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Episode 16 - Ask God to Bless People
33 Plays2 months ago
When you're struggling to find the words to pray, know that God is still listening. We can fill confident about praying for others because we are in line with Gods will. It's exciting to see more of your God's goodness in people's lives.
Email pray@coyfc.org with topic suggestions, or to link up with a prayer team!
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
- Central Ohio Youth for Christ: www.coyfc.org
- Gracehaven: www.gracehavenohio.org
- WellSpring Columbus: www.wellspringcolumbus.org
- Equip Skills Center: www.equipskillscenter.com
- Equip Auto: www.equipautosales.com
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Transcript
Introduction to Pray and See Podcast
00:00:07
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.
Moving to Specific Prayers
00:00:22
Speaker
Starting today, we're going to look at what to pray for. and past episodes, we gave a simple framework to pray, and now I want to double click and go just a little deeper on what do you ask for? What do you pray?
00:00:37
Speaker
So let's pray and see what God does. Pray along with me. God, I thank you that you're good, that you were kind. When ah think about you, God, i realize you are way more loving to me than I deserve.
00:00:54
Speaker
Thank you that in Jesus, you died in my place so I could start a relationship with you. It means I can pray to you at any time. You're listening.
00:01:06
Speaker
You care about what I'm talking to you about. God, would you show me and the rest of us today how we can pray in a way that lines up with what you care about so we can see more of your goodness in people's lives?
00:01:21
Speaker
Amen.
Communicating Prayer Requests
00:01:22
Speaker
So maybe you think of your friend or some students, you want to pray for them. Where do you go next? Well, you could send them a text. That's what I do some of the time. you can You can ask them, hey, what can I pray for for you?
00:01:36
Speaker
What if they don't respond? What if you feel awkward about sending a text? Well, you could look at Jesus's example and his teaching here because it's helpful
Understanding God's Will in Prayer
00:01:46
Speaker
for guidance. What does he say?
00:01:48
Speaker
Even in the Lord's Prayer in Matthew 6, when his followers ask him, can you teach us how to pray like you? He says, ah address God as our Father in heaven.
00:02:03
Speaker
He prays, would your kingdom come and would your will be done? What does that mean for God's will to be done?
00:02:14
Speaker
Is that something that we can pray that's general? Yeah, I think it is. That's a great start. God, would your will be done in this person's life? But we can get a little more specific on what this is. so We can get a little more detail to pray that God's plans, his intentions, what he wants to happen, would happen in this person's life.
00:02:38
Speaker
And this isn't a recipe or formula. We're trying to learn how to relate to God in a dynamic way. And looking at things, we can ask him for other people, even for yourself that are in line with his will.
00:02:52
Speaker
But let's take a step back. When we ask, okay, what what even is God's will? How can we know what it is? The Bible tells us God desires for every person to come to know him.
00:03:04
Speaker
If you're questioning, is there a God? How do I find out? God wants to be found by you. You can ask him to show himself to you. He wants every person to have the opportunity to be forgiven by him, to be able to relate to
Praying for God's Blessings
00:03:21
Speaker
him freely. He doesn't force this on anyone, but invites people into a relationship with him.
00:03:27
Speaker
he He doesn't want people to live under a sense of shame or guilt, but to experience his kindness. through Jesus Christ. If this is what God wants, how do we pray for that?
00:03:39
Speaker
How do we pray in line with this? Are there go-to prayers that we can genuinely ask God for? Yeah, I think there is. Here's one that has been resonating with me in more recent years.
00:03:56
Speaker
ask God to bless people. We can ask that God would bless people. And this isn't trite. This is a meaningful, valuable prayer.
00:04:09
Speaker
What does it mean for God to bless? I said, he shows his goodness, his kindness, and love to people in his way. And i think on his terms. In the Old Testament in Numbers,
00:04:23
Speaker
Number six, 24 through 26. It says, the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.
00:04:35
Speaker
The Lord lift up his countenance on you and give you peace. God blessing is he's protecting, he's keeping, he's watching over. Whenever the Bible says God makes his face to shine upon you, it's not saying that God has a face like mine.
00:04:54
Speaker
It's that there would be a felt reality of God's presence and provision. Would God be gracious? All of these things, what would God give you peace are wrapped up in asking God to bless people.
Personal Stories of Prayer's Impact
00:05:11
Speaker
Wesley Duell says, while this is a very general prayer, it can be both deep and emphatic. I agree. It expresses the heart of God who longs to bless everyone.
00:05:24
Speaker
Needs may vary, but some form of blessing is the answer to every need. Over the summer, I was playing with my band at a music festival and you know i was scrolling through social media one morning, ah ran across a post from a friend who was local to the area we were in in Ohio.
00:05:50
Speaker
Her post talked about life change and we had hung out with her before and I had some free time so I sent her a text just asking, hey, are you doing okay?
00:06:02
Speaker
When she responded back, I i thought, hey, i should I should ask her, what can I pray for you today? And i actually did. i didn't know if she was gonna respond.
00:06:13
Speaker
And she said, could you pray for peace for me in this situation? I didn't know what that was gonna look like. I sat down and prayed that God would bless Holly and give her peace.
00:06:26
Speaker
But even as I was praying that, I thought, how is God gonna do that? i don't I have no idea. i saw her later that night at the festival and I i just said, hey, how was your day today? How did it go?
00:06:41
Speaker
And she turned to me and said, i don't know what you guys did. But it worked. I what do you mean? and And she said, well, I think you prayed for me.
00:06:52
Speaker
said, yeah, we did actually. God blessed Holly and gave her peace in a way that was personal to her. In James 1 17, it says every good gift and perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change.
00:07:13
Speaker
Just a few nights ago, we were having a Bible study with some young leaders. One guy couldn't make it, and he's had some car trouble. He was working on his car, and we ended our study a little bit early. And I texted him, and I just felt like, you know, maybe I should go and check in and see if he needs help.
00:07:35
Speaker
So he was putting an alternator in his car and it was about to get dark. So got to hold a flashlight, help him wrench a little bit. We get the alternator in and then we, we pulled my car up to his to get ready to jump it.
00:07:51
Speaker
And the first time it didn't work. The second time it didn't work. He gets out. We're talking about whether or not to get a new battery.
00:08:02
Speaker
And I realized that, we didn't pray. So I grabbed this guy and I said, Hey, Damien, we didn't pray.
00:08:13
Speaker
So we should do that. And he kind of chuckled and said, up okay. And i just told God out loud, this guy is trying to put his life together.
00:08:27
Speaker
He keeps running into car problems. He just spent money on an alternator. We're trying to fix this, God. I really don't want him to have to get a new battery. Would you bless Damien and provide for him and start his car?
00:08:42
Speaker
I didn't know what was gonna happen. Right after I prayed that, he gets in the car, starts it up and it works. And 30 seconds later, jumps out and laughs and said, okay, I guess that worked.
Sharing the Podcast's Mission
00:08:55
Speaker
you know we asked god to bless him we can ask god to bless people here's a challenge think right now who does god want to bless that you know ask god to bring someone to your mind right now ask god to bless them to show his goodness to them hey if this was helpful to you send it on to someone else These episodes have helped me personally to connect with young people across Youth for Christ, my friends, family members, and it's been a good conversation starter.
00:09:32
Speaker
What about your friends, your family, students you're with? You can pass this on to them if it's been helpful. Pray and See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
00:09:42
Speaker
You can find us on social media to see more of what God's doing in changing young people's lives around Central Ohio. We'll see you next time on Pray and See podcast.