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Episode 32 - Inspire Young People to Pray ft. Marc Johnson
12 Plays3 days ago
In this special episode of Pray and See, Bryan Brookes sits down with longtime friend and mentor Marc Johnson to discuss how prayer transforms the lives of students and deepens our relationship with God. Through decades of ministry experience, answered prayers, and practical stories, they explore why creating space for young people to pray, listen for God's voice, and experience His faithfulness builds a lasting faith. Whether you're discipling students or growing in your own prayer life, this conversation will encourage you to expect God to move in personal and powerful ways.
Email pray@coyfc.org with topic ideas, or to link up with a prayer team!
Pray & See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ. Podcast Link - https://open.spotify.com/show/3yZLOjUt6Hu0XxuwLavLZv
- Central Ohio Youth for Christ: http://www.coyfc.org
- Gracehaven: http://www.gracehavenohio.org
- WellSpring Counseling: http://www.wellspringcolumbus.org
- Equip Skills Center: https://www.equipskillscenter.org/
#prayandsee #prayer #jesus #youthforchrist #bible #biblestudy #christian #discipleship #youthministry #podcast
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Transcript
Introduction and Focus on Prayer
00:00:01
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.
00:00:15
Speaker
Okay, here we are. So welcome to the Pray and See podcast. My name is Brian and I get the privilege of being here today with a long time friend and someone that has mentored me in my spiritual life since I was a young student. and i think you were 12 when we met.
00:00:36
Speaker
as mete Yeah, maybe 11. Maybe. Yeah. So I just turned 14. No, I'm kidding. But i when envisioned doing the podcast, I thought it'd be really fun to have you on to talk about Things like how you encourage students to pray and just to share your burden about prayer.
00:00:59
Speaker
Cool. Which that comes out a lot in our work together here at YFC and something i've always appreciated.
Personal Stories of Prayer's Impact
00:01:05
Speaker
So before we dive into it, though, we should pray not only for our time, but we can pray for people listening here in Columbus and other places as well. so it Sounds good. If you want to start us off, go for it. Yeah, God, thanks for getting to do cool things with cool people. I know I'm really thankful to be friends with Brian. Thanks that, yeah, you've put us together for good chunks of our lives. And i pray that the things that you've taught us would be a real benefit to you many people, including lots and lots of students. Mm-hmm.
00:01:43
Speaker
Yeah, thanks for examples of people like Mark, God, who are faithful to following you, and they tap into something like the the excitement of following you, and that you use people like that to give young people, including me, a real vision for what life could be like.
00:02:03
Speaker
Thank you, God, that with you, you always have more in mind. That's good and that you're way better than what we expect. That's right. Pray for people listening if they're driving if you know, they're going about their day if they are you know high school student or a young person that you would bless them with hearing some of these stories hearing some from your word hearing some of how you've shaped Mark's life and that they would walk away with some concrete simple idea you want them to do.
Journey to Faith and Community's Role
00:02:35
Speaker
Yeah, please bring that to their minds.
00:02:38
Speaker
Amen. Amen. Yeah, so what we've done on the podcast so far is to share stories from, you know, how God is moving. I've shared stories from my own life that I've already told you before recording the podcast episodes, and then also sharing stories of God moving with students that we're serving in YFC. Mm-hmm. as well as highlighting a little bit of the Bible that, you know, grounds experience in what God says is already true. ye
00:03:11
Speaker
But also it goes the other way, that what God says is true, He wants it to influence our daily life and experience in a way that's good and it shapes us. Then we want to leave people with an idea of something they could do at the end. So that's just a little bit to tee up our conversation. But...
00:03:31
Speaker
i you know know some about your background, obviously, but other people may not. So could you share just for a minute like what you know quick hit, your story of coming to faith, and why are you still following God now?
00:03:47
Speaker
Cool. All right. I i started, ah i came to Christ early at VBS when I was young, believing family and with parents who loved God.
00:04:03
Speaker
i My story is kind of typical for a lot of church kids. I didn't really make a priority of my own walk with the Lord until i was 15. And at that point,
00:04:15
Speaker
I kind of had this experience at a retreat about how much God loved me. And i told God, if you love me like that, then I want to i want to know you and follow you.
00:04:25
Speaker
And then over the the next couple of years, and it really took about year and a half before I really started getting integrated with other peers who are believers.
Youth Ministry Experience and Fulfilled Prayers
00:04:37
Speaker
And we started Bible study on our own, started praying together. that was that was like I think like a lot of people, being with other people who love Jesus, who are praying and studying the Bible together is like extremely powerful. And I think for all of us, had this really kind of explosive growth, both on it like internally in our relationships with other others and that led to
00:05:08
Speaker
us being motivated to share you know our faith with other people, and we saw people like come to know Christ through that. yeah And then ah soon after I graduated, I got involved in junior high ministry and I've been really doing youth ministry ever since then. So I'm about to turn 51, I think i'm at years of youth ministry.
00:05:36
Speaker
There you go. Including, i like we got to be in the same Bible study. Yeah, that's right. That you were a student at and I was leading. And one of the one of the prayers that God led me to pray, you are an answer to.
00:05:53
Speaker
i I felt like God moved me to pray for a number of years that I get to serve underneath someone who had been in my
Testimonies of Answered Prayers
00:06:01
Speaker
Bible study. yeah And ah for those of you that don't know, you, Brian, are my direct supervisor now. Yeah, so the heavy-handed boss.
00:06:11
Speaker
I was actually just talking to someone today about how the fact that we have all this history together and that we're different enables us to like work together well and kind of draw some of the best things out of each other. Yeah.
00:06:25
Speaker
I moved around a lot growing up, and so like having friends like you that we've been friends for decades and... doing ministry together for a long time is something that's like a real blessing, something i'm super grateful for. Yeah. and my natural tendency is there's just like seek worship and glory for myself, which the Lord seems to be against.
00:06:45
Speaker
Yeah. And so I do really feel like it was God's God's leading that led me to pray that prayer to serve under someone that was in my Bible study. And I do feel like really grateful yeah for that.
00:06:57
Speaker
That's sweet. That's really cool. Yeah, I mean, I think um as As I was trying to think of, okay, what what things have I experienced that have been pivotal that have encouraged me to pray, some of them happened when i was in junior high.
00:07:17
Speaker
Praise God. distinctly remember we went to the Appalachian, probably saying it wrong, Appalachia. You can tell I'm not from there, but the region of Tennessee. Whatever, the way that we say it here is the definitive. Yeah.
00:07:31
Speaker
And of we were going to run this day camp, and you know i was definitely a more like quiet, kind of introverted person, still kind of am. And everything else is fake. They have they have meds that can solve introversion now.
00:07:46
Speaker
I think it's called coffee. That's why. I remember we were we were gearing up and the weather was looking really bad and we didn't have a contingency plan.
00:07:58
Speaker
And so, you know, I was tired. wasn't sure what doing a camp with kids that, you know, I only half met the day before it was going to be like. And i think you said, we need to pray that God would change the weather. Yeah.
00:08:15
Speaker
And I remember hearing that and thinking, is that real? That sounds stupid. Does God really care about the weather? like is he Is he involved on the level where he would change the weather in this little kind of backcountry place that we're in so we would run this camp?
00:08:34
Speaker
But i I felt like God was like, you need you need to ask, like I need to ask. And i don't know if I prayed out loud, but I remember praying, asking God, would you keep it from raining here?
00:08:48
Speaker
And it rained all around where we were, but it didn't rain where we were at. And that was a very simple, like, I asked God that, and I didn't even know if he cared about that. And that was one you know of many examples to happen after that of like,
00:09:05
Speaker
we're actually praying to a God that hears and wants to do stuff. You know, super cool. Yeah, that's super encouraging. And I think one of the things, for a long time, like, I really do want kids to have that kind of experience, that God knows them, cares about them, is super powerful. One of our mutual friends, Carl Fox, is one of the things that he's said for years is it's extremely important for believing students to see a direct answer to their prayers. Yeah. And,
00:09:34
Speaker
God's like super cool, you know, and the the Holy Spirit that we have is the same one that the students have. And so they can be moved to pray for things that are in God's word and see yeah significant answers to prayer. i think one of the one of the things too, for people that are in like career youth ministry, we often are very motivated by seeing potential.
00:09:55
Speaker
And God sees that way more than we can. Like lot of times our focus is on like today, this camp, this day, this week, whatever. And God is trying to develop people who are going to rule with him over the universe for eternity. And so God's way more concerned about where a student is going to be 10,000 years from now than now, but helping them experience that he loves them. he knows what's going on and is answering their
Teaching Prayer to Students
00:10:21
Speaker
prayers. That's like,
00:10:23
Speaker
really significant for them and for a lot of students it's yeah one of the the more defining things about doing like setting out to try and do anything from God is seeing God come through and directly answer their prayers.
00:10:37
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. So how do you like help students experience that or encourage them to do that? I mean, I remember my example I shared of like, we're praying about the weather because we don't have a plan B. yeah you know But I'm sure over 30 plus years there's other things that you've thought of. I think all of the things that are actually effective are like surprisingly simple. um I'm sure that maybe there's something way more elaborate that would be more effective. But I think yeah one one of the key things is just like actually praying with students, you know giving them opportunities.
00:11:11
Speaker
i
00:11:15
Speaker
Yeah, one of the one of the really big things is just giving kids an opportunity to pray. And i think most people, if they knew that they had an opportunity to directly interact with the God who made them, like they that seems pretty compelling and desirable. yeah And especially for students who know Christ, they have the Holy Spirit, they want to connect to God, and a lot of times they just don't know how to. And so giving specific concrete ideas on how to do that, opportunities to do it. like One of the nice things about bringing students to a mission trip is they're going to run something, and it puts them often in a situation where they recognize, like, I need help,
00:11:57
Speaker
And so motivation, they have ah new appreciation for how important it is to ask God for things. And there's time set aside to do that. One of the things, and I got this from a longtime youth worker named Mike Faluzzi.
00:12:12
Speaker
um is in a Bible teaching, like giving space for kids to interact with God. So same thing, god God is drawing students to himself. They they want to connect with him.
00:12:25
Speaker
And a lot of times, just like us, they they don't know what to say. They don't know how to talk to God, what question to ask, how to listen to God, how to hear from him. And so in it in a Bible teaching, if there's a time that's appropriate, saying, okay, we've learned this about God, like express this praise to God and giving them a moment to do that or ask God this question. Hmm.
00:12:51
Speaker
And that could be about like, God, what are you teaching me here? what One thing that we just we just got back from a mission trip, and one of the leaders had kids, he read in Galatians 5 about the fruits of the Spirit, and he said, which today, which is the one that God wants you to focus on? yeah And so we'd like ask God that question, and some kids don't hear anything, and that's
Understanding God's Relational Nature
00:13:14
Speaker
fine. Some kids like actually hear from God, and it's super motivating.
00:13:17
Speaker
I think one of the other things if in an application sense, giving kids an opportunity to to ask God, like, God, what is the thing? Like, especially on certain kinds of topics about like relating to God or dealing with conscience issues or things like that.
00:13:32
Speaker
ah Whenever you're talking about speaking the truth or confession or those kinds of things, like giving them an opportunity to ask God, God, is there something that's blocking my connection with you right now?
00:13:45
Speaker
Is there something that you want me to repent about? And often, God will like answer kids right in the moment. yeah And one of the things that we've seen is when we give students an opportunity, whether it's um during a teaching or during an event, for kids to like pause for a second and connect to God is we often have near 100% participation in that.
00:14:08
Speaker
Which is kind of surprising, because with middle and high school students, often like they're off all over the place. Yeah, or like staring at their phone or yeah whatever. yeah But often when we're like, okay, ask God this question,
00:14:20
Speaker
I think they really do. So I'm hearing a couple of things out of what you're saying that I think are really cool, but they also kind of tie into recent things that even I've experienced. As recent as, you know, a few days ago driving to the same service trip that we were on is that, um one, is that God is probably more relational then we give them credit. Like you you didn't describe in anything you just said, like prayer is this formula or it's this exercise routine that you have to do and it's gonna result in some like awesome self-optimization. You're talking about praying to God who's personal and knows everybody,
00:15:05
Speaker
But talking to him like you expect him to talk back. Yeah. And, you know, I do maybe a later conversation would be because I know we were talking about this book, like how to figure out if you're hearing God or not. So we'll put a pin in that and and get to that later. But yeah the other thing i heard is that.
00:15:27
Speaker
asking God questions, you know, like that's open-ended, you know, not some people pray and say, you know, help me to have a good day today. Or, you know, I hear my kids and my family, they'll pray and ask God, you know, pray for a fun day, you know? Yeah, I mean, this is odd. I think i think god and god God's into that, you know, but yeah asking more, some people call it like a generative question where you're asking God a question that you don't have the answer to.
00:15:57
Speaker
but you're inviting God to come in to create something new. And even, so you know, this experience, I'm driving by myself to the service trip,
00:16:10
Speaker
And I thought, you know, i'm go to listen to, you know, a talk, like a short kind of uplifting Bible teaching. And it was on, you know, what blocks you from hearing God.
00:16:22
Speaker
And so in the intro, you know, it was like 10, 15 minute thing. And the guy's talking about, you know, okay, there are things that can block you from hearing God. And I thought, I wonder if he's going to get at unforgiveness.
00:16:35
Speaker
And that was one of the things that, you know, from my own experience, I know like bitterness can kind of make it so you're like tunnel vision. You can't see what God's doing. i get real confused and, you know, usually sick, like physically. But at the end of the teaching,
00:16:53
Speaker
The guy said, you know, regardless of where you're at, how about you ask God right now, do I have unforgiveness? Yes. And where is it? And I thought, oh, yeah, yeah, good idea. You know, I'm driving 70, 75 down the freeway. Like, I'll do that later. you should have been going faster than speed limit, 70. I know. um So for some reason, I thought I should do this now. And.
00:17:15
Speaker
I prayed and I asked God, you know do I have unforgiveness? Like, is there, am I holding on to like some grudge that's like deep down under the surface? And sure enough, I didn't have to wait 10 minutes to get an answer. It was immediate. Like, yeah, with this person.
00:17:34
Speaker
I thought, oh, I need to forgive them. And it was like, yeah, apparently, you know, and I wasn't thinking about that. And yeah so that was a neat experience, kind of what you're describing when when you talk about it being important.
00:17:49
Speaker
for young people to see or experience answers to prayer? Like, what types of answers? Or is it anything? What you just experienced is one of the real significant ones. I think kids often pray for stuff that's like super meaningful to them. And a lot of times they don't have a ton of control over what's happening in their family or their finances or their health or things like that. And so what else are we going to besides pray for it? Yeah. i One of the things that...
00:18:16
Speaker
I saw significant answers to prayer was before taking a test, like asking God, God, please help me to get a better grade on this test than I deserve. Yeah. And, Yeah, it worked. yeah So I recommend that. And um and i I think for students too, like when they do see any kind of answer to prayer, whether it's God likes showing them something they need to confess or a lie that they have or something they need to forgive or direction or praying for the weather and seeing like God do stuff or even i mean praying for a parking spot or you know I'm feeling nervous talking to this person.
00:18:54
Speaker
on when interacting with people, instead of just like waiting to respond to them, like asking God, god please help me to be present and really listen. yeah That was a big one for me. and i i yeah i felt God like was saying to me, hey Mark, shut up, ask a question, yeah instead of just talking. and so like Getting that sense that God is teaching me that there's a connection between the things that I'm learning at school and in the Bible and the things I'm talking to God with individually and with other people. Like, that's super motivating. And I think what it does is it fills you with a sense of awe.
00:19:30
Speaker
Yeah. And especially if that's in the context of, like, a group of people who are yeah having that kind of experience, then it's awesome because you're hearing this person... prayed about this and got that. And oh my gosh, I was kind of part of that because I
Building Prayer Skills in Church Meetings
00:19:42
Speaker
prayed about it too. or um I mean, you've had the experience of like praying either one-on-one or in a small group and you're about to pray for something and someone prays for that exact thing. Yeah.
00:19:53
Speaker
That stuff's like so motivating and unifying. And how do you learn how to do anything? Right. You just try it and do it over and over. And then sometimes you get some feedback and And so I think one one of the other things that we've done and we've tried to give kids lots of opportunities to pray. So before a meeting, we pray. Before we do stuff. After a meeting, we pray. Anytime I'm getting together with a student one-on-one, I try and make sure that i pray.
00:20:20
Speaker
And I think students do learn how to pray by experiencing it. But it also sets a kind of a precedent, that a model that they can follow about, like,
00:20:33
Speaker
Oh, godly people, they pray about stuff. Yeah. And it's not super complex or... Yeah, just they they talk to God regularly.
00:20:44
Speaker
This is also like one of the big evidences that students have actually come to know Jesus. um Like you ask them like, hey, have you... Do you pray? And they're like, oh my gosh, yeah, I like pray every day now.
00:20:57
Speaker
Did you sue? No, I never even thought to talk to God. And now they do all the time. Well, that's an evidence of the Holy Spirit's in their life and inviting them into having opportunities to pray. yeah we had We had a thing, the last two school years, we've done an after school like prayer meeting. We've got this church partner that's like directly across the street from the high school where we run a lot of programs. And we were actually trying to build trust with them so that we could use their building because it's so strategic. And they were like open to that, but...
00:21:27
Speaker
They didn't know us that well and whatever. And so we we asked if we could do like an after school prayer at their meeting. And we basically had like three kids come consistently. And every once in a while we'd have some more.
00:21:39
Speaker
But one of the elders from the church has come to that consistently. and the pastor pops in if he's available. And just hearing kids that go to school across the street in their building praying built so much trust.
00:21:56
Speaker
yeah And I think the kids, there was a dramatic improvement and the amount and the quality of their prayers. At first, they'd say like one thing, they have no idea what to pray for next.
00:22:10
Speaker
And I had to do quite a bit of guiding. Okay, now let's thank God for something that he's done. Yeah, yeah. Okay, now i want you to pray for the person on your left and ask God to bless them.
00:22:22
Speaker
Yep. um where now we like start praying and think the students are more comfortable and they are better at like sort of like hearing the Holy Spirit and keeping a step with the Spirit and so like it's lot more
Power of Group Prayer
00:22:36
Speaker
natural. Yeah. But just praying with students and these leaders from the other church probably did more for us to get to know each other, to build trust, and like solidify a real like cooperative working agreement than almost anything else we could have done.
00:22:56
Speaker
That's sweet. Yeah, that's really cool. It's also super awesome. I will often ask if the pastor's there, I'll ask, like when we're wrapping up, I'll ask him to pray a prayer of blessing on the students.
00:23:07
Speaker
And I think he likes it, I know i love it, and I think the students totally benefit from it. So, yeah, that's really good. and a good prayer meeting is so enjoyable.
00:23:20
Speaker
yeah And I think that's one of the things that like we often think, oh, I've gotta force this to happen. But when it's good, it's like so surprisingly good. yeah And we want students to have that kind of experience regularly. Yeah, I mean, we just came off of a week, well, five, six days of those types of experiences where God showed up and did stuff in the flow of high school students, you know, working on people's houses, getting to befriend each other, hearing Bible teaching, um us getting to know them better. Like, it was super cool. yeah
00:23:58
Speaker
And yeah, I think even in doing something like podcast, the last thing I would want to happen is for people to think, oh man, we're great or really spiritual. Like, we're not. No, I'm a sinner. Yeah. Yeah.
00:24:10
Speaker
But, or or even that we pray all the time. Like, I don't pray all the time. But it's when you have these experiences where God, like, breaks through, nothing's the same.
00:24:21
Speaker
You know, I don't go play a concert with my band and think about it like this is just a show. yeah I think about it like these are people that God created. He knows everything about. Yeah.
00:24:35
Speaker
I wonder if he if God wants to build a connection. yeah you know And I don't know if that's going to happen or how it's going to go down. Or even last week, you know I thought on the spot, talking to students about these Bible verses, yeah I blurted out to one of them, to Darcy, what do you think it means?
00:24:55
Speaker
I thought I wasn't planning on saying that. Yeah. and Then he said, what do you mean? I was like, well, you memorized the thing. like What's it about? What does it mean for you? And on the spot, you know, I'd been praying throughout the week, God, give me something to encourage students.
00:25:12
Speaker
And just this thought came to my mind, like, I need to tell this guy this thing. Like, here's why why I think this verse is for him. I wasn't planning on that, you know, but it happened in the moment. It was like this 30-second thing in a crowded room when we were cleaning up lunch, you know, or dinner or whatever. But it was, yeah, it was really fun. It was cool.
00:25:31
Speaker
So seeing moments like that, I think, are real, like, inspiring. Yeah, I mean, why do you pray, right? Part part of it's because we're supposed to, do but that's like maybe the reason that we start when we don't feel like it. But often we pray because we love God, we want to talk to Him, we need it and Yeah, it fills us with joy, like connecting with the God of the universe. And that's the kind of thing, like, that's a big burden that I have with students.
00:25:55
Speaker
Like, why read the Bible? Because it's like the best book. It's so fun. It's so interesting. it God speaks directly to you when you're reading it. Yeah. Like, it's great. Why would we pray? Well, because God actually listens to us. Yeah. And...
00:26:11
Speaker
getting ourselves moving towards God, he straightens our direction out and gives us fuel and motivation. yeah Like, ends up being like super fun. Yeah.
00:26:21
Speaker
I think this is that like, yeah, something that is super counterintuitive, that the things that God calls us to do,
00:26:30
Speaker
end up being like, the thing itself ends up being really fun and really great. That's sweet. And that's ah that's a burden that I have for students. I don't want them to do, i don't want them to follow God or do spiritual disciplines, means of growth, because they have to.
00:26:44
Speaker
that's not That's not like a sustainable yeah thing, you know? But doing it because, like, I actually love it, and I really love the results of it, that's... That's a lot closer to grace motivation.
00:26:57
Speaker
Yeah, right, right. Yeah. um I know we were talking about some other stuff before we pressed record. You jotted some stuff down, but I had two other things that I wanted to ask about.
00:27:12
Speaker
One was maybe you could share briefly what has been a really helpful either Bible verse or idea from the Bible that shaped your prayer.
00:27:24
Speaker
And the other thing was how can we pray for young people that you're serving? Okay. So Bible verses, shaping stuff, a lot of it's stuff on joy. You know, the joy of the Lord is our strength from Nehemiah 8. That's central, big one. 1 Corinthians 15, 58, that like stand firm, always give yourself to the work of the Lord because your labor is not in vain.
00:27:51
Speaker
um One of the ones that we actually had as a memory verse was in James about like the the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and has wonderful results. Yeah, I loved hearing that translation. and then i' Others say it's like powerful and effective, but to hear students say the prayer of a righteous person accomplishes wonderful results. Man, that's what it is.
00:28:17
Speaker
That's what it is yeah what it is. It's cool. Yeah. So, um, then other things just about like, one one of my very favorite passages is Isaiah 61 that Jesus quotes, you know, that, that he has come, like he's anointed to be able to give God's blessing away. Yeah. and you know, actions are significant in giving God's blessing away.
00:28:46
Speaker
words are important and one of the most loving things you can do for a person is to pray for them yeah and bring them up you know to god knowing that he like cares and will take action yeah philippines four like how do we experience god's peace we just tell them the things that are going on and what we need and yeah and one of one of the outcomes of that is that we yeah we've externalized that we don't have to deal with that ourselves now like
00:29:15
Speaker
there's some release and we can experience God's peace. Yeah, that's right. So those are some of the things. I think, honestly, one one of the other things is like that
Concluding Prayers and Guidance
00:29:23
Speaker
we're creating God's image and that every student has extreme value and worth and enormous potential.
00:29:34
Speaker
And so like if they... get some early reps of praying and seeing God come through for them. That's super good for their motivation, for their growth, for the joy that they have.
00:29:46
Speaker
Yeah. So it's something that we, yeah, try invite students into. you Yeah, that's sweet. That's really cool.
00:29:57
Speaker
What are a couple or three things that we could pray for students that you're serving? Okay, so right now I serve in a community called Gahanna. which is really funny because it's like so close to Gehenna, Jesus's main word for hell.
00:30:13
Speaker
yeah um And there is like a significant amount of spiritual resistance and in that community. So I think one of the big things is we've got really for the first time kind of a consensus of students who want to grow spiritually.
00:30:29
Speaker
And so praying for students to like really invest in those relationships and that their relationship to each other would help them to grow, would grow our community, and would grow tons of opportunities for other students to come in and meet God for the first time. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah, that's really sweet.
00:30:53
Speaker
um Nice. Well, final question, and then we can pray about this stuff, is For people you know listening or watching this now, what's one thing that you would recommend that they you know take away from the things we talked about, or maybe one thing you forgot to mention, that they could do that would help them to pray?
00:31:20
Speaker
um Just ask God for help. God, please remind me to pray. yeah i don't know what to say. Please tell me. Thank God that verse is in there. yeah that God helps us in our weakness because we don't know what to pray. And that's not that's not a sin. It's not like a spiritual weakness. It's just the truth. yeah And so just telling God, God, I don't feel like praying right now. Please give me motivation.
00:31:41
Speaker
Please help me to see answers to prayer. yep Like just asking God for stuff like that. Yeah. And for people listening, for people watching, we did earlier podcast episodes on some of the verses you're describing. Like one was turning anxiety into prayer as an opportunity to pray with that Philippians 4 verse. And then we did, what was the one you were just talking about?
00:32:07
Speaker
was so good. So memorable. Yeah. Anyways, we've done, oh, that God helps us to pray. Yeah, yeah. That is an important thing. So if you want to go back and listen to some of those, it'll be about, you know, an eight to ten minute short explanation with also a story accompanying that and, you know, an idea of how to bring that into how you pray.
00:32:31
Speaker
So, but it'd be good to pray again. Let's do it. Yeah. Cool. Well, God, i just pray that you would bless Brian. Thanks that that you've given him this burden for prayer. i pray that for the people who are listening, God, I pray that you would draw them to yourself, that they would hear and sense when you're asking them to pray. And God, I do pray that you would give us, that you would like open our eyes so we can see how you're working. Pray that you'd give us specific
00:33:03
Speaker
bold prayers to pray that you're going to answer. And I pray that thanks that you bring us along, that you give us some answers to prayer that happen really quickly, that give us certainty and motivation. i pray that you'd give us those things. And any students that were around, I pray that we would be able to give them lots of opportunities to interact with you and help coach them on what to say and how to do it.
00:33:29
Speaker
And god I do pray that you would raise up people who are going to be powerful prayer warriors from this young generation. a pray that they would see through kind of the lie of just being completely addicted to screens and that they would really desire to have a real connection with you.
00:33:47
Speaker
And yeah, so I pray that prayer would be the countercultural, like positive thing that i people reject addiction and meet with you, the one true God.
00:34:06
Speaker
Thank you that following you is a relational thing. yeah And just like we planned ideas to talk about and then talked about other stuff that was really fun, that's what it can be like talking to you. That you can bring things up that are attention grabbing and they're life changing.
00:34:24
Speaker
And yeah, it feels like a brain scrub or like a heart reset. I don't know. It's good. God hearing from you, having a relationship with you. Pray for all of my friends that don't know you, God, that they would experience the joy and peace and security from knowing you.
00:34:42
Speaker
Thanks, Jesus, that you died for every person so they could be made whole. But you don't force that on people. so pray for all the students we know.
00:34:52
Speaker
who have yet to decide if they want your offer of relationship and forgiveness, that they would decide yes for that. Pray for my my friends, for you know people in our families that don't know you, that they would come to know you.
00:35:08
Speaker
yeah And pray that you would bless this core group of students in Gahanna. I loved hanging with those guys and seeing them befriend each other last week.
00:35:19
Speaker
Pray you would strengthen their friendships over the summer and for the rest of high school. And they could have real joy in serving you and in blessing other people.
00:35:30
Speaker
Yeah, I pray for this Gahanna girl who has heard the good news about you and I think actually believes it. i pray that she would ask you, that she would call out to you and ask you for forgiveness and that she would experience you coming into her life and giving her like peace and meaning.
00:35:51
Speaker
Pray that she would do that soon and that um yeah she'd be able to do that with people who are are really significant to her.
00:36:01
Speaker
Yeah. And bless the people that are watching and listening to this too. Pray that you would bring to their minds what is something that you want them to do. And it's usually really simple.
00:36:14
Speaker
Thank you, God, that, you know, we're talking a lot about students, but all of this stuff applies to adults like us. yeah And regardless of age, that you want people to relate to you. yes Thanks that you are approachable like that.
00:36:29
Speaker
agree.
00:36:32
Speaker
Amen. Amen to that. Pray and See is a ministry of Central Ohio Youth for Christ. Look us up on social media and we'll see you next time.