First Fifteen

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

The featured scripture in this episode is Proverbs 26.  We look at several verses in this chapter to gain some familiarity with biblical proverbs and how to pray them in a lively way.  

Go ahead and get started listening and subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.

Additional resources at https://word-of-prayer.com

Support the show

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

The featured scripture in this episode is James 4.  Practical scriptures ironically have their own challenges when it comes to application.  We learn the importance of engagement and meditation when we might jump to a hasty conclusion.       

Go ahead and get started listening and subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.

Additional resources at https://word-of-prayer.com

Support the show

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

The featured scripture in this episode is Psalm 143.  With gut level honesty we learn to pray and meditate on what is really true and worth paying attention to.       

Go ahead and get started listening and subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.

Additional resources at https://word-of-prayer.com

Support the show

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

The featured scripture in this episode is Luke 21.    Jesus speaks and teaches his followers, but are you really listening?  Jesus cuts through the distractions and shows us what's really important.        

Go ahead and get started listening and follow or subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.

Additional resources at https://word-of-prayer.com

Support the show

What's in a name?  Quite a lot actually, as we get to hear on today's episode.  We also explore what it really means to be an "image-bearer" and some of the implications of that.

Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way.  This podcast will show you how and teach you in an easy to follow process.

If you are getting started in a relationship with God, trying to have a quiet time or seeking guidance at this point in your life, you're in the right place.

In fifteen minutes (or less) you will listen to God's word for you, reflect on it and learn to pray to God as well as carry that word with you through the rest of your day.  What a perfect way to get started!

The featured scripture we use in this episode is Genesis 5.  You'll see that even passages that seem dry or simply factual can still speak God's word to your heart.    

Go ahead and get started listening and subscribe to this podcast to hear more from God's word.

Additional resources at https://word-of-prayer.com

Support the show

How you start the day sets the course and tone for the rest of the day.  Spend your first fifteen minutes of the day listening to God and responding in a personal way. 

The featured scripture in this episode is Psalm 1.  In future episodes we use other scriptures from the Bible for our daily listening and response.

* To get a two page pdf that details the First Fifteen process, go here.

The Four Steps to Build Your Relationship with God

1.  Listen – read Scripture and listen to God speaking to you.  Expect him to speak to you.

2.  Engage – meditate and reflect on what God is saying to you personally.  Scripture portrays meditation as repeating a thought, a word or truth to ourselves.

3.  Pray – respond to God personally, using your own words or using the words of Scripture and praying them back to God as your own response to him.

4.  Apply – live out a prayerful response to God in your daily actions.  Do something concrete and intentional.

Psalm 1 - a demonstration of the four steps 

1 – Read/Listen

1) Blessed is one who does not walk by the advice of the wicked, nor stand around in the way of sinners, or sit with the mockers.
2) Instead, in the law of Yahweh is his delight, and on His law he meditates day and night.
3) He is like a tree planted beside canals filled with water which produces fruit in the right season, His leaves are lush, not withered, and everything he does prospers.

4) The wicked are not like this at all!  They are like the stubble and dry shells left after the good grain has been removed.  That stuff is thrown up in the air so the wind will carry it off, separating it from the good grain.
5) The wicked will not be rise up in the judgment nor will sinners join in the assembly of the righteous, 
6) for Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will be wiped out.

2 – Engage

The practice of meditation is directly mentioned in verse 2.  It is something the righteous person does regularly (“day and night”).  The Hebrew word for meditate comes from a moaning or growling sound that is voiced, but it points to musing or reflecting on something.  It doesn’t necessarily involve a certain posture but it does require giving conscious attention or repeating what we are meditating on.  In this psalm (and in Joshua 1:8) we meditate on God’s law, what he has revealed to us.  We delight in God’s ways and his law.  It’s a conscious choice we make in contrast to listening to or joining in the ways of the wicked who oppose God and his law.  

3 - Pray

We can read back the scripture and make it our own prayer.  We can also put it into our own words.  “God, I choose your way.  I set my heart on You, tune my ears to Your voice, fix my eyes on Your laws.  I will not listen to the crowd, or linger in the company of the wayward, or join in the jeers of the mockers.  I will hide your word in my heart that I might not sin against You.  Please give me fruit for my efforts, more fulfillment than I can imagine.  I am choosing to be Yours today.”

4 – Apply/Live Out

Take a concrete action that comes from what you have read or heard and prayed.

Examples:  Write out Psalm 1:2 in a journal or on a notecard

Set alarms/reminders on your phone to pause during the day and think about what you read

Share a verse with a friend or family member or on social media

Ask God to bring people into your life today and to give you chances to see his truth at work!

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