Over the last few years, my desire for God can be summed up in a simple prayer: “Open my eyes.” My conviction is that the living Christ is truly at work in every area of creation, culture, and my own life through the Spirit. But, to be brutally honest, my experience of life feels anything like that most days. 

On the days when the coffee is burnt, the heater in the car doesn’t work, and a good night's sleep feels unattainable, my focus for the day quickly moves from communion with the Trinitarian God to surviving-without-majorly-messing-up. Sure, the moments of quiet I have before I go about my day hold a kind of Presence. The words of the Bible running through my car stereo sometimes remind me of a bigger Story. The times I have to worship and pray in the prayer room or at my local church sometimes take me past myself. But even in the most spiritual moments of my week, the thoughts that take up the most space seem bent on grinding my altruistic heart in the dust of survival.

The idea of being still was hard enough to grasp let alone accomplish at first. My brain didn’t cooperate well when I tried to “be still and know”, especially during prayer. This may sound odd to you but it was actually easier to learn to recognize God speaking to me in my thoughts or to pray in faith over someone else than it was to learn to be still. I’ve met a couple people who can easily come into a place of stillness but it’s not the norm. For most, a space of complete silence is awkward and can even produce anxiety.

(4 min read) “Prayer, the way Jesus taught it, is not the silver bullet of the self-improvers or the guilty conscience or the confident cleric. It’s the language of a humble child. Someone who recognizes that most of life is outside of their control. Someone who is honest and recognizes their need for divine guidance and assistance. Remember our Rabbi’s words: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3 NIV)

“As I prayed, I started to glimpse a bigger picture. I started to feel, in a deeply emotional way, God’s heart for all of His children. Denominational divisions and theological debates, criticism and judgment, refusal to collaborate and support one another, church splits and abusive spiritual leadership— it all began to break my heart. For the first time in my life, compassion began to replace bitterness…

These declarations that Bonita shared when she became director continue to guide our values at Gateway. Please join us in praying for Gateway to be all that God wills it to be!

A few nights ago, someone read about the River of Life and prayed, “Lord, let it be so on earth as it is in heaven!”

I haven’t been able to stop thinking about the River ever since. The more I ponder what this River is, the more it seems to be a picture of the Holy Spirit flowing out of you and me.

Read four short prayer encouragements from the prayer board writers at Gateway House of Prayer on the topics of Church, Media, Life, and Israel.

The priesthood of every believer is a beautiful and necessary truth that needs to be re-introduced at every level of Christian ministry in which it might be lacking.

I didn’t know the incredible significance of a tent filled with musicians that was erected on Mt. Zion thousands of years ago that lasted for less than forty years.