Journey to Eternity Podcast
We are a married Christian couple saved by the grace of The Lord Jesus Christ. In every episode, we help Christians use the Word of God to navigate everyday life in a sinful, fallen world.
Journey to Eternity Podcast
Building a Powerful Connection with God through Prayer
Discover how to transform your prayer life into a powerful, consistent practice that truly honors God. Imagine being able to speak with the Creator of the universe as intimately as you would with a close friend—this episode will show you how. We tackle common hurdles that many Christians face when it comes to praying regularly and share why it's crucial to direct your prayers solely to the triune God. Through scriptural insights, we clear up frequent misconceptions about prayer, including the reasons why figures such as Mary and the Apostles are not the ones we should be addressing.
We also delve into practical advice on integrating prayer into your daily routine, whether it’s during your morning commute or a quiet moment at home. Learn why creating a personal prayer space can enhance your spiritual experience, as taught by Jesus in Matthew 6:6. We emphasize starting your prayers with confession and repentance, acknowledging that this aligns us with God’s expectations and opens us to His guidance. Sharing prayers for others is another essential practice, and we highlight how this aspect of Christian life supports both our community and ourselves. With Jesus interceding for us, find peace and strength in your newly invigorated prayer journey.
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In every episode we help Christians use God's Word to navigate everyday life in a sinful fallen world Now.
Mike:A few months back, we stated that the two main things that Christians have to include in an already busy day are reading the Bible and prayer, and in that episode, we focused on reading and studying your Bible, how it is a mainstay of being a Christian. We talked about how we needed to develop a daily discipline of studying and how there almost always seemed to be something that prevented us from doing it.
Luisa:So this month we are going to once again focus on prayer.
Mike:Specifically the who, what, when, where and why of prayer.
Luisa:And we hope that this episode will lead you to a more productive and powerful prayer life.
Mike:But before we get started, let's pray.
Luisa:Gracious Father, we humbly come to you and ask you to lead us in this episode. Please open the ears of those who are listening. That prayer will be a priority in their lives. Thank you for helping us to understand the power of prayer. In Jesus' name, we pray.
Mike:Amen. So let's get right into it. Many Christians take prayer for granted. Let's be honest, babe. Ask a lot of professing believers about their prayer life and all you get is a blank stare and a bag of excuses.
Luisa:Oh, I'm too busy. I don't know how. I'm afraid I do it when I'm in trouble. I do it when I need something. The list of excuses go on, but some of the things we will talk about today will help.
Mike:So let's get started with who. Who do we pray to?
Luisa:Now that sounds elementary but you would be surprised at who people pray to and the only person we should pray to is the triune God of the universe.
Mike:They are the only ones that could answer prayers. That's God, the Father.
Luisa:God, the Son that's Jesus and God the Holy Spirit.
Mike:Now let's look at some scripture to back up this claim. Let's look at God the Father. Jesus spent his entire earthly ministry praying to the Father. In Matthew, chapter 6 and verse 9, jesus starts the Lord's Prayer with the words Lord's Prayer with the words Our Father in Heaven.
Luisa:Jesus also instructs us to call on Him In John, chapter 14, verse 14, jesus encourages us by telling us If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.
Mike:And the Holy Spirit, usually overlooked but no less a member of the Trinity, he also prays for us. In Romans, chapter 8 and verse 26. It says Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we do not know what to pray for, as we ought. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, seeds for us with groanings too deep for words. So, now that we've established who we pray to, here is the who we don't pray to, and we're going to list just a few, so you get the idea.
Luisa:The first one is Mary.
Mike:Mary. So, babe, a lot of people pray to Mary.
Luisa:Absolutely. Unfortunately they do.
Mike:Yes, she's the mother of Jesus, chosen by God.
Luisa:But she is not God, nor is she on the part of God.
Mike:Right Now. Just like all of us, she was a sinner in need of a savior. Mary was a really good woman. God picked her to be the mother of Jesus Christ, but that doesn't mean that we're to pray to her.
Luisa:Why do you think so many people get that? They're so confused with that.
Mike:Well, the Catholic Church venerates Mary. They call her immaculate, which is their way of saying she's without sin. Now we know that that's not true. Mary was a sinner, just like all of us. They look at her as having led a sinless life, right, and there's simply no truth to that. So she's not the one that we're going to be praying to.
Luisa:Right. I think that she was just a vessel that God used she can't answer prayers Right.
Mike:The next thing they tell us to do is pray to the apostles. Yes, they were chosen by Jesus to represent him.
Luisa:But again, they are not God.
Mike:Right and people put some of the apostles on par with God and they pray to them and I had a nickel for every time I heard somebody say I'm praying to St Anthony and I'm sorry, but the Catholic Church venerates a lot of saints and they put them up on this pedestal like they are on par with God and they might have been saved by faith, they might be in heaven, but they're all dead and I'm sorry, people are not going to want to hear this, but dead people don't hear prayers and they surely don't answer prayers and it's really. It's a problem for people.
Luisa:And the next one is the Pope, a priest, a bishop, a cardinal or any other living human being.
Mike:Although they may think so, they do not take the place of God and cannot answer a prayer. Now, the Catholic Church considers the pope to be equal to God. They say that the pope is the head of the church and we know as Christians that only Christ is the head of the church. So they are way off on that theology and unfortunately, people pray to him and they think that he can answer prayers. Priests have given themselves the power to forgive sins. They're really—.
Luisa:Behind a curtain.
Mike:Yeah, they really put themselves on par with God Right, and that's really a heresy and it really is leading people into hell, because it's this idolization. And we talked a lot in other podcast episodes about idolization and these people first off, they idolize themselves and second off, they lead people to idolize them, which is a sin causing other people to stumble.
Luisa:Right.
Mike:So some of the other things that people pray to are statues. You can look around other churches and you find statues of Mary. You find statues of the saints. Yeah, you might find a statue of Jesus, but it's usually Jesus as a baby and Mary is the mother, and people are praying to a statue.
Luisa:And statues are material objects right.
Mike:Right. They cannot answer prayers, no, they can't Not like in the Old Testament when they talked about that people would have carved images, pieces of wood, pieces of clay that they made into gods and idols, and people would pray to this all the time. The only person that you can pray to is the triune God. Do you get the idea?
Luisa:Good, let's move on. Now we know who to pray to. Let's talk about what we are to pray.
Mike:So let's go back to Matthew, chapter 6, and we're going to look at verses 9 to 13. This is the Lord's prayer and we're going to go through it in its entirety. Babe, can you read it please?
Luisa:This, then, is how you should pray Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us for our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors, and let us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.
Mike:Now, while this is used as a prayer in itself Jesus was responding to the apostles asking him to teach them to pray it can be used as a framework for all prayers, and we're going to look at this now in verse by verse.
Luisa:Verse 9, Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Mike:The word hallowed here means honored as holy. The first step to any prayer is to give God glory and honor and praise. This positions our hearts to be aware of God's presence as we pray.
Luisa:Verse 10, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Mike:Jesus tells us to pray God's will over our own, because the ultimate goal of prayer is not to convince God of our heart, but to align it with his. Praying God's will to be done in our situation puts his agenda before our own.
Luisa:And this is the mark of a truly surrendered heart.
Mike:Now, we can certainly pray specifically for our heart's desires he knows them anyway but ultimately our main desire should be for God's will to prevail, even if his will is the opposite of our desire.
Luisa:Amen, verse 11,. Give us this day our daily bread.
Mike:So here Jesus transitions into instructing us to pray for the provision of our needs, no matter how seemingly insignificant or mundane.
Luisa:Notice what we pray for our needs and not our wants.
Mike:There's a difference between needs and wants.
Luisa:Right.
Mike:So we need daily bread, in the sense that we need God to daily dwell with us and guide us, but also that we need literal daily bread to stay alive. So pray for both his physical and spiritual provision in your life and the lives of those you love.
Luisa:Verse 12, and forgive us of our debts.
Mike:Now. We need to regularly ask God to search our hearts and reveal our sin to us. We need to regularly be confessing those sins to God and asking him to forgive us. The mark of a truly humble heart is a genuine desire to apologize for wrongdoing and seek forgiveness. Do not leave any sin unconfessed. Unrepented sin erodes relationship with God and hinders intimacy with him. Ask the Lord to search your heart and reveal any unrepented sin to you.
Luisa:And continuing in verse 12, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Mike:Now you might not think that you regularly need to forgive others, but this doesn't just refer to obvious conflicts. This can mean forgiving someone for disappointing you or letting you down, as well as forgiving someone who has wronged you. That is not an easy task. Our flesh will fight against this tooth and nail, so we need to regularly pray for the strength to forgive others.
Luisa:And verse 13, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Mike:Now God allows us to be tempted and tested. Although he is never the tempter, we lead ourselves into situations where we are tempted. Here, Jesus is showing us how to pray against this and keep us from being our own worst enemy.
Luisa:This part of prayer is important because our flesh is weak against temptation.
Mike:Now we should also pray that we do not cause temptation for any other brother or sister in Christ. Alright, so notice. It doesn't say to pray for wealth, material gain, health, a new job or any other worldly request. James, chapter 4 and verse 3, corrects our wayward thinking.
Luisa:You ask and do not receive, because you ask, wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
Mike:So, while God may grant you these things, he may not. We must always remember to pray according to His will, and you can only find that by reading and studying His Word.
Luisa:So we looked at who we ought to pray to and what we ought to pray. Now let's look at when we ought to pray.
Mike:Well, the Bible has a lot to say and we're just going to rattle off a few verses that tell us when we should pray. 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 17 says Pray without ceasing. What does it mean to pray without ceasing? It does not mean to pray repetitive prayers. The Catholic Church is very much known for repetitive prayers. They have the Hail Mary praying the rosary, so they'll sit there all day and they'll pray the same prayer over and over again. It's a rote routine, Right, and we know that in the Bible, God says that this is not the type of prayer he wants to hear.
Luisa:He's very clear on how he expects us to pray, so what praying without ceasing means is just pray persistently and regularly. And make it a habit.
Mike:Ephesians 6.18 says praying at all times in the Spirit. So what does that mean? Well, there's two parts to this. Okay At all times in the Spirit. First means this focuses on the frequency. So every time we pray, we should be praying in the Spirit. And what does it mean to pray in the Spirit? It's really about submission. It's not about praying for selfish things. It's about lining up our prayer with the will of God.
Luisa:Mark 1, 3, 35, and rising very early in the morning. While it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place and there he prayed. Jesus himself often prayed early in the morning Right Now.
Mike:If Jesus can get up and pray in the morning, so can we Exactly. So for me, babe, praying in the morning is always the best time to pray. It's the most peaceful God. He should always be the first person that you talk to in the morning, and I know you do it too. I know the minute you open your eyes, you always start praying.
Luisa:I'm already praying, without my eyes being open, because you know my situation. I know that I am the type of person, because of what I go through in my body, that I have to pray. I can't get out of bed without connecting with the Lord sometimes, and that has created a habit for me. So I pray early in the morning because I don't want to, I can't, I can't do it without him.
Mike:Right, this is a good time for prayers of thanksgiving. When you wake up, you could just, you could simply thank him for waking you up, because a lot of people didn't get to wake up this morning, right, and that's a gift in itself. It's a gift in itself, and I think some people just don't realize that they take that for granted.
Luisa:Oh, you know, I'm up again another day. La, la, la, and it's like, did you even give God? Thanks that he woke you up and your heart is beating and you're ready to start another day.
Mike:I mean it's really a peaceful time of day. The world hasn't destroyed the day yet, and it's coming. So when you talk to God early in the morning, it really gets your day jazzed up.
Luisa:and you know it's such a day up for what's coming, because the minute we leave our house, okay, if we're not prayed up, we know what's outside, behind this door, right, and it's unbelievers and it's chaos and it's traffic and there's a whole bunch of stuff right, okay, so the stuff hasn't started yeah, the stuff hasn't started. So for me, if I don't pray before I leave this house, I'm in trouble right okay, because I haven't connected with the Lord Right.
Luisa:And when I do connect with the Lord, I'm very conscious of choosing to walk in my spirit and asking the Lord to go before me. And knowing that he goes before me and I'm ready, I'm prayed up, I set with his word and then I start my day. So I'm just so grateful.
Mike:I get it.
Luisa:And it's Psalms 55.7, evening and morning and at noon I utter my complaint and moan, and he hears my voice.
Mike:Right. So what this is saying? Evening, morning and noon every part of the day is an appropriate time to pray. Every circumstance is an opportunity to pray.
Luisa:And God is waiting for you to converse with him.
Mike:God just wants you to come and talk to him. Yeah, I really believe that when they talk about having a relationship with God, that this is the way to do it.
Luisa:It's through prayer. I think that people make prayer complicated.
Mike:They do, and they wonder how they're going to have a relationship with Jesus. Well, it's very simple.
Luisa:It's like having a relationship, you and I.
Mike:Right, we have a relationship we talk to each other and we talk to each other.
Luisa:That's the type of relationship you should have with your Father in heaven. How can you know him if you don't talk to him?
Mike:I agree with you so much, and people do make it more complicated than it really is.
Luisa:And I know that because I talk to a lot of people and it's you mean you don't have time. You have to create that time as Christians. That's a command for us to pray. So we look at who we are to pray, to what we are to pray and when we are to pray. Now let's look at where we are to pray.
Mike:Well, good news, babe. The good news is that there are no restrictions on where you should pray.
Luisa:Right, you can pray anywhere. Praying again is just talking to God.
Mike:Right, so it can be in public or it can be in private.
Luisa:It could be while you're washing dishes and vacuuming your floor.
Mike:So you can pray indoors or outdoors.
Luisa:You could pray in a car or on a bus.
Mike:Jesus hears all of your prayers, no matter where they are.
Luisa:That sounded like a rhyme right? What's that rhyme?
Mike:We're poets and we don't even know it. But seriously think about it, babe. There's some stuff in the Bible where you see where people pray. I mean Jonah prayed in the belly of a fish.
Luisa:Right, okay, jesus prayed on a mountain.
Mike:He prayed on a mountain, jesus prayed while he was hanging on the cross Right and God heard all of those prayers Right. For me I pray in the car when I'm driving, when I drive to work in the morning. That's a big prayer time for me. Because, you're in your car a lot A half hour to 40 minutes for me to get to my shop and I spend a lot of that time praying and it's really effective. I'm focused. I can still see the road.
Luisa:I have my eyes open. I can still pray with my eyes open, but I do get a lot of serious prayer done in that time. And where do I get my time when I go for my walks in the morning. Every morning I go for my walks and I'm able to pray to the Lord and I'm able to thank him for nature, I'm able to thank him for the beautiful weather, I'm able to thank him for the sun, I'm able to thank him for my body be strong enough to walk this walk. That's prayer.
Mike:Right and you have to be creative.
Luisa:Right. Inviting him into your day is part of prayer.
Mike:Yeah, if you're creative, you'll always have time to pray Right and you'll always be in a space where you can pray.
Luisa:I pray to the Lord when I'm making our bed in the morning, right Because I'm thanking him that we have a bed to sleep on. Right, I'm thanking him for the electricity in our home. Sure I'm thanking him for a prayer room that we could come in and we can sit with him and we could read our word and we can just be grateful.
Mike:It talks about public prayer, mm-hmm. But then also, in the Sermon on the Mount, jesus instructs us to have a personal place to pray. So Matthew, chapter 6 and verse 6, jesus says but when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
Luisa:And that's like I just mentioned Everyone should have a private place to pray Exactly.
Mike:It's put you alone with God, all right. A lot of times you're in public, you're praying for public things, for people to hear you.
Luisa:There's a lot that goes on with public prayer. I'm telling you, babe, I know for me, because I work from home three days a week, that quiet time in our prayer room with the Lord makes such a big difference Right.
Mike:It's personal communication with him. So when people say I don't have a place to pray, you have to make one. It can be a spare room in your home. We took a spare room here and we turned it into a room where we can pray and do this podcast. We're sitting in here now Listen. If you don't have a room, you could do it in a closet.
Luisa:You could have a little square spot in your bedroom where you could create a spot where that's where you go and pray, and that's where you go and just cry out to the Lord, and that's where you go, where you sit quietly. It doesn't have to be a room. It doesn't have to be a room, it doesn't have to be anything big. This is where I talk about people make it complicated.
Mike:I don't have a room, so I'm not going to pray.
Mike:You can pray in the bathroom. You can go in the bathroom and close the door and pray in the bathroom. Pray in the shower. Find a private place to pray, the peace and solitude of being alone with your creator. It's going to stimulate your prayer life. If your prayer life is not really up to par, find yourself a place in your house. Create it with intention and, just like we were able to do here, I'm telling you God will give you a place in your home if you're really intentional about it.
Luisa:Yeah, I think that's the word. You have to be intentional of creating a prayer life for yourself and not making it more than what it is Right.
Mike:Now, finally, we get to the why of this episode. We looked at who we are to pray, to what we are to pray, when we are to pray and where we are to pray. Now let's talk about why we are to pray. So, first of all, we should pray because God commands us to do so, and to not pray is disobedience, and I really want to be clear about that. This is a command.
Luisa:Right, it's not when you want to pray.
Mike:No, it's pray Right and people talk about well, I don't want to be disobedient to God. Well, this, I think, is a big area where people are disobedient to God. Well, this is, I think, is a big area where people are disobedient to God, so we have to be careful about that.
Luisa:Prayer is so part of being a Christian, being a believer and walking with the Lord. Okay, so let's go back to 1 Thessalonians 5.17. It says pray without ceasing Right.
Mike:So clearly Paul is saying this is not an option. It's not if I feel like it, it's not if I have time, it's not only when I need something Right. So, aside from being obedient to one of God's commands, we have a few reasons why we should pray. So number one prayer puts us in communion with God.
Luisa:Prayer is a way to communicate with God, who is the creator of heaven and earth.
Mike:When we pray. This is how we form a relationship with God. He's the one that we want to talk to every day. We can develop an intimate relationship with him. We can feel connected to him. God wants us to know him and, like you said before, how can you know a person unless you talk to him? Right Number two prayer is a part of worship.
Luisa:And I love this part because I think that a lot of people don't understand that prayer is part of worship. Prayer is a way to praise and worship God.
Mike:And I think people kind of get confused about the whole worship thing. There's a lot of aspects to worship.
Luisa:It's not just singing, it's not just music, right, right.
Mike:We have to be careful with that Number three. Prayer helps you to learn.
Luisa:Prayer can help people learn more about God's plan for them.
Mike:So in prayer, we can ask him for guidance and wisdom how to handle situations, how to handle a trial. Every time we're going through something in our day, it's an opportunity to talk to God about it. So if I'm going to a meeting at work and I'm saying, oh man, I really don't want to go to this meeting, I know this meeting is going to be hard, okay, I could talk to God about it. God, help me to honor you in this meeting. Help me, lord, to think before I speak. Help me, lord, to not come out of my face in a meeting where I'm going to dishonor you. So by praying prior to a situation that's coming up, you can definitely get God's help. It has a calming effect on you.
Luisa:Right, and it gives you peace. Yeah, it gives you peace.
Mike:So in 1 Chronicles 1 and verse 10, king Solomon had the chance to petition God for anything he wanted. Now he could have asked for worldly riches, but instead he asked for wisdom.
Luisa:Give me wisdom and knowledge that I may lead these people, for who is able to govern these great people of yours?
Mike:Amen, yes, and I think that's so important that when we need advice, that we don't go to the world for it.
Luisa:We don't go to our girlfriends no. We don't go to our coworkers we don't go to the guy in the corner store.
Mike:I don't even want you to come to me, right?
Luisa:coworkers. We don't go to the guy in the corner store I don't even want you to come to me and you know what and we have to be able to establish that habit where we go to the throne of. God for wisdom in everything in our lives, because if we don't do that, that means that we're going to make decisions in our flesh.
Luisa:And that never works out well. If I go to my sister and I ask her for advice, she's going to give me worldly advice. Exactly, Am I going to go with that as a believer or I'm going to say you know what? I have the gift of going to Christ because the veil has been torn.
Luisa:I have complete access to him, and him alone because, that's what my word says, and whatever it is that I have going on, I'm able just to throw up on God. God loves it when we throw up on him and I do that a lot. It's like you know that I just like constantly am, and I remember one time in my life I'm like God is probably sick of me, because I'm always coming to him with the little things, the big things I'm always throwing up. I'm always crying in prayer, I'm always in, whatever it is that I'm going through, but the Lord is always there saying come to me, those who are weary and burdened, I give you rest. There's a reason why he says that.
Mike:Amen. That brings us to number four. It says prayer is a way to bring our requests before him. It's a way to ask God for needs and desires. So Philippians, chapter four and verse six says do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.
Luisa:So when you are anxious or afraid, talk to God about it. Amen, amen.
Mike:Ask him to take your burdens and he will give you peace. Right, and that leads us to number five prayer brings you peace. So by praying we can bring peace into our life. Just talking to God, babe, it just brings a calmness to any situation. I don't know about you, but every time listen, he tells us not to get anxious, but we do anyway, right, all right, we're not robots. So whenever we do get anxious, the best place we can go is to God. God, please help me. Take this away from me.
Luisa:Or you say you just repeat his promises. God, you said. You said To come to you, you said If I'm under distress. You said that you have me in the palm of your hand. You said so. You remember God's promises whenever you're in these situations.
Mike:Pray them back to God. Pray them back to God.
Luisa:God, I'm believing in you. Blah, blah, blah Blah blah, blah.
Mike:Thank you, god, you are worthy Father God.
Luisa:That gives you a chance to worship him and thank him and that's in the same space, having that kind of conversation with only God and having that kind of conversation with only God and then, after I walk away from all that, I feel like my shoulders have really felt down because I'm able to just surrender to the Lord like he's telling me to do, because I don't want to walk around with that heavy burden in my back all day long.
Mike:Our shoulders are not strong enough to handle the burdens of life. But God props us up. Okay, but we have to ask him for it. If we don't, he's just going to let us flounder. So he wants us to come to him and bring him our burdens.
Luisa:Right In Philippians 4, 7, gives us this promise, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Mike:Amen. Right and that's a promise.
Luisa:Yes, His promises are yes and amen in Jesus Christ.
Mike:Amen. So number six, this is a good one. Here, prayer is a form of confession.
Luisa:It is a way to confess sins and seek forgiveness from God.
Mike:Okay, so this is a big deal. Yes, so I think everybody today should start off with confession. We all know what we did yesterday. We all know what we did five minutes ago. So the best thing we could ever do. I think, the best thing we could ever do is confess the minute you know that you're sinning Right, but sometimes we don't, yeah, but I'm just saying you know, sometimes we know we sin and we just don't confess it.
Luisa:And then we get home at night and that happens to me.
Mike:You don't sleep.
Luisa:And then I say to myself oh, I remember when I did ABC. Oh God, please forgive me that. I'm sorry. I'm confessing this to you now.
Mike:Right, okay. But it's is important, because what confession is? Is you're agreeing with God about who you are?
Luisa:Right.
Mike:So we are nothing but lowly sinners. So whenever we go to God in confession, we are saying God Humbly, yes God, I am a lowly sinner, I am a wretched person. I did this, I did this and I did this.
Luisa:And I know this doesn't honor you or the person I did it to, so please forgive me. Please forgive me.
Mike:Right Ask for forgiveness all the time. Number seven prayer helps us to repentance.
Luisa:Prayer is tied to the act of repentance, which involves turning away from bad behavior and seeking forgiveness. I think that some people really don't understand the true meaning of repentance.
Mike:What it is is okay. Yeah, you confess that's great. We ask God for forgiveness, that's great. But ask God for forgiveness, that's great. But then we have a choice. Do we go out and do the same thing over and over again? And then come back and confess and ask for forgiveness.
Luisa:I feel good because I confessed, but then go back and do the same thing. Go back and do it. Go back and do it. No, no, no, no, no, right you have to turn away from bad behavior.
Mike:So if you have something that you know is a sin and you confess it to God, he will forgive you, but he expects you to not do that anymore, right? So you have to really work at it.
Luisa:That's like our Heavenly Father reprimanding us.
Mike:Are we perfect at it all the time? No, no. We're always prone to certain sins, every single day, but he wants to see the effort Right. He wants you to really have the sin, make you so sick that you don't want to do it anymore, and that's it, babe, having that feeling of the sin that you really hate.
Luisa:I hate this sin, lord, and I'm sorry and I can't, but you can. I'm trying really, really hard, god, to not sin this way anymore. I hate my sin. Please help me, lord. It's praying with that from the gut kind of prayer, that disgust of you know, that you did it again and you're just like ah, Like Lord, please, please, help me, and he will.
Mike:I know. Okay, it's hard, it's not easy, but this is what he expects of us In 1 John 1.9, it says If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
Luisa:And you know what, babe? Unconfessed sin will hinder your prayers.
Mike:Yeah well, it'll lead you to not pray at all. Do you ever notice that when you have unconfessed sin, when something's like harboring on you, like from the day before and like you know, you messed up and you're like?
Luisa:You still haven't went to the person to ask for forgiveness or God.
Mike:Or God, right, okay, so now you're sitting there and you want to pray.
Luisa:Right.
Mike:But you know that you still have that sin, that's unconfessed, and you say oh, maybe I just won't pray.
Luisa:Right, you know, because you want to hang on to that sin. I'm not going to pray because I know he's not going to hear me and so forget it.
Mike:I'm not going to pray, so it says it'll hinder your prayers in that way, but even if you do pray and you have that unconfessed sin, God's going to look at you and say you didn't confess that sin yet Answer your prayer. For what to confess?
Luisa:We have to ask for forgiveness, we have to turn from that and then so the best way to start a prayer session is to confess your sins and ask for forgiveness. Amen.
Mike:Okay, number eight prayer is a way to help and support others. In 1 Timothy 2, in verse 1, the Apostle Paul tells us to pray for others.
Luisa:The Apostle Paul tells us to pray for others. First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions and thanksgivings be made for all people.
Mike:Amen. We ought to pray for one another. This is just like a staple of the Christian life.
Luisa:Because everyone needs prayer, everyone. Yeah, even if you say I'm okay, I don't need prayer.
Mike:Well, here's the deal. Okay, you pray for somebody. You might be the only person who ever prays for them.
Luisa:And if someone wants to pray for you, let them yeah, because they might be the only person besides yourself that prays for you.
Mike:Exactly Now you and I pray for each other, but sometimes I wonder does anybody else ever pray for me? I truly believe that people pray for us Well only because we live in a great church and we have great brothers and sisters who I know, pray, but one thing I know that Jesus intercedes for us. Yeah, he does. That gives me the peace that I need, but I'm a true believer that there's a lot of people that pray for us and I'm grateful for that. But there are people out there that nobody prays for.
Luisa:So, you be the one that prays for them Right, and this is why it's so important that when you meet a person, you have to meet that person right where they're at. Everybody's going through something and everybody needs prayer, and sometimes they don't even know how to ask for prayer.
Mike:So you got to read the room and read the situation and know that somebody needs it. Go over there, put your arm on their shoulder and ask them what they need prayer for, and I'm sure they'll tell you.
Luisa:Yeah.
Mike:And then you could go ahead and do God's work.
Luisa:Right, so let's wrap this up by reminding ourselves what we covered today.
Mike:Okay. So number one we learned who to pray to, and that's the triune God, and we learned who not to pray to, and that's anyone else.
Luisa:Right. We learned what to pray for, and that is anything that is in alignment with God's will.
Mike:We learned when to pray and that's any chance we get.
Luisa:We learned where to pray and the importance of having a sacred space.
Mike:And we learned why we pray and that's to have a better relationship with God. And in conclusion, here are a few Louisa and Mike tips. Number one every church I know has a midweek prayer meeting. Make it your business to go. It will put you in the space of communing with God and other believers. It's really important.
Luisa:Number two if God has given you a husband or a wife, pray with them and, more importantly, pray for them. And if you desire a spouse, pray for one.
Mike:Amen. Number three start praying the minute you open your eyes, when you wake up, and also just before you shut your eyes to sleep. God should be the first and last person you talk to every day.
Luisa:And please never take prayer for granted. When in doubt, just pray.
Mike:It is always the most we can do. Heavenly Father, we thank you, lord, for the gift of prayer. We thank you that we can come directly to you with our concerns, burdens, praises and thanks, and that you are faithful to hear us and answer us in your timing and in accordance with your will. Through this, you will receive all the honor and all the glory.
Luisa:Amen, so that wraps up episode 47. We thank you for listening. So that wraps up episode 47. We thank you for listening. We invite you to leave a comment or a question by going to our website at jtepodcastorg.
Mike:That's jtepodcastorg.
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Mike:Till next time. We wish you God's blessing as you navigate everyday life in a sinful, fallen world.
Luisa:May the peace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of. God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.