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Richard J. Foster

Richard J. Foster

Renovaré Founder

Richard J. Foster

Articles & Essays by Richard J. Foster

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Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

The Prayer of Suffering

Published August, 1992 • Featured March 10, 2022
Richard Foster invites us to ​“voluntarily take into ourselves the griefs and sorrows of others in order to set them free” in this chapter from his book Prayer.
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Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

Catching a Glimpse of God's Heart

Published August, 1992 • Featured September 18, 2020
An excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home extends this beautiful truth: ​“The Father’s heart is open wide — you are welcome to come in.”
No Knead Whole Wheat Bread
Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

The Sustaining Bread of Self-Knowledge

Published September, 1992 • Featured April 29, 2020
Richard Foster joins us to share (with the help of Teresa of Ávila) why the Prayer of Examen is essential to self-knowledge and why self-knowledge is essential to spiritual health. An excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart’s True Home.
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Book Excerpt from Sanctuary of the Soul

Heart Transformation and Friendship with Jesus

Published December, 2010 • Featured January 31, 2020
Can there be progress forward in our life with God? From Sanctuary of the Soul, Richard Foster looks at what changes we can expect to happen as we follow Jesus and keep asking, listening, and obeying.
Ghent Lamb
Journal/Magazine Article

A Life of Prayer and Holy Obedience in a War-Wracked World

Published February, 1983 • Featured August 29, 2019
A substantial piece by Richard Foster on the relationship between spiritual warfare, prayer, and holy obedience.
Black Woman Praying
Article

Five Misconceptions that Hinder Prayer

Published February, 1994 • Featured July 30, 2019
Richard Foster corrects some common misunderstandings that get in the way of a conversational friendship with the Lord.
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Book Excerpt

How to Start a Prayer Journal

Published May, 1994 • Featured July 25, 2019
Richard Foster invites us to follow the lead of disciples such as St. Augustine, Julian of Norwich, and Blaise Pascal in the practice of journaling our prayers.
Heart On Fire
Book Excerpt from Streams of Living Water

Defining The Contemplative Tradition: The Prayer-Filled Life

Published October, 1998 • Featured July 9, 2019
“The two most common words used to describe the contemplative way of life are fire and love. Purging, purifying fire. Enveloping, comforting love.” In this excerpt from Streams of Living Water, Richard Foster introduces us to the contemplative life.
Umbrellas
Essay

An Everyday Experiment in Hearing God

Published February, 1979 • Featured January 30, 2019
Richard Foster shares a few journal entries from a time when he was tuning his ear to ​“the vocabulary of God.”
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Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

How We Pray for Daily Bread

Published December, 1991 • Featured January 26, 2019
Trusting God fully means learning to ask for our bread, day by day. To those of us who live in a world of efficient farming, industrial bakeries, and super-sized grocery stores, asking for our daily bread may seem a quaint, too trivial petition. Not so, says Richard Foster in this excerpt.
Man Praying
Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

We Never Outgrow Asking

Published July, 1992 • Featured April 25, 2018
Adoration or contemplation may seem nobler than asking God for something. But Richard Foster kindly insists that petition isn’t a lower form of prayer — it’s our staple diet.
Hands Offering
Book Excerpt from The Making Of An Ordinary Saint

Understanding Prayer

Published September, 2014 • Featured April 10, 2018
“Just like a little child can never draw a bad picture, so a child of God can never utter a bad prayer.” Richard Foster explores the discipline through which God welcomes, embraces, and changes us.
Victory O Lord
Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

Prevail with God

Featured January 21, 2018
Richard Foster joins us today to offer ​“a magnificent model” of intercessory prayer from the Exodus 17 story of Moses, Aaron, and Hur. Why is nothing more important than this type of prayer in the ​“ongoing work of the kingdom of God”? Foster explains in this excerpt from his book on prayer.
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Book Excerpt from Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home

Release with Hope

Featured January 2, 2018
Sometimes, the start of a new year can serve as an impetus to let go of the destructive things in our lives. The Prayer of Relinquishment can move us from ​“the struggling to the releasing,” as Richard Foster writes in his book, Prayer: The Heart’s True Home. Here he shares a personal story.
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Book Excerpt from The Prayer God Answers

The Prayer God Answers: A Reflection

Featured June 15, 2016
Richard Foster wrote a reflection on Eberhard Arnold’s classic The Prayer God Answers in a new edition from Plough Publishing. We are delighted to offer some of his thoughts to you in this excerpted piece.
Article

Lectio Divina

Featured February 3, 2016
“We should not think of ​“spiritual reading” as reading in the normal sense in the same way we should not think that allowing a mint to dissolve in our mouth is eating.” As always, Richard Foster offers practical ways to work an ancient discipline into our life rhythms.
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Letter

Written Prayer

Published October, 1996 • Featured October 1, 1996
Richard Foster explains how reading the prayers of others as our own connects us to the community of faith, revives our conversation with God, and moves us into a posture of holy listening and holy obedience.
Letter

Living, Teaching, Practicing

Published April, 1996 • Featured April 1, 1996
Letter

Sample Prayers

Published October, 1993 • Featured October 1, 1993
Letter

Ancient Rhythm and Special Graces

Published March, 1993 • Featured March 1, 1993