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Episode 8 - Go Ahead and Pray About What Is Broken
47 Plays4 months ago
This episode of the podcast continues on the theme from Episode 7. You can pray about real-life, practical challenges, and things that are broken. God cares about you and what is broken in your life, and the lives of people around you.
We also hear from Psalm 109, 140:12, and Acts 4.
Share your thoughts with the host at: pray@coyfc.org
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
- Central Ohio Youth for Christ: www.coyfc.org
- Gracehaven: www.gracehavenohio.org
- WellSpring Counseling: www.wellspringcolumbus.org
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Transcript
Impact of Prayer on Life and Community
00:00:11
Speaker
I'm your host, Brian Brooks. Praying for other people has really changed me, has changed my outlook on life and purpose, and i get to see God bring a lot of good to people's lives here at Youth for Christ.
00:00:25
Speaker
I'm grateful for the opportunity to share that with you, as well as some other stories from the rest of life. If you are a follower of Jesus, I hope that listening to this will help raise your awareness to the privilege and opportunity you have with prayer.
00:00:41
Speaker
With whatever you're doing right now, there's an ocean of need, real brokenness in the lives of young people in our communities. Many are growing up without purpose. They're lonely. They're without hope.
Connecting with God through Jesus
00:00:54
Speaker
Knowing ultimate purpose is really being connected to God through Jesus Christ. Then we can join God in his rescue mission and be a part of things that will last forever.
00:01:05
Speaker
If you're someone who's curious about God, you're wondering, okay, what is this really like to pray to God or be connected to him? What does it take to be connected to God? I'm glad you're here.
00:01:17
Speaker
In John 1 verse 12 in the Bible, it says how to get connected to God. To as many as received him, Jesus, he gave the right to become children of God.
00:01:29
Speaker
When you open your heart, and your mind to trust in Jesus and his life, his death on the cross, raising from the dead for you, you're adopted into his family.
Role of the Holy Spirit in Prayer
00:01:42
Speaker
You have the Holy Spirit that takes up residence inside of you. It changes your heart and your mind, giving you the power to love other people, to forgive, to make different choices, and the Holy Spirit pulls you toward prayer.
00:01:56
Speaker
I believe that we will pray more, that we'll think about praying for people, and we'll be more attuned to opportunities to pray during the day if we think differently about it.
Understanding Prayer as a Privilege
00:02:10
Speaker
Prayer isn't a duty. It's a privilege. It's an opportunity to connect with God who's both above all things and extremely personal on an individual level.
00:02:22
Speaker
In the last episode, we talked about standing for good by praying against evil. Prayer happens when you see the world's messed up, it's broken, there's evil, and you think, this should not be happening.
00:02:34
Speaker
But it is. And you pray. We can stand for good by praying against evil. Today's point is, go ahead and pray about what is broken.
00:02:46
Speaker
So let's pray and see what God does. Pray along with me.
Practical Prayers for Real-Life Issues
00:02:51
Speaker
God, today my son is sick. It's a reminder I live in a world that's messed up, but I'm also bummed that he's sick.
00:03:00
Speaker
makes me sad. God, would you heal him up today? Would you help him and his toddler mind and body to get the rest that he needs? God, there are other things that are broken, I'm sure, in the lives of people listening to this.
00:03:13
Speaker
Maybe their own health, relationships, events in the world at large. I don't know, but you know. God, would you give them a real sense right now that you notice them and that you care about them?
00:03:25
Speaker
Amen. Go ahead and pray about what is broken. We don't only want to pray for things that are systemically wrong, although that's a good idea.
00:03:36
Speaker
But we can really get more practical in our own lives and in the lives of our friends and students that we're around. What is broken in their life? Pray about that.
00:03:47
Speaker
Pray for the young leader that they would think differently about money so they can save money and pay down debt. Pray for a student in the detention center that he wouldn't harden his heart and mind against God or turn to life on the streets. Pray for his mind to change.
00:04:04
Speaker
Pray for your longtime family member who has hostility toward believing in Jesus. Ask God for real healing for physical problems and illness. Pray against violence in neighborhoods where we serve students. Pray against human trafficking that young teens caught up in exploitation would escape, that they would not want to return to the life, that they would meet God, that they, because of their trauma, that God would enable them to calm down and experience peace so they can do their math homework today.
00:04:34
Speaker
And you know last week I prayed for some high schoolers that were coming to a meeting I was at that they they could pay attention in the haze of being on their phones and playing video games.
00:04:45
Speaker
I got to see that. They did. We can go ahead and pray about what is broken. A few weeks back, I prayed about ah work conflict, really miscommunication and misunderstanding with a coworker. You've probably had a lot of those like I have.
00:05:03
Speaker
This is a consistent pattern now. This person reacts in ways that I view are harsh, and that makes me respond a certain way and get defensive. It's really not helpful, especially when we're supposed to work on stuff together.
00:05:15
Speaker
So I drove to work. I was praying. I really started out as a complaint, but I was asking God, you have to do something different here. I don't want to get stuck in the same trap and situation.
00:05:27
Speaker
And by the time I got to work, I just had this sense I need to give empathy and to get curious about the other person rather than to react to ask some questions about where they're coming from.
00:05:40
Speaker
That was super helpful. We can go ahead and pray about what's broken.
Biblical Examples of Prayer
00:05:45
Speaker
We're going to look at two examples in the Bible. First is Psalm 109. David is being accused by people, and he writes this Don't be silent, O God of my praise. Wicked and deceitful mouths are open against me, speaking against me with a lying tongues.
00:06:02
Speaker
They encircle me with words of hate and attack me without cause. In return for my love, they accuse me, but I give myself to prayer. And then later in the psalm, he says, With my mouth, I will give great thanks to the Lord.
00:06:13
Speaker
I will praise him in the midst of the assembly, for he stands at the right hand of the needy one. In a later passage, he says, I know the Lord will maintain the cause of the afflicted and execute justice for the needy.
00:06:27
Speaker
This is who God is. But we get to experience that when we pray about things that are broken. that he stands at the right hand of the needy one. In the New Testament, in Acts 4, second example, someone was begging for money.
00:06:42
Speaker
And Peter and John, instead, they didn't have money, but they offered this person something far greater, real healing. A miracle occurs, someone is healed physically, people took notice, and the religious leaders of the day, they were upset, they were conflicted on how to respond,
00:06:59
Speaker
And so they brought Peter and John and the man who was healed into a type of court to stand trial. They wanted to punish Peter and John for the commotion, which is odd because they got to bring God's healing to someone who needed it.
00:07:14
Speaker
But instead, the religious leaders threatened them with further harm. Peter and John leave, and we have written down what they prayed about. It says, when they were were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and elders said to them.
00:07:29
Speaker
When they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them. God is above everything.
00:07:40
Speaker
They pray ah couple verses later and say, Truly in this city, In our community, they were gathered against your holy servant Jesus that you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan and predestine to take place.
00:07:59
Speaker
Now, in the situation they were in Lord, look upon their threats, grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
00:08:15
Speaker
Yeah. They prayed about what is broken. They recognized God is above everything. He's powerful, but he wants to be involved. Go ahead and pray about what is broken.
Addressing Unfixable Brokenness through Prayer
00:08:28
Speaker
My challenge to you is identify and pray about what's broken around you. What can't you fix? Habits that lead towards some destructive outcome. relationship problems, confusion over a work conflict, seeing brokenness in the lives of students, realizing how rough their home life is.
00:08:48
Speaker
Take the bold step. Pray and ask God to move in the broken situation. Ask him to change it. Since he is good, ask him to show his goodness in the midst of a broken situation.
00:09:02
Speaker
Pray for heart change, for attitude change, for change in people's thinking. God wants to hear that. He wants you to be a part of that. Go ahead and pray about what is broken.
Preview of Next Episode
00:09:14
Speaker
Next time, we're going to look at how God helps us when we pray. You don't need to be a prayer ninja or expert to pray. I certainly am not. And one of the main verses I rely on is what we're going to look at next time that explains how God helps us when we pray.