The month of Ramadan begins today (September 13 – October 12 for the year 2007). Ramadan is the ninth month in the Islamic calendar and the most sacred month of the Islamic year. Muslims believe that the first verse of the Qur’an (Koran) was revealed to Muhammad during Ramadan in AD 610. Each year at this time Muslims fast during the daylight hours for the whole month. In addition to fasting, Muslims are encouraged to read the entire Qur’an.

30-Days International produces a “30-Days of Prayer for the Muslim World” Christian prayer guide coinciding with Ramadan each year. The booklet contains daily readings with prayer points, informative background articles, a list of titles for further study and a resource section featuring ministries and services focusing on the Muslim world. There is also a Children’s Edition with quizzes, stories and maps. You can order the 52-page booklet here, or you can sign up for the free email version which is distributed daily during the 30 days of Ramadan. Free pdf versions of the adult and children’s editions are also available for download.

I have signed up for the daily emails and look forward to participating in this prayer effort. If you are a Christian, would you consider participating also? Here is an additional challenge. When you consider that Muslims around the world are committed to fasting and reading through the entire Qur’an this month, how much time are you investing in prayer and Bible reading?

HT: Between Two Worlds

Don’t forget – today is the National Day of Prayer. See yesterday’s post for more information on how to find a prayer event near you.

Tomorrow (the first Thursday in May) is the National Day of Prayer for the United States. The purpose of the National Day of Prayer is to gather the people of our country to come together and pray, particularly for our nation and for those in leadership on all levels of local, national, church and educational areas of influence.

Let me encourage you to participate in this special day of prayer for our nation. Over 40,000 prayer events are scheduled to take place this year across the country – at churches, schools, government buildings and other public gathering places. Some local pastors and I will be hosting an event in Agawam, MA during the lunch hour. To find an event near you, click here.

Tony Dungy, head coach of this year’s Super Bowl winning Colts, shares his thoughts on prayer and challenges Americans to unite in prayer in this video.

(Video length: 1:02)

Related articles:

• Tony Dungy No. 1 on NYT Bestsellers List
• Tony Dungy: Asking ‘What’ Instead of ‘Why’

John Mark Reynolds reflects on what it means for him to vote as a Christian and a citizen in the upcoming Presidential primary and election.

While praying for China these past two weeks, one prayer challenge in particular has stayed with me – the challenge concerning China’s ‘One Child’ policy. Here is #4 under “Challenges for Prayer” in Operation World’s Prayer Guide for China on March 24, 2007:

The ‘One Child’ policy is a draconian means of taming the growth of the population. Family life has been deeply impacted, shown in: a higher divorce rate, 10m abortions a year (nearly all girls), suicide (40% of the world’s suicides are in China), pampered children with poor interpersonal skills and the abandonment of baby girls and older people. The rising generation will pay a heavy cost — in 2000 there were 90m marriageable unmarried men; in some areas young men outnumber young women by 30-40% — rape, abductions, female slavery, incest, prostitution and the rapid spread of AIDS could all be the result. Pray for family stability and health. Pray also for wise policies to be implemented that will stabilize the population.

Ten million abortions . . . each year . . . most of them girls. That is unfathomable. That is greater than the population of some countries. “Praying for you, China . . .” (Randy Stonehill; See previous post here for complete song lyrics.)

For more about Operation World, see this post here.

I have been praying along with Operation World’s Daily Prayer Guide for a couple weeks now. This is a new discipline for me, and I keep missing some days here and there, but at least I am praying more than I was before!

This week I have been praying for China. China is such a huge country that Operation World breaks it down according to provinces and spreads the whole country out over a two week period (March 24-April 5).

With China on my mind, I have found myself singing the Randy Stonehill song by that name throughout the week. It is a beautiful song, almost a prayer for China in itself. Here are the lyrics:

(more…)

Have your prayers ever gone unanswered? Do you ever wonder if God is listening? If you have ever prayed, then you have faced the problem of unanswered prayer at one time or another.

We often hear that God answers all our prayers. Sometime he answers “yes,” sometimes “no,” and other times “later.” There is a lot of truth to that, but when we talk about unanswered prayer, we are usually talking about the prayers that God answers “no” or “later.” Why does God answer this way? Are there good reasons that we can understand?

Scot McKnight over at Jesus Creed has been posting on a new book called God on Mute: Engaging the Silence of Unanswered Prayer, by Pete Greig. I have not read the book yet, but I have already benefited from Scot’s summary of the main points. Here are sixteen reasons Greig suggests that God sometimes does not answer prayer:

1. Common sense: Am I asking God to do something stupid, meaningless, or illogical?
2. Contradiction: Are my prayers likely to be conflicting with those of someone else?
3. Laws of nature: Are my prayers potentially detrimental to the natural order or to the lives of others?
4. Life is tough: Am I expecting God to spare me from stuff that’s just common human experience because of the Fall?
5. Doctrine: Does my prayer reflect God’s character and His promises in the Bible? Might it be out of line with His will for my life?
6. Second best: Although my desire in prayer is for something good, is it possible that God has something even better in store for me?
7. Motive: Are my prayers essentially just selfish?
8. Relationship: Is there an opportunity here for going deeper in my relationship with God?
9. Free will: Am I expecting God to override someone’s free will?
10. Influence: Am I trying to exercise ungodly power over a person’s life in prayer?
11. Satanic opposition: Is my prayer in line with God’s will but experiencing specific demonic resistance?
12. Faith: Do I really believe that God can do this? Am I out of my league?
13. Perseverance: Do I want it enough to keep praying?
14. Sin: Honesty time: Is there some secret sin you need to confess?
15. Justice: Am I actively seeking to express God’s love for the poor?
16. None of the first 15: Am I trying to find answers where I need instead to trust?

I think this is an excellent list worthy of study and reflection in relation to our prayers. What do you think?

Note: You can access Scot’s full comments on the book here:

• Unanswered Prayers 1
• Unanswered Prayers 2
• Unanswered Prayers 3

I spent about five minutes this morning praying for the Republic of Burundi in Central Africa. I didn’t even know that Burundi existed, but using Operation World’s Pray Today page I was quickly able to learn some key facts about this war-plagued, poverty-stricken nation of about 6-7 million in population and pray accordingly.

I posted about Operation World earlier this week (here). I have bookmarked its Pray Today page right in front of my blog reader link – to make sure that I pray at my computer for others around the world before I start reading blogs from around the world. I encourage you to do the same!

Operation World, by Patrick Johnstone, is an amazing book resource that provides demographic and geographical information for every nation in the world, as well as specific prayer requests and answers to prayer. It is arranged in calendar format so that you can pray for the whole world in the course of a year. I have found it helpful in the past both as a source of information and as a guide to prayer for the nations. Our family has also used the children’s version called You Can Change the World in our family prayer times.

So I was very excited to learn that Operation World has put together a daily web page called Operation World – Pray Today. Each day you get information and prayer requests pertaining to a different part of the world. (For example, today’s focus nation is Brunei in Southeast Asia). I encourage you to check it out and make it a part of your regular prayer life.

A big thanks to Justin Taylor over at Between Two Worlds for bringing this to my attention on his blog today.