prayer Archives | Grace on Parade

August 26, 2020 by Karen Wingate 1 Comment

Bible Reading: 4 Ways to Get Something Out of What You Read

I love how I discover new things about God each time I do my Bible reading. Do you?

This year, my small group made the commitment to read one chapter of the Bible per day. It will take us three and a half years to read the Bible to the end, but oh, we’re getting so much out of our Bible reading. We’ve finished Judges (the gory book of the Bible) and are now into Ruth. To help things move a long a little faster, we’re also reading one Psalm a day.

My Bible reading for one day this past week was the first chapter of Ruth and Psalm 23. Easy day, I thought. Familiar passages. Kick back, breeze through, and consider it a chance to give those spiritual muscles a break. I zipped through my two chapters and started to close my Bible with a snap.

Whoa, wait a minute.

[Read more…]

February 9, 2019 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Ephesians Bible Study Intro: Let’s Start With Prayer

How do you pray for other people?

Pick the top three topics you most commonly cover in your prayers for other people:

Health needs
Financial difficulties
Relationship issues
Courage
Peace
Comfort
Spiritual growth

What did the Apostle Paul pray for most?

This week, I’m launching our Bible study of the Book of Ephesians. It seems only appropriate that we start our study with prayer.

If you haven’t yet done so, listen to my welcome video.

As you read through the letters the Apostle Paul wrote to the churches, you’ll find that he often started his letters by telling his recipients how he was praying for them. Paul prays two prayers within his letter to the Ephesians and his first prayer doesn’t occur until the middle of Chapter 1. I think it will surprise you how both prayers focus on the spiritual growth of his readers. Really? Can we pray that for each other? Of course we can.

In our study, I’m leapfrogging to Paul’s first prayer in Ephesians 1:15-22 before we deal with the first section because I want us to start this bible study with an attitude of prayer and I want you to start praying for each other. I figure if Paul can pray for his hearers regarding their spiritual growth,then we can do the same.

Let’s analyze Paul’s prayer. What exactly did he pray about?

Check out Ephesians 1:15-21:

Paul prays that the Ephesians will be given the Spirit of wisdom and revelation and the eyes of their heart may be enlightened. In other words, he wants their heads and their hearts to grow in understanding. He wants them to think and feel. He wants this to be more than head knowledge.

Paul lists four things he wants the Ephesians to know about their faith. Use the discussion questions given in italics to guide your study of this passage and to apply it to your daily life.

Know God better.

How do you get to know a person better?
How is this similar to becoming better acquainted and more intimate with God?
What will happen when we know and understand God better?
On a scale of one to ten, how well would you say you know God?
What do you need to do this week to know God better?

Know the hope to which God has called.

Hope in what? What does the Christian hope for?
How does our Christian hope enable us to face our earthly life?
For the unbeliever, this earthly life is the best it will ever be. For the Christian, this earthly life is the worst it will ever be. Life will only get better. How is this so?

Know the riches of our inheritance.

We are God’s adopted children. Like children, we have yet received our full inheritance. When will we get our inheritance?
What will be included in that inheritance?
How has your understanding of your heavenly inheritance changed as you have grown in your Christian faith?

Know His incomparably great power.

How strong is God’s power?
Practically speaking, what might that power look like in a believer’s life?
How have you seen God’s power at work in your life? In your church?

Now it’s time to pray.

Pray these four things for yourself.

Then pray these four things for someone else in this study. If you know other people by name, pray for them. If you don’t know anyone, that’s all right. God knows.

I’m excited! God will answers our prayers. We’ve seen Him answer many prayers for physical needs. Let’s see how He answers prayers for our spiritual needs.

One more thing to know. I am praying for YOU. I’m praying that God will reveal His character, His hope, your inheritance, and His power to you as you study His Word.

Let me know how I can pray for you. Contact me here.

November 10, 2017 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Impossible Prayer: Praying For What Only God Can Give

Have you ever prayed an impossible prayer?

The biblical account of a blind man who received restored sight in his adult years has long held special meaning for me. As a child, I believed if Jesus could heal Bartimaeus, He could heal me. After my eye surgery in 2015, I reread the account multiple times, resonating in the joy of a man with new sight. Jesus really can do the impossible!

The poor man didn’t even have a proper name. Bartimaeus means son of Timaeus. Perhaps you’ve experienced that. You were John’s girl, Michelle’s sister, or the neighbor next door. Seen but unknown. Not worth bearing a unique persona. You can appreciate Bartimaeus’ public fuss in order to get noticed. “Lord,” he shouted over and over. “Have mercy on me.”

Jesus asked what seems like a redundant question. “What do you want me to do for you?” Isn’t the answer obvious? The poor man wanted healing. Give me sight and let me slink back into oblivion.

Was it so obvious?

Bartimaeus could have answered in so many different ways.

Give me money.
Let me win the lottery so I don’t have to beg any more.
Give me a nicer house.
Tell my family to take better care of me.
Why can’t I have friends like that crippled man you healed in Caperneum where the crew lowered him through a hole in the roof? Jumping junipers, I can’t even get as much as an arm to get me where I want to go.

It wouldn’t have been out of the ordinary. Others had treated Jesus more like a social worker than the Son of God. Someone in the crowd once demanded Jesus tell his brother to share the family inheritance with him (Luke 12:13). Another man complained about the unfair system at the Pool of Bethesda. Only a few paragraphs before the account of Bartimaeus in Mark 10, James and John had answered the same question with, “Let us sit on either side of you when you come into Your Kingdom(Mk 10:36).” Jesus was the ultimate fix-it guy, the benevolent grandfather who could help everyone live on Easy Street.

Bartimaeus wanted something bigger.

Lord, I want to see.

Anyone with a bit of clout could talk sense into his family or pull strings to provide new housing and a nicer begging bowl. Only Jesus could give sight to the blind. That is why Jesus told Bartimaeus that his faith had healed him. Bartimaeus uttered a request for the impossible.

Jesus’ healings have a bigger purpose than merely helping people feel better. Hundreds of people saw Jesus heal Bartimaes who praised God loudly and followed Jesus along the way. The incident was recorded three times in the Gospels and have blessed countless throughout the ages – including me. Jesus accomplishes God-sized acts for our good out of His lavish love for us. At the core of it though, He does the impossible mostly for His glory. His miraculous intervention shines a spotlight on us so that the world may see God’s presence in the world. He gives us a story to tell so we can tell the story.

What have you asked God for lately?

Things that anyone with a bit of authority could do?

What would only convenience you?

Requests that only He can fulfill and that would bring Him a lot of press.

What do you want that only God can give?

Physical healing
Restored relationship
Emotional healing
Breaking a habit that has become an idol in your life
Overcoming a character flaw
Salvation of someone dear to you
Salvation of your enemy
Healing the wounded heart of someone you love
Send more harvest workers into a specific area of the world.
Use me to do something big for Your Kingdom
Expand the ministry of my local church exponentially

If God answered your prayer in a marvelous way, would you be willing to share the story of what He has done for you? Bartimaeus praised God so vocally that others praised God too. Are you willing to do the same? Do you want it badly enough that if God gave it to you, you would spend the rest of your life telling others what God has done?

Dare to dream.

Dare to ask God to do something only He can do.

God has the capacity to do more than you can ask or imagine. Don’t stay content with only your salvation. Yes, Jesus died for you but He wants to make you shine so others will see Him. Let God give you a personal story so you can share His glory.

God did it for blind Bartimaeus. He did it for me. He has done it for thousands of others.

He can do it for you.

Just ask. Ask Him to do something that only He can do.

October 5, 2017 by Karen Wingate Leave a Comment

Five Minutes That Will Change The Way You Pray – Letitia Suk

Five minutes doesn’t seem like much for a prayer time.

Ture. But you can do a whole lot of praying in five minutes. God can do awesome things with just a few people, five loaves and two fish,or a mustard seed of faith. Imagine what could happen from five minutes?

Have you tried praying for a five minutes stretch recently? I have. I quickly learned how spiritually ADD I am. My mind starts to wander after just two or three sentences.

That’s why I love the wise words from my guest blogger, Letitia Suk about targeting a specific area of our lives to engulf in prayer. She shows how to break those five minutes down into even more specific prayer points. Letitia’s article came across my desk at just the right time, too, because my Bible Study group is studying a chapter this week on spending time alone with God. What perfect practical advice for those of us looking for ways to expand our time with God and focus our attention on the Holy One.

Here’s Letitia.

Got Five Minutes?

by Letitia Suk

“Take five minutes to pray for your work each day and see what happens,” was the challenge proposed by our pastor to the congregation years ago. I remember thinking something like, “Duh!” Of course, I already pray at least five minutes a day for my work…don’t I? Surely all the praying-on-the-run I did each day for all the flying curveballs added up to more than five minutes.

The nudging continued so the next morning I grabbed a timer on the way to my prayer chair, set it for five minutes and began to pray specifically for my work. Wow, that timer took a long time to ding! Challenge accepted—I was ready to see what would happen.

Like many of us, my work is multi-faceted.

I decided to give a minute to each of the five areas for my day-to-day projects. It seemed like one minute would be easier that five. I know, wimpy, right?

The first minute I gave to my coaching clients. They invested time with me to bring focus and intentionality to their lives and I wanted to give them my best work. My writing got the next minute. The current projects, the longed-for projects, my skill and wisdom in putting words on a page. Good thing the timer rang because it was easy to zone off into work mode instead of praying.

Speaking ministry was next. Events already scheduled and those I wanted to schedule. For my communication skills to grow and for lives to be changed. A lot for one minute.

My part-time chaplain work got minute #4. Patients, sensitivity, staff and overall blessing for the hospitals.

The last minute I saved for specific work stuff on that day’s agenda: marketing, blogging, networking. This time the five minutes flew by.

He was right—things happened!

I felt more partnered with God in all aspects of my work. Not just that I was working for Him but with Him as I laid the concerns out each day. I saw clearer productivity and greater results.

All these years later, I still set my timer most days. My work depends on it.

Each day holds 1440 minutes…hard to claim a legitimate excuse for not finding five of them to invest in prayer over your work. You might be amazed at the return.

P.S.—The same five-minute principle works for other areas of your life too!

About Letitia:

Letitia (Tish) Suk, www.letitiasuk.com, invites women to create an intentional life centered in Jesus. She blogs at hopeforthebest.org and authored Getaway with God: The Everywoman’s Guide to Personal Retreat and Rhythms of Renewal. She is a speaker, personal retreat guide, and life coach in the Chicago area.

You can also find Tish at https://www.facebook.com/Letitia.Suk.Author/