Welcome to our Together on Mission podcast, where we seek to be with and like Jesus as we begin a conversation with Jesus in the morning, through scripture, prayer, and meditation, and then continue that conversation with him throughout your day. Your host is Travis Twyman, the pastor at the Inland Vineyard Church in Corona, California. In this season of the podcast, we're going to be talking about diving deeper in our relationship with Jesus through scripture, prayer, and meditation. We will focus on hearing the voice of God and being guided by the Spirit of God, not only when we chat with Jesus in the morning, but as we journey with Jesus throughout the entirety of your day.
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the daily Together on Mission podcast. This is Travis, and it is great to be together. We are in a season of the podcast where we are talking about prayer, and meditating, and diving deep into our relationship with Jesus, and we're talking about how natural that is, and how amazing that is, and how it's the only way to be filled, the only way to be happy, the only way to be satisfied. And the last couple podcasts, we kind of framed it up and tried in a few different ways to reframe prayer, and so this morning, I want to get very, very practical, and I need to tip my hat to my mother and dedicate this podcast to her, because years and years ago, and it probably has been 20 years now, mom taught me a very, very simple way to pray and to engage the presence of Jesus.
So I'm just going to call this podcast Simple Prayer, and I'm going to read a passage of Scripture from Jeremiah, chapter 31, beginning in verse 33, and it really doesn't matter where in Scripture you go, but we're always going to start with Scripture. This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel. At that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts. I will be their God.
They will be my people. No longer will they teach their neighbors, say one another, know the Lord, because they will all know me from the least to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I have forgiven their wickedness, and I will remember their sins no more. Famous passage, beautiful passage, new heart, new spirit, new people that know the Lord, forgiveness of sins, remembering wickedness no more. So there's a passage of Scripture, and what we're going to talk about this morning with simple prayer is entering into a time of prayer, and we could call this kind of prayer, simple prayer, or praying the Scripture, or waiting in God's presence, whatever you want to call it.
And it's a unique way of dealing with the Scripture and prayer at the same time. So simply what you do is just turn to Scripture. You can choose any passage that you want to, really. I mean, the most simple and the most straightforward, the better, but you can turn to any passage that you want, and just relax and begin to read the passage in the presence of Jesus, and read a small portion of the passage, and then just take it in.
Take it in. Digest it. Enjoy it. And when you get to a point in the passage where you begin to kind of feel the presence of Jesus, stop reading, and that's important.
And so if I'm in Jeremiah 31, I'm reading verse 33, this is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel. At that time, declares the Lord, I will put my law in their minds, write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Now, I'm not done with the passage, but let's say I just kind of feel the presence and the fragrance and the enjoyment of Jesus at that point.
As I'm taking it in the passage, kind of digesting it, you stop right there and just enjoy the presence of Jesus. And stop reading as long as you want to, because in some sense, the Scripture has been a door into the presence and the enjoyment and the connection with Jesus. One of the keys to this model of simple prayer or praying the Scripture or waiting on the Lord is that one of the things we are not doing is moving from verse to verse quickly. We're not moving from passage to passage quickly.
This is not goal-oriented, and that is so important, because sometimes, and this is a good thing, it's a different topic, but it's a good thing. We're not trying to read the Bible through in a year. We're not trying to get to the end of the chapter. We're not even trying to get to a chapter break or a sentence break.
We are just enjoying the Scripture. It is not goal-oriented at all. And when we feel the presence of Jesus, when we feel that connection, even if we've only read one word, we bounce off of it and just quiet ourselves before the Lord and just sense the very heart of what we just read and sense the very heart of Jesus who is with us. And if we read quickly, we may benefit little as far as a connection and enjoyment of Jesus.
It would be like smelling a meal, but moving on to smell another meal and then moving on to smell another meal. Rather, once you smell that meal, once you feel an encounter with the presence of Jesus, once you've taken that smell, then just stop and begin to eat. Digest that passage. Let the fullness of it just be enjoyed, and that is enjoying the presence of Jesus.
And taste it. Let it nourish you. And again, this is a very, very simple model, which my mom taught to me years and years ago, praying the Scripture, waiting on the Lord. So really, this is the key.
And I want to end a little bit early this morning so we can just practice it. But the key is just begin to read a passage. Read it very slowly. No goal to finish it.
It might just be one word. And as soon as you begin to smell, feel, kind of some aspect of the presence of God, just stop and enjoy. No effort. Just wait.
Digest the power of that passage as long as you want to. And you can be done with your prayer time right after that. Or you can go back to the passage, read a little bit more, wait for the experience of the presence of God, and then stop reading. And the Scripture becomes a doorway into the tasting and experiencing and knowing that God is good.
And one of the things I have loved about this model of prayer for the last 20-something years is that it really does demystify, right? It takes the complication out of prayer. It's simple, combining Scripture and prayer and seeing Scripture as a window, a door, in order to just access and enjoy and be with a God who wants to be with his people. And if I could just read that part of Jeremiah 31 again, I will be their God, and they will be my people, declares the Lord.
So go ahead and try it. Go to Matthew 5. Go to Ephesians 1. Go to Jeremiah 31.
Go to Psalm 23. That's a great place to go. And just simply, and with anticipation but not pressure, read a bit and enjoy the presence of Jesus. And have fun with it.
And we'll talk soon. Thanks for listening to the Together on Mission podcast. We truly hope that you were blessed and encouraged by it today. If you had any questions about the Inland Vineyard Church, our ministries, or our Sunday services, feel free to connect with us on our brand new app, which you can find in the Google Play and the App Store.
And check out our social media pages like Facebook and Instagram. Or even check out our website at inlandvineyard.org.