Category: Prayer

The Jesus prayer on prayer beads

March 13, 2025

The Jesus prayer has been used for centuries by Christians and Catholics alike. The key phrase “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner“ honours Jesus and asks for his help.

This prayer works well on the prayer beads above in the image. I

On the Cross

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

The Invitatory

“Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” – Matthew 6:7-13

The Cruciforms

LORD, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. Let your unfailing love and faithfulness always protect me. – Psalm 40:11 NLT

The Weeks

Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God. have mercy on me, a sinner.

End Cruciform

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins,
Save us from the fires of hell.
Lead all souls to heaven,
Especially those in most need of Your mercy.

End Invitatory

Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son,
and to the Holy Spirit,
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, a world without end. Amen.

The Cross

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen

Authentic prayer

March 13, 2025

I love this quote about authentic prayer…

Prayer is not just spending time with God. It is partly that–but if it ends there, it is fruitless. No, prayer is dynamic. Authentic prayer changes us–unmasks us–strips us–indicates where growth is needed. Authentic prayer never leads to complacency, but needles us–makes us uneasy at times. It leads us to true self-knowledge, to true humility.”–Teresa of Avila

Reaching the world

March 9, 2025

One of the things I wanted to do when we started PASSION Australia back in 1998 was to have a website. It was very strongly on my heart.

Back in 1998 you had to write lines of code in html to build a website. So I stayed up late every night after my family had gone to bed to learn how to do it. Some nights I would get to bed at 200am.

Eventually it all started to make sense. I had a website online and people started to come. I remember getting 50 people visit in a month and being very excited. Then 100, then 1000 and so on.

Now 27 years later we have had tens of millions of visitors from right around the world. So far this year we have had visitors from 77 different countries visit us on both PASSIONAustralia.blog and PASSIONAustralia.org. It is truly amazing to see the reach.

Our free discipleship booklet has been downloaded over 100,000 times. Our sermons get listens in the 1000s each week. And our salvation pages have been visited in the hundreds of thousands of times.

My prayer for the websites is that God will bring the people who need to hear about Jesus and His great love for them to us. We just want to connect people to Jesus and then help them grow in their faith. That is our heart.

One other thing we have always tried to do is make everything available for free. I do not want money to be an issue for someone finding Jesus and being encouraged in their faith. Finding Jesus is just too important.

If you are reading this today, no matter where you are in the world, I want to say thank you. Thank you for visiting our website. I hope you were blessed and encouraged during your time with us. We really appreciate you!

Our prayer for you

Loving heavenly Father, I pray right now You would touch the person reading this. Touch their heart with Your love, let them know how truly deeply you love them. Touch their mind to help them understand all that You have done for them in Jesus and what You will do in the future. If they need healing, place Your healing hand on them now. If they need protection, place a hedge of Your holy angels around them. If they are alone, let them know Your peace and presence right now. If they need provision, please open the floodgates of heaven and pour out from Your storehouse. But most of all Lord, fill them with the love of Jesus so full that it overflows continously. I ask in Jesus’ name, Amen.

P.U.S.H. prayers

February 16, 2025

In Luke 18:1-8 Jesus tells a story of the persistent widow who constantly pleads her case before an unjust judge. She pleads so much that the judge says this woman is driving me crazy and he ruled in her favour!

Jesus then relates this to our prayers before the Father. In verses 6-7 He says, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. [7] Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off?”

Jesus is reminding us that sometimes we need to push through with our prayers. We need to persist in our petitions for ourselves and our intercessions for others like the widow before the judge. Jesus promises that the Father will hear us and bring justice.

One acronym I find helpful is P.U.S.H…

Pray

Until

Something

Happens

Sometimes we need to fast and pray all day or even for a few days before breakthrough comes. At other times we need to keep things before the Lord for months and pray every morning or night before we see breakthrough. I have experienced both.

So if you have a big issue you are concerned about at the moment, I would encourage you to take it before the Lord in prayer. Be like the persistent widow and PUSH it before Him day and night. Jesus promises the Father will hear your prayers and bring justice.

How many Christian denominations?

February 10, 2025

One statistic I have heard quoted many times is that since the Reformation in the 16th century 45,000 Protestant denominations have arisen. I have lost track of the times of have heard it said and then quoted as a source.

Today I watched a YouTube video by Ready to Harvest that talked about this and where the figures came from. It is quite interesting to see the original research and the methodology used to come to that number. You may be surprised to know the number is way smaller than 45,000, more closer to 300 main denominations.