Speaker 1: 0:00

So I'm glad you guys are here, but I have a question for you how many of you believe in the power of prayer? You believe in the power of prayer. You're like, yeah, I believe in prayer, prayer is a good thing to do. But who in here, if you're honest, would also say, yeah, I don't pray as much as I would like to. I don't pray as much, maybe, as I should. I don't really even understand why I should pray. Maybe your prayer consists of this Jesus, bless this greasy pizza I'm about to eat to my body. Make it healthy in Jesus' name. Maybe that's the extent of your prayer life. That's okay. Here you go.

Speaker 1: 0:39

When we look at the life of Jesus, when we look at the life of Jesus, there is a constant in his life, and that is Jesus constantly prayed. He constantly prayed. He prioritized the presence of God in prayer. Through prayer, jesus was empowered to overcome every temptation by the evil one. Through prayer, he was able to be faithful to God, completely obedient. Through prayer, he healed, demonized and prayed for the sick. He loved people who were hard to love. Come on Through prayer. Now, if I want to live and love like Jesus, how do I do that? If I want to, as an everyday person, learn how to become a Jesus follower. What must I do? Well, I think, if we want to do what Jesus did, we have to do what Jesus did and we have to learn how to pray like Jesus prayed.

Speaker 1: 1:37

Yeah, so many of us, we don't pray, we don't think. And why is that? Why do we struggle to pray consistently? Now, I want to identify three reasons why I think we struggle with prayer. Okay, and you might see yourself in one or maybe all three of these. Okay, one of the reasons is we lack focus. We lack focus, we get distracted. We get so distracted all the time, especially if you got little ones at your house, especially if you've got a nice TV. You just get distracted, don't you? Maybe you even heard a message before in prayer and you're like yeah, man, I'm doing that, I'm going to pray, man, I'm going to pray all the time. I'm going to pray morning, I'm going to pray in the afternoon, I'm going to pray at night, and then, when you first go to pray, you start to. It's easy. We lack focus.

Speaker 1: 2:18

The second thing is the second reason. Why is because we lack confidence. Now, this makes a lot of sense, because we all want to be winners. No one wants to feel like a loser, and so sometimes we lack confidence.

Speaker 1: 2:35

We don't really know what to do or how to talk, or what we should say, or what God wants us to talk about. Does he want us to only talk about world peace? I wish we have world peace. Is that what prayer is supposed to be? So we lack confidence. But then some of us, we lack faith. We just lack faith. We lack trust in God. We're not sure that God will do what we pray about. Or we might believe that God can do it, but he won't do it or he didn't do it. And we wonder, we wonder does God hear my prayers? Does he care?

Speaker 1: 3:10

You may have tried to pray and you prayed hard and you believed for God to move and nothing happened. And nothing happened and it left you and it left you wondering God, do you care? You probably have your own version of that story. Maybe as a kid you prayed for your parents. You prayed that their marriage would work out and you believed it, but they still got divorced, and it left you disillusioned. Maybe you prayed for a loved one to be healed, but they weren't and they still passed away. Maybe you pleaded with God to help you overcome a habit that you wished that you didn't deal with. You pray God, take this away, take this away, take this away. And yet you're still dealing with it. And so you conclude well, prayer might work for other people, but I'm not sure if it works for me. I'm not sure if it really works for me.

Speaker 1: 3:59

If you're wrestling, I want to say this if you're wrestling with doubt, if you're ever feeling frustrated with God, that doesn't mean you should walk away from your faith. It means your heart is actually longing for more of God. Your frustration isn't a dead end. It's a signpost pointing you towards a deeper relationship with God. And what I want to say to us today, as we conclude this series you are made for more. You're made for more, and the more that you're made for isn't just more things or more items, or more productivity, or more things to add to your already busy calendar. You are made for more of God's presence in your life. You are made for a deeper intimacy with God that can help you navigate the complexities of life. That can help you face the trials that you go through not with fear or shame, but with confidence and knowing that God is for you. You're made Well, you're made for more. You're made for more. Now what I want to do so we can understand prayer and we can understand how to pray like Jesus prayed.

Speaker 1: 5:10

Let's identify what prayer is not. Okay, let's first start there. What is prayer? What isn't prayer? Prayer isn't just a formal presentation to God. You don't got to have your minister's robe. You don't got to have your candle and all that stuff. You don't got to come before the Lord saying all the these and the thous Lord, bless thee, thou hungry, please thee. You don't got to do all that. It's not a formal presentation in that way, okay.

Speaker 1: 5:43

Second thing is prayer is not giving God our Amazon wishlist. This also isn't prayer. God, can you send me those One day? Shipping will be nice, you know? No, that's not what it is. He's not some kind of cosmic candy machine or magic genie that you got to rub the right way. I'm a genie in a bottle. Don't get me singing Christina Aguilera up in here. Don't get me singing that, okay, no, no, no, no. That's not what God is. That's not what prayer is.

Speaker 1: 6:14

Second, and this one's so important prayer is not spiritual negotiation. It's not spiritual negotiation where you tell God that you won't do this anymore. If he does this, you don't say, god, I'll never eat that Krispy Kreme again if you let these 10 pounds vanish. That's not it. Or, like God, if you help me win the lottery, lord, if you help me win the mega millions, I'm going to tithe 10% of it. And so if I win the lotto, you win the lotto, god. That's not how it works. You know, it's not spiritual negotiation. And then, lastly, prayer is not a performance to win God's favor. Maybe you grew up in a more charismatic, you know, stream of church and you saw people jumping and hollering and doing stuff and you think, well, I don't want to do all that, but are those the holy people? Are those? No, it's not just a performance, it's an intimacy, it's a relationship. So prayer isn't just an action you do, but prayer is a way that you live. Prayer is a way that you live.

Speaker 1: 7:18

Jesus always prioritized the presence of God in prayer. Every time, every time you turn around in the Gospels, jesus is sneaking off to pray, like constantly. You see him early in the morning praying, late at night still praying. You know, up on a mountain, on a boat, in a quiet place. You can never not find Jesus praying. He's always praying all the time, alone with his father, and it's like he knew something. I want you to get this. It's like Jesus knew something and he was trying to point us to something, something that we often forget that if we want the presence of God, we have to seek Well, we've got to seek the presence of God. We have to go after the presence of God. If you want to stay close to God, you got to make time to be with them.

Speaker 1: 8:07

But Jesus, jesus, he didn't treat prayer like it was something on his to-do list. He didn't treat like something that he just had to check off and say, okay, I did that. It wasn't an obligation for Jesus. Prayer was oxygen to Jesus. It's what gave him breath, is how he stayed connected, how he loved people well, how he kept his heart in the right place.

Speaker 1: 8:30

Maybe, maybe, just maybe, we don't need more time to pray. Maybe we just need to bring God into the time we already have. Maybe we need to bring God into the time when our kids are driving us crazy. That's a good time to pray. God, help me not uppercut these kids. That's a good prayer. That's a good one. Maybe it's when you're feeling stressed. God, help me. Help me with this. I said this last week and I kept thinking about it. Sometimes we pray more to our worry than we pray to God. We run scenarios in our head nonstop. We're very creative people. We run these things in our head but instead of praying, jesus. Jesus, however, always looked towards God through prayer.

Speaker 1: 9:16

Now I want you to imagine, and I would imagine a lot of you might think or say this yeah, I like to pray, I would like to pray, but I don't got the time to pray. When am I going to do it, jacob? When am I going to fit it in? I mean, there's so much going on. I got to be productive. I got to get the stuff done and I'm not going to lie to you. That's how I felt for a long time. I felt that way for a long time in my Christian walk.

Speaker 1: 9:38

Once I heard someone say if you're too busy to pray, that's when you need to pray the most. When you're too busy to pray, that's when you need to pray the most. The more overwhelmed you feel, the more you need to slow down and spend time with God. Now, I don't know about you, but man, life is crazy. It's crazy out there. It's like a full contact sport out there sometimes.

Speaker 1: 10:01

And if you wake up, check the news, scroll through social media, boom, what happens? You're hit with division, stress, financial worries about a hundred different things pulling your heart as soon as you wake up. As soon as you wake up and it's easy, when that happens, to feel drained, distracted and discouraged. But here's the thing. Here's the thing. I don't just need God's presence for a few minutes in the morning and be like, okay, thanks God, that was good. No, I need God throughout my day. Throughout the day, I need to constantly look back and look to God. And this, well, friends, this is what Jesus did. He constantly, throughout the day day, looked towards God. Jesus didn't treat prayer like a checklist. He was constantly connected to the Father. It wasn't just something that he did, it was how he lived. So if life feels chaotic, maybe it's not about pushing through harder. Maybe it's about slowing down, plugging into God.

Speaker 1: 11:08

I like how Eugene Peterson puts it in the message paraphrase of the Bible. I like this. He says this here's what I want you to do Find a quiet and secluded place. That sounds good. That sounds good to me. Find a place where you can pray. Maybe you got a prayer chair. That sounds comfortable. Maybe you got a prayer chair and that's your spot. That's where you like to pray.

Speaker 1: 11:27

For me, I actually love to pray. We have a sunroom. I love to pray in our sunroom, especially when it's raining. It's so peaceful. I love to pray on my porch. That's my spot. I love to pray there. I can connect to God there. Maybe I can connect to God there. Maybe you're here, though You're like man, I got kids, jacob, I don't got time to pray, and you're like, and so for you, the only place for you to pray is by locking yourself in the bathroom.

Speaker 1: 11:51

That's your only secluded place. But you know, you only got about four minutes there, because as soon as you go in the bathroom, your kids are like mom, where are you? You're like. And then now you got flipped through the Bible real fast. God, I'm going to try to spend time with you. Mom, where are you? And you're like God, I need you. And then all of a sudden you see their little fingers coming through the door. Mom, you in there. That may be how it is for you, but that was funny, but maybe. But then you got to lock the door. You got to do it. Here's what I'm trying to say Find a place to pray, find a secluded, a quiet place.

Speaker 1: 12:30

Eugene Peterson continues. He says so you won't be tempted to role play before God. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can manage. The focus will shift from you to God and you will begin to sense His grace. I want to highlight that part Sense His grace, feel His presence. See, the reason why spending daily time with God is so important is because, once we get into the practice of time with God, we begin to sense Him throughout our day. It doesn't become hard anymore. It becomes something that I naturally do.

Speaker 1: 13:04

Now I would encourage you to make it a daily priority to get alone and to block out the noise, to eliminate the distractions. Put your phone aside for a few minutes, don't check your text messages, disconnect from the world and connect to Jesus. And why? Why should we do this? Because intimacy. Well, intimacy is never accidental. It's never accidental. We don't just like accidentally fall into a close relationship with God, just like I'm not going to accidentally have a good relationship with my wife, like. It takes intentionality. I have to be intentional about it, and so I encourage you to do the same. You got to be intentional with your time with God. So even the way you want to close friendship with someone, it takes intentionality to spend time with them. There's a place when it comes to God. There's a place you have to be still and pray.

Speaker 1: 13:55

Now in the Bible there's this powerful story, and it's kind of strange too. It's one of those. Actually, when you read the Bible, it's like, wow, these are some interesting stories. There's a lot of interesting things here. There's one it's one of my favorite stuff. Jesus is being baptized by John the Baptist. Okay, so check this out. He's being baptized. It's a very meaningful text.

Speaker 1: 14:12

And when Jesus is baptized, all of a sudden there's a voice from heaven. This is my son, whom I love. With him, I am well pleased. That's crazy. All right, imagine being there.

Speaker 1: 14:22

Imagine being there in the audience that day Jesus baptized and all of a sudden, you hear this voice. Then not only do you hear this voice, then the text says that then there was a dove. The Holy Spirit came in the form of a dove and landed on Jesus. Now, if I'm in the audience that day, I'm like what is happening? All of a sudden, I hear this voice that says I'm your father. I'm like Darth Vader, is that you? And then, all of a sudden, that was funny again too. Okay, and then this bird lands on Jesus. I'm like what is happening Now? You're about to joke me here. Okay, you're about to joke me, but I love birds. Okay, I got bird feeders in my house. I got hummingbird feeders. I love birds.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Sometimes, when I sit on my porch do my devotional times, I got cardinals. That's always in my yards. I just look at them and gaze upon the cardinals. Yeah, it's really, it's really awesome. Yes, I'm a nerd, yes, but anyway I love it. But here you go.

Speaker 1: 15:17

I actually read a little bit about doves, and here's the interesting thing about a dove A dove will never land on something that is moving, so you'll never see a dove land on a moving train. And so here you go, you get this picture the Holy Trinity, god, the Father, god the Son, god, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit has landed on Jesus because he's still. He's still, and I'm going to say something to us, okay, and I want you to catch this. I truly believe that God is constantly speaking. Truly believe it. I think the reason why sometimes we struggle to hear the voice of God, because we have so many notifications going off that we have a hard time to be still and hear God. And we see this, that the Holy Spirit lands on Jesus and His stillness, and His stillness. And so you may ask okay, if I can experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, if I can experience God, if I can pray, what should I pray about? What should I even pray about? And here's the answer for you.

Speaker 1: 16:21

It's really easy what should you pray about? Pray about whatever you care about. Pray about whatever you care about. Pray about whatever you care about. Whatever is on your heart, whatever is on your mind, whatever you're excited about, whatever questions you have, whatever burdens that you feel, pray about that thing.

Speaker 1: 16:38

Paul says it like this. He says don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about only a few things. No, pray only a few things. No, pray only about the things that you think are important. Pray only about the things that you think God is going to care about. No, he says pray about everything. You want to know what the Greek word there for everything is? Everything, it's all things, all things.

Speaker 1: 17:07

Jesus even gives us this model where he says in the Lord's prayer, he says give us this day our daily bread. Jesus models for us in the Lord's prayer that God cares about the smallest details of our lives. See, here you go. You'll never trust God with the big details of your life if you don't think God cares about the small details. If you don't think God cares about the everyday flow of your life, why would you trust God with something bigger? It's in the small details that we see that God cares and that he's with us. Here you go. If it's on your mind, it's on God's heart. Talk to Him like he's a close friend, because he is. If you have questions, ask him. If you're mad, tell him. I promise you he can handle it. Pour out your heart to God. Talk to him intimately. It's not just an act of friendship, it's a love relationship.

Speaker 1: 17:57

So again, why do so many of us struggle, struggle to pray? Why do we struggle to pray? And now I actually think the reason why we struggle to pray is because often we live kind of a boxed life. What do I mean by that? We have our work life, we have our family, we have our hobbies, we have our spend too much money at Target box, we have all of our different boxes and sometimes what we do is we don't even let our boxes touch. And we got work and when I go home, I'm there and here's what God wants us to do. God wants us to take all those boxes that we have in our everyday lives and put them in a one-size-fit-all, god-size box. See, this is what I want you to know.

Speaker 1: 18:42

God cares about every aspect of your life. He doesn't just care about your church attendance, that's good. Be at church, it's good, but he cares about what you're doing on Monday. He cares about the things that you're dealing with. He cares about your fears and your doubts. He cares.

Speaker 1: 18:58

See, there's even this Bible verse that's really interesting. It says cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares. We can cast our cares on God because he cares about us, About us. See, I think we also struggle again, like I mentioned, because we lack focus, we lack confidence and we lack faith. We lack focus. So many things pulling for our attention, so many things trying to sell us the thing that we think we need, so many things that are trying to say if you get this, then you'll be happy. There's so many things. And then we lack confidence. Like God, do you care? We lack faith. What happens if God doesn't answer my prayer? Does that jeopardize my walk with Him? Does that jeopardize my faith? See Dallas Willard.

Speaker 1: 19:46

Christian philosopher Dallas Willard once said when it came to developing spiritual habits or spiritual formation, we have to constantly look and focus on our minds, on God. I actually took out a couple quotes from books that I read from him. It says this. It says Dallas Willard says this the first and most basic thing we can do, we can and must do, is to keep God before our minds. This is the fundamental secret of caring for our souls. How amazing is that. Second, he says this the idea of turning our minds towards God should be no more strange than the idea of turning on the radio to hear a broadcast we want to listen to. He says and this last one, this one, is incredible. We must think about God in such a way that we consistently turn our attention to Him throughout the day. And this last one, this one, is incredible.

Speaker 1: 20:48

The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus, living in a way that keeps our minds and hearts set on Him in the midst of a distracted world. Wow, there's so many distractions. And here's the thing. You don't need a perfect setup to talk to God. You don't have to kneel down and hold your hands the right way and have all the fancy stuff. You don't gotta do all of that. No, no, it's not about presentation. Like I just said, you can talk to Him anytime and anywhere.

Speaker 1: 21:19

When someone's getting on your last nerves, talk to Him, talk to God about it. When you're nerves, talk to him. Talk to God about it. When you're hurting, talk to God about it. When you're happy, praise God about it. When things are going great in your life, say God thank you for working things out for my good. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life. So when things are good, I can praise God, and when things are bad, when I'm in the valley seasons, I can still lift my eyes towards God and talk to Him, because he got me out of one valley. He's going to get me out of another valley.

Speaker 1: 21:53

See, friends, it's about an ongoing relationship with God, and this is the truth. We have so many things that we can do, so many things that we could try this or try that thing, but they always, they always leave us feeling a little more empty. But an authentic relationship with God, dude, that changes everything. It changes everything. See, prayer isn't just a button you push. It's the way you walk through your life with God. It's being aware that he's with you and that he's for you, that he's in the good and he's shaping you in the bad, that he's guiding you to your next step and reminding you that you're never alone. And here's the best part Prayer isn't just about getting God to do what you want God to do.

Speaker 1: 22:45

Prayer is about getting the purpose and the alignment of God's will for your life in your life. It's not just saying, god, do this for me and then I'll love you. It's saying, jesus, I'm not going to have you follow me, but, jesus, I'm going to follow you and friends. This is a fundamental difference. In too many of our churches today, we are constantly teaching people how to get Jesus to follow them, instead of us learning how to follow the movement of Jesus in our lives. And we got to get closer to Jesus. We got to learn about Jesus. We have to be with Jesus so we can become like Jesus and then do the stuff. We'll do the stuff Jesus did. And so, again, prayer is not about checking a list. It's about walking with God in every moment. Now I gotta be honest. I gotta be honest with you guys.

Speaker 1: 23:41

I used to think I was bad at prayer. I used to think I was bad at prayer. I got to be honest. I got to be honest with you guys. I used to think I was bad at prayer. I used to think I was bad at prayer. I used to think, well, prayer is more for those spiritual people over there, like that's their thing, like I love reading the Bible, I love I can geek out over some good theology stuff, but I mean, no, I'm just not the prayer thing that's for those people over there. That's what I used to think, that's what I honestly used to think, you know, and I think that's for the extra spiritual Christians, right. But what I've learned is this Prayer isn't about getting it right, it's about being with God. It's not a religious duty, it's a relationship. So if you ever feel like you're bad at prayer, well, welcome to the club, welcome to the club. Well, welcome to the club, welcome to the club.

Speaker 1: 24:24

Sometimes I'm bad at talking to my wife too. Can anyone relate? Sometimes I say things to my kids that after I said it I was like why did I say that it wasn't good? Just because I'm not great doesn't mean I can't keep learning. So I don't keep getting what I don't keep learning. How do I talk to God? How do I hear God? How do I know't keep learning? How do I talk to God? How do I hear God? How do I know him more? How do I know him more? And if I'm being honest though I'm gonna be honest again I kind of thought, like prayer was like for the weird over-saved Christian.

Speaker 1: 24:55

You know what I'm talking about. You know you met someone who's a little over-saved. You know what I'm talking about what. So just in case you don't know what an over-saved, you know what I'm talking about. So just in case you don't know what an over-saved person is, that's that person that, no matter what you're doing, they always find a way to insert some kind of Bible verse into it, even though it's way out of context, like, for example for example, you can be going on a jog with someone who's kind of a little bit over-saved, going for a jog, just running, get a good two, three mile, or in. At the end of it You're like woo man, that was a good run. That was a good run. I'm thirsty man, I need to get some water. I need to get some water. Then the over-saved Christian would be like water. You need water. Well, I know someone who's living water. If you drink from him, you'll never thirst again. Do you know who Jesus is? You're like? Well, dude, I just wanted a Gatorade. You know, a little over-saved. They over-saved. I'm just joking. I'm not, but I'm joking Seriously.

Speaker 1: 25:51

Friends, I've been on this journey for the past few years of what it really means to talk to God, to listen to God, and what I discovered is that there's freedom in relationship with God, there's freedom in it, there's freedom to this way of life. That has changed me from the inside out. Now, what I want to do? I just want to share for a second what I do, what I do, how I connect with God every day. Now, what I'm about to share with you doesn't mean you have to do it. Here's the cool thing about God he can speak to you exactly how you are. And here's the best part about God Well, one of the best parts about God he knows you. He exactly knows how he made you and forms you. So just because I connect to God one way doesn't mean that's the way you can connect to God. He can speak to you exactly how he designed you. For example, some people they're real heady. They love reading books and they connect with God that way. Other people, they love to exercise and when they exercise they may listen to some worship music, and that's the way they connect with God that way. It's a cool thing about God, but I just want to share with you how I connect with God, as a kind of a template. So take from it, leave it out, but my hope is that you do something, that you spend daily time with God. Here you go Morning time, morning time I do morning prayer.

Speaker 1: 27:03

I wake up at 4 30 every morning, not because I'm super spiritual. It's just the only time my house is quiet. It's the only time I get some peace and quiet. So I wake up early. I wake up early to spend time with God and I set that time aside. Okay, because if I don't wake up early and I just sleep through my alarm, then I'm going to be in a rush and it's hard to follow God in a rush. It's hard, okay.

Speaker 1: 27:28

So what I do? I start with a devotional. I usually use this app called Lectio 365. It's awesome. Or another app called the Pause app, and I spend time there and sometimes and this one's kind of funny for me sometimes I just spend 10 to 15 minutes in silence.

Speaker 1: 27:42

Now, that's hard for me because I am just pretty outgoing, but there's something about this discipline of sitting in silence that helps. And when I sit in silence, all I do, I say two things. I say come Holy Spirit. And then I say Father, give me eyes to see you. And now, when I get distracted and I'm thinking about what I want to eat, I say God, I trust you with that, give me eyes to see you. And I do that. And I do that for a while, okay. And then after that I read my Bible and I usually have a Bible reading plan, nothing fancy there, I just read that. And then, after I do that, I do something that might sound a little old school and I say you got to do this, but I get on my knees. I get on my knees, I put my hands together, just like old school prayer man. I get on my knees, and the reason why I do it is because it helps me focus. It helps me focus.

Speaker 1: 28:27

And then, when I'm praying, I have three specific things I pray for every single day. I have a daily prayer that I pray, prayer circles that I pray. I have daily prayer rhythms and I have daily prayer declarations that I pray every single day and that's how I connect with God. And then I keep a simple journal. And here's the funny part the journal, what I write about every day, was you guys. I write about you guys. So if someone ever walks up to me, I want you guys to know this. If someone ever walks up to me and says Pastor Jacob, can you pray for this? I pray about it every single day. I write it, writing about it, but I pray about it every day. I do Okay. So that's what I do in the morning time.

Speaker 1: 29:09

Now, full transparency here. Some mornings I feel God's presence strongly and it's awesome. Other mornings, I just try to keep my eyes open. I'm not trying to fall asleep. Some mornings I pray with focus. Other days I'm thinking about what I got to do in that day. But here's what I learned it's not about how I feel, it's about showing up. It's about showing up and being there, and I encourage you to start your day with God before anything else, before your phone, before the news, before your to-do list, before your kids even need you Start with God first. Here you go, here you go. Here you go when Aaron and I, when Aaron and I first started talking, when we first started talking, you want to know what we were doing.

Speaker 1: 29:45

We would wake up early and we would actually meet at Mount Trashmore, this little park down in Virginia Beach. Meet at Mount Trashmore and we'll go running together. We'll go running together. It's not because Aaron liked to run. She liked all of this and so that's not why we met up early. Because she'd like to look at me, you know, because she wanted to run. We woke up early because some people, when you're falling in love, it's worth sacrificing for. And I want to tell you this if you want to fall in love with jesus, it's worth sacrificing your time for it. It's worth it. It's worth it, okay. Second thing midday, midday now, midday now.

Speaker 1: 30:23

This is my more inconsistent prayer time, but what I try to do, the simple thing I try to do, is I pray as I go, praying as I go, okay. So Monday through Friday, I got to pick up my boys from preschool and I use this time to pray, and I pray for my family, my extended family, my church and for people who don't know Jesus yet. I pray that God will always help me meet people who are far from God. And so, from my house to St Mark's, where my boys go to preschool, it's about a two to four minute drive, so it's nothing like I ain't like praying midday for 60 minutes. Oh Lord come. You know, just for two to four minutes I pray and what I've discovered is that it's effective. It's an effective prayer. It's not about the time, it's about the consistency, about being consistent with it.

Speaker 1: 31:06

So maybe for you, when you're making coffee, when you're walking your dog, when you're in the carpool line, find those little moments to pray to God. And the last one is nighttime, ending my day with God. At night, I slow down and again I use this Lectio 365 app, which gives you an opportunity to do a prayer of examine, which is a fancy way of saying I like to look through my day. So I go, hour by hour, mentally in my day and ask these questions when did I see God the most, where did I struggle the most, and what does God want me to do about it? And that's what I do. And I go over it and I do that and that's really awesome and that helps me because, like I mentioned last week, I'm a when then kind of person. When this happens, then I'll be happy. And so when I do this prayer of examine and then I do a thankfulness journal attached to it, it helps me be present in the moment, helps me see what God is doing right now. I hope that's helping someone today.

Speaker 1: 31:56

And the reason why I share these things is not because, wow, jacob, that's awesome, you're so cool, You're so spiritual dude. No, no, it's not. It's not that I don't actually think I am all that spiritual, to be honest, but what I had to do? Because, as an everyday person, I had to plant my flag in the ground. Let me be real with you. I had to plant my flag. Now, what do I mean by that? I had to plant my because I could easily, at the end of the night, just binge watch TV. There's nothing wrong with that. There's nothing wrong with doing that every once in a while. I could easily do that In the morning time. I could easily just scroll through social media. I deleted that, you know, because I had my own things, but I could easily do that, and, again, nothing wrong with that, and you could do that.

Speaker 1: 32:32

Or, instead of praying for people, I can just complain about people, but I had to put my and say man, what's different about me as a Jesus follower than someone who isn't a Jesus follower? And I'm not going to lie. There was a point in my life where I said I don't know other than going to church like too much. I don't know what there is, and it wasn't until I started to introduce these spiritual habits in my life that the life transformation power, the Holy Spirit, begins to be infused in me and say wow, god, I don't have to worry because you are the one on top. I don't have to give in to my concerns because, god, you're making a way for me, and God, you're learning, and I'm learning how to become like you. Here's the thing. Here's the thing I want everyone to know we're all becoming somebody. We're all becoming somebody. We're all becoming somebody. We're all becoming somebody. I hope you like the person you're becoming, though, and as I get older, I want to become more like Jesus, because every person is in the process of this.

Speaker 1: 33:34

Paul gives us this invitation in Philippians. He says about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and mind in Christ Jesus. There's something powerful about those words in every situation, because life isn't just a collection of big defining moments. It's made up of thousands of little moments that drive to work the hurried conversation, the late night worries, the moments when no one is watching, and in all of it, prayer isn't just something that we do. It's a way we can live. It's learning to walk with God, not just in the quiet mornings but in the chaos of real life. It's being aware of His goodness in the middle of an ordinary Tuesday. It's experiencing His grace when we're running on empty. It's casting our cares on Him, not because we should, but because he actually cares. And when we learn to live that way, something shifts. We start to recognize His presence, not just in church, but at the grocery store and at the dinner table, and in the middle of hard conversations. We realize he's guiding us, comforting us, convicting us, strengthening us. And we're not just believing the truth that Jesus taught, but we're learning to live the way he lived.

Speaker 1: 35:01

Because you are made for more, you're made for more, not more busyness, not more striving, but more, but more of God, more of God. So you got two questions, two questions I want to ask, two questions of applications I want to end with is this when and where can you create a daily habit of talking to God? When and where can you do it, even if it's just for a few minutes? And then, lastly, who in your life needs prayer right now and how can you commit to praying for that person this week? That sound good. All right, let's pray God, jesus, holy Spirit, we want more of you. We want more of you, lord.

Speaker 1: 35:49

We say come, holy Spirit, be in this place. Lord, let's put very strongly the Holy Spirit saying he wants to know you more. He wants to know you more. And I really want to stick to this thought for a second, because it's not just about knowing God more. That's good. We should know God more. I feel the Holy Spirit saying. God is saying he wants to know you more. He wants to hear. He wants to hear your worries, he wants to hear about your struggles. He wants to hear about what makes you laugh. He wants to know you more, to know God and to be known by God. Come Holy Spirit, come Holy Spirit.

Speaker 1: 36:57

Yeah, I actually even feel the Holy Spirit tugging on someone's heart right now, saying you came through the storm, like the actual storm, to get to church, but you actually are in a personal storm right now. Personally, you feel like you're drowning. Yep, you feel like you're drowning. You're reaching out for hope today. So I say come, holy Spirit, bring that person hope, whoever it is. Bring them hope, show them your face, lord. Come, holy Spirit. We're not in a rush, lord. We just say come, holy Spirit, more of you, lord. Yeah, that's like the Holy Spirit saying he sees you in the storm, he hears you in the storm, he lifts you up out of the storm. And I have to see this word not forgotten. You're not forgotten. Yeah, holy Spirit, thank you for that, lord.

Speaker 1: 38:28

I actually even just feel this nudge from the Holy Spirit the marriage series that we're starting next week. I just feel like the Lord is saying he wants you there. He wants you there, that's it. He wants you there, okay. So come, holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Rest our hearts with your grace. He wants you there, that's it. He wants you there, okay. So come Holy Spirit. Come, holy Spirit. Rest our hearts with your grace, we lean into you. Help us focus our minds on you. So we say come. We love you in this place today In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Let's give god some praise in here today.