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Prayer isn't brain surgery. But that doesn't make it easy. Even those we might consider to be professionals struggle with it. The good news is that you are probably praying more than you realize. Those who preach God's word pass through five "gates" of prayer while formulating the sermon. 

#prayer, #praying, #preaching, #sermon prep

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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When I was a college professor, students often asked me questions. Some began by saying, “This may be a stupid question.” For many years, my stock response was, “There are no stupid questions.” But after a while, it dawned on me that I was wrong about this. There are stupid questions. There are also disingenuous questions. Some are traps, and many are merely dead ends. Satan deconstructed Eve's faith with a question. Some questions are better left unanswered. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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Most sermons that I have heard, including some that I have preached myself, that focus on Simon Peter tend to portray him as something of a buffoon. They present Simon Peter as a boaster and a blowhard. Peter, as the Gospels admit, said and did some foolish things. But that did not make him a fool. Nor was he a coward. The bravest thing that Simon Peter ever did is probably not what you think. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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The cure for Christmas melancholia is not, as a popular song tells us, that we “need a little Christmas right now.” Nor is it necessarily Puritan austerity or renunciation of all observance of Christmas. The cure, strange as it may seem, is good theology. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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I used to think that lullaby carols were odd. Why place so much emphasis on the baby Jesus? But this year, I began listening to Christmas carols in July in connection with a new book I was writing. I see them differently now. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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I have heard more than one Christian express reservations about what we can look forward to in the age to come. What is it about Heaven that makes some of us nervous? 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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When Jesus called the two disciples on the Emmaus Road "slow to believe," he was describing many of us as well. The disciples' struggle to believe provides insight into our own slow faith. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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 Shakespeare called death “the undiscovered country.” But its environs may be more familiar than we think.  The landscape of the undiscovered country is not as alien as we thought. Nor do we have to wait until we pass through the gates of death to catch a glimpse of its powers. In fact, if we take Scripture at its word, all those who are in Christ are already in residence there in some mysterious sense. 

Today's topic reflects the theme of John's latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality. You can order it now from Amazon. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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Scripture says that Job died "old and full of days." Unlike our culture, which tends to view old age through the lens of loss and debilitation, the Bible's perspective on aging is generally positive. What are the five "blessings" that come with old age?

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com. 

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Christmas is the day that holds pride of place for most Christians. Of all the holidays, it is the one that garners the lion's share of our attention and generates the most excitement. But this has not always been the case. In terms of church history, Christmas, at least as we now observe it, was a relative latecomer. The earliest Christians showed relatively little interest in fixing the precise date of Christ's birth. However, we would be wrong to conclude from this that they viewed it as either unhistorical or unimportant. The Nativity of Christ was the ultimate epiphany. 

Dr. John Koessler is an award-winning writer and retired faculty emeritus of Moody Bible Institute. John writes the Praying the Word column for the Lifeway publication Mature Living and is the author of 16 books. His latest book, On Things Above: The Earthly Importance of Heavenly Reality, is available from Amazon.  You can learn more about John at https://www.johnkoessler.com.