Dirty Bible, Clean Heart

“Prayer is the only entryway into genuine self-knowledge. It is also the main way we experience deep change—the reordering of our loves. Prayer is how God gives us so many of the unimaginable things he has for us. Indeed, prayer makes it safe for God to give us many of the things we most desire. It is the way we know God , the way we finally treat God as God. Prayer is simply the key to everything we need to do and be in life.” -Timothy Keller Relationships are built on one key ingredient: Time. Think about the most significant relationships in your life. How did you grow close to that individual? How did you learn about their goals and dreams, their likes and dislikes, but most importantly how did you learn who they are? Was it not by spending time with them? Take the marriage relationship for example. Before you and your spouse ever walked down the aisle, you went through a season of dating. This period of time is crucial if the relationship is to go any further. During the datin...

"True prayer is neither a mere mental exercise nor a vocal performance. It is far deeper than that-it is a spiritual transaction with the Creator of Heaven and Earth" -Charles Spurgeon For many of us prayer has become a constant repetition of our needs and wants. We come to God in prayer much like the children who sit on Santa's lap every Christmas pulling out a long wishlist of items he/she wants. We tell God what we want, say "amen", and go about our day. Prayer becomes a task that we cross off of our to-do list each day. It becomes average and mundane.  The prayer that is concentrated on endless petitions (as important as these may be) oftentimes becomes dull, draining, and strenuous. We come out of the prayer closet the same way we walked in. As this type of prayer life continues, we may quickly become discouraged as time passes and we are still reciting the same petitions we had three years ago. We begin with great expectations and motivation yet time ...