“Delighting in the Company of God” is a six-week training experience led by Larry Trotter.

Here are the resources I alluded to during our Delighting in the Company of God class. If you have any questions related to these or our time together, just shoot Larry Trotter an email at LarryT@NorthWake.com. Again, these resources are helpful but not perfect, so you will need to use them with discernment – but I hope you will find helpful nuggets in each of them that help you enjoy the company of God more!

Sustaining Practices:

Good Morning Prayer by John Stott. A wonderful template for a prayer to start your day! Thoroughly Godward, gospel-centered and robustly Trinitarian!

Lectio 365 (Sacred Reading) – a daily listening app, just 10 minutes long, that is built to move you into God’s presence! The nighttime version is built around the examen.

Names of God – a lengthy collection of the names of God. Start your day with one and give thanks and worship God that this is who He is!

Lectio Divina Bookmark – an approach to reading the Bible prayerfully, slowly and reflectively.

The Daily Liturgy Podcast – another listening app about 10 minutes long, that incorporates scripture reading and prayers from sources like Valley of Vision (which is another great resource!)

The Dwell App – the best Bible listening app I know of! It is a paid app, but well worth it!

The Daily Office Podcast – this is a simple reading of the Book of Common Prayer’s Daily Office. If you like a very structured liturgy and want to channel your inner Anglican, this could be for you!

Praying the Bible by Donald Whitney – a simple, helpful way to make scripture the basis for your praying. Very practical. Here is a brief excerpt to help you get started. Praying the Bible (Chapters 3-4)

Day One – this is a very useful journaling app. You can include pictures and it can log location and weather (for whatever that is worth!) where you journaled each entry.

My Heart Christ’s Home – in this short article the author envisions Christ as a guest in his home as a metaphor for the Christian Life. It’s a helpful reflection on Christ’s desire for our company (Rev. 3.20)

Be Thou My Vision by Jonathan Gibson – a daily liturgy highly recommended by Daniel Creswell. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Ceaseless Practices:

Paul’s References to Ceaseless Prayer

  • Rom. 1.9-10
  • Rom. 12.12
  • 1Cor.1.4
  • Eph. 1.16
  • Eph. 6.18
  • Col. 1.9
  • Col. 4.2
  • Col. 4.12
  • 1 Thess. 1.2
  • 1 Thess. 2.13
  • 1 Thess. 3.10
  • 2 Thess. 1.11
  • 2 Tim. 1.3

St. Patrick’s Breastplate/Lorica – I used the last stanza of this prayer as part of my morning prayers. That stanza is a beautiful prayer for Christ to be with us such that he is seem in us! This link takes you to the prayer in its entirety.

6 – Examen of Consciousness – this is a practice involving reviewing your day at day’s end – giving thanks to God for His kindness throughout the day and confessing any known sin that the Spirit brings to mind as you review your day.

Book of Common Prayer (online) – this website has the daily office neatly compiled for your use. The office for midday/noon is quite short and helpful for a midday course correction!

Short Prayers from Scripture – this is a personal compilation of short scriptures prompts and prayers. Use it if you please, but also build your own!

Prayer Mate App – a wonderful help to being steadfast in your intercession. It can be set for a variety of time frames for your prompts (e.g. daily, weekly, multiple days a week, monthly, etc…). It will build a list for you each day based on your preferences.

Deepening Practices:

Our church’s Half Day of Prayer Guide – we use this often in helping people experience deepening times with the Lord.

The Beloved Charter is the relevant chapter from Trevor Hudson’s book (Discovering Your Spiritual Identity – see “Other Resources” below for that helpful book) plus a sample charter and some starter verses on the Love of God.

24/6 by Matthew Sleeth – the most practical and encouraging book and companion DVD on sabbath that I have used! (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Other resources:

A Simple Way to Pray by Martin Luther – Luther’s letter to his barber teaching him to use the Lord’s Prayer, the 10 Commandments and the Apostles’ Creed as a structure for praying.

Enjoy Your Prayer Life by Michael Reeves – a very short encouraging work on prayer with a strong relational focus. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

The Liturgy of the Ordinary by Tish Warren – a wonderfully written encouraging book on finding God in the everyday. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Praying the Jesus Prayer – by Frederica Matthewes Green – this book is by an Eastern Orthodox Christian so it will be very different in some ways. But it does have some great encouragement in the area of ceaseless prayer. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Gentle & Lowly by Dane Ortlund -a wonderful portrayal of the love of Christ for sinners! (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

The Examen – a simple way to end your day with confession and thanksgiving! A digital copy of what I handed out to you at the retreat is attached.

The Valley of Vision – a collection of puritan prayers that are a wonderful prompt to guide and enrich your own prayers! (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Piercing Heaven – a newer collection of puritan prayers. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Every Moment Holy – a wonderful compilation of prayers for every occasion. Very useful for public or group settings. There is also a second volume that focuses on laments. (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers)

Discovering Our Spiritual Identity by Trevor Hudson – a helpful workbook – the chapters on “practicing the Presence of God” and “Discovering Who We Are/The Beloved Charter” are worth the price of the book! (Available at Amazon.com and other online booksellers.)

Transforming by Josh Grizzle. During his internship at North Wake, Josh put a number of the spiritual practices we reference into this helpful guide.

North Wake Sermon on Ceaseless Prayer

North Wake Sermon on Deepening Prayer

For more information on our Adult Discipleship classes, go to www.northwake.com/adc.