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Prayer

Why don't we pray? We have all offered the usual excuses:
"I don't have time."
"I don't know how."
"I can't get any time alone."

If we are honest, the responses should be something like this:
"I doubt prayer."
"I doubt God."
"My prayers don't go anywhere."
"I fear prayer."
"I fear the change that prayer can bring."

If we were to use these answers in any other relationship, we would find ourselves without the relationship. That is to say, in our relationships we work to communicate with each other. Why should our relationship with God be any different? The language of our prayer is the language between friends, between parent and child, between master and servant, between lovers.

The study of prayer can interfere with the actual practice of prayer. As with any spiritual teaching, we run the risk of being "all theory and no practice." It is our hope to study and practice prayer. Over the course of the year, we will be looking at prayer using a mini-series format. Using Richard Foster's book, Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home, we will divide our study of prayer into three categories for three different mini-series:

• Inward prayer - seeking personal transformation,
• Upward prayer - seeking intimacy with God, and
• Outward prayer - seeking ministry to others.

As we approach each segment, our purpose is not simply instructional. Rather we are looking for practical tools, studying the prayers of scripture and church history, and practicing postures of prayer all of which we can use to lead us into a deeper relationship with God.

Stewardship is personal responsibility for taking care of another person's property or financial affairs. Historically, stewardship was the responsibility given household servants to bring food and drinks to a big castle dining hall. The term was then expanded to indicate a household employee's responsibility for managing household or domestic affairs. Stewardship later became the responsibility for taking care of passengers' domestic needs on a ship, train and airplane, or managing the service provided to diners in a restaurant. The term continues to be used in these specific ways, but it is also used in a more general way to refer to a responsibility to take care of something one does not own.

This series concluded on March 14th.

If you have missed any of this series, we plan to have the podcasts available shortly.

Come and Join us as we explore the nature, causes and effects of poverty in the world. In this series Mosaic will be focusing on the role of the church in the world, simple actions that can have a big impact and more.