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13: How To Pray? Where To Pray? When To Pray?
219 Plays4 years ago
Today, Ryan Pfendler sits down with Pastor Chuck Schlie. You may remember Chuck from Episode 5 with Laura Fleetwood. In that episode, he tackled the question/topic of “Who is God?”. In this week’s episode, Chuck tackles the topic of prayer.
Highlights from the episode include:
*Formal vs. Informal Prayer
*The wording of the Lord’s Prayer
*Patience
*The sentiment of “thoughts & prayers”
*Public prayers
*Being a parent puts prayer into perspective
*Good Morning and Goodnight, Lord: Daily Prayers for Rise & Rest by Chuck Schlie
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Normal Goes A Long Way is brought to you by Messiah St. Charles: https://messiahstcharles.org/
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Transcript
Jill Devine's New Faith Podcast
00:00:00
Speaker
The following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. Christianity has become known for judgy people, strange words, ancient stories, confusing rules, and a members-only mindset. This is why I stayed away from the church for so long, but it's not supposed to be that way. I'm Jill Devine, a former radio personality with three tattoos, a love for a good tequila, and who's never read the entire Bible.
00:00:24
Speaker
Yet here I am hosting a podcast about faith.
Introducing 'Normal Goes a Long Way'
00:00:28
Speaker
The Normal Goes Along Way podcast is your home for real conversations with real people using real language about how faith and real life intersect. Welcome to the conversation.
00:00:40
Speaker
This is episode 13 of normal goes a
Episode 13: Who is God?
00:00:43
Speaker
long way. I'm your host Jill Devine. And this week, Ryan Finler is sitting down with Pastor Chuck Shlee. Pastor Chuck was part of episode five, who is God? And he talked about the question slash topic of who is God with Laura Fleetwood.
Understanding Prayer with Ryan and Chuck
00:01:01
Speaker
Well, Ryan is going to ask Pastor Chuck all about prayer in this week's episode.
00:01:08
Speaker
We are here with Pastor Chuck Schli, and it's good to be here. Chuck, we've been working together how many years now? Oh man, it seems like a thousand, but I believe five or six. Five, yeah. You know, I call you so many different things here to the younger kids, your Pastor Schli, the older kids, your Pastor Chuck. To me though, you're just Chuck, so. Sounds good. That's what I'm gonna call you today. But Chuck, we are here today to talk about prayer. All right, let's go.
00:01:37
Speaker
You know, you've been praying for a while now, I can assume, right? Yeah, you can assume that. Yeah, and you're kind of an expert on prayer. No, I'm not an expert on prayer, but I love the topic. Before we get into how do you pray and how often should I pray and what should prayer look like? I think a big question that I would love to hear answered from you. For the average person out there, they might be thinking,
00:02:04
Speaker
I don't need to know how often I need to pray. I don't need to know what kind of prayers I spray. None of it matters if it doesn't do anything. And before we get into the mechanics of prayer, does prayer even work? Have you seen prayer work?
00:02:23
Speaker
Okay, a short answer, yes it does. Let me give you a little story if you don't mind.
Miracles in Uganda through Prayer
00:02:32
Speaker
I'll pull up a chair and listen to this. I travel to Uganda, oh I've been there about 15, 16, 17 times and we do some good work there. It's a blessing, it's a joy and
00:02:43
Speaker
serve some kids and build some schools and make relationships. But way back when, maybe my first or second time I went to Uganda, I was hanging out just enjoying a cold brew on the streets of Jinja and it's kind of a busy little town actually.
00:03:01
Speaker
And just hanging out and a couple of these street kids, and there's many, many street kids who have been orphaned and they're just kind of running around and, you know, doing their thing. And, and they kind of try to just strike up a conversation with me. And I got to know them a little bit and they showed me the back alley where they, where they sleep. A couple of,
00:03:25
Speaker
12, 13, 14 year old kids. And I was really struck by that. I saw the cardboard in the back alley and they were asking for food and stuff like that and okay. And then it was time for me to get back on the bus and go back to the hotel.
00:03:41
Speaker
And I had a great meal that night like I do every night when I'm in Uganda and enjoyed good company and good food and went back to the hotel and slept in my nice warm bed. And I got to thinking about those boys that here I am, full belly, sleeping in this nice, warm, comfortable bed. And I started thinking about these two kids on the street who are hungry and who just sleep on cardboard with, you know,
00:04:11
Speaker
Not much. And I was feeling so bad. I was feeling guilty and feeling terrible for them and maybe even for me and
00:04:20
Speaker
And so I offered up a prayer and it wasn't one of those formal prayers. It was more like one of those, this sucks Lord. I just hate this. Why is this? This is just the worst. Here I am and here they are and I don't know what to do about it. So I'm giving it to you. And I don't know what to do about this Lord. And so I started thinking about solutions. I said, Lord, here's what I want.
00:04:50
Speaker
Would you send someone to those boys? And I'm like, no, no, send someone to those boys tonight. And I'm like, no, no, send a Christian to those two boys tonight. And I'm like, no, no, send a good, really great Christian to those boys tonight. Amen. They're all yours. Good night.
00:05:11
Speaker
next day, I run into my good buddy, he happens to be the big deal in Uganda. He's one of the pastors, the pastor of pastors in Uganda, his name's Charles. And I just asked him a question. I said, Hey, Charles, I said, there are a lot of street kids, you know, running around in ginger, it seems like they're all over the place. Oh, yeah, big problem in ginger. I said, you know, I met a couple of boys last night, yesterday. He goes, Oh,
00:05:40
Speaker
He goes, I met a couple of boys last night myself. I said, what? And he started describing the situation. And he met the same exact two boys that I was talking about, because later we connected.
00:05:57
Speaker
And long story short, I and a friend of mine ended up sponsoring these two boys, giving them a home where they could get their education, giving them a place to stay at night and a nice warm bed and making sure they got at least three meals a day. And so long story, long story. But yeah, God really showed up that night and he really showed off.
00:06:22
Speaker
Yeah. You know, stories like that and prayers like that stick with you. I mean, how many dinner prayers have I said in my life that I've forgotten? How many prayers have you said in your life that you don't even remember what you prayed for, but moments like that stick
Transformative Power of Prayer
00:06:36
Speaker
with you? Yeah. I wish, you know, that's probably my best one. I gave you like my top one. I've got many, many others where I'm like, um, nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing where nothing happens.
00:06:48
Speaker
Yeah. That I can see. How did that moment, did it change your prayer life? Or did it open your eyes to prayer in a way you hadn't seen it before? Yes. All of a sudden, it gets real.
00:07:01
Speaker
which is, you know, everything. It's not just going through some motion or some ritual or, you know, I should do this, but it actually works. It's real. God's real. Yeah. I connected to you that urgency you felt that night in your room, that weight and that urgency. I remember, you know, to throw a similar story for my own life out there, there was a weight and an urgency I had in my heart.
00:07:25
Speaker
over a friend of mine who didn't know the Lord. And I remember one night grabbing this, a friend of mine who did know Jesus, we were both believers, both wanting this friend to come to faith. And I said, we've got to pray for this guy tonight. I can't let the night go by if we don't pray over the soul of our friend. And when, you know, a year later, the guy we prayed for gets baptized in my apartment pool. And I remember that prayer that we prayed on the sidewalk
00:07:56
Speaker
It changed me. And I'm like, this, this is an answered prayer. I remember in the moment thinking, God, give me another one, right? You know, you want to see that happen again. And it makes prayer go from something that you've got to do, something that, okay, it's dinnertime, kids. Let's say this prayer we say every day. It goes from something mechanic to something very real and very powerful. Right. It goes from a chore to this great opportunity.
00:08:25
Speaker
And so if you're listening to this and you haven't had a moment like that yet in your life, just give God some time and maybe listen to some of the things that we're going to be talking about today, which is how to pray. What does it look like to pray? But let's start very simple, Chuck. A common question people have and Jill and I were talking about this. Is there a wrong way to pray? How should I pray?
00:08:53
Speaker
Am I going to pray in a way that makes God not like me? What does prayer even look like?
Prayer as Relationship with God
00:09:00
Speaker
You know, give us the how tos. Sure. Prayer is really about relationship and we have, God wants a relationship with us. And so he invites us, wants us, longs for us. He wants to hear from us. It's such a
00:09:23
Speaker
a wonderful thing. We think of a famous person, I don't know, pick one, Will Smith or something like that. What if he called us up and said, hey, I really want to talk with you.
00:09:35
Speaker
I want to hear what you have to say. I want you to ask me for anything you need. We would be like blown away. God wants that. God invites us into a life, a relationship, to have an ongoing conversation and nothing deepens the relationship, in my opinion, better than prayer.
00:10:00
Speaker
And so prayer is really just having this ongoing conversation with God. And Jesus says, call him Father, which was outrageous at the time. Nobody called God the God, the Holy God. You know, they didn't even pronounce his name. They didn't even say his name in the Old Testament because he was that holy. And Jesus says, I'll do it like this. Call him Daddy. What? The disciples were shocked by that.
00:10:31
Speaker
He says, oh, he wants you to see him as your father, as a good father, as a loving father who wants to take care of you and listen to you and give you good things. Your original question, is there such thing as a bad prayer? Oh, I suppose there is, but I can't really think of it. If you're praying for like, God, smite that person, kill them. Okay, that's a bad prayer. But really, no.
00:11:00
Speaker
I like to say that just like a child, like a little child cannot do a bad coloring, you know, when they're coloring a Christian or somebody coming to God in prayer cannot do a bad prayer. For me, I'm like, God does not judge our prayers like, Oh, that was a good one. Okay. I'll answer that one. Or, Oh, no, not so good. No, no, no. Don't get hung up on that.
00:11:26
Speaker
Yeah, and I think prayer can be something where the more you do it, the more you see God at work, where if you're absent from that relationship with him, you're not gonna see the ways that he's moving in your life. But if you're pursuing that relationship with him,
00:11:40
Speaker
I'm going to guess you're going to see God moving in ways that you might not have picked up before.
Cultural Perspectives on Prayer
00:11:45
Speaker
One of the beautiful things is that prayer changes you. It changes you too. And it softens your heart. And it's really important that we get the words out because we might
00:12:00
Speaker
thank it every once in a while, but when we take the time to spend this time talking to God and getting the words out, it kind of reveals the heart and it opens up the heart. And so I think it also softens the heart and deepens it too.
00:12:17
Speaker
Yeah, and the things you pray for, like you said, reveal what's going on inside of you. I'm curious, have you seen as someone who's gone from a wealthy Western country like the US and gone to Uganda in Africa many times, how do you see our prayers here different from the prayers there?
00:12:38
Speaker
Yeah, and this is more something. Here it is. It comes down to this. We I'll talk about me. I when I'm going through a tough time.
00:12:51
Speaker
I pray that God would get me out of it. Fix this now, which is good, honest prayer. And that's honesty is the best prayer. So that's cool. I said, God, get me out of this. Fix this. Change it.
00:13:11
Speaker
And I think those in other places, the poorer places of the world where people are literally praying for daily bread and where there's great suffering, what they pray for is more faith to go through this tough time. Give me the strength to bear it. And that's humbling. Why do you think they pray like that?
00:13:38
Speaker
I think it comes down to relationship. And they are so dependent upon God, that they talk to him often. And they have a deep, deeper relationship, I think, then than most because we can kind of fix most of our own problems. Yeah, with money, know how people we know. So
00:14:00
Speaker
They really, you know, are praying for daily bread where when I pray for daily bread, you know, fans look at my house, I've got like a whole refrigerator, I got a whole closet full of food. Yeah, I know the grocery stores that I got money in my pocket. Really? Yeah, I've got two weeks stored up. So when I pray for daily bread, you know, it, you know, and my friends in Uganda pray for daily bread, two different, you know, needs going on there.
00:14:29
Speaker
Yeah, the removal of the hard time makes life easier on you. Bearing to the hard time brings you closer to God. Yeah, it's a good way to say it.
00:14:39
Speaker
I think that's God's ultimate goal with us in prayer, is not for your life to be easy, but to be drawn closer to Him. So I'll tell you the truth, when I get to the prayer, you would talk about the Lord's Prayer and there's that line, give us this day our daily
Gratitude and God’s Provisions
00:14:51
Speaker
bread. When I'm praying to God, I say, I don't say give us this day, my daily bread. I say, thank you. Thank you for my daily bread. I don't even ask that because I already have it. So it's like, thank you.
00:15:06
Speaker
Talking about the Lord's Prayer, I think that's a good, you know, we do this with our middle school kids at our church.
00:15:13
Speaker
But we use the Lord's Prayer as a guide for them on how to pray. And it's the way Jesus taught us to pray. So I'm like, well, it's got to be a pretty good way to pray then. If Jesus came up with it, it's probably pretty good. Yeah. So if you look at it, you know, I'll say it. Our Father, who art in heaven, how will be thy name or holy be your name? Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
00:15:38
Speaker
Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. Leads not unto temptation, but delivers from evil. What would you say when you look at that prayer, what are some things you take from that on, oh, these are some things we should include in our prayer life by looking at the Lord's prayer.
00:16:01
Speaker
Right, I think that that prayer starts out with, if I could summarize it, wow, which is all about how great God is. Wow, holy are you, awesome are you.
00:16:17
Speaker
You're wonderful. You're fantastic. That's how it starts out. And then we get to kind of like, help or, and then we turn into thanks. And I think those three words are my three favorite words to summarize.
00:16:32
Speaker
what prayer should be about, which is wow, help, and thanks. A lot of thanks and a lot of wow. Yeah, I could definitely do better on the thanks and the wow. I'm often a help me kind of prayer person. There's nothing wrong with that. Good, okay. Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that. He wants us to ask and for sure. But I think we forget maybe the other two parts of it. Yeah. Like wow.
00:17:02
Speaker
Thanks. And I think, um, it'll help when you become a dad. Okay. Um, I'm a father of five and I love when my kids talk to me, I love that they come to me with anything, whether it's a problem like help, I'm out of gas again or help. I need some money for tuition or whatever thing is help. Yeah. I'm happy to help. I want you to come to me. I don't want you walking around with this problem. I want you to come to me cause I'm the guy who can help. Love to help you.
00:17:31
Speaker
But if all they want to do is talk about help, help, help, okay, all right, it's great when my kids say, you're great, you know that? And every once in a while they tell me that. How wonderful to hear that from my kid to tell me, you're great at that. That was good.
00:17:54
Speaker
And then I love it when they say, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. That just, I just love to hear it. So I like to hear, I love you every once in a while. I like to hear, thank you every once in a while. And I love to hear how they feel about me. Yeah. You know, it makes sense too though, if you're asking God for help and then he helps you,
00:18:20
Speaker
you should probably thank him and say, you're great for helping me. But you know, I get caught in the trap of I ask God, Lord, help me with this thing. I get through the thing and okay, great. Then I move on to the next thing and I forget to thank the dude who got me through it, you know? And so it's, I think gratitude should just be not even always something you
00:18:44
Speaker
manufacturing your prayers, but it should be maybe a natural reaction to the goodness that God's shown you, right? It shouldn't feel manufactured if you've got a relationship with him. Probably my favorite prayer and write this one down is from Garrison Keeler of all people. But a long time ago, he said this prayer and I always remember it. I pray this one at least once a day, which is thank you, Lord,
00:19:09
Speaker
for this good life and forgive me when I do not love it enough. And so I think a great way to wake up in the morning is with prayer and not, you don't have to do formal. You open your eyes and you go, I can see. Oh, thank you for another shot at doing life. And I know you hate to get out of bed. I hate to get out of bed, but you could turn that into a prayer of thanksgiving.
00:19:37
Speaker
Thank you, Lord, that I've got a bed that I love so much. I love it. Thank you for a pillow. And then you go turn on the water water. Wow. It's water from a wall. Amazing, you know, and then you get in the shower and you can adjust it just the way you want. Little hot little cold, just the way you like it. Thank you, Lord.
00:19:53
Speaker
What is this? Why do I get to have a nice warm shower in the morning? And then you get dressed, look at all these clothes, which one to choose? Oh my gosh, so how many choices? Wow, God, you blessed me again. And you could just pop tarts, whatever the thing is, and you could just kind of go throughout the day.
00:20:09
Speaker
thanking God. They don't have to be big, you know, only spread. You just go, thanks. That's cool. Thank you for this. Thank you for that. Yeah. It sounds to me like, you know, it starts with an awareness.
Trusting God's Will in Prayer
00:20:20
Speaker
If you go to scripture, you know, you could read where it says the earth is the Lord's and everything in it, which means everything around you is something to be thanking God for. To move on to an interesting question that a lot of people have that we looked at that story of answered prayers at the beginning. And we know that God answers prayers. I've seen it. You've seen it.
00:20:40
Speaker
But something interesting that I heard actually in the podcast we do with Dr. Berno is he was talking about ancient cultures believed that God was with them in everything they did.
00:20:54
Speaker
So if they go to war, well, our God's on our side and we're gonna win. And if we do something to those people that we just got into war with, well, God's on our side and he's almost like with us doing it, right? Like a good luck charm. We don't go to war on a daily basis, you and I, but I think in a similar vein, people might fall into this belief that, well, if I pray for it, God should just give it to me.
00:21:21
Speaker
Right. Because I'm, I'm a believer, I'm God's representative. And so if he wants to look good, he's going to give me what I asked for. Right. What do you think about that? Yeah, I think, uh, we don't want to use God for our own, you know, selfish purposes, help me win the lottery. I swear I'll give half of the way. Um, I think probably that little line that Jesus gave us in the Lord's prayer,
00:21:48
Speaker
Thy will be done is the most profound thing we could ever pray. Because when we pray it, we're saying, you're God, I'm not God. We're saying,
00:22:04
Speaker
I'm giving it to you. Here's what I want. But ultimately I want what you want because I know that you have my best interests at heart. And even though I can't see it, I'm going to pray that I will be done. And even though I can come up with a solution, I'm going to pray that I will be done because you're God and I'm not. And so I'm just going to trust you even though, you know, I want you to fix this today.
00:22:34
Speaker
I think praying thy will be done is a big one. If you actually mean it, it's like letting a tiger out of a cage, you know, because he might just have you forgive someone that you don't want to forgive. He might have you go somewhere you don't want to go. He might have you stay somewhere you don't want to stay. He might have you, you know, it's like, whoa, okay, do you know what you're asking for when you pray that I will be done? It's saying, God,
00:23:03
Speaker
Seriously, I want you to do what you want to do in my life. And maybe that's how we should close out all of our prayers, whether we're asking for help on a test if we're in high school or Lord get me through. That never works. At least it doesn't work for me anyway. He was probably saying, why didn't you study for it? How about reading those books I gave you? How about listening to a teacher in front of you?
00:23:30
Speaker
Whether it's something like that or you're praying for a miracle to happen to someone sick that you love. Yeah, those are the toughest things of all. Yeah, closing it out with, I will be done. It gives you peace, I think. For me, when I remember whose will I'm asking to be done.
00:23:50
Speaker
Yeah, it really takes a load off because you don't have to be God. And you don't have to fix it. And you don't have to control it. So it's a very helpful thing to say that I will be done. Because we we remember, okay, the world will keep spinning without
00:24:05
Speaker
you know, my influence. Yeah. And I can turn it over to him. And he's the only one, you know, who can solve it the way I need it to be. I would like it to be solved. Yeah. Especially I'm thinking about people who are sick, like really sick. So maybe the question to ask if we're praying isn't God do whatever I say or else I'm going to be mad at you. But God
00:24:33
Speaker
Here's what I need from you and whatever you decide, I'm gonna stay faithful and trust that it's the right decision. Cause it's coming from you. Yeah. And that's, it's a super hard thing to do and a super mature thing to do. Um, and here's the good news is that God wants the relationship. So even if you are mad, yeah, it's okay. Yeah. I'm really mad at you. You're not answering my prayer, you know, and that's, that's a great prayer.
00:25:02
Speaker
That's an honest prayer. You read the Psalms, man, David's always spouting off at God. You're like, wow, David, you've got some guts. And God's totally, totally fine with that. If anybody can take it, it's him. He just wants honest. He just wants honest.
Honesty in Prayer vs. Clichés
00:25:20
Speaker
He wants a real honest to goodness relationship.
00:25:24
Speaker
We don't have to hide. We don't have to hide our feelings or our words like we do with other people. Not with God. Not with God. He knows. He knows. He loves. He forgives. And he says, my child, my child, it's okay. So I've got this. It's okay. I love that because it takes the load off this pressure of my prayers gotta be right. It's gotta be correct. I've got to deliver in the correct way. And if I don't,
00:25:54
Speaker
If I allow the emotions to come into it, if I don't have the right words put together, you look at the Psalms and this compilation of sadness, happiness, anger. So I love that. Uh, so if you feel this pressure to
00:26:15
Speaker
you know, write a prayer out and deliver in the right, correct way. Like you're giving a speech, you can let go of that pressure. Cause you're not giving a speech in front of your class. You're talking to your father who loves you. It's not a homework assignment.
00:26:32
Speaker
It would be like if you're just recently married, you know, it'd be like you coming home and having a prepared a speech for your wife, you know, every night. I just love you. I think you're great. You know, this chicken thing was really, really great. You know, thanks for that. Yeah.
00:26:52
Speaker
Instead, I humbly beseech the dear Jessica that you would be attentive to my pleas and no. She called me out once. She said, you're talking to me in your preacher voice. Please don't. I'm like, I'm sorry. I was thinking and talking in this way. Anyway, so I've already been guilty of that. Something interesting that Jill asked me to want to chat with you about.
00:27:18
Speaker
is you hear it on the news a lot. I don't have cable, so I don't hear it as much as I used to, but anytime there's a tragedy, people use this term, hey, our thoughts and prayers are with you. And she was like, is that legit? Is that, do people mean that?
00:27:35
Speaker
What does that even mean when they say it? Are they just trying to shoo me away when they say that, you know? When you hear that phrase, right? I think there are other people, right? If you go on social media now, people say like, hey, we need more than thoughts and prayers. So there's all these...
00:27:52
Speaker
range of feelings towards that phrase. What do you think about that? Yeah, we can't judge the human heart. So maybe some people actually made it and I'm gonna think about this and think about you and remember you and I'm gonna pray for you. Okay. And then I don't know, I would imagine that sometimes it's just a catchphrase. You know, you're watching the news and our thoughts are person and sometimes comes off a little shallow.
00:28:22
Speaker
I think what people are trying to do is somehow express, I care for you. And I think when we say our thoughts and prayers are with you, it's something deep within us that wants to be in touch with holy. We don't even know it sometimes, you know, maybe they're not Christian, but they say our thoughts and prayers are with you. There's something that we want to hollow. That's what that word hollow be the name. And they want in on that. Maybe even if they don't know it.
00:28:52
Speaker
I think there's something there, but it probably depends on the person. I think if I could challenge that phrase of we need more than thoughts and prayers, I think what we actually need is people to follow through when they say we're going to offer thoughts and prayers. Wouldn't it be great if somebody says, hey, I'm praying for you, and then you put them on the spot and say, okay, let's go for it. I've had that happen to me once or twice. Like, here now?
00:29:20
Speaker
Yeah. What is it like for you when someone comes up to you and say, look, I want to lay a hand on you and pray for you. Is that, are you cool with that? Are you like, that's a little weird. What do you think? It's kind of humbling that somebody thinks of me enough to want to pray
Chuck's Book on Prayer
00:29:42
Speaker
for me. Actually, I'm thinking like, wow. Um, really?
00:29:48
Speaker
like me that much or see something that, you know, in me that I'm kind of honored by it myself, but I could see it could very much weird someone out to say, you know, I'm going to put my hand on your shoulder and I'm going to pray for you. But I think most people appreciate it. I've never had anyone turn me down.
00:30:09
Speaker
even those not connected to Jesus. I'd say, Hey, do you mind if I, you know, they're going through a tough time because everyone's going through some kind of a tough time and you find out what their tough time is and you say, Hey, would it be cool if I pray for you? Yeah. And even if they don't believe in Jesus, they'll say, Yeah, cool. Yeah, it can't hurt. You know, that's fascinating. Yeah.
00:30:33
Speaker
I've always found it's a great starting point. If I walked up to a stranger with my Bible and said, let me share a verse with you, they'd be like, that's weird.
00:30:44
Speaker
And it is a little weird in our culture. Okay. Um, but if I offered, you know, I've offered to pray for my waiter or waitress, right? They're open to that, you know, breaking out my Bible might not go over so well, but starting with prayer, I think is a great place to start for people that don't know God. Um, it's probably the most widely accepted
00:31:10
Speaker
and widely appreciated spiritual practice, which means we should probably be doing it more. I think you're right. You wouldn't walk up to somebody with any other book and say, Hey, mind if I just read this book to you? Yeah. You know, why would you do that with the Bible? But, but people are open, definitely open to having someone pray for them. Speaking of,
00:31:32
Speaker
reading someone a book or reading from a book, you wrote a book on prayer, didn't you? Yes, but I wouldn't pull it out and read it to someone. Well, tell us a little bit about the book, your heart behind the book. It's the point of the book. Tell us a little bit about it. All right, let's go.
00:31:52
Speaker
book is more of a booklet. It is called Good Morning and Good Night, Lord. And it's kind of a first morning prayer and a prayer before you go to bed. And the reason I wrote it is because I had a whole bunch of free time during COVID and we were shut down and I had like a couple of months and I didn't know what to do with myself. But the heart behind it is
00:32:18
Speaker
You know, you preach on prayer, you teach on prayer, and there are people who say, sounds great, I'm in, what do I do? And they come into my office, I'm like, what do you do? You know, they just want to jumpstart. And so I would hand them this very formal little book on prayer that was written in the 1940s. And I use it, and it's really great. But it's kind of oldie. Yeah.
00:32:47
Speaker
And so I took the concept of these morning and evening prayers and kind of just tried to use everyday common, what I would call normal, goes a long way, language. And so, and I just tried to make the prayers a little different for each day, but they're filled with wow, help and thanks. And I tried to come up with stuff that maybe the average person just might not think of, but they're good things to pray.
00:33:18
Speaker
I'm looking at it right now, and each prayer takes about a page, so thank you for keeping it brief and simple. Oh, I appreciate that. And what's the title of the book? And if you were touched, by the way, by that story Chuck shared at the beginning about those boys in Uganda, some of the proceeds of this book, a big chunk of the proceeds of this book go to support the ministry that is reaching kids like those two boys in Uganda.
00:33:48
Speaker
What's the name of it? The name is Good Morning and Good Night, Lord. So a prayer for the morning, prayer for at night. And what I hope is that the prayers kind of kick off more thoughts and prayers that you might have. So it's kind of just like a little kickstart.
00:34:05
Speaker
And it's a good book to when you're done with it, pass it on someone else. For sure. Where can we find it? You can find it on this little thing. I think it's called amazon.com. Okay, I'll have to check them out. Yeah, yeah, you can go there and pick up a copy. They're pretty cheap. Like I said, all the half the proceeds go to this great little thing called Hearts and Hope Uganda. You can sponsor a child there in Uganda and give them an education and
00:34:32
Speaker
food and clothes and take care of them the way God takes care of us, and that's how God takes care of us. He works through people like you and me. And the other half of the proceeds go to Night to Shine, and that is a special evening, a prom-style night for our friends with some mental disabilities, and so we throw a big party for them, and so the other half of the proceeds go to that, so all a good cause.
Final Thoughts on Prayer
00:34:57
Speaker
I'll say this, I bet those proceeds are going to go towards answering some prayers for some people, which I love. So in our next episode, we're going to be digging deeper with Pastor Chuck. Jill's going to be asking her questions to Chuck and we're going to be excited to see what she wants to know about prayer. Amen.
00:35:19
Speaker
people can say, why do I pray if he knows? God answers prayers with a no sometimes. And in this case, we're talking about this young man, the answer seems to be slow. And then sometimes the answer is go. And those are the ones we love.
00:35:35
Speaker
So it's no slow or go, but he does answer. Sometimes we just don't like the answer, such as slow. The question, why do we pray if God already knows everything, it goes back to the relationship. He wants us to talk with him.