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Speaker 2: Hello friend, you are listening to the Teach Us to
Speaker 2: Pray podcast with me Christina Patterson, where we teach believers
Speaker 2: practical and real life tips on how to grow your
Speaker 2: faith in relationship with God through the power of prayer.
Speaker 2: If there's one thing we've learned so far on this podcast,
Speaker 2: it is that prayer is powerful. And I will say
Speaker 2: this lightly as some sort of Christian cliche, I say
Speaker 2: it because it's true. Through the power of prayer, I
Speaker 2: have seen lives changed, bodies healed, hearts transformed, and that's
Speaker 2: just in my own life. What I love the most
Speaker 2: about prayer is that it doesn't have to be complicated.
Speaker 2: As we've also learned, the five minute prayer at the
Speaker 2: sink washing the dishes can be just as effective as
Speaker 2: the one hour prayer in your prayer closet. The effectiveness
Speaker 2: of your prayer does not have to do with rituals,
Speaker 2: long limp or big words, as Jesus taught us in
Speaker 2: episode three. However, I have learned a few things that
Speaker 2: will affect the power and effectiveness of your prayer, which
Speaker 2: is what we'll discuss in today's podcast. When I say effectiveness,
Speaker 2: I mean is our prayer producing the results God intends.
Speaker 2: I need to note this here that this is not
Speaker 2: a set of rules to only get what you want.
Speaker 2: We've discussed that prayer is not approaching God like a
Speaker 2: genie in a bottle. Effective prayer is prayer that results
Speaker 2: in God's intention and plan for his glory and our good,
Speaker 2: and there are steps we can take to ensure we
Speaker 2: experience the effectiveness or power of prayer in our lives.
Speaker 2: The first is faith. Prayer and faith go hand in hand.
Speaker 2: We really can't pray without faith. We have faith that
Speaker 2: there is a God to pray to. We have faith
Speaker 2: that not only is there a God, but that He
Speaker 2: actually listens to us. But for a really effective prayer
Speaker 2: that goes beyond listing off our request to God, we
Speaker 2: need to also follow up our prayer with more faith.
Speaker 2: If we're going to pray about something and then go
Speaker 2: worry about it, we defeat the entire purpose of prayer.
Speaker 2: Once we pray about it, we need to let the
Speaker 2: word we go and trust that whatever we prayed about
Speaker 2: is safely in God's hands now. But many times we
Speaker 2: pray and cast our cares to God, as we're instructed
Speaker 2: to do in Psalm fifty five, verse twenty two, cast
Speaker 2: your cares on the Lord, and he will sustain you.
Speaker 2: He will never let the righteous be shaken. So when
Speaker 2: we pray, we can cast our cares on God and
Speaker 2: receive the freedom of not carrying those burdens. But sometimes,
Speaker 2: once we finish praying, we get back up and go
Speaker 2: fishing those burdens right out of God's care and make
Speaker 2: them our own again, instead of having the faith to
Speaker 2: completely release the matter to God. Part of prayer is
Speaker 2: connecting to God to receive his peace no matter what
Speaker 2: we are facing. But if we don't approach prayer with faith,
Speaker 2: we will leave our prayer time just as confused and
Speaker 2: overwhelmed as when we came to it. If we want
Speaker 2: our prayers to be effective what we lay down at
Speaker 2: the cross in prayer, we must choose to have faith
Speaker 2: to leave there. The next step we can take towards
Speaker 2: more effective prayer is obedience. James Chapter five, verse sixteen
Speaker 2: tells us the prayer of a righteous person is powerful
Speaker 2: and effective. Effective and powerful prayer is not produced from
Speaker 2: a disobedient life. Our unwillingness to surrender to God, follow
Speaker 2: him and release our will to his impacts our prayer life.
Speaker 2: Effective prayer comes from a righteous person. Now this does
Speaker 2: not mean you need to be perfect. God knows where not.
Speaker 2: But in prayer there should be a heart for God's will,
Speaker 2: and when there is, this is when we'll see the
Speaker 2: power of prayer. Psalm chapter thirty seven, verse four says,
Speaker 2: take delight in the Lord, and he will give you
Speaker 2: the desires of your heart. So many people take this
Speaker 2: verse out of context and think that God will give
Speaker 2: us anything we want. That's an incorrect interpretation of this verse.
Speaker 2: We can't ignore the fact that to receive the desires
Speaker 2: of our heart, we must first delight in God. When
Speaker 2: our hearts are aligned with God and his will, it's
Speaker 2: then that we receive the desires because they are God's
Speaker 2: desires anyway. And when we find our hearts at odd
Speaker 2: with God's, we can pray about that too, because it
Speaker 2: is God's desire to transform our hearts and minds to
Speaker 2: be more like Christ. God's standard and his will is
Speaker 2: for our good. He's not just making up rules and
Speaker 2: commandments just because He does it to grant us a
Speaker 2: path towards life, peace and joy in him. But when
Speaker 2: we get off that path, we lose the power that
Speaker 2: comes from being safe in His will. The next step
Speaker 2: to take toward more effective prayer is focus. Now this
Speaker 2: is huge because we have more distractions than ever before,
Speaker 2: with any type of entertainment and social connection at the
Speaker 2: tip of our fingers. We are constantly tempted to lose focus,
Speaker 2: and this is something we just simply cannot afford to
Speaker 2: do during our prayer time. We also have one hundred
Speaker 2: things running through our mind at one time. More times
Speaker 2: than I'd like to admit, I've been in prayer and
Speaker 2: my mind slipped to thoughts about what's going to happen
Speaker 2: tomorrow or what I should have said in an earlier
Speaker 2: conversation with a friend. Distractions are everywhere, and they are
Speaker 2: hindering our beings still enough to hear from God, So
Speaker 2: how can we stay focused during our prayer time? I
Speaker 2: like to remind myself that all the to do's, obligations
Speaker 2: and unfinished conversations will be right there waiting for me
Speaker 2: when my prayer time is over. I resist the pressure
Speaker 2: to make something else more important than this time with God.
Speaker 2: A lack of focus prevents us from praying, and we
Speaker 2: can't have effective prayer if we're too distracted to pray. Now, listen,
Speaker 2: I understand staying focused during prayer is a serious and
Speaker 2: challenging issue for many sincere believers who do want to
Speaker 2: pray but have a difficult time staying focused, which is
Speaker 2: why in our next episode, I'll be giving grace filled
Speaker 2: tips and encouragement on how to stay focused when you pray.
Speaker 2: The next step that we can take to more effective
Speaker 2: prayer is to always be praying first. Thessalonians, chapter five,
Speaker 2: verse seventeen tells us to pray without ceasing. Now that's
Speaker 2: the English Standard version, and the more Living translation says,
Speaker 2: never stop praying. We don't have to wait until bedtime
Speaker 2: before dinner to pray. We can pray while driving to work,
Speaker 2: washing our hair, or walking the dog. One of my
Speaker 2: favorite places to pray is at my kitchen sink. When
Speaker 2: we don't place limits on when we should pray, it
Speaker 2: becomes a natural rhythm in our lifestyle and it becomes
Speaker 2: less likely that we'll skip this powerful discipline. This is
Speaker 2: important because we can't experien effective prayer if we are
Speaker 2: not praying, prayer closets and war rooms are great. I
Speaker 2: have a special place in my house that I've designated
Speaker 2: for prayer, but we can't always access those places when
Speaker 2: we need to pray. But the beauty of God's omnipresence
Speaker 2: is that He is everywhere, so we can pray anywhere.
Speaker 2: As I stated before, effective prayer goes beyond only asking
Speaker 2: God for what we want. Real change occurs when prayer
Speaker 2: is also about focusing on God and what He wants.
Speaker 2: So one of the best ways I found to do
Speaker 2: this is through worship before I pray. I love playing
Speaker 2: worship music and getting my mind in soul ready to
Speaker 2: commune with God. Starting prayer with a focus on God
Speaker 2: and not myself helps me to accomplish one of the
Speaker 2: most important and effective goals of prayer, realizing that God
Speaker 2: is bigger than all my problems. Effective prayer is not
Speaker 2: dependent on us being perfect and getting it all right.
Speaker 2: It simply starts with a heart willing to pray. I
Speaker 2: hope today's tips and rich your prayer life greatly and
Speaker 2: that you are beyond blessed because of it. We have
Speaker 2: so much more to talk about when it comes to prayer,
Speaker 2: So I hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode,
Speaker 2: you'll be sure to share it with the friend and
Speaker 2: subscribe so that you don't miss any future episodes of
Speaker 2: the Teach Us to Pray podcast, where we'll continue to
Speaker 2: learn how, just like breathing, prayer can become a natural, consistent,
Speaker 2: and life giving part of our everyday lives. Until then,
Speaker 2: be sure to connect with me Christina Patterson at Belovedwomen
Speaker 2: dot org and check out the show notes in today's
Speaker 2: episode to download my free five day prayer guide to
Speaker 2: help you put into practice the powerful habit of prayer.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for taking time to listen today.
Speaker 2: God bless you and I'll talk to you in the
Speaker 2: next episode.
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Speaker 1: It really does help more people like you find the
Speaker 1: podcast To hear more from Christina Patterson. Be sure to
Speaker 1: check out her fantastic site, Belovedwomen dot org. A special
Speaker 1: thanks to Kelly Gibbons, Stephen Sanders, and Stephen McGarvey for
Speaker 1: their production and editing on this episode. You can find
Speaker 1: more podcasts like this over at life audio dot com.