Strangers & Aliens

Some brief notes from Don Carson on prayer at the EMA. Excellent as always.

Thursday
Some different polarities in Scripture that we must hold in tension
Prayer is both sustained and brief - we must not pit one against the other. In fact, the famous bullet prayer of Nehemiah 1 comes out of sustained praying, probably over months and months.
Prayer is both desperate and steady. Scripture contains many desperate pleas alongside more measured, steady prayers such as Psalm 8.
Prayer is both private and public. Moreover, when you pray in public there is necessarily a teaching function. Glad to see that Don must have been reading my blog!
Prayer is both about corporate renewal and special requests - Don was making a case for both praying for Aunt Agatha's toe, but also praying for big things.
Prayer can be both unacceptable and acceptable. To illustrate he listed some different kinds of unacceptable prayers.

Friday
Don spent longer Friday on the question of how we learn to pray and he said our best way was from God himself. He picked out four characteristics:
Prayer steeped in the word of God
Prayer steeped in biblical theology
Prayer steeped in the priorities of Scripture
Prayer that acknowledges ignorance of the mind of God

Good stuff. Great stuff, in fact. MP3s out soon. Good to see some bloggers there, including Andrew Evans, Dan Green, Gary Brady.