This week we light our 3rd candle in the advent wreath. We've lit two purple candles, and this week we get to light the pink one representing joy. Here's a devotion to help guide your conversation centered on the joy we have when we remember what God did for us at Christmas time. 

Invite everyone to share the difference between joy and happiness.

You might wrap us the conversation by saying something like this: 

Happiness Is External, Joy Is Internal

One of the very obvious differences between happiness and joy is that happiness tends to be achieved externally, while joy is something achieved internally. For example, we can feel happy when we receive something like a gift or achieve something like awards or honors. These things are external or belong to the surface of our lives. It is not something deeper but, rather, superficial.

Joy, on the other hand, is something deeper. It is something we feel internally in our lives as human beings. For example, when we feel great...

This post comes from some Facebook messages that were exchanged many years ago. I'm sharing it with you now in hopes that it helps you wrestle with and explain to others how they respond to God when they're haunted by the challenge that their own faith might be causing them to miss out on His best in their lives.

The mother who wrote me the message was spending her days at Vanderbilt Children's hospital with her 2 year old hooked up to life-saving devices because she'd been diagnosed with leukemia. 

(Remember this was many years ago...)

A few weeks ago, I received this facebook message from a friend:

“Hey Leighann, I am struggling with all the Scripture that people teach about having enough "faith" and people will be healed. I feel so stuck, I feel like I am still processing most of what we went through…before my daughter was sick, I just thought being a Christian meant that God was just gonna bless my life and not have any bumps along the way. Especially...

This is the 3rd and final post in my series on "Why the Church Needs to Pray" be sure to scroll back and read the other 2 posts. In this article I want to introduce you to 3 Praying People Whose Lives are Living Proof of what happens when prayer is priority.

E.M. Bounds (1835-1913)

Edward McKendree Bounds died in 1913 and yet he has a facebook page and website today. I wonder if he knows that. E.M. Bounds lived his life from 1835-1913, serving in the ministry during the tumultuous years leading up to, during, and after the Civil War. He was a chaplain for the confederate army and even served time in prison (in Nashville, TN!). Fortunately for us, he spent much of his time writing. His books on prayer are CLASSICS because their words continue to bear fruit for the kingdom today. 

E.M. Bounds on the priority of prayer: 

"What the Church needs to-day is not more machinery or better, not new organizations or more and novel methods, but men whom the Holy Ghost can use men of...

I'm starting a mini-series of blog posts on the importance of prayer in the church. And I'm going to begin with the argument that the activity of prayer ought to take priority over all of other activities in the local church.

Wait, what? 

You mean prayer ought to take priority over Bible study? 

Yep.

It's more important than fellowship? 

Yep.

...preaching? 

Yep.

...evangelism?

Yes.

If I were to do a survey of how many churches make a priority of prayer, I would most likely be disappointed. When compared to the priority of children's and youth activities, nurturing relationships with each other, women's ministries, men's ministries, and weekend gatherings, the presence of corporate prayer experiences on the church's calendar would lag far behind.

Barna discovered that the culture we live in today has impacted the way we approach prayer in the church, this is what he has to report: 

"The forces of our individualistic culture...

At our church we have a team of over 100 people who've committed to fast and pray once a week, or one day a month specifically for the purpose of praying for our church. We provide this team of prayer partners with a private prayer list. The list is compiled by collecting prayer requests from church staff members. Staff share their requests both for their personal lives and for their areas of ministry. At the first of the list we include churchwide annual goals (what we update monthly). Each month we update our requests and list praises for the answered prayers we've experienced. 

In order for you to capture the spirit of this vital ministry, let me share the introduction I wrote for the first private prayer list we sent to our team members this past January 2022: 

Happy New Year! If you have just now joined our praying and fasting team, WELCOME! We are so glad you are here. This list is for your personal use as you fast and pray a day a week, or a day this month.

The best...

It's back to school time and if you're like me, you are eager to get those precious little people scrubbed clean and loaded up with new school supplies, hugged and kissed, and out the door, and off to school. The return to a "normal routine" is welcome this time of the year.

But as you send your people back to school, you do so with a bit of sadness over the fact that they are another year older, there are less marbles in your jar (have you seen the marble and parenting illustration?), and other people are about to be pouring into the minds and lives of your cherished offspring.

Unless you're homeschooling. If you're homeschooling you are giving yourself pep talks as you gear up for another year of pouring out and in to the children who call you "Mom" and/or "Dad." 

I've written on this topic before and decided today to simply give you links to the blogs and podcasts that provide you encouragement as you commit to pray your students through this upcoming year in school.

Hello my prayin' friends! 

I've got something exciting to tell you but I want to roll out a personal genuinely heart-felt invitation to you first: 

We now have the Prayer Clinic Virtual Open House online so that you can learn more about the Prayer Clinic ministry from the comfort and flexible convenience of your own home.

If you want to discover how to get your church praying...

If you want to mobilize the people of your church to pray...

If you want to teach your people to pray...

If you want to connect with other prayer leaders via zoom for encouragement, insight and growth...

If you want to experience God answer prayers in a way that makes His power and His love undeniable...

THEN YOU WANT TO OPEN A PRAYER CLINIC at your church! 

And we can show you how. Just participate in the Virtual Open House here, OR plan to come to middle Tennessee, spend a great weekend in the beautiful historical town of Franklin, and join us on a Sunday morning for our next In-person Open...

We get together in our church buildings for a lot of different reasons.

We get together to read and discuss the Bible.

We get together to plan mission trips and ministry projects.

We get together to worship.

We get together to play! (My grandchildren especially enjoy this kind of getting together.) 

And, we get together to pray.

Oh, wait--do we do that?

Do you?

If you were to take a pie chart and fill in all the space that you get together at your church building specifically for prayer--how much of your pie would you fill in?

A sliver?

A solid piece?

Most of the plate?

When Jesus mentioned that He wanted His house to be a house of prayer (Matthew 21:13), it seems to me that He thought that the main thing we'd be doing at church would be praying.

After all, the main thing they serve at Chick Fil A is chicken and so it makes sense that if Jesus said His house would be called a house of prayer the main thing we should be doing at church is praying.

The fact that we don't...

This is a quick update for my personal community, but this one time you are welcome to read on...

Throughout my years of ministry I've had one agenda and this is it:

I want to teach you to pray in such a way that you experience God's presence and His power in your life daily.

And, I want to do that same thing for your church.

To do this, I'm relaunching my leighannmccoy.com website SOON... (like hours and minutes not days and months soon). When the website is up and running you will be the first to know! 

I'm also podcasting this month on a subject that is not discussed enough. I'm going to address the crisis of faith in our young adult children who are declaring their freedom from the bondage of their Christian upbringing as they "deconstruct their faith."

This is a subject that is raw for me. If you've got kids you'd like to give a piece of your mind for Christmas, you can let me do it for you by simply sharing the podcast with them. We will send you an email each week when...