Why is Prayer a Discipleship Issue?

In this episode, Chris Rivers, Scott Mozingo, and Ryan Donell discuss prayer as a formative practice and explore how prayer can serve as a barometer to what we truly believe about God, the gospel, and our salvation.

• When you first become a Christian, you recognize the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life and, in most cases, have an immediate desire to talk to God and be in relationship with him. These are part of your natural intuitions as a believer. In order to mature as a believer, however, you have to develop daily habits and disciplines to experience the fullness of walking with Jesus.
• When we allow Jesus’ presence in all the corners of our life, it highlights what we really think about the gospel and what we believe it gives us. Many people view God as a resource to get to something else. The Christian gospel reminds us that the best thing God can give us is himself. God is the gift. Prayer centers us with the truth that God is the gospel and the way to have genuine fellowship is to be in his presence.
• Prayer as a formative practice involves carving out time and space to be with God. It involves bringing his presence into every facet of our lives so that we can be free to love others. It involves participation— not just participating in a conversation with God, but participating in what he is doing in the world. Prayer cultivates our devotion to God and allows us to be present in the moments God is calling us to be present.

• In what ways am I cultivating my prayer life so I can experience the fullness of walking with God? What habits and practices have I put in place?
• What is my view of the gospel and salvation? Do I see it as a channel to get to heaven or simply as life with God?
• Do I have a desire to pray? How am I seeking to be in his presence and be an active participant in the work he is doing in my life?

And because we are his children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, prompting us to call out, “Abba,” Father. Galatians 4:6

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me, you can do nothing. John 15:5

• The Songs of Jesus by Timothy Keller
• Praying Like Monks, Living Like Fools by Tyler Staton
• The Lord’s Prayer: for All God’s Children by Harold K. Senkheil
• The Lord and His Prayer by N.T. Wright
• Psalms by Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If you have questions about this episode or you have an idea for a future episode, please visit the podcast page and click on "Ask Scott."

Grace Church members, welcome back to the podcast. I'm Chris Rivers. One of your host and I'm really glad to join you today. If you're a first-time listener, we're excited. You joined us. The goal of this resource is to address discipleship issues in the life of Grace Church and discuss how to be more fully devoted to God.

I have to say, I was really encouraged by this interview. You're about to here with Ryan Donnell, and Scott Mozingo. Mostly because it gave me a template for what sir Successful prayer. Looks like we unpacked prayer as a formative practice and explore how prayer can serve. As a barometer to what we truly believe about. God, the gospel and our Salvation stick around to the end because Ryan gives us a model for praying.

The Lord's Prayer you won't want to miss it. Okay, let's jump into this interview. Ryan's good to see you today. It is he yeah, it's got good morning. Chris. Good morning Scott.

Well, Ryan wants to just jump in. Love to learn a little bit about you. Your journey here at Grace and what do you even do here? Yeah, that's a good question. I've gotten that a lot, it's changed over time but right now I'm a worship minister.

So I say I play songs and Lead music and Try to welcome people into worship and our services, they're singing and prayer and all of that. And then recently I've gotten to do some part-time work in videography. So I'm on the video team now.

Okay, then I'm on a couple of different teams like that do projects for the church like not of prayer. Good Friday. Service has sort of special services stuff and yeah and you've been a Grace for a while. Yeah. Lydia. My wife and I came to Grace in 2009, summer 2009.

So, I've been here a while and yeah, we worship mostly at the Pelham campus and my wife serves in Mosaic there and kids are in the Ministries there and you're still a student. Right? Right. Still student.

People ask. Are you done with school yet and but they've been asking that for Almost 10 years, what are you studying? So right now I'm studying at the University of Geneva in Switzerland and their Systematic Theology program. They have a Ph. D program there that they let you study at a distance.

So I get to travel for courses and conferences and stuff like that, but it's allowed me. Part-time flexibility to work and study at the same time and University of Geneva. Just fit the bill. What do you eventually hope to do? Yeah, I mean I'm trying to just follow the lord and Trust, whatever you want to do with me. That's the true.

But spiritual sounding answer. I really do want to be able to teach in an academic setting and right and I'd love to be in a setting where I could help equip people who want to be in Ministry but also engage people who are not Christians at all and the academic contexts of secular universities, allow that to happen to have a conversation about Jesus and and the church and that type of thing in the context of pluralism and secularism and disagreement and I don't think I just want to be Salt and Light there. Ryan will speaking of bringing things into our world.

I want to talk about prayer from your perspective just how have you grown in your understanding Of prayer. And what is the passion for you? It's a great question. I mean, I think for me, I don't think this is crazy different from most people, I think, when you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit, your your ushered into a conversation between God and God and God, and I don't mean that there are three Gods, but when you become a Christian On the first, you know, sort of cries of your heart. Paul says it in this way and Galatians 4:6 that.

He says the spirit, the Holy Spirit, cries Abba, Father, and one of the first things, you know, when you have the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus is your brother. And God, is your father, and that's a prayer like your response of faith is a prayer. It's a response to God and Here, all of a sudden in relationship with him, you know.

So as a baby Christian, I was like, I was 10 years old but nobody had to tell me. This is what it feels like, because you just you're like, well, I know, I just, I know God. Now I I sense his presence.

So, like you have these immediate desires and emotions to talk to God, you don't have to be convinced that he's in the room. You're just You're aware but as you get older and as I got older, you know, figuring out how to grow and and develop practices is a different thing. And so I think like for most people times of suffering pain, doubt those would always be crucibles. You know, crushing pressing moments, squeezing me and, you know, I'd cry out to God. Pray in those in those times.

But, but really developing habits, or a practice of the presence of God through prayer is not something that I could say. Yeah. This is really, I'm really developing and growing in this.

So I think there's natural intuitions when you become a Christian. You're like, yeah, course, I want to be with God, but there's so many other things that can shape you and distract you from that that if you don't have developed habits and practices and the Community and a trellis, if you will to help your your plant, your your, your Vine of praying to grow, then it's not going to happen or I'll get choked out. So I think that happened for me over time and I got to a point, I think a lot of Christians do when they're like, I missing I'm missing the fullness of the kind of life with God, that I feel like I'm supposed to have.

And yeah, prayer was kind of one of those check engine light moments things from me when it was highlighted that I think I'm actually like fading away from the kind of life with God, that was meant to have Ryan. That's great. Make the connection for us between prayer devotion. Why do you think this prayer habit, ritual? Like whatever you have learned and your Discovery? Why is it such a discipleship issue?

For us as members of our church. That's a great question. I think I think there's positive answers and negative in the sense that I think. One of the things that prayer as a discipleship issue is crucial for us in terms of our understanding or approach to what Christianity is. You know, if a disciple is a learner or an apprentice of Jesus, then it's not just learning about content. Like you would read a book on a shelf, it's about learning to practice a way of life and to live with Jesus.

It's about being in his presence in all the corners of your life. So prayer. Highlights what you really think the gospel gives you.

Okay, I'm gonna try to say this as forthrightly and clearly as I can, but a lot of people in our church or who attend and in America think that God is a resource to get something else. Besides God, So how do we say that? I'll tell you, we think that Jesus is a channel to get us to a place called heaven. Which if you fill that out, maybe so that I can have endless days without pain or crying or tears.

Now, do we all want that? Of course we do, but which is the priority, is it a mortal existence from day to day? Like it's just an infinite sequence of days? Is that is that actually your God? Actually probably is like for a lot of people where the absence of suffering, right? You're just the apps.

It's like we think of Salvation. Only in negative terms, like just subtracting sin, right? From the equation, or subtracting death, and suffering from the equation, or subtracting the problems in my life or, or, and it's not to say that they're not problems of course, they are. We all believe that look through that, but I think if that's all you do, you never actually get to what is the Christian Gospel? Which is that the best thing that God can give you is God self? Like the best thing you get with Christianity is God.

That's what makes God God, is he's the best. But for example, Tristan, I were talking about John 3:16. We supposed to learn that for Fusion right now.

Now call him out so you better be working on that tea and I'll tease. Good translation says this is how God loved the world. Not he loved it so much but this is how God loved the world. He gave. What did he give? What could he give?

What would be the best gift? God could give John says his own heart, or the son, who's in his own heart? He gave us his son, his one, and only son his unique son, whoever believes in him, will not perish, but have eternal life. And I said, well what is this eternal life stuff? You know, is that something that's better than God? Like is that a is that actually the real better gift?

That's a good stead of Jesus and his I mean I can't nothing's better than God like he knows enough to and well, nothing's better than God was like, right? So what is this eternal life stuff? And I was like, actually later in John chapter 17 when Jesus is praying to the father. He says this is eternal life, the life of the age or It's that they may know you and Jesus Christ and you've sent.

So actually this is another way of saying I'm giving you life with me giving you my self and I think prayer highlights to me when I am starting to forget that. The best thing quote-unquote that I get as a Christian is God not something else. And when I start to to lose this sense that I get to live my My life with God's presence every day by his holy spirit. Then I'm already starting to move my focus on something else.

So I think it kind of challenges us with. Well, what do you think the gospel really is? What do you think it really gives you? You think it gives you something better than God?

So that's, that's one approach, I think the other thing in terms of thinking about that word, discipleship, what forms shapes us teaches us? Apprentices us because we oftentimes think that Christianity or or being a disciple is like it's this formation practices that we have to take on as something additional to our life that we're not doing already and there's two things about that. Like, I've heard this from other other teachers recently as well as just that you're already doing stuff, you already have patterns and rituals you don't call them rich.

Jules, you know you already when you get in your car, There's four things that you do immediately. I mean they're different for everybody, or when you wake up in the morning you either check you check something on your phone. First, you turn your alarm off. If you make a cup of coffee, right? You do your Wordle, you, whatever your thing is, right. Everybody has a thing.

Well, that's, those are discipling practices, just around something else that may or may not have anything to do with the Lord, but you're already ingrained in rhythms and right now. You're practicing away. Your you have habits and rhythms whether they're intentional or not and prayer challenges us to go. Am I actually developing or working or yeah, training and habits that put myself in God's presence and remind me that he's with me and I'm with him every day and So the threat right now, I think is that we're more trained and discipled by algorithms from Google and then we are by the Holy Spirit or anything, from the history of Christianity, or spiritual mentors, or the Bible.

So, let me make a big observation but a couple things together and tell me if I'm headed down the right path here. So part of the question about Why do we struggle with this discipline? Why do we neglect? It seems to exist around the idea of how do I know it's working? Like if I'm praying for other people, you know, how do I know God, hears my prayers? How do I know my prayers effective?

But it feels like the prayers and praying for other people and praying for things is skipping the most important step that you just talked about. So we talk about devotion Devotion to God Devotion, to others, two great Commandments. I don't think of people. A lot of people think about prayer. As Devotion to God as much as they think about praying for other people, as a sign of Christian, you know, discipline, obedience and love you. I love you.

I want to pray for you. I want to care for you, but it seems like if that's more of our starting point. And we haven't cultivated this appreciation that God is the gospel in a way that I really enjoy a part of that appreciation, is by communing with him through prayer, right? Then the second part of that equation, Asian praying for others is going to struggle. Yes. Does that make sense?

Can you elaborate a little bit more on that baby? Yeah, I know. I completely agree. I mean, of course like, you know, I heard recently, you know, the reason why we pray for people's because we love them, right? You know, and when you can't do for them, something that you wish you could do then you ask for somebody to do that thing. That's that actually can't. So you go to God and say, Could you do this?

Because I can't and I love this person. That's not a bad impulse, but it does remind me of. So I got a quote that wasn't going to be very long, but I got a quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer on this.

But in his little book life together, he starts by talking about community and he one of his main points is you can't and you actually don't as a Christian have Community with other persons or other Christians apart from Jesus Christ and you start to distort your relationship with others unless you see it in and through Jesus Christ. So I do think that the skipping of yeah, I don't I'm not really talking to God because I need communion with him. I'm trying to get him to be a cosmic vending machine for some problems right now, that actually already distorts your relationship with other people, right?

Even when you're praying for this right? You know, so you're just your orientation can get Is distorted, that's not the spoken motivation obviously not. But what you're saying is apart from some healthy rhythms, we already have other rhythms in our life that we may not recognize as rhythms and we fall into that thinking because we are swimming in a world of consumerism vending machine type. Yes the ology. Yes, our are your economic like James K, Smith talks about this a lot but your economic This is our discipling.

You so much everyday, your buying habits, right that use, you can't help but start to think about your relationship with God. In those types of free market capitalist terms and when it comes to your relationship to other people sometimes sometimes you feel guilty. They feel like I'm actually trying to twist God's arm to do something that he doesn't want to do in my intercession for somebody else. And this is just a well that's just wrong. I mean, you don't and that's why the orientation. Godlike.

And this will get to this, but hopefully the The Lord's Prayer it starts by going, like, you actually are a good father, you're a good good father. Like the song says, and you really are bringing the life of Heaven to the Earth, and I really want your reality but you want your will to be done. We're actually on the same page about that. Yeah.

But that completely changes your prayers for other people. And rather than just this like I'm desperately hoping that God would care a fraction as much as I do about. Out my loved one. No, no. Like of course, you're going to throw it one pair because of that, and then you're going to go try to do it yourself unless you think of God differently and then you'll, you'll realize that you're praying with God and you're praying with Christ. And you're offering up prayers that are completely in line with the desires of all these Spirit.

Yeah. So let's go back to this idea of nothing is better than God. Okay, I really, I really want to double tap on that, but I want you to Help us answer the question. Like how would you encourage our church towards this?

So sometimes I think it's similar to a marriage where you actually really do love the person that you married and you really do want to be with them. Even if you guys frustrate each other sometimes, but in order to remind yourself and the other person of the intimacy you really do, have you have to cut some things out and you have to To carve out some space and time.

So Jesus said, when you pray and you go into your closet or you go into this little cabinet room and pray that you know, Tyler sentences is an incredibly great Insight because you're you have to carve out a space for this and that's what something like the night of prayer has done for our church body, it it carves out a specific time and space to Give ourselves to the structure, the words, the Rhythm, the the life and the truth of the Lord's Prayer as a as a trellis as a form as a way to enter into God's presence and let it shape us. It's a gift, right? It's not it's a gift from from Christ himself to say, look, this is a way to be with me and learn what it feels like and looks like to be with me and be on the same page.

With me and so are not of prayers have helped to do that. I mean, there's teaching there's prayer, there's intercession, there's just being in God's presence and and letting that be a pause to realize, and remember that. Yeah, actually God's the God, we worship. And, and because he's good, we don't have to doubt that because of who we see in Jesus Christ and so we can bring the worst parts of our life to him. Must broken pieces. He can handle that.

And we can also celebrate and, and he'll he rejoices with us with the great thing. You know, the triumphs, we can bring it all to him. And as a community, we do that, you know, the Lord's Prayers prayed in the plural.

So so our night of prayers is one of the structures that helps bring us back to 0, right? Christianity is about life with God and How does the structure of the Lord's? Prayer itself. Orient Us in this Focus towards God first. Mmm. I mean, this is nothing new but because it does start with our father who is in heaven and the prayer to how would be your name or Sanctified? Be your name scientific.

I'll do is we say in Spanish that your name would be treated his. Holy seen as holy received his holy, it's a, it's a complex way. Of saying. I'm actually good. I want to take care of you. I love you.

I'm a good God. Everything that I share with you is out of an abundance of gift, its Grace upon Grace, and to come back to his name as his character. It's who he is. It's it's his character not just revealed in the abstract and like a list or a laundry list of attributes. It's his name is identified with freeing Israel from slavery. In Egypt.

And, and of course, that goes back to the point we made earlier, is, like, why did he free him in the first place? Well, yeah, to get rid of Oppression, but it actually says so that they may worship me.

Like, he's trying to save him, so that they can have this intimate encounter this worship life of worship with God. So, I think out of the gate, the first line is inviting you to see God differently. And what about the, Father, how should we think about God as father? Yeah, so father this is not obvious but I do think it's important to say father has different connotations for some people that that's like oh that's a metaphor of a good parent and for others it's that's actually a metaphor for a terrible parent.

So it is a human, it is an anthropomorphic or, you know, for a title it is an analogy. But I think it's important to Go. Well, how does Jesus go? Let's go back to Jesus and Let Jesus show us who the father is.

And so, first and foremost, the, the father is the one with whom Jesus has always been and a great way to kind of shape how you think about God as father. It would be to go back to John chapter 17 when which is this extended prayer from Jesus and it's just Just full of trust and life and love. And so that should shape how we think about God, the father is in and through Jesus.

So we pray the Lord's Prayer. Rowan Williams says on our knees next to Jesus. So I don't think you should just go straight to father and go, well, whatever, I think about that good or bad. That's probably what it is. We should go to Jesus and go. Why don't you teach me?

What it means to pray to God, the father and we'll know that we're saying Abba in the way that his holy spirit does. One of the things is not is that God's not mail? So to call god father doesn't mean he actually has gender. That's that's not what it's saying. It's saying a whole lot of other wonderful, beautiful incredible things, but it is, it's a title with, with great comfort and great meeting and great provision.

But, but I would just It's a, let's go to Jesus and learn how he thinks about God, his father, and it starts with him being the source and cause of all good, life, and gift and provision in love. Then, how does the notion of Kingdom a kingdom? Come thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. How does that idea? Connect just keeping it simple devotion to God, verse and then Devotion to other people and interceding, for other people, is there a connection there, all absence Kingdom?

So, when we talk about Kingdom, you know, in the ancient world, like most of the time Kings had bad connotations, especially for Americans as well. It's like, well, that's everything you everything you would associate. Monarchy with would be like oppression, you know, colonialism slavery. All these terrible, you know, tyrants totalitarian regimes. That's what you think of with kingdoms and Reign and Rule. You don't have any good connotations with that, as a good Democratic American.

So it goes back Back to well, what type of King are we talking about here? And the kind of Kingdom that Jesus brought that he said, was the heart of the father was a kingdom who became king through a crown of thorns, not a crown of gold like he became king through suffering. The first placard that he gets over his head as king of the Jews is on a cross, right?

So not on a Gold Label. So the kind of Kingdom were talking about. That is the heart of the father is one where the highest go slow. It's the one who sends, you know, the father loved the world in this way, he gave his only son.

So this is completely reshaping and hopefully restoring what we think about the father and his kingdom. And then it's not a kingdom, that's abstracted from The Real World, which is why we're talking. Talk to pray, your kingdom, come your will be done on the Earth as it is in heaven. It's not to keep Heaven away, its to invite the life of Heaven, into your own life, and your own heart, and your own family into your world and to your city.

And so, you can know right from that verse that. God, actually, his design is to bring the life of heaven and his kingdom to the Earth. And that's of course, what Jesus did.

But And I always whenever I pray that prayer, always turn it. You Know, Myself and I say may your kingdom come your will be done in me as it is in heaven. And then, I say, also in my family and the life of my wife and my church, and I know that I'm praying with the will of God, I know that because that's the prayer Jesus came he to pray.

So, I think keeping Kingdom in some other world is false. It's an error or making God aloof. And so abstract that he doesn't really care. Are no no that's not the kind of father who dealing with and it's definitely not the kind of Kingdom that Christ brought so apart from the Lord's Prayer, what are some other ways that we can keep God? Prayers to God communion with God big. What are some other models?

You mentioned the high Priestly prayer. John 17. What are some other ways that we can really cultivate this Devotion to God through prayer? Again not to diminish, the intercession for others but really as as fuel for that, intercession for us. Yeah, yeah so I think of intercession as work like, you're doing real work for that person. Like in Acts, you know they appoint the deacons and then I say so that we can keep doing the Devotion to the word and prayer because they think it's real work prayer is work.

Like, Luther thinks it's sweaty difficult work to pray and it does real things. So you're serving people. When you pray for them, you're actually doing work for them before, the Throne of God, when you pray, but I say that to say that. Yes, you can follow that in Paul, for example, his the examples of his prayers, in the Epistles are doing work for the people that he's writing to that comes out. Yes, you can track with the prayers of Jesus. All there's tons of different Encounters of Prayer in the New Testament that you can draw from but I think one of the easiest answers just to be sure.

For is for the last two thousand years and then before that the prayer book of the Bible is the Psalms. And so when I don't know what to pray, I pray the Lord's Prayer but the Lord's Prayer Luther, said it penetrates the Psalms and the songs penetrate The Lord's Prayer. So, I go to the Psalms because I know that I will have access to the full range of emotion of tragedy and celebration all there and It's always going to challenge me. It's going to catch me off guard, it's going to say things that I don't expect and it's going to connect with my my life in a real earthy human way.

And so, I think one of the best ways to learn to pray with more than just the Lord's Prayer is to get in the Psalms, and it's okay, if you're like, pray phrase and you're like, okay, I think I know what that means. Yes, God. That's what I want to say. And then go to the next phrase ago. I don't know what this means. God.

Yeah. But I want to go to the next line, that's okay. But I think that's a great and there's all kinds of books and resources for that.

But I think the Psalms are a gift to us. Well, this has been great Ryan so at the end of the day, what would success look like? So I think I want to say that especially to somebody who's discouraged about praying right now, they are getting all this and they're like, this is so foreign to me. And I feel sad about that. I think that just tells you that you really do. Love God.

Even though discouragement says, I want something that I know I'm supposed to be enjoying right now but I'm not there, I think that's okay. And so to that person I want to say you already have a successful prayer life. What do I mean by that? Jesus is your prayer like, Jesus is already. He already has scars on his wrists. And in his side that plead for you, they pray for you every day and they are fully Hebrews says heard Jesus Christ.

He uttered cries and tears and groans for you already to the father and they've been completely hard and the Holy Spirit is always groaning always praying always As with you always already communicating your needs and they're already being accepted. So, the good news is, there is a secure sense in which your prayer life is already acceptable. Like, no matter how bad it is, and that's the, that's the gospel. You already have communion with God, God's party with you, you know, that's who Emmanuel is Jesus, you know, he's God with us.

So I think that's the Starting place to grow their. I think would be the first two words that come to mind are presence, and participation. So presence is when you sense and experience when you are living into a greater awareness that you're with God, and God is with you and that you take that into your presence to the rest of the world, you you sense? You know, as I'm doing this Labor. This work, this act of service or my job, my vacation, my family life, I'm with God and God is with me, the more you pray, the more you'll be aware of that.

You'll be living with God and experiencing his presence. You'll be bringing his presence into all the corners of your life and you're also more present to other people and you can be present to them, you can love them, you can bring their presence into into. Your prayer life, your conversation with god.

And so I think presence is a part of and then participation the word participate, what I'm trying to get at there is, you know, just participating in the conversation with god but you actually going to be participating in what he does in the world so it's very fruitful. So Jesus is test for whether or not you're remain in him and John's language and 14 and 15. I think of if your remaining in him and his words Are in you is that you're going to produce a lot of fruit? It's gonna be fullness. Yeah, okay.

So you're gonna you're going to have joy and you're going to be doing the things that Jesus did and you're going to be doing the work. You're it's going to look like the father's will and Kingdom coming in your life as in heaven. And there will be real practical visible concrete. Expressions to that, like, feeling less lonely feeling more. Are experiencing more joy having the energy to to meet the needs of other people, being able to embrace moments of pain and tragedy. Because you at the bottom of all of that, you have a deeper hope.

So you're going to be able to cry with people when you want to and feel their their wounds because, you know, God can be there too and God is there. You see what I'm saying? So it helps you be present in all the moments God's calling you to be present to be that kind of person. Person. I think that goes back to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Well. Thank you. I think we'll have some great resources. You've got some good ideas of some, some books maps and different things that can help. People will put those in in the resource section. In the show notes, I have one request.

Want to put you on the spot here, okay, as you close us is okay. Chris, if I close this out today solutely, then I would love to hear the Lord's Prayer and you get to pick the language because you're okay. Your trilingual so Spanish or French. Close this out with the Lord's Prayer.

Okay. I can't I can't pray the Lord's Prayer in French yet. You interesting brake parts of it in Spanish. Obviously do it for an English but I'll throw in some tongs.

Okay, go for it. Our father in Heaven, by the take it, that's a no Cielo santificado sea, Tu nombre. God, we ask that your Holiness and presence your goodness and fullness of it would be felt by your people today. They'd be felt by us. God, I pray that we would not shame or dishonor or treat as common who you are and what you've done. And we don't want to do that with our lives or with our speech today.

So I pray that as people look at our lives that they see that. Your name is good and it's wholly and it's embodied in the life of Jesus and we just want that knowledge and that reality to be extended through us. So we ask that your name would be Sanctified and God we asked that your kingdom would come and that your will would be done on the earth as in heaven. Not just in the future but inaugurated now Guy. We recognize that that's going to be through suffering and trial in pain. The kingdom doesn't always especially often times.

It does not look like luxury and comfort and wealth and safety but it looks like heartache and tragedy. I pray that as we meet each other in moments of pain that we would be reminded that that is not contrary to your kingdom coming but that you can come in and through those moments and so you send us into those moments today. I pray that we not resist them or buffer them or distract ourselves with other things, but be able to be present other people in their pain today.

And God we ask that you would provide for our needs. God, give us today, the daily bread that we need Meet our needs are Necessities. That are real, that cause anxiety, but we pray to you. Knowing that you're good, that you love to give good gifts to your children.

So we can ask you for all that we need for ourselves and for those around us. God, we pray that you would better, though, not with avocados, as we forgive us our sins, as we are in the process of forgiving others. This forgiveness is a two-way street, God, and Can't resist that.

So as we receive your forgiveness, we ask that you would Channel it through US towards others. Just drain us of the bitterness that sometimes we walk around with towards other people in our life, whether it's our spouses, our kids friends, co-workers.

God, we ask that you would, yes, forgive us our sins. As we forgive those who sin against us and God guide us away from Temptation and trial. I was not the fall into It or just do stupid things that make us stumble into moments of weakness and vulnerability that are our own fault. Lord, let us not be tempted by our own desires.

So, Lord train our desires. Help us crave, what is good so that we can overcome evil. And in that last part guy, we just ask that knowing that you have overcome The evil of the world. We ask that you would help us resist evil that you would help us resist evil actions and the works of those who are doing evil.

Knowing that or Jesus, you came to deliver to save us from evil, and from all of its effects. And the end the final day, the final analysis, you really will and darkness and death and evil will be no more God. We want to bring that hope into the rest of our day today.

And so we ask for it in and through you, Lord Jesus. I agree. Thanks. Well, as we wrap up today's conversation, we want to thank you for joining us. We believe that discipleship is the process that one engages in when they repent believe and follow Jesus. And there's no better way to engage in the process of discipleship than in community.

So we want to encourage you to share this episode with someone and discuss this discipleship issue together. Ask for their feedback and any takeaways they receive be prepared to reciprocate and approach their feedback with a willingness to learn and apply this This is a great way to move towards this discipleship issue. If you have questions or want access to any additional resources to help you, dive deeper into this subject, be sure to check out our podcast page located in the show notes. Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to joining you on the next episode.