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As we near the end of our current series, "Praying Scripture" we are talking about the other side of prayer. If prayer is a conversation with God, and we never listen to God, we are woefully ignorant of the greatest blessing of prayer. So we are talking about listening. One of the ways we listen for the voice of God is through his Word, (more than bread we need every word that comes from the mouth of God). The Word of God is not the only way we listen to God, but it’s a baseline for anything else we think might be his voice.

But here's the best part, with just a Word, God can bring a breakthrough...with just a Word, if we will listen.

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So to wrap up our praying scripture series and keep our focus on the value of every word that comes from the mouth of God. In this episode and at least the next, I want to talk about the other side of prayer. The listening side. Prayer was never meant to be the first word. Our prayers to God function best when they are a response to God's Words to us. Prayer is the second word. Perhaps one reason we find it hard to get excited about prayer is because too often it feels like a one sided conversation!

So in the next few episodes, we will talk about the other side of prayer. "Jesus I am listening."

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The book of Hebrews is written for people who had lost a measure of their passion for Jesus, people who had gotten so distracted by other pursuits that they rarely paid attention to God. They didn't have video games, social media, netflix, or 24/7 news channels, but the question has been the same since time began, "Will I choose to pay attention to God?"

You may not know it, but God created you with a hunger in your heart for Him.  Your heart wants to be with Him. When Jesus gave His life for us on the cross, He made a way, so that we can come boldly (like a little kid) into God's presence. He gave us an all-access invitation! 

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In I Timothy 2, Paul challenges Timothy, his young partner, to make prayer his first thing. I think today, Paul might say it like this, "So here's the deal.  My heart's desire is that pple would pray everywhere; that people would pray in their cars, and in the grocery store; that pple would pray as they walk the streets and sit in their class; pray in the halls of their apartment building and the streets of their neighborhood; that when they eat out, people would quit asking God to bless their food and ask him to bless their waitress instead. 

My heart's desire Paul says is for people everywhere to pray for everyone, to pray for them as though their lives depended on it. Make prayer for others your first thing!

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When I was a kid, church wasn't terrible but it wasn't at the top of my wanna-do list. I was always looking for reasons not to go. You name the excuse I tried to use it. And one of the things my father never said was, "Hey it's up to you. As long as you are in my house, you decide if church is for you." Nope he never said that! Whenever I said, "Do we have to go to church again, he always said, "No we don't have to go to church. We get to go to church." So I showed him. I became a  pastor.  And what I am today is at least in part because my mom and dad were committed to a mission that went beyond our comfort. They were committed to the mission of seeing the gospel take root in and shape my life. So let me ask you that question, "What's your mission in life?"

Paul's prayer in Colossians 1 is a good mission-prayer!

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In this episode we are looking at a prayer from Paul in the book of Philippians. I’ve called it a finishing prayer. It’s a prayer to finish life well. In Bobby Clinton’s research on leaders, he found that about 1/3 of Christian leaders finish well. He defined finishing well as having a sense of purpose and calling accomplished, ending up more in love with Jesus at the end than the beginning, and not flaming out or burning out; only one out of three! We can do better! 

This prayer as a prayer to finish well and a reminder of what it takes!

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All through the New Testament is an often overlooked spiritual discipline meant shape our prayers. It's the discipline of gratitude, thanksgiving to God. "Don’t be anxious, don’t worry about anything," Paul writes in Philippians 4. But in everything hard situation put these two things together, prayer and thanksgiving and God’s peace will guard your heart. 

Let’s be honest, it’s easy to pray when we go through stuff that overflows anxiety into our hearts. Even people who don’t believe in God might pray in a situation like that. But the secret sauce to peace over anxiety is thanksgiving. This episode will help us develop our thanksgiving prayer list by looking at 4 categories of gratitude.

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This one is a bit different. A combination of a report on joining with 10 other congregations and two campus ministries for 36 hours of non-stop prayer and worship and another look at my favorite prayer in all of scripture.

Enjoy!

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Sometimes people make a distinction between praying big prayers and praying small prayers. But do you realize that according to Paul in Ephesians 3:14-21,    every prayer we will ever pray is smaller than His power to accomplish it. They are all small prayers because He can do far beyond the greatest good we can imagine. Sometimes our problem is that not that we don't believe in God's power, it's that we don't trust his heart. We believe God can do more than we can imagine, we're just not sure He will...at least not for me. 

But what if at this very moment, God is whispering, "ask me for more?"

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Ephesians 1:15-23 is a prayer for power, resurrection power that is available for us. Can I tell you why this is so important?  It's so important because what we need we can't get on our own. Who we need to become we can't become on our own. We can't know God better...on our own.  We need help. We can't find the hope we need in the midst of times that drain the encouragement  out of our hearts. We can't make a difference that matters on our own. We need help. We can't  experience the glorious riches of community on our own.  We can't find a forever home without help.  It's too hard. We can try but sooner or latter we'll mess it up, we'll fall short.

 That's why I love this prayer, if God inspired Paul to ask for resurrection power, He must want to give us resurrection power. But it's a gift given only to those who recognize they need help. God we need your help!