DAY 631 - How to Pray Better? (請按此處收聼廣東話Cantonese podcast click here)

Want to know why I have been writing and recording my blogs and podcast daily since August 10, 2009? Click these three links:

Confirmation from John Stott in 2009: 
http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009_07_01_archive.html
My MicroMacro Discipleship, A missing DNA in Discipleship Development: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/07/introduction-micromacro-discipleship.html
Subject Shifting Devotion Method(Inspired by John Stott in 1991: http://bishopsilas.blogspot.com/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

                               Today's Reading: 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

** If you would like to learn a simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please read my “Count Down 5” from my Devotion on Fire blog:

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/2009/08/count-down-5-subject-shifting-devotion.html

To use this simple and good way of Daily Devotion method please click this link:

 .Subject Shifting Devotion.pdf

Please click this link to read 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

English(ESV): http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1 Thessalonians 3&version=ESV

Chinese: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=帖 撒 羅 尼 迦 前 書 3&version=CUV

Bible Study

     Paul uses a prayer to conclude the first part of his message for the first three chapter. Is there any significance of this short prayer?  

Bishop N.T. Wright says ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N._T._Wright ) :
     So what can we learn from this short but deep prayer of Paul's?…
     First, we learn that prayer is grounded in the life and work of God himself - the God we come to know, through Jesus, as father…
     Prayer that acknowledges this God, this Lord, is prayer that will grow in confidence…
     Prayer of this sort is also prayer with a future reference.  It knows that this God intends one day to bring heaven and earth together in a new way, with the personal presence of Jesus as the central feature of this new world…
    Focused on God; looking eagerly towards God's future; and praying in effect, for the work of God's spirit in the present.  Some have wondered where the spirit is when Paul mentions God and Jesus so closely and frequently together.  The proper answer is that the spirit is the one who is inspiring the prayer itself in Paul and his friends, and who is the hidden agency at work in the church to produce the results God and his people long to see.

N.T. Wright. Paul for Everyone:Galatians and Thessalonians. Louisville,KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2004, p.114-115.

      When you pray, do you have those important essence in your prayers? How does this prayer help you to pray better? 

      
Let's have a time to be still and give the Holy Spirit space to speak through the passage we have just read. Offer this time up to Jesus as you listen to him, while listening to "Gabriel's Oboe":  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmax47l2hLU

Spiritual Journal

    The title I heard from Jesus today is: How to pray better?

    What I got from Jesus today is a model for us to pray better following Paul's good example. Try to use this prayer to pray for three times and find out how many things you can find out to enrich your own prayer life.

    What I can feel is that this prayer is so personal, so loving, so confirming, so encouraging and so holy. Can you enrich your prayer by following Paul's example to be more personal, loving, confirming, encouraging and holy? 

Dear Lord Jesus,

Lead us to be able to pray like never before to enrich our love to you and to each others.  In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Please click this link to worship with us -

從心合一

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJWZQyLzDRQ

10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord) Matt Redman

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DXDGE_lRI0E

You may choose to follow my other daily blog: 

Daily Devotion on Fire 2(2 years plan -One year New Testament, one year Old Testament): 

http://bishopsilas2.blogspot.ca/

Daily Devotion on Fire (3 years and 3 months plan, one chapter a day to finish reading the whole Bible): 

http://bishopsilas.blogspot.ca/

Break.Build (40 days daily devotion- For Renewal or First Step for new Christians): http://www.breakbuild.blogspot.ca/

Emmanuel330 (40 weeks First Step Bible Study): 

http://emmanuel330.blogspot.ca/

This blog:

Discipler 123 (Daily devotion using N.T. Wright's NT for Everyone as source)

http://discipler123.blogspot.ca/