When You've Given Up on Prayer
- Craig Groeschel
- Sep 24, 2021
- 23 min read
- Today I wanna talk to you about prayer and I'm gonna ask you a question and before I
ask the question, I want you to think about it and then answer. The question is this, how
many of you believe in the power of prayer? You believe that God hears your prayers,
you believe that prayer can be effective, how many of you believe in the power of
prayer, But you would say, honestly, you probably don't pray as often as you should?
Would you raise your hands? You can type that in the chat. I probably should pray more
if you'd like to. Or another question would be this, maybe you believe in the power of
prayer and maybe you even try to pray, but you often feel that your prayers aren't that
effective? How many would be honest enough to say that might be you? We're in a
message series called a better way. And we're looking at the way that Jesus lived, not
just the truth that He taught, which is so important, but also the way that Jesus lived.
And if there was a constant in the life of Jesus, no matter what happened, no matter
how crazy life was, no matter what the disciples were doing, no matter what the Roman
government was doing, no matter what the rumors were, if there was any constant in
His life is that Jesus constantly sought the Father in prayer. He prioritized the presence
of God in prayer and did it ever work? His life and prayer empowered Him to overcome
every temptation of the evil one. He was able to be faithful to God, completely
obedient. He healed people. He showed love to those who are unloving back to Him.
When I look at His life and see how He lived, I wanna live like He lived and love like He
loved. And so, if I want what Jesus had, I should probably pray like Jesus prayed. And
yet so many of us don't. Why do you think that is? Why do you think we struggle to
pray consistently or to pray effectively? Based on my experience as a pastor, I see three
reasons that are very common and you might see yourself in these reasons. One of the
reasons is that we lack focus, we lack focus. We wanna pray, like you'll hear a message
on praying and you're like I'm gonna pray. It's pretty amazing, I have this time with God
and you start, and then you get distracted. I understand this, like my ADD kicks in and
my mind wanders to anything, but God. It's crazy I'm thinking about what I need to do
and take out the trash and where I'm gonna go and what I haven't done in my mind.
Well, or sometimes I just get bored. Am I allowed to say that? Like you spiritual people
could get back there and judge me, I'm talking to the real people today. Like sometimes
it gets boring. Like you pray a long time, it's really boring. I mean, as a kid, I used to fall
asleep when I was praying and I just knew God was mad at me going like, "You didn't
sign off, there was no amen. You're going to hell where the worm never dies is weeping
and gnashing of teeth." Sometimes you just lack focus. Another reason many of us don't
pray consistently, is that we lack confidence. We just don't really know how to do it. It's
especially intimidating when you're around someone who does. Anybody have someone
like that in their life? They're almost like if there was such thing as a professional prayer,
they would get paid, they get sponsored by like prayer.com or whatever, because their
prayers are so powerful. They're like prayer warriors, you're like a fair junior high kid or
whatever. When they pray, they like they're quoting scriptures and they know exactly
where they are. They're like Lamentations 3:20, you're like Lamentation is book in the
Bible, I'm not even sure. They're like calling on the names of God, like Jehovah Nissi and
Jehovah Rapha and you're trying like Jehovah Nissan Maxima maximize us for the glory
of God. They ask you to pray and you just eat like, whoa, you freak out. You're like, God
bless this meat. Now let's eat in Jesus' name. You don't really know how. Some people
they lack focus, some people lack confidence, some of us lack faith, we lack the faith.
We're not sure that God will do it. Or we might believe that God can do it, but it doesn't
seem like He's gonna do it for me. We wonder, does He hear my prayers? Does He care?
And sometimes we can make a pretty strong argument that He really doesn't care or
hear my prayers because we tried and I prayed so hard and believed He was gonna
answer, and He didn't do what I asked Him to do. You probably have your own version
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of that story. As a kid, you prayed for your parents' marriage to work and you believed,
and then they divorced. You prayed for your grandma to be healed, and she wasn't. You
pleaded with God to help you overcome that repetitive sin just take that away, take it
away, take it away and He never took it away. And so you conclude, well, prayer might
work for other people, but it doesn't work for me. And that's why the title of today's
message is when you've given up on prayer. And let's all go before God together in
prayer. We ask God that in your presence, to the teaching of your word and the power
of the Holy Spirit, that you would draw us into an intimate, ongoing relationship with
you. Living the way that Jesus lived, an ongoing fellowship and dependence on you.
God teach us to pray, give us a heart to pray, help us to live in an attitude of prayer, so
we can live and love the way Jesus loves. We pray this with faith believing you're gonna
hear our prayer in Jesus' name. And everybody said. - [Congregation] Amen. - Amen, amen. To understand what prayer is. What I wanna do is I wanna start with
what prayer is not. Is that okay? What is prayer not? A lot of times we have a
misperception of what prayer is and so, I wanna tell you very clearly what prayer is not.
Prayer is not a formal presentation. It can be, but it doesn't have to be. You don't have
to like be in something like ministers robe or kneel down by a bed or approach God with
fancy language. Like we beseech thee father to be with us and then use King James
language or whatever. It's not a formal presentation before God. Prayer is also not
giving God your wishlist. He's not some kind of like cosmic Coke machine or a magic
genie, that if you rub him just right and say the prayer the right way, he's gotta do
exactly what you want him to do, the spiritual vending machine. Prayer is also not a
spiritual negotiation, where you tell God what you won't do anymore, if He'll just do
what you ask Him to do. God, I'll never cuss again, if you'll just whatever. I'll never do
this again God, if you'll just answer my prayer. It's not a spiritual negotiation and it's not
a performance to like win the favor of God. And it's not a show to impress people.
Prayer is not a lot of things that we think it is. In fact, when we look at the way that
Jesus lived and just see how He interacted with God, what we discover about the way
He lived is this, that prayer isn't just an action you do, but prayer is a way that you live.
When we look at the way that Jesus lived, we see prayer isn't just a momentary action
where you fold your hands and kneel on your knees and say something and close it out
with amen. It can be that, but it's so much more than just an action that you
occasionally do, it's more of a way that you live. In fact, when you look at the way that
Jesus lived, He prioritized the presence of God in prayer. You can read again and again
that He would leave the crowd and He would go off to pray. He would go off alone to
seek the Father in prayer. He would get up early in the morning to pray. He would pray
late at night. He would go off alone to the lake to pray. He would go up to the mountain
side to pray. He was always disconnecting from those around to fully connect to God. In
fact, when you look at how Jesus prayed in the gospels, when you look at when He
prayed in the gospel, it's fascinating to see exactly when and how Jesus prayed. When
did He pray? According to the gospels, we see a long list of when Jesus prayed. He
prayed at his baptism. He prayed in the morning before heading to Galilee. He prayed
after healing people. He prayed the night before choosing His disciples. Don't worry, I'm
not gonna go through all of them. There's way too many, I'll pick a couple more. He
prayed for little children. He prayed for Himself, His disciples. He prayed right after
being nailed to the cross. He prayed while dying on the cross. He prayed all throughout
the day. Prayer wasn't something that He occasionally did, prayer was a part of the way
that Jesus lived. And those are just the incidents that four guys decided to write down.
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Think about all the other times during the normal course of His life, that Jesus prioritized
the presence of God in prayer. How did He pray? It wasn't something that He did, it was
simply a way that He lived. Now, I would imagine that a lot of you might say, or think
the things that many other people have said or thought, you might think like, "Yeah, I'd
like to pray, but I don't really have time to pray. I mean, there's way too much going on
and I gotta be productive, I gotta get stuff done." And I always say that whenever you
think, I don't have time to pray, I would tell myself, you don't have time not to pray, you
really don't. There may be nothing more productive, than the time that you spend
seeking the heart of God and inviting His power, His presence, His strength to be with
you. Because I don't know about you, but man, it's tough out there. I mean, it's brutal
out there. It's almost impossible to walk into the world and be full of joy and peace with
all the chaos, to be an effective witness when you just see the division everywhere that
you go and the tension, and the relational stress, and the financial pressure, and the
temptation, and all the complicated decisions that you have to make. I don't know
about you, but I need God's presence. I need His power, I need His grace. I don't just
need it for a few minutes in prayer. I need it in the way that I live. And so as a disciple of
Jesus, what I know is that I live in the world, but I'm not of the world. So to be
completely effective in this world, I have to disconnect from this world. There are times
when I have to disconnect from everything that does not last in order to connect to the
one who does last. I have to disconnect from everything that is temporary, to connect
to the one who is eternal. I have to disconnect from all the temptations to gratify
myself, to connect to the one who brings glory to Himself. Prayer, isn't just a momentary
action, it is that, but it's so much more. When you look at the way that Jesus lived,
prayer wasn't just something that He did, it was the way that He interacted with God, in
every moment of every day. In fact, I wanna read to you what I would call a devotional
translation of Matthew's gospel, Matthew chapter six. This is from The Message
translation, which is not a literal translation, but it is meaningful. Eugene Peterson
translates it this way the words of Jesus, Jesus said essentially, "Here's what I want you
to do: Find a quiet, secluded place." Find a place to pray. Do you have a prayer place?
Do you have a place of prayer? It might be a prayer chair, that's pretty cool. It might be
a prayer porch swing. Amy's place of prayer is right by the bed or in a chair in the living
room, it's her place of prayer. Find a secluded place. Now, I know what some of you are
thinking, you got three kids under six, pray in the bathroom. Lock the door, go in there
and lock the door, shut the door, pray you got about four minutes before they find you
and they're coming, but you got four minutes and they're just saying, where are you?
And their fingers are gonna come under the door, you're gonna see them. Find a
secluded place to pray Jesus says, "So that you won't be tempted, I like this, to role-play
before God. Just be there, I like this. Just be there as simply and honestly as you can
imagine." And here's, what's gonna happen, "The focus will shift from you to God and
you'll begin to sense His grace." What do you do? Find a secluded place. Jesus got
alone to pray. I would encourage you, to make it a daily priority to get alone and to
block out the noise. Eliminate the distractions. Put your phone aside for a few minutes.
Don't check Instagram. I promise you whatever they post it, it'll still be there and it'll still
be mostly meaningless. Don't check your texts, whatever conspiracy videos someone
sent you, there'll be another one coming tomorrow, just put it aside and spend a few
moments with God. Disconnect from this world to connect to the Lord of hosts. Why do
you need to do that? Because intimacy is never accidental. You never just like
accidentally become close to God. Like people say, "Well, I'm not close to God. I'm not
close to God." You just don't wanna fall into it. Like I've just been busy and worried and
stressed and dealing with mean people and I'm so close to God, it doesn't happen that
way. There's no relationship that's gonna happen without intimate and focus time. There
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is no way I could be close to Amy, if we never talk to each other or never had time
alone. You can't be close to a friend, if you don't spend time alone. There's a place that
you pray and just be still. I'll illustrate it this way, you may not know this, but when I was
a kid, I was actually a magician, like for real, a professional magician, 13 years old, 14
years, I could still probably do your birthday party for $50. That's true, I used to do
magic shows I know it's cheesy and I've cast that demon out of my life. So when I was a
kid, I had multiple doves. We raised doves for magic shows and I had one little rabbit.
And so, I know more about doves than most people would know. And here's what I
know about doves, I'll illustrate it this way. Whenever Jesus was baptized by John the
Baptist, it's one of the most meaningful texts to me, a voice from heaven spoke, and it
was God the Father, and He publicly declared His love for His Son. and said, "This is my
son whom I love. I want everybody to know I'm proud of him, with him I'm well pleased."
And heaven opened up and a dove descended, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove
descended upon Jesus. The presence of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. Well, if
you didn't raise doves, you might know that a dove will never land on something, unless
it's still. A dove doesn't land on a moving train, you could probably figure that out. If
you wanna experience the presence of the Holy Spirit, sometimes you just have to find a
secluded place and be still before God. You may say, "But what do I pray about?" And
the answer is really, really easy. Pray about whatever you care about. Whatever's on
your mind, whatever's on your heart, whatever you're excited about, whatever
questions you have, whatever you're burdened about, pray about it. Paul said it this way
in Philippians 4:6 he said, "Don't worry about anything; instead." Say it with me, "Pray
about everything." If it's on your mind, it's on God's heart. Talk to Him like He's a close
friend because He is. If you have questions, ask Him. If you're mad at him or hurting, tell
Him. I promise you He can handle it. Pour out your heart to God, talk to Him intimately.
It's not just an act, it is a friendship, it is a love relationship. Why is it that so many of us
still struggle to pray? I would say in many ways, it's because we tend to try to
compartmentalize our lives. How many of you grew up eating TV dinners? Raise your
hands. Did you know they're still around? I thought we got rid of it, it actually is still
around. And TV dinners are a lot like the way people live. So at the bottom you have
your mystery meat. We don't know what it is. It could be anything, could be chicken,
could be turkey, we don't know what it is. Then you got your mashed potatoes and then
you got your peas that are good for smashing. And at the top, God only knows what
that is. It looks like the dog ate the mystery meat and vomited back. We don't know, but
I'm sorry it's... Come on guys just act all holy, wherever you are. We tend to treat our
lives a little bit like this. We compartmentalize it. We tend to think, well, here's my work
life here. And then there's my professional life here. And then there's my friendship life
over here. And then there's my church life. And we think they don't touch, they don't
cross over. What I want you to understand is that God does not wanna be a part of your
life. He doesn't wanna be a part of your five minutes of prayer in the morning and then
say, "Good luck, have a good day. See you same time, same place tomorrow. Hope
everything goes okay today." You don't wanna be a part of your life, He is your life. He
is every part of what matters in your life. And He promises you that He will never leave
you and He will never forsake you. Since He's always with you, prayer isn't just an action
you do, it's a way that you live. When you look at the way Jesus lived, He practiced the
presence and priority of prayer. He had uninterrupted time and fellowship with His
Father. He was always praying. In fact, I'm gonna show you a verse. If you're looking for
a memory verse, a good short one is Jesus wept. There's another real good short one,
but honestly this is one that I hated for years because it induces extreme prayer guilt.
I've always felt guilty, I don't pray enough, I don't pray good enough. And this one used
to induce guilt until I really understood what it meant. And I'll show it to you in three
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different versions. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 the NLT says, "Never stop praying." Would you
say that loud say, never stop praying. Type that in the chat say it again, never stop
praying. The NIV say, say it aloud with me it says what? It says, "Pray continually." And
the King James Version says this, "Pray without ceasing." This used to make me feel
guilty because I thought I can't pray five minutes straight without being distracted. And
you want me to go like pray without ceasing, pray continually, never stop praying. I can
hardly pray at all. And then it started to dawn on me, as I look at the way that Jesus
prayed, it wasn't an action, it was just... It was a way of life. It was an ongoing awareness
that God never leaves you and He never forsakes you. He's with you. And so you can
talk to him anywhere anytime. You don't have to break away and kneel down and fold
your hands, you can just talk to Him when you drive, and talk to Him at work, and talk to
him when that person's getting up in your nerves and just ask God to give you grace for
that person, and talk to him when you're about to lose your temper at your kids, and
talk to him when you're running late to church and you're about to lose your witness
when you're running late to church, and talk to him when you forget something and
when you can't find your keys, and when you're worried about somebody, just talk to
Him like He's your friend because He is, because He is. So, prayer is getting alone with
God, do that. Find your place of prayer. But it's so much more than that. Prayer is living
in God's presence. Prayer is experiencing God's grace. Prayer is hearing His whisper
throughout the day. It's enjoying His power. It's experiencing His peace. Prayer isn't just
getting God to do what we want, but prayer is aligning our will to His, it's delighting in
the Lord as He changes your heart and gives you the desires of your heart aligning you.
When you pray, when you're walking with God, when you're in the spirit, when you're
aware of His presence, He'll both convict you of your sin in a very loving way. And He'll
comfort you in the middle of your trials because He's with you and He's always loving
you. When you're walking in a spirit of prayer, you sense His direction. You notice Him
guiding you. You hear His promptings to reach out to someone. Your heart starts to
hurt over what breaks His heart and your heart starts to rejoice over what brings Him
joy. It's not an action that you do, it's a way that you live. Ongoing presence of God,
prioritizing the presence of God in prayer. I love this message so much because I always
felt like a prayer failure. I mean, you wanna talk about guilty life. I'm a pastor and people
are always like, let's have a prayer meeting, let's not. You guys like you squeeze your
hands too hard. Pray long prayers. Amy's always like, let's pray. I'm like, let's pray but
have like warm-up prayers, takes like seven minutes just like breathing, like waiting on
God, like God's going start woman, start. And I'm just guilty for thinking that, like I've
always felt like a prayer failure. And now I just have learned to kind of pray without
ceasing. Like to never stop praying. It's not like I'm praying every moment, but when I
need God He's there. And I'm more aware that He's always there, than I ever had been
before. In fact, it was Max Lucado who talked about something, I think you might find
helpful. He talked about giving God your thoughts. And he talks about four different
types of thoughts. Max Lucado says, you should give God your waking thoughts.
Meaning when you wake up in the day, you say, "Good morning God. This is the day that
you made. I'm gonna be glad and rejoice in it. God I'd love for you to direct my steps
today. God help me to see needs, help me to speak words of life, words of
encouragement. God convict me of anything that may be out of line. God, I'm devoting
my whole day to you." Give God your waking thoughts. And then he teaches us, also
give God your waiting thoughts, whatever you're waiting on. You're praying for the
salvation of a loved one. You're praying for a miracle. You're praying for provision.
You're praying for a breakthrough, whatever it is you're waiting on, just take that before
God and spend some time with Him. Give Him your waking thoughts, give Him your
waiting thoughts. Then throughout the day, give Him your whispering talks. Because
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you may not wanna shout your prayers in the middle of the office. You probably don't
wanna bind up a demon in Jesus' name. You might, but you probably don't wanna do
that out loud. They're gonna... They won't like you. But there are times when you will like
God help me deal with this difficult situation and you just whispered to God. Would you
give me wisdom God. Hey, would you help me do a good job on this presentation. God,
would you give me the words to say during this difficult conversation. God, would you
help me connect with my 16 year old. God, would you help me welcome and love my
husband when he comes home from a difficult day. God, would you help me to be a
voice of encouragement to someone that I love. And you whisper your thoughts. And
then you start with the waking thoughts and you give Him your waiting thoughts, and
you give them your whispering thoughts, and then at the end of the day, you give them
your waning thoughts. At the end of the day, you look back and you say, "God, here's
where I saw you today. And here's where I experienced you today. And here's what I'm
thankful that you did today. And here's what I'm incredibly thankful for today." And then
whatever burden you have before you go to bed, you just give it to God. You cast your
cares upon Him because He cares so much for you. And so you say, "God, I'm giving you
this, I trust you to handle it, I'm going to sleep right now. And tomorrow the first thing
I'm gonna do, is give you my waking thoughts." Because prayer isn't just something that
you do, prayer is a way that you live. When you look at the way that Jesus lived, He just
prioritized the presence of God. So, if you feel like prayer guilt, be set free, be free. Just
be aware that God is with you right now. He's always with you. He's always loving you.
He never leaves you, He's never will never forsake you. So what you do? You find a
place and you pray and then just never stopped praying. You just don't stop, you just
always aware at any moment, He's just a prayer away, just like texting a friend, just like
call it calling a loved one. You're talking to Jesus, you're talking to Jesus. "This is the
confidence that we have," 1 John five. "In approaching God in prayer. That if we ask
anything according to his will, he hears us, he hears our prayers. And if we know that he
hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked about him." The
apostle Paul from a prison wrote, "Don't be anxious about anything, but in every
situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." And
as you pray, as you enjoy His presence, as you walk in His spirit, "The peace of God,
which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ
Jesus." You just don't stop praying, you don't stop praying. You're walking in the spirit.
You're living in His love. You're aware of His goodness. You're experiencing His grace.
When you're weak, His strength makes you perfect. When you're tempted, His power
will help you overcome. When you're discouraged, He's the lifter of your head. He brings
joy in the morning. So you bring Him your waking thoughts, and you bring in your
waiting thoughts. And you don't grow weary in doing good for you'll reap a harvest at
the proper time, if you do not give up. And you give him your whispering thoughts,
because you may not hear Him in the thunder or the lightning, but you often hear God
in the whispers. And then you give Him your waning thoughts at the end of the day.
And you cast all of your cares upon Him because He cares for you and you recognize
that prayer is not just something that you do, it's a way that you live. And suddenly as
you're walking in the presence of God, you're aware He's comforting me. He's
convicting me. He's strengthening me. He's loving me. He's prompting me. He's guiding
me. And suddenly you wake up. And you're not just believing the truth that Jesus
taught, but you're also living the way that Jesus lived and that honors God and makes a
difference in this world. So Father, we're just talking to you, just like a friend talks to a
friend. And God I'm asking you to draw your children close to you, just to talk to you, to
find a secluded place, to make you a priority, but not to stop there, to continue in an
ongoing relationship, knowing God you're always with us. You'll always care. You're not
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just a prayer away, you are with us even now. So, because you're with us God, help us to
reach out, to experience you, to love you, to worship you and to share your goodness
with others. Today as you're in an attitude of prayer, because guess what? You can be
really intimate with God in prayer. Doesn't matter what your old prayer life was, what
you know now, you can just talk to God where you are. If you'd like to be even more
aware of the presence of God, more prayerful as you go, I'm gonna ask you to lift up
your hands right now. Just lift them up, lift them up, lift them up. You can type it in the
chat. I wanna be more aware of God's presence. Just type that in the chat. And I'm
gonna give you a moment just where you are just to tell God in your own way, just talk
to Him. Just praying. And God we believe that you hear our prayers. And as we pray
according to your will, your will shall be accomplished on earth, as it is in heaven. So,
thank you that you've heard the hearts, the cries of your children, and they'll see you
more clearly, experience you more powerfully, in all that they do. Not just in a moment
of prayer, but in a lifestyle of prayer. And as you keep praying today, some of you it's
time for you to pray, the most important prayer that you'll have prayed up until this
moment in your life. You might like me, feel maybe unworthy at times. Would God really
hear my prayers after what I've done? Does He love me? Does He care? Will He really
move on my behalf? You might have all sorts of spiritual doubts and a lot of them might
be because of your own past or even your own present. Could He love me after what
I've done? Could He even love me with what I'm doing right now, what goes on in my
heart, with my own secret thoughts, with my own doubts, with my own insecurity, with
my own darkness? And what I want you to know is that God loves you. He loves you
right now, and there's nothing you can do to cause Him to love you more. And there
isn't a thing you could do to earn more of His love, He just loves you. And what He
wants more than anything, is this just as you turn to Him and you draw near to Him,
what He's gonna do is He's gonna draw near to you, like you've never experienced
before. You might become aware of your shortcomings, your sinfulness. And lemme just
tell you, that's a good thing because you're aware of the holiness of God and the
sinfulness of man. And the reality is that all of us have sinned. Every single one of us,
we've disobeyed God. The good news is, God still loves us. And while we were sinning,
He sent Jesus, the sinless son of God, the lamb of God who was slain, who was
sacrificed in our place, died and was buried, but He didn't stay dead. On the third day,
God raised Him from the dead. And the reason God raised Him from the dead is
because God defeated death, hell, victory, and the grave. And now anyone who prays to
God, the name of Jesus, that Jesus is Lord, He's the king. He's your savior, God hears
that prayer. And it's amazing, but He forgives all your sin, all the darkness, all the sin, all
the shame, He forgives it. Your past is gone and you become new. You're not a better
version of you, you're new. The old is gone, the new has come. There are those who you
today watching somewhere. You're watching because God is loving you in this moment.
And you're one prayer away from coming a follower of Jesus. If you need His grace, you
need His love, I'm just gonna invite you to step away from whatever was and step
toward Jesus, invite Him to forgive you, to change you and just tell Him you wanna
follow Him. When you do, God will hear your prayer. He'll forgive your sin and He'll
make you brand new. Today those who say yes, I wanna know Him, I'm gonna call out to
Him in prayer. Today, I step away from my old life, I want His forgiveness, I want His new
life. I choose to surrender my life to His son, Jesus. That's your prayer, would you lift
your hands high right now? Just all of our churches. As we have hands going up all of
our churches, would you all celebrate and welcome those today that are being born into
His family. Those of you watching online... You can just type it into the chat, I am
surrendering my life to Jesus. Just type that right now and we're gonna pray together.
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ABetterWay_5_Transcript
And then we're gonna rejoice that God has heard your prayer and you're becoming
new. Would you pray aloud pray, heavenly father. - [Congregation] Heavenly father. - Save me. - [Congregation] Save me. - Change me. - [Congregation] Change me. - Jesus be first in my life. - [Congregation] Jesus be first in my life. - My Lord, my Savior. - [Congregation] My Savior. - And my friend. - [Congregation] And my friend. - Lead me. - [Congregation] Lead me. - Guide me. - [Congregation] Guide me. - Empower me. - [Congregation] Empower me. - With your Holy Spirit. - [Congregation] With your Holy Spirit. - Help me to know you. - [Congregation] Help me to know you. - And to walk with you. - [Congregation] And to walk with you. - And to serve you.
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ABetterWay_5_Transcript
- [Congregation] And to serve you. - And experience you. - [Congregation] And experience you. - And show you. - [Congregation] And show you. - In all that I do. - [Congregation] In all that I do. - My life is not my own. - [Congregation] My life is not my own. - I surrender it. - [Congregation] I surrender it. - All of it. - [Congregation] All of it. - To you. - [Congregation] To you. - Thank you for new life. - [Congregation] Thank you for new life. - I give you all of mine. - [Congregation] I give you all of mine. - In Jesus name I pray, in Jesus name I pray. Say it in Jesus' name I pray. And God has
heard your prayer and He's made you new somebody welcome those into the family of
God.
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ABetterWay_5_Transcript
Do you ever wonder if you’re praying the right way? Maybe you keep praying, but it feels like your prayers aren’t effective. In this message, we’re learning how to unlock the power of prayer. Sometimes it feels like nothing is working. We can do all the right things and check all the boxes, but life seems to stay the same. How can we find the life we’re longing for? Together, let’s discover A Better Way.