Transcript
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.
Speaker: Is your prayer life a bit dry? Maybe it's because you're trying to talk to God without listening to Him first. How do we move from knowing facts about the Bible and about God to letting these truths settle our hearts and drive our prayers?
Speaker: Let's look at how to turn your reading into a real-time connection with your Creator. Let God's truth fuel your brain and settle your heart to pray. When you do this, you move from connecting to God out of duty to friendship. Let's pray and see what God does. Pray along with me. God, so many of us, myself included, we long to have an experience of you speaking to us, communicating something that we need now. Thank you that you can use anything,
Speaker: and any person to get our attention and that you have already spoken to us through your word in the bible you say the bible is living and active it's like spiritual food and you want to use it to grow me and to grow us would you use your truth to grow us today amen well shared this quote last time in episode 23 and if you haven't listened to that one go back one episode and press play You'll get more of the context. But this is a quote from George Mueller.
Speaker: He says, I scarcely ever suffer now in this way. Meaning, when he ah prayed, it used to be dry and boring, and it took a long time to kind of get in the groove. But he said, something happened where that stopped. For my heart being nourished by the truth, being brought into experiential fellowship with God, I speak to my father and to my friend.
Speaker: vile though I am and unworthy of it, about the things he's brought before me in his precious word. It often now astonishes me I did not sooner see this point.
Speaker: Mueller's talking about a genuine dialogue with God, viewing God as his friend, and the closer you get to God, the more you realize, like I have,
Speaker: We can agree with Mueller. We are vile. The more you understand of who God is and the length he has gone to love us, to forgive us, to send his son Jesus to die for us, the more we realize how unworthy we are of that.
Speaker: Well, Mueller realized if he started prayer by talking to God first, it would take 30 minutes or more to focus fighting distraction the whole time. Maybe that's like you. It's like me.
Speaker: His problems and anxieties would seem larger, while Mueller's pivot was to listen to God first through the Bible, letting God's words in the Bible nourish his heart. Then he would pray to God about what he had just read.
Speaker: He moved from a monologue of duty to a dialogue of friendship. And the point is, when you let God's word fuel your brain and settle your heart, you move from duty to friendship. Listen to these verses from 1 Peter 5 in the New Testament. If you're sitting down in front of a Bible, pause it for a second and flip to 1 Peter 5.
Speaker: If you're driving, great, listen along. So I exhort the elders among you as a fellow elder and witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that's going to be revealed.
Speaker: Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock.
Speaker: And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another.
Speaker: For God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.
Speaker: Be sober-minded and be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brothers throughout the world.
Speaker: And after you've suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.
Speaker: To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. After hearing this, ask yourself, who is God in this passage? What does it say about Him? Well, from the first verse all the way through verse 14, it says, God is the suffering Savior.
Speaker: He's the God of glory. He lives in glory He will reveal His glory and He's going to show it to us. He works in us to give us a willing heart. He's the chief shepherd. He's the rewarder. He resists the proud but gives grace, undeserved kindness to the humble. And He exalts the humble. He lifts them up.
Speaker: It says we can cast our anxieties on Him because He cares for us. He gives us the power to resist the devil. He's the God of all grace. He's eternal, glorious. He calls us. He redeems our experiences of suffering.
Speaker: He perfects, establishes, strengthens. He settles us. He has dominion and rule. He gives us grace to stand, and He's the God of peace. When you let God's Word fuel your brain and settle your heart to pray,
Speaker: You move from duty to friendship. It changes how you pray. And we're noticing what these verses say about who God is. And this helps you to pause and to praise God for who he is, to remember who you're talking to.
Speaker: But these verses give focus and they give substance of what to thank God for. Here's a few examples of how you might pray based on these verses.
Speaker: God, I praise you and thank you that you have shown your grace when you forgive me and you give me the experience of my shame and guilt being taken away.
Speaker: I worship you because your hand is mighty to save and rescue people. Thank you that you've rescued me." And these Bible verses and truths about God might nudge you towards a response.
Speaker: God, I want to surrender my attitude of compulsion and duty. Instead, would you make me willing to serve my coworkers? to listen to people and give them my attention.
Speaker: I want to surrender my attitude of greed or dishonest gain in this situation I'm in. And the Holy Spirit might give you specific ideas of what to pray about, like maybe a relationship you've got. For me, God, can you help me be an example to my three kids as I serve them as their dad?
Speaker: Can you help my friend Andrew submit to you in their relationship with co-workers and managers at work in a difficult work environment? And can you give him humility and grace as he deals with new coworkers joining his team?
Speaker: These are just some starter thoughts to get you going, but they're thoughts based on God's truth. We can let God's truth fuel our brain to pray. And this is how we move from duty to friendship and change how we pray.
Speaker: Well, The challenge is, if you haven't listened to episode 23, go back and do that. But listen back through or read these verses and pick a phrase, a thought about God and bring that into your prayer.
Speaker: You know, what do you do when a verse actually jumps off the page at you? Most of us just highlight it and move on. But what if that spark was meant to be the fuel for your prayer life? That's why we're looking at this, is that I want to show you how to let God's truth settle your heart and give you the exact words you need to say back to Him.
Speaker: So go back to these verses. You can read, scroll through it, pay attention to what jumps off the page at you. Let these verses move you from duty to friendship and change how you pray.
Speaker: And then tomorrow, pick your own Bible verses, read them through and do the same thing. And if you want an example of this from the Psalms in the Old Testament, check out episode six, using the Psalms to help us pray.
Speaker: Share this podcast with friends, family, young people you know who are interested in connecting with God or could use some encouragement. And if there are things that you wonder about or you wanna hear about with prayer,
Speaker: Send me an email at pray, P-R-A-Y, at C-O-Y-F-C.org. Pray and See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ.
