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Episode 22 - START HERE - Listener Guide
28 Plays4 months ago
This is your guide so you can know where to start and how to take advantage of the content on the Pray & See podcast. Hear which episodes cover ideas of what to pray for, how to pray, how to pray based on the Bible, and how to think about this radical thing we call connecting with God.
Bryan explains how you can get the most out of this time listening to the podcast, stories, and Bible explanations.
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
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Transcript
Introduction to Pray and See Podcast
00:00:04
Speaker
Welcome to the Pray and See Podcast. I'm Brian Brooks, your host. I'm glad to connect with you to share how God moves through prayer in our Youth for Christ ministries and some things I've seen in my own life.
00:00:18
Speaker
What is this podcast and why are we doing this? The Pray and See Podcast exists to invite followers of Jesus to pray together, expecting God to positively change the world around them.
Invitation to Pray and Connect
00:00:31
Speaker
This is my invitation to you to see more of God at work, showing people his love and answering prayer. hope this content invites you to really pray and talk to Jesus, to see him act in your life and connect you with other followers of Jesus so you can pray together and see God move.
00:00:49
Speaker
Even if you're not a follower of Jesus, if you're a skeptic, you wonder what it's all about. Praying to God and relating to Him is a big part of the spiritual life.
Foundational Episodes and Starting Points
00:01:00
Speaker
I hope you stick around to hear some of the stories, hear some of the content from the Bible, and open your heart and your mind a little bit to see if God has something for you.
00:01:12
Speaker
But where should you start with a podcast like this? Well, some of the episodes are foundational. They talk about attitudes, struggles that we can have with prayer, or maybe be general points.
00:01:26
Speaker
And As I go through what some of these episodes cover, I want you to ask yourself the question, where am I right now? Because wherever you're at right now, that's where you should start.
Exploration of Prayer Themes
00:01:38
Speaker
Episode two talks about how God can work through prayer for other people. Three is on how gratitude and thanksgiving, they form a motivation for prayer.
00:01:48
Speaker
But some of the time when we pray, God might seem silent, like he's far away. That's episode four. Other episodes throughout this series give practical tools and ideas on how to pray or how to focus.
00:02:04
Speaker
Five is on using a prayer calendar. And the next one, episode six, is praying using the Psalms, a part of the Old Testament. A later episode is gonna be on praying using the New Testament.
00:02:17
Speaker
Some episodes talk about ways to think about prayer, like ah prayer philosophy. like you could pray about injustice, which is happening in our world today at alarming rates, episode seven.
00:02:32
Speaker
Episode eight helps us understand that we can pray for what's broken in our lives and in other people's lives. And nine tells us that the Holy Spirit, God's Spirit, helps us to pray.
Ideas for Aligning Prayers with God's Heart
00:02:46
Speaker
But some people may need a model or a framework, a play to run when it comes to prayer. And we went through the
00:03:11
Speaker
What do I actually pray for?
Structure of Each Episode
00:03:14
Speaker
What do I do when I sit down to pray or go on a walk to pray? Well, wanted to give you some ideas, and those are episodes 15 through 20 of ideas to pray for, things that are near and dear to God's heart. Well, every episode after a quick intro is gonna go to prayer.
00:03:34
Speaker
I'm gonna pray for you and pray for our time on this podcast. We're gonna highlight one point a theme that's going to come up for an episode. We're going to explain it using a story, a real life example from Youth for Christ Ministries or from my own life.
00:03:51
Speaker
We're going to look at the Bible. references where we'll actually read through verses in the Bible and offer some explanation. But like anything you learn, the question is, what what do I actually do with this?
Role of Stories and Bible References
00:04:06
Speaker
At the end of every episode, we're going to give a challenge, practical action steps for you as the listener and for me to actually try this stuff. And then an invitation to connect where you can send us an email at pray at C-O-Y-F-C dot org. You can email questions, ideas, even your own prayer stories. That'd be great to hear from you.
00:04:31
Speaker
Why share stories, though? Well, I don't know about you, but I remember stories. It's not that stories replace truth from God in the Bible, but they add some color commentary with real-life examples that I can connect with. Stories help us to remember. I want to tell you stories as a way of celebrating and giving praise to God for who He is and what
Challenge: Incorporating Prayer into Life
00:04:58
Speaker
He's done.
00:04:58
Speaker
Well, why do we look at the Bible? In the New Testament, in 2 Timothy 3, verse It says that all scripture, the words of the Bible, are inspired by god Paul, who wrote this letter, explains that God is the ultimate author, but Scripture, as we read it and encounter it, it's useful.
00:05:24
Speaker
It's useful for training, for teaching, for equipping. But the point here is God is the ultimate author who led several human authors over 1,500 years to write a consistent message about God, who He is, and what He's doing.
00:05:40
Speaker
We look to the Bible because it gives us God's wisdom, thoughts, and commands in his way of life. Why do we give a challenge at the end? Why does the challenge usually involve other people?
00:05:51
Speaker
Praying about them, praying with them, talking to them. It's because prayer isn't only about us, it's about God. And it can be about God working in other people's lives.
00:06:03
Speaker
Some people think prayer is only about my sense of inner peace, and it can have that effect. I'm not down on that. I've experienced that, and we'll talk about that in some of the episodes.
00:06:15
Speaker
But we believe that prayer changes people's lives. I want to give you a doable challenge. It's an invitation to try something in your life, whatever country you're in, whatever neighborhood, whatever situation you're in.
00:06:32
Speaker
You can try these things when you pray.
Closing Prayer and Call to Share
00:06:35
Speaker
And I'm hoping that this is going to help you see that you can be a part of God's awesome plan, something that's bigger than you or I. Well, if you're new here, I'm really glad to have you on the Pray and See podcast. I hope you can look through the topics that are out already to find some that are helpful to you right now at at this point in your spiritual journey.
00:06:59
Speaker
Let's pray together. Pray along with me. God, you are personal and you want to show up in the broken places of real life to rescue us and to give us purpose and belonging in your family.
00:07:15
Speaker
You care about people all over the world and you want them to come to know you. Can you teach us to pray? God, I ask you that stories in this podcast would inspire people and it would get them curious about this adventure and mystery that's prayer, connecting with you and being a part of you changing people's lives, including ours.
00:07:41
Speaker
Amen. we'll see you next time on the Pray and See podcast. Help us grow our subscribers by liking and subscribing in your favorite podcast app. You can find us on social media by searching Central Ohio Youth for Christ. But really, if this is helpful, what I really want you to do is share it with your friends and family who you think would benefit from this type of content.
00:08:06
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Pray and See podcast.