God is glorified as nothing-broken-nothing-missing peace is manifested on earth, but the only way such peace is possible is if humanity chooses to glorify God instead of themselves. This puts the human race in a predicament because our self-glory-seeking hearts are incapable of producing what is required for Shalom. The chaos of sin is what has resulted in our bodies, minds, families, and communities. In fact, creation itself was corrupted. (Romans 8:21-22) The chaos goes DNA deep and every human being is born into a state where they can’t glorify God or produce Shalom in and of themselves. Humanity actually produces the opposite. “No one seeks God…” “Their throats are open graves” bent on death and chaos, and “Destruction and misery always follow them. They don’t know where to find peace and have no fear of God at all” (Romans 3:16–18). It doesn’t take a lot to convince us that this is true and that we are pretty far from “peace on earth” in and of ourselves.

Kingdom prayer is prayer surrendered to God’s will and His purposes. It is a joining Him in what He is going to do and submitting to His plans no matter what they are. It starts by acknowledging that God is in control and not us. You can’t really pray to God without that posture. If you view God as your butler, or your genie, or some cosmic vending machine you can control to give you what you want, then you aren’t praying to the God of the Bible but a god of your own creation, an idol that is lifeless and can’t respond. But if you truly view God as your Father and King, as Jesus taught us and showed us, you can go to Him in complete humility and dependence yet filled with confidence at the same time. Here is why.

I should have known this would happen. Every time I have my life strategically planned out, the Lord changes things drastically (always for the better, I might add) It happened when I was suppose to go to East Asia to labor for Him, and He rerouted us to Kazakstan. And as a result Nina is […]