We need to continue in Romans 12. We are hunkering down in Romans 12 because Romans 12 is this condensed power-packed list of the marks of a Christian. So if we're saying, yeah, I'm signing up to following Jesus, a logical next question is how? And Paul in his kindness wrote out a list, and so we're gonna let's dig into this and give it space and time.
And so this specific verse that we're in, we've actually been in for quite a while. There's multiple parts in Romans 12 and so Scott took us through this, I think, three weeks ago, through Rejoice in Hope. Then we had a birthday party. Then there was patient-intribulation.
Still in Romans 12, 12 tonight, I'm gonna take that last part, be constant in prayer. Okay, so we're gonna be in Romans 12, 12, and talking about what it means to be constant in prayer. When you look at that, there's not much ambiguity of what it means, but I wanted to kind of dig in and go, okay, so what are we saying here, Paul? And it's translated into ESV, constant in prayer.
And so I think that speaks to the quantity of prayer. How much are we praying? We're praying constantly. First thessalonians 5, 16 also says, pray without ceasing.
There seems to be this biblical charge to pray a lot. But then there's also, if you look at that word, constant that Paul uses in Romans 12, 12, it's not just the quantity of prayer. It's the quality of prayer. How are we supposed to pray?
That word speaks of like diligence and persistence and grit. And there's like a way. And so he's saying pray all the time, and pray with like intentionality and purpose and grit. And the church says, amen, yes, we should do that.
We should pray all the time. We should pray with grit. That's good, Ben. Praise God.
And in the back of our heads, we're going, I don't know if I can do that, right? Like can we just name that, there's times where we look at these commands and scripts, we go, that's really good. That is true. Followers of Jesus should do that.
He slips back on us, we're going, oh no. I don't, what do you mean constant in prayer? What do you mean all the time without ceasing? If I'm doing something with intentionality and grit, I get tired, so there's no way I can keep that up.
How many of us, if we're really honest, it's easy to mentally agree and go, yes, that sounds good. That's the mark of a believer. But then if you look at your own life, really honestly, you go, I have no intention of actually being constant in prayer. And we start to build the qualifiers and go, yeah, well, I mean, hopefully God will understand, but I'm not, I just don't think I can get there.
What I want to do tonight is not necessarily just give like what the text says, because I honestly believe it's pretty clear. It says we should pray a lot, we should pray with grit. But what I want us to do is actually be equipped to do that in a way that doesn't feel like we're faking, or like we can do it for maybe a couple months, and then we'll burn out and just need a session with Netflix to just unwind, because we're tired. Like can I just name that, like sometimes we're going, I just want to be with God, be with God, we get gritty, and then we're like, I'm tired, I need to break from God.
In my mind, I think we're doing something wrong. I think that we don't understand what's happening. If we go, I'm called to this constantly, and it's going to wear me out, I'm going to eventually just need a break. So what I want to do is look at what it means to be constant in prayer, not just into mentally agree that it's important, but to go, how can we do this?
How am I actually going to participate? And this will be a part of the body of Christ. And going, yeah, that's how we believers walk. And I'm including myself in the story.
I want us to actually have vision of like, what, just, man, it's even hard to do for some of us, but like in 10 years, what if you were constant in prayer? And like picture yourself and like, yeah, I'm a person of prayer. I'm constant. I'm praying all the time, I'm praying diligently.
Like for so many of us, we just hear it, go, yeah, that's good, but we never actually picture ourselves doing it, because it just feels untainable. I would love to just look into this a little bit of depth and try to figure out what's going on here. Because like I said, there's this tendency to be inspired by something, but not actually motivated to do it. And I really want us to have integrity.
I know this is what I want. I'm not just inspired by someone's life of prayer. I'm looking at the list in Romans 12 to 12 and going, that's for me. They were watching a super inspirational movie.
Like there was, what's that one where the guy climbs the, you know what I'm talking about? Super famous rock climbing movie? Free solo, free solo. You guys watch that in like your hearts beating, and it's so intense, and you're just sitting there watching this physical marvel with a pint of ice cream.
And then you go, wow, that's impressive. And then you go, no one's motivated to go do it, necessarily maybe you are. But for most of us, it's like, wow, that was really cool for him. And you have this inspirational moment.
I don't think this is just meant to be inspiration. I think we're supposed to be motivated to go, what do I have to do to get there? I actually want to be driven by something. And so the definition of motivation is the reasons why you do something.
So what I want to do tonight is just help us get some reasons why we would do this. Because I think for me, if I don't see where a discipline is going, it's really hard to stay consistent. If I don't know what's at the end of all of my effort, it makes it really hard in the moment to stay consistent with the effort. If you were told, if you just commit to this discipline, and it's going to be a ton of work, it's going to be maybe 50, 60 hours a week for three years.
But at the end of it, if you really try, and you really give yourself to it, at the end of it all, you get a one night stay at a Motel 6. You'd be like, I'm not doing it. Whatever it is, I'm not doing it. It's not worth it.
That's not enough to inspire me to do it. So what I want to do tonight is, in an effort to build a consistency in our prayer lives, I want to cast some vision of like, here's why this is so important. So we can actually have buy-in. Hebrews 12, 11.
Says, yeah, no discipline at the time feels pleasant. It's painful. But later, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who've been trained in it. You need to have vision for where you're going.
The phrase we use here a lot is fueled by the future. My fuel in the moment is what I see coming. And the other thing that we just have to name is I have to want the thing at the end. It's not just like that looks really good for someone else.
I need to want it. I need to have that motivation to keep me going. So let's look at this. Let's look at prayer.
Let's look at specifically this charge to be constant in prayer. And just start by saying, why would I want that? Yeah? Can we do that?
OK. Let's look behind the scenes at how Pastor Ben Sermon preps. I have given up trying to be fully original all the time and have a direct word from the Lord. There's times where he does that.
But a lot of times I just look at the resources out there and go, Lord, you've spoken to so many people. What have you said that's a word for us at every day right now? And so I kind of scour around. There's some voices that I really like.
And there's this guy named Charles Spurgeon. Charles Spurgeon is known by many as the Prince of Preachers. And if you're going to preach a message, you might as well look at what Spurgeon has to say. That's kind of how I roll.
And so I was like, has he ever taught on Romans 12, 12? And sure enough, I got Charles' heads. And so I read that. But as I was reading, I was going, there's a lot of 1830s language here.
There's a lot of things that he says that if I just read the quote, it's just difficult for us to grasp. And so with humility, I'm attempting to kind of update some of his language. Brother Charles, if you're up there in the cloud of witnesses, have mercy. But he taught on Romans 12, 12.
And as I said earlier, there's those three parts to it. There's rejoice and hope. Be patient, intribulation, and be constant in prayer. And all parts of those are so powerful.
That's why we've spent time on it. But Mr. Spurgeon really wanted to highlight the part we're talking about tonight. And I'm just going to read this slightly updated version for us.
And it's rich and it's dense. So I'm going to read slow because I want us to get this because I think it's so beautiful and profound. He said something like this in my updated version. We are directed earlier in this verse to rejoice in hope and be patient in tribulation.
Now joy and patience are indeed powerful prescriptions. But they must be dropped into a glass full of prayerful supplication. And then those cures become wonderfully and powerfully efficient. The picture that he's giving is like an elkacelser.
And there's a glass of water. And he's saying, I've got these two little tablets, joy and patience. It's affected. This is good.
You should do that. But the way these things come alive is you drop them in a glass full of prayer. That's that water. And they start to bubble.
And they start to actually do what they were designed to do. And now that medicine that was always good is now alive and vibrant because they've been dropped into a glass of prayerful supplication. How good is that? Then he says, prayerlessness always produces impatience.
But the endurance of our divine will grows out of communion with God in prayer. If we connect and converse with the eternal and omnipotent one, we will be joyful and patient in all tribulations. What he's naming here is that prayer is like the landscape of every other spiritual fruit that God's want to do in our lives. If God's wanting to produce joy in your life, he's going to do it through prayer.
If God's wanting to produce faithfulness in your life, it happens through commitment to prayer. Picture it being like a garden, right? There's a garden. And that garden is prayer.
Prayer is not just a spiritual discipline, friends. Prayer is the landscape that everything else in your life in God grows out of. I am absolutely convinced of this. And I think the brother's purging was too.
It's the context. And so if God has called you to grow in wisdom, how are you going to grow in wisdom? I mean, he did biblically. What does it say?
You want to grow in wisdom? Ask. That's prayer. You want to grow in faithfulness.
How do you grow in faithfulness? You look at the faithful and in prayer. You're communing with God. And you're going, God, would you build faithfulness in me?
You want to grow in signs and wonders and miracles. Good luck out there if you're not saturated in this place of prayer. And so we need to flip our mindset from prayer being like this chore or an obligation and going, I'm tending the garden of my life in God, which is a life of prayer. Just a couple more dispersion quotes because he's so twice.
How about this prayer is the life blood of duty, the secret sap of holiness, the fountain of obedience. Like if you want to walk in step with Jesus, it flows from a place of prayer. Even look at the life of Jesus. Like the life of God the Son on the planet, in the middle of literally everything else that God on the planet could do.
He's modeling, I just need to get away and be in the mountain with the Lord. I just need to pray. I want to be with him. There's a place of priority that even God the Son put on prayer.
How much more? Those of us that are going, man, I have no idea how to do some of this stuff I've been called to do. Man, I'm reading that the fruit of the spirit are love, joy, peace, patience. I'm over four.
Kindness, goodness, faithless, gentleness, self-control, shoot. Oh, for nine. I need help, Lord. It's like I'm trying to grow into God in any area.
I'm telling you, in any area that you're wanting to grow, you saturate yourself in the place of prayer. And that's going to be the answer. That's that glass of water that the Lord can drop in those things and it starts to bubble up. Friends, prayer is we need to, this is so much better than the Motel 6.
Like we're talking about vision of where we want to go. If you want to get, like, you know, be like Jesus, you want to get to be 80 years old and be that person that you really hope, man, God, I would love to be like that when I'm older. How do we get there? It's actually not as hard as we think.
You position yourself in the place of prayer. This makes me want to be constant in prayer. I'm hoping that even as I'm sharing it, you're going, man, I want that. And trust me, prayer is the way.
Position yourself in the place of prayer. And for some of us who haven't heard solid teaching on prayer, prayer might just be in your mind, like, intercession. Like, so I just need to pray for something all the time. No, not necessarily, though that's good for you.
Prayer is communion with God. Prayer is conversation with God. Prayer is connection with God. There's this beautiful old book called Practicing the Presence of God.
And there's this, yeah, some of you are like, yeah, because you read it. Yeah, yeah. This guy who wasn't smart enough and spiritual enough to be a monk, but loved the Lord of all his heart and so he was the dishwasher at the base of the monastery. And he ended up writing letters to people because they were going, how do you do it?
How do you live a life so full and rich? How is every part of your life somehow like, you just carry blessing. Everywhere you go. He goes, just as I'm washing dishes, I'm communing with God.
Read the book. I mean, it's profound. But like, there's a picture that I have in my head as well. Man, if there's one thing that I want, it's to be with him all the time.
And so prayer is our access. Prayer is how we do that. If we want anything in our lives to be sustainable and to stick with it, I think that we have to learn how to do it with some element of joy in the moment. So like I said, knowing the vision of where we're going, that can help you in those dry moments where it's like, oh, man, it is, I don't want to wake up and do that thing.
I don't want to do that thing again. We can have the picture of where we're going. But if we don't ever find a way to enjoy it in the moment, it's going to be a slog. Like, we're going to get tired.
And so what I would love to do is just look at how we can do prayer in a way that's actually sustainable and dare I say enjoyable. I'll just say this too, while I'm at it. I think that we sometimes overemphasize out of a good intent to relate with people. We overemphasize how hard prayer can be.
And there are times where it's hard. But friends, I think that as you grow in God, you should have more enjoyable times than prayer than unenjoyable times. I just want to give us permission to have a soft heart that enjoys prayer. I think sometimes we're just like, yeah, you know, sometimes it's hard.
It's like, yeah, a lot of times you're with God and it's actually really beautiful. So it's OK if it's hard. But it's also OK if it's enjoyable. And so what I would love to do is just give some things that I've found to be helpful.
There's so many things. There's sermon series that could be taught on this. But I'm just going to give some things I think could be practical tools for us. We're going, I actually want Romans 12 to be about me.
Not about someone else. I just want to go into this. Let's look at some things. First one is practical.
And I'm not afraid of it being practical because I think this is actually important for some of us to just know that it's OK with spiritual things to make a plan. OK? So if you want to pray constantly, no takers, this is your first point, pray intentionally. If you wanted to build a constant prayer life, you have to have an intentional prayer life.
Here's what I mean by that. Because it's a spiritual thing, sometimes we think that I'll accidentally fall into a prayer life. And as I'm growing up in the Lord, I'm going to just find myself praying more. God can do anything.
But I would say that the general pattern of how God and man interacts is there's a free choice on my side that then goes, no, I'm choosing to step into this. And there's an intentionality to it. And so when I say pray intentionally, what I mean is take responsibility for going, I'm wanting to grow in this. And so here's what I'm going to do.
That can feel difficult because again, it's a spiritual thing. So we go, but isn't that getting like hands ears that somehow like control? It's like, no, it's it's taking ownership and saying, I want this. So this is what I'm going to do.
I think that for a lot of us, we just need to make some goals. So like, here's how I'm going to grow up in my prayer life with the Lord. I want to attend that garden. It's not going to happen by accident.
So here's what I'm going to do. And what I don't recommend is saying, so I'm going to pray more. You guys ever learned this? I learned this in school, that acronym is smart goals.
Yeah? So you know what? Smart goals. There's actually a way to make like good goals.
There are bad goals that are ambiguous and are kind of like really difficult. And then there's these things called smart goals. And so we're going to go to school for three seconds here as I explain that acronym specific. So smart.
We're spelling out the word smart. First one, specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time bound. Okay? So let's just look at this through prayer.
Okay? Okay. What are you going to do? Something specific, not just I'm going to pray more.
Or like I'm going to pray in the mornings. But being like, all right, I'm going to wake up at 6.30. And I'm going to pray because now we're doing measurable. I'm going to pray for 15 minutes.
It's a measurable thing. Did I pray for 15 minutes or did I not? And then the reason is 15 minutes is I'm trying to make it attainable. This is a really important one for some of us to hear because we go, yeah, no, I should pray more.
I'm just going to pray four hours a day because God's worthy. And then you end up not getting remotely close to four hours a day and feeling bad about yourself. Making attainable goal. Okay?
So I'm going to wake up at 6.30. I'm going to pray for 15 minutes every morning before I look at my phone. Okay? That are relevant.
It's like it needs to actually pertain to your life. And if you know, like, yeah, my tendency is I wake up, I roll over, grab my phone and I scroll. It's like, well, it makes a relevant goal that goes for me. What I need is I need to make that discipline of 15 minutes before I look at my phone, right?
And then I'm going to pray for five minutes in silence. I'm going to pray for five minutes in Thanksgiving and I'm going to pray for five minutes or someone who doesn't know the Lord. Or whatever. Like you're building something that you can actually at the end of the week go, did I do that?
And then you say, okay, and if I do that for a month, then I'm going to try and double it and pray for a half hour. These are examples, but I'm just saying take responsibility for your prayer life because we actually love accomplishing things. And if you're looking to like, guys, if it helps make a chart and be like, did I pray today? Like, sometimes we will.
That's religious. I'm like, well, if it helps you pray and you're holding yourself accountable, I think it's a good thing. You're building consistency because you care about it, right? Like so don't be afraid to actually say, no, I'm taking responsibility.
I really want to be a person of prayer. I don't know that I can do that goal, but I could do this, right? For some of us, it's like, my goodness. I have no idea how to fit this in.
Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to show up to work intentionally five minutes early, kudos with the boss. It'll be five minutes early, but then I'm going to sit there and I'm going to look at my to-do list, my task list, and I'm going to pray through each one and invite the Holy Spirit to be with me in each one of those things. And it's five minutes, but I'm building connection with the Lord.
I'm submitting my life to him. I'm actually building a prayer life in that little actionable step you can make. Yeah? So the first one was practical, but I started with that one because it's important.
So if you want to pray constantly, pray intentionally, okay? Next one, no takers. If you want to pray constantly, pray collectively. What I mean is pray with other people.
Pray with others. And some of you immediately just checked out because you're like, I'm an introvert, bro. All right? There's reasons why for a lot of us corporate prayer feels intimidating or feels like actually opposite of trying to build a constant prayer life.
You're going, well, now I'm just showing up to the meeting and now that feels really tiring and man, I have social anxiety and the group gets above 20 people. I don't even know if I'm going to be able to focus on God, right? There's reasons that we have and why we don't want to pray corporately. But my goodness is there wisdom in Paul's command that when you gather, you pray, right?
There's a reason why I was fascinated. I still am, but starting last year, I got really fascinated by the monastic. It's like monks. I was like, I mean, I've wanted to pursue prayer for a while.
I'm like, these guys seem like the prayer heroes. They're just with the Lord all the time and like the desert fathers, you read all these old stories of these guys out in the wilderness, and they're like, all they do is spend time with God. They're like, this is fascinating. So I started to read about these guys and girls.
There's their mothers too. They're his. Look it up. You're on left.
I'm like, no, for real. So I'm looking at these like prayer heroes. And one of the most surprising things that I found as I looked into this was how often they gathered communally. There's a discipline that they knew.
It's like we need to gather together. It's not enough that I go off in my little cave. So even the most extreme like desert fathers out in the middle of Egypt somewhere, they would gather with each other for corporate prayer. This fascinates me because I think for a lot of us, especially in the West, prayer is a pretty private thing.
Like when I was growing up, I grew up in an incredible Christian home so thankful for my mom and dad, but it was almost like, it almost felt wrong to have like corporate time, because that's just you and the Lord. That was kind of how I was raised where it's like, well, you should go pray about that. It was never like, let's pray about that. It was like, you should go pray about that.
And it's almost just like private, like I don't want to interfere thing. But when I look at how the early church was organized, when I look at how Jesus did things, it's like there is absolutely time to go and be by yourself, but there's a priority on praying together and gathering. And so I think that for a lot of us, when we look at praying collectively, praying in community, we need some reasons why because we're going, okay, I hear you that sounds important, but why would I do that? Because I naturally don't want to do some of us.
So for those that are saying, I don't want to do that. Here are some good reasons why. One is really simple, just accountability. If someone's expecting you somewhere, you're more likely to go.
Here's this awesome story. I was talking with my wife's family. This is a while back and they were telling me about this weekly prayer meeting that they had in their house for a lot of the years that my wife was growing up and there's these stories of these times of prayer that would happen at their house in the mornings. So I'm just hearing some of these stories and I'm inquisitive and so how did that start?
Was this just a spontaneous thing that happened or how did that prayer meeting start? And my in-laws laughed and I said, well, we really wanted to pray more and we figured if we hosted it in our living room, we wouldn't sleep through it. I love that. It's so honest.
It's so like, in a moment of weakness, I scheduled it at my house at 6am. And now I'm committed to it. Right? There's something about just the accountability of like, hey, my friends are waiting for me.
They'll know if I'm not there. I think that's a gift. I think that's actually really good. That's not like the redemptive side of peer pressure.
It's like, I want to do that. Keep me accountable. Right? For those of you that work out, clearly don't.
But for those of you that work out, you know it's easier to work out with other people and there's like, hey, I'm at the gym. Where are you? Right? It keeps you accountable.
And so that's one side. If you're trying to pray consistently, having other people praying with you and holding you accountable is a really good thing. Another thing is my goodness, the growth that you experience in your prayer life, when you interact with the body, it's exponential. When you are in a prayer meeting and you're bored and tired and the guy next to you is like, oh, he's in love with God.
He's burning. There's this thing that goes, and you're provoked by it. Right? That's really good to be around other people that are going, where are you at?
And I'm actually strengthened by your faith, by your commitment, by your zeal, by your love. There's a benefit that I receive by being a part of the body. I don't want to disconnect from that. I actually want to lean into that.
So there's this like discipleship element of like, when I pray with other people, I'm learning how to pray. I'm being strengthened by that. And then there's also, when we're praying in groups, there's this invitation to see God through someone else's eyes, but you get to see the part of God. If you've been to our prayer room here or some other prayer room, the odds are pretty slim that every single prayer topic is going to be something that you personally burn for.
And you're like, oh, I too have been praying for years for children's prayer revival or for business people or for this or for this. And it's like you're being introduced into something and you're like, I don't know that I have God's heart for that thing. But when you pray in a group, you're going, oh, not that person's praying, I didn't know that. Oh, my goodness, the God has access to your heart in a way that he wouldn't have had if you just prayed in a silo.
So it's actually enjoyable because there's like the community and the unity, there's the discipleship element, there's the expanding of your view of God. So friends, if you're wanting to grow in your prayer, like me, person of constant prayer, sign up to pray collectively, pray in a group. And then the last one that I'm going to hit on tonight, like I said, there's so many points. The last one that I want to hit on kind of flows out of the first one, because when we think about praying in a group, for a lot of us, it feels really difficult to stay like honest and authentic when there's other people around, because you find yourself kind of there for the room or there to sound a certain way.
And so my last point, and this one is the one I think I'm the most passionate about right now, that if you want to pray constantly, you have to pray honestly. You have to be honest in your prayer life, because friends, wearing a mask is exhausting. Pretending to be something that you're not is not sustainable. You will get exhausted.
And if your prayer life is a role that you step into, you will burn out 100% of the time. If the way that you pray isn't the way that you talk, you will get tired. If you're praying in a way that is posturing, there's no way you're going to be consistent with that. Some of you all have retail jobs, and you're talking to people all day, and you're like, yeah, absolutely.
Thank you. Absolutely. Great. And by the end, you're just like, oh, I just need to be myself.
It was good that role is fine, but I need to be, can I just be with my friends and have the freedom to not talk or talk? We want to be comfortable. If it's going to be sustainable, there has to be honesty in how we pray. And this one is challenging, because it's not just in group settings.
In group settings, it's maybe more pronounced because you're in the, okay, breaking groups of three, and we're going to pray with this thing. And your mind starts racing. What's the Bible verse I'm going to use? I don't want to tell you what I'm going to use.
I don't want to tell you idiot. I don't know what I'm talking about. I'm just going to say this word, because this is the last time. I'm going to say, Jesus is a certain way.
And your mind is racing, and you're not connected to the Lord. And then you're trying to achieve some sort of like status mark, or like, this is how prayers pray. Let's take a break from that. But let's also look at your own personal life.
It is possible, and I'm, maybe this is just exposing some of my own tendencies, but I think it's actually very common that we're in some way posturing when we're by ourselves with the Lord. We'll come into our schedule time of prayer for those of us that are doing like, okay. And we're like trying to like get into the role. We have to be honest with where we're at.
There's this old book, it's not the Bible, but there's a lot of wisdom in it. And I was reading it, and there's this character that is giving advice. And he's in the book, he's this old monk. And he's giving advice.
And when I read it, I'm like, man, that feels like the word of the Lord for me. And he's giving advice. He says, above all, do not lie to yourself. A man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point where he doesn't discern any truth, either in himself or anywhere around him.
I'm wanting to just call out that there's a way to lie to ourselves in the place of prayer, where we step in, we do the thing, we say what we're supposed to and we leave going. That was a good prayer time. And we've disconnected our hearts from the Lord, and it's not actually real. And we're in this place of, I just want God to wake us up.
So it's like, oh, I'm myself with him, and I'm not concerned about how it looks or how it sounds. Some of us have this thing in our prayer classes. This isn't for all of us, but specifically those of us that were raised in like Christian homes and have a Christian history, so to speak. There's this tendency to even want to buy ourselves, try to be impressive to God, and try to do it the way that we think he wants us to do it, and we're filling a role.
And I'm telling you, that is exhausting. That's not sustainable. Because eventually you're going to break, and if you feel like you're not safe to be yourself with God, then when you actually do break, then you're going to run to Netflix or booze or whatever else because you're going, well, he's not safe because I think it'd be me. And so friends, that whole, I need to be me thing.
Let's just talk about that because that's the ditch of being honest, right? Where it's like, well, now there's no boundaries and I'm just going to do whatever I want. And I'm like, why don't you feel like prayer today? So I want to be authentic and I'm out.
It's the perfect example, so I'm not going to go away from it. David, right? The book of Psalms is such a gift to the body because it gives language for honesty and brokenness in the context of prayer and submission to God. And so David's going, listen up, God, because I just need to say this.
And he says all this stuff, my son was reading this, and he's like, it's this here that David wants people's heads to be bashed against rocks. I'm like, yeah, I wouldn't worry. It's where, but David's being like, David's being himself before the Lord. And in these Psalms, you see David consistently go, but here's what I actually know.
So I'm going to be free with what I feel, and I'm going to be free with what I know. This is the prayer of confession. This is something that the church has held for years and years and years. Confession has been kind of twisted to me.
Here's my list of sins that I give God so that we can just both acknowledge He's like an asking for forgiveness and then He'll listen to my prayer. Once I get past my list of sins, then God's going to listen. That's how we view the prayer of confession and it's a misrepresentation of what was always designed to be. A prayer of confession is an honest prayer.
It just goes, or I feel so weak right now. I feel like train wreck. I am trying to pray. I know you've called me to pray, but I can't get over the shame of what happened last weekend.
You and I both know what happened and I'm trying to pray here, but my goodness, I've got some traffic between my years. I'm tired. I don't want to be here. It's confession.
But the other part of confession is what David models, where he goes, and in the midst of all of that, it's unthinkable that you're still listening to me. God, you're good. You hear me? Father, I thank you that no matter what I do, you're always here.
You've promised me that. God, you promised you would never leave me if you're safe. I know that I'm weak. God, would you give me strength?
That's what you promised. That's still committed to who he is. Psalm 139 is such a gift to the church. It's just such popular Psalm in the church.
Love Psalm 139. He gives language, but it just hates the facade. He hates trying to fit a mold and you've searched me and you know me. When I stand up and when I sit down and go in, I go out to my favorite phrase and that Psalm.
He says, you're acquainted with all my ways. I don't have to impress you or you know how I am. That's how I'd say it in my language. I'm like praying.
Just highlight examples of my own life. I'm in my basement and I'm praying and I pace when I pray sometimes. But a lot of times it's just habit and so I'll be pacing and then I'll kind of stop and go. You're acquainted with all my ways.
I'm a pacer, right? And it's like, okay, let's just break the ice here. This isn't impressing you. You know how I am.
And then there's times where I'll wake up in the morning, crack open the word, I got my cup of coffee. And 20 minutes go by and I go, you're acquainted with all my ways. I mean it. I think that's so freeing.
I'm just present with the Lord and going, this is how do you know I'm trying. We got 10 minutes left till the kids get up. Lord help me with these last 10 minutes because I really want to pray. Okay, what did I have on my list?
And then I'm going to go through my list and pray and it's my best effort. God, you're acquainted with all my ways. And there's an honesty to it that just gives permission to be like, now I'm actually looking forward to the next morning as opposed to dreading it. So I'm like, yeah, he was with me.
God was there and I really want to grow in this. So here's my next step, right? It just gives us freedom to pursue God in a way that feels like, oh, I can do that. You know what I mean?
One last tip that I'll just throw out because this has really helped me. And it's that balance of how do I be authentic and actually like not lazy? Like how do I be authentic and still disciplined? What I've found to be a real gift is actually writing my prayers out when I'm in a place of faith.
When I'm feeling like, man, I feel connected to the Lord, I'll write out this prayer. And then I'll read that the next day when I'm not feeling it at all. I'm going, this is true. This is what I want.
God, that was a window into my interior. And right now I'm swirled out. There's a hard day. And I got that bill that I wasn't expecting.
And my boss was awesome. I work. Josh is the best boss in the world. But it's just like, I'm just processing a lot and I don't know how to pray.
And I could either fake it and just like say the thing. I could disengage entirely and go, well, I don't feel like prayer. So it's not authentic. Or I could go back to what I wrote the morning before and go, no, you're actually still the thing that I want.
You're still the desire of my heart. Everything that I have is yours. And there's these statements that I'm going, I wrote that. That's my heart.
So it's actually authentic. Here's why this is so powerful for me. That's my language. I wrote it in my language and what I wanted to say, then I hold myself accountable to who I really am.
And it's not fitting somebody else's mold. So I would encourage you that if you're building a constant prayer life, you're going, how do I do this in a way that I've struggled with that thing between being really authentic but then kind of being lazy or being really diligent and then kind of shaking. I think a good way in the middle can be to just write out an honest prayer and then you go back to it and you keep yourself accountable to what you said. What I'd love to do, okay, so just for summary, the three points that I'm highlighting again, there's a hundred, the three points I'm highlighting are to pray intentionally and make a plan of how you're going to do this, pray collectively and invite other people into your prayer life and then pray honestly.
Those are just some ingredients that I think that if you want to say in 10 years, am I praying more and I'm praying now, how do I get there? I think these are some practical tools that we can hold that will actually build a constant prayer life for us. What I'd love to do, Stephen, are you in there? Stephen, thank you.
You can come up and start playing keys. What I would love to do is just create a little bit of space for this to actually, I think that for specifically for those two, so we're in a group, we're going to check the box for collectively, but we're talking about being intentional and creating those smart goals of like, here's how I'm actually going to take a step in growth. I can look back on next week and go, did I do that thing? For some of us, we just need some space in this space where you're going, yeah, that's what I want.
Hold yourself accountable and go, okay, what am I going to do? I actually want to make space for you to write down some of those things. And then for some of us, when I was talking about honest prayer, you're going, it's been a pleasure in a way that felt like healthy honesty. And maybe you just need a little bit of space for that.
And so what I'd love to do is just invite, just so it's not strange for people to move, because sometimes if you're right next to someone, even when you're writing something, you're like, people looking at me. So I just want to love for us to have space for that. So I'm going to let everyone to stand, spread out, and then you can sit back down if you want, but stand up, and then you can sit right back down, but if you want to spread out, go ahead, get some room, and you have one of two options. You have one of two options.
We'll just take five minutes for this, but I don't want to just teach this and then not give some sort of application moment. So we'll take five minutes, and you can pick one of two options. You can either be with Holy Spirit and start to build out some sort of a plan and go, I want that garden of my life to flourish. I know you've called me to this and this and this and this and this, and Pastor says that I can do that through prayer.
So what's my prayer plan? Right? Some of y'all are going to make a specific prayer plan, and I love that. And then some of you guys are going to choose to take these five minutes and just go, I just want to connect with them in a way that's like my language.
I've been avoiding talking to them about that thing, and I'd love to just bring it up, because it's the elephant in the room. The all-knowing God is well aware that you're holding that thing. You might as well just bring it to them and have connection in it, rather than having a great distance. You can choose between building a prayer plan or having an honest moment to connect with them.
But we'll take five minutes, I'll get off the mic, and you can just be with the Lord. Thank you Holy Spirit that you're with us. Come and reside. Come and be with us.
We love you.