren, cofounder of Saddleback Church What happens when loving Jesus doesn’t cure you of depression, anxiety, or suicidal thoughts? You might be crushed by shame over your mental illness, only to be told by well-meaning Christians to “choose joy” and “pray more.” So you beg God to take away the pain, but nothing eases the ache inside. As darkness lingers and color drains from your world, you’re left wondering if God has abandoned you. You just want a way out. But there’s hope. In I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die, Sarah J. Robinson offers a healthy, practical, and shame-free guide for Christians struggling with mental illness. With unflinching honesty, Sarah shares her story of battling depression and fighting to stay alive despite toxic theology that made her afraid to seek help outside the church. Pairing her own story with scriptural insights, mental health research, and simple practices, Sarah helps you reconnect with the God who is present in our deepest anguish and discover that you are worth everything it takes to get better. Beautifully written and full of hard-won wisdom, I Love Jesus, But I Want to Die offers a path toward a rich, hope-filled life in Christ, even when healing doesn’t look like what you expect.

Behind the theme of this new volume in the popular annual Pray Now series, is the belief that everyone has a story to tell, no matter what age or stage of life they are at, and that in worship we weave our stories into the bigger story of God. Our stories are shaped by encounters with other people, with the physical world, with the variety of our own experiences and emotions, and with God. This volume offers a dynamic resource for prayer and reflection that will enable a deeper understanding of how all these kinds of encounters shape us. More than seventy short sections, each containing a scripture quotation, prayers for morning and evening, a short meditation, suggested scripture readings and a blessing, explore a rich variety of encounters: • Between Jesus and others in the Gospels - disciples, women, the young, the old, critics, enemies • The people we encounter – friends, neighbours, colleagues, family, strangers, the hostile • Encounters with the physical world – animals, weather, traffic jams, crowded cities, empty spaces • Encounters with ourselves – success, disaster, loneliness, identity, hope, fear, mystery and more • Encounters with God in prayer – how Christians across the centuries, including Julian of Norwich, St Benedict, Martin Luther, Wesley, C S Lewis and others understood and practiced prayer. Stories of Encounter is the Church of Scotland’s theme for 2018 that will inform its worship and its mission throughout the coming year. At its heart is a desire to help people to tell their stories, to share those stories with others and with their communities, to reflect on their journeys of faith and ultimately their stories of encounters with God. This dynamic collection of newly written prayers, meditations and blessings will be a welcome aid for worship, for small group devotions and for personal discipleship.

After nearly four decades of ministry, Andrew Wommack has discovered some important truths about prayer. His prayer life is much different than it was thirty years ago and the results have dramatically improved! You may be asking many of the same questions Andrew once did. Is prayer my Christian duty? Is prayer primarily about asking God to meet my needs and the needs of others? Is God's answer to my prayer based on the degree of my humility and sincerity? Is answered prayer a sovereign decision of God or do I have the ability to influence Him? Clear, scriptural answers to these questions and more could significantly change the way you pray. These principles may not be the only way to pray, but if you're not getting the results you desire, consider changing directions; maybe there is A Better Way to Pray.

Whether chosen and celebrated--like going off to college or welcoming your first baby--or unexpected and anxiety-inducing--like losing a job or grappling with a broken trust--all change brings stress. Kristen Strong knows about change--especially the kind you didn't choose or expect. What she's fought hard to learn over the years is that change is not something to be feared but something to be received as a blessing from a God who, more often than not, works through change, not in spite of it. Strong has learned to see change not as a grievance but as a grace. In this hope-filled book, she shows women how when we follow God's will, we receive blessings of contentment, purpose, and renewed strength. She encourages women to see change not as the end of their story but as the scenery for this part of life's journey. And she offers practical advice for coping with change in every part of life. Anyone who has struggled to adjust to life's transitions will welcome this warm and personal perspective.

In this searing meditation on the bonds of family and the allure of extremist faith, one of today’s most celebrated Christian writers recounts his unexpected journey from a strict fundamentalist upbringing to a life of compassion and grace—a revelatory memoir that “invites comparison to Hillbilly Elegy” (Publishers Weekly, starred review). “Searing, heartrending . . . This stunning tale reminds us that the only way to keep living is to ask God for the impossible: love, forgiveness, and hope.”—Kate Bowler, New York Times bestselling author of Everything Happens for a Reason Raised by an impoverished widow who earned room and board as a Bible teacher in 1950s Atlanta, Philip Yancey and his brother, Marshall, found ways to venture out beyond the confines of their eight-foot-wide trailer. But when Yancey was in college, he uncovered a shocking secret about his father’s death—a secret that began to illuminate the motivations that drove his mother to extreme, often hostile religious convictions and a belief that her sons had been ordained for a divine cause. Searching for answers, Yancey dives into his family origins, taking us on an evocative journey from the backwoods of the Bible Belt to the bustling streets of Philadelphia; from trailer parks to church sanctuaries; from family oddballs to fire-and-brimstone preachers and childhood awakenings through nature, music, and literature. In time, the weight of religious and family pressure sent both sons on opposite paths—one toward healing from the impact of what he calls a “toxic faith,” the other into a self-destructive spiral. Where the Light Fell is a gripping family narrative set against a turbulent time in post–World War II America, shaped by the collision of Southern fundamentalism with the mounting pressures of the civil rights movement and Sixties-era forces of social change. In piecing together his fragmented personal history and his search for redemption, Yancey gives testament to the enduring power of our hunger for truth and the possibility of faith rooted in grace instead of fear. “I truly believe this is the one book I was put on earth to write,” says Yancey. “So many of the strands from my childhood—racial hostility, political division, culture wars—have resurfaced in modern form. Looking back points me forward.”

Are you struggling to find joy? Pawz & Pray is a collection of heartwarming stories, scriptures, and prayers, that will help you slow down, savor moments, and discover the secrets to a truly meaningful life! If you'd like to draw closer to God and extract more joy from life, and happen to have a sweet spot for dogs, this book is for you!