Seven Thoughts Every Christian Ought to Think Every Day: Laying a Foundation for a Life of Prayer
When the Holy Spirit gives new life to a person, he fundamentally changes how that person thinks and what he thinks. The Spirit changes him into a person with the capacity to live in communion with God. At the same time, the Spirit creates in us a yearning to enjoy God’s presence through prayer. But how do we pray? When the disciples asked Jesus this question, he responded by giving them a model prayer to use as a guide to help them pray. This model prayer is commonly called The Lord’s Prayer. The Lord’s Prayer is extremely brief, but it is a perfect summary of what a Christian ought to think and pray every day. In Seven Thoughts Every Christian Ought to Think Every Day, Jim Scott Orrick examines the seven thoughts that lead Christians to pray guided by the model prayer. You might think of this book as a prequel to the Lord’s Prayer. Without the underlying thoughts of a renewed nature, simply repeating the Lord’s Prayer becomes an instance of the empty, meaningless prayers that Jesus was teaching us to avoid. Orrick explores the seven thoughts that propel a Christian into a life of meaningful communion with God through prayer. These are seven thoughts every Christian ought to think every day, and they lay a foundation for a life of prayer.
Publisher: Free Grace Press
Type: Paperback
ISBN: 9781952599255
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Jim Scott Orrick lives in La Grange, KY, and is a pastor of Bullitt Lick Baptist Church. He is an educator and the author of several books, including Mere Calvinism.
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‘Perhaps the greatest compliment I can pay an author is to read his book to my wife and my five children, ages eleven to seventeen. This book on prayer, written by Dr. Jim Orrick, is not the first book by him that I have read to my family. That speaks to my high regard for him and his ministry. This book on kingdom prayer is no exception. This book, so well organized as to read as a personal or family devotion, is not the musings of a young Christian minister who is overly ambitious to get himself published. Actually, it’s the product—indeed, the fruit—of a man who has faithfully and as deeply as any man I know availed himself to the ordinary means of grace for five-plus decades. There is no one I know in the Christian world who has memorized more Scripture, hymns, catechisms, poems, and the like, which have all greatly benefitted his own prayer life. This is the work of a man who knows the triune God. But the genius of Orrick’s work is that he can take the deepest and most profound insights that would edify the most mature of Christians and communicate those very truths in such a way that a young Christian, even one who is not yet a Christian, could understand. In other words, this book is for everyone.’ Brian Payne, Professor of Christian theology and expository preaching at Boyce College