The Power of Praying Together | Trinity Talks

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Trinity Talks. My name is Kyla

and I'm the online engagement director here. And we have just finished up a week of prayer

at Trinity where we've been really focused on prayer and this theme of hope and looking at

what is God leading us into in this year ahead. So I'm really excited to sit down here with some

folks who helped to organize that week of prayer. So I have Jessica and Rick and Linda. Yeah, so

thank you so much for joining me. So I just want to get us started by talking about, you know,

why do we have a week of prayer here at Trinity? What do we see as the importance and what are

we hoping folks will take away from that? Maybe we'll start with you, Linda. Okay, well,

our, as a church, we're called to be a house of prayer. And I think it's really important that

at the beginning of each year, we refocus our energies and our priorities back to what we're

called to be. And it enables us to pray the church forward, you know, what's coming up in the year

to come and to be covered in prayer. Yeah, for sure. Anyone else want to add to that? Yeah,

I think that does cover it well. It's interesting, the other week we did, we're doing the Heroes of

Faith and it talked about Enoch. And Enoch just said simply walking with God, but Rob expanded

about how it's easy to not follow the narrow path, right, the white, you know, easily get off track.

And if you're walking with God, faithfully alongside him, you're in step with him,

you're going in the same direction, you're walking closely beside him. And we want to make sure that's

what we're doing as a church. And how do we do that? Because we can't necessarily see God where

he's walking, we have to talk to him, we have to listen. Yeah, we pray. Yeah, for sure. Yeah,

it's just, it's a great time to just re-center and refocus as a church community. And I think

the community part is really important, doing it together. Because when we're together, we

we just, we can collaborate and vision together as a church. So yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think

one of the really neat things about doing it together and doing it over a week is that, you

know, we saw, you know, the visioning board where people could like draw their prayers and the prayer

wall where people could write things. And it does allow us to sort of build on each other, right?

Like you can look at what somebody had written there the night before or whatever, and you can

pray that prayer as well and then build on it with your own sort of prayer. So yeah, I think that's,

that's really key as well. So your theme for this year was surprised by hope. I'm wondering,

Rick, if you can talk to us a little bit about why that theme? Yeah, we start planning this,

usually in the fall or late fall, like what are we going to do next year? We know what we're

going to do, but we'd like to have a theme to kind of guide us a little bit. So first year we did

Be Still, second year we focused on Martin Luther King's I Have a Dream Speech. And this year when

we were planning the meeting, we sat down and I think Rob was, we often inspired by whatever Rob's

preaching on. We had had Habakkuk, but I think it was more the, we were talking about Scrooge and

how he was despairing and he didn't see a way forward. And then I guess he was surprised by

the hope that he's second chance kind of thing. And we were just talking and Bruce,

it really was Bruce's idea. He turns around in his library while he's so wise and he turns

around and pulls the book out. How about this one? You know, NT writes, surprised by hope.

And then I actually, I'll be honest, I didn't know the book. So I said, okay, well, I'll get a copy

or read it. And it was just, it works really well because, you know, he's really talking about how

how we, you know, it's very much what do we do? We, you know, we need to work with God, but what do

we do on this earth? And so it's, you know, as opposed to don't worry about this earth, it just

kind of keep yourself in a nice little club, nice and clean and everyone be nice. And then you'll

go to heaven somewhere else and don't worry about the earth. That's not a helpful or biblical way

of looking at things. And so we thought, oh, I read that. I was like, this is, this is great for how

we can progress the week. Yeah, for sure. And it very naturally leads us from prayer into action,

as you sort of said. And that, as you have all sort of indicated before, you know, it's this week

of prayer that we spend with God, but also it leads us into the rest of the year. Right. And so,

yeah, I really appreciate it. How the theme also sort of naturally allowed us to do that.

And one of the other sort of pieces that goes in with that, that theme is NT Wright talks about

this difference between hope in a sort of Christian sense and hope as in, you know, we're just sort

of hoping for or wishing for something in the world sense. Yeah, so wondering what are your

sort of thoughts about that? What do we mean when we talk about hope? Well, I think hope is like a

yearning or wishing a desire. Christian hope is the same thing. But we have something else with that.

We have assurance that God has said that he will be with us through everything. And he will answer

our prayers. He's not saying that whatever we hope for, we're going to get. Because he has a plan for

us and he knows what's best for us may not be what we're hoping for. But we can be

assured that he is going to be with us all the way through and that what he gives us is the best

thing for us. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah, I think the God with us part is really what hits me.

Because we can have hopes and dreams as we say, and it doesn't seem like it's working out. But no

matter what God is with us, God is present with us. And that is really comforting. Yeah, for sure.

And so in light of those facts, in light of this idea that God is with us, that we have this assurance,

how does that change the way that we pray? Do you think? Does it change sort of what we pray about?

Or does it, I think for me, at least at the very least, it changes my attitude to worship prayer?

Yes, yeah. Right? Yeah, I still will pray my hopes and my dreams. But I realize that

it's not always going to be the way I hope and dream. And I say, you know, like, it's in your

hands, God, you know, I trust that you're going to do what's best for me in this situation or

in the future. And there's a comfort in that, knowing that it's not just all up to me wishing

and dreaming, but there is somebody else that's guiding and leading me. And eventually, it's going

to have me where I need to be, where I'm going to be happiest or most content or in most fulfilled

or, you know, on the path to the second coming. Yeah. Yeah. And I think prayer, for me, is like an

act of surrender. Like, your kingdom come, your will be done. So like, when you're praying, you're

just releasing all the things you wish and desire and like, leaving it to God's hands.

Leaving it to God's hands. Yeah. Yeah. For me, the thing I learned this week, that's why I love

to run these things, because you learn, you learn so much through it. And through so many faithful

people, the things they write, the things they pray and they say. But for me, it's the surprise by hope

part, as it's easy to fall into despair and or just look at, you know, everything that's going

on in the world and climate crisis and conflicts. And I just walking down the street, like people

are struggling with cost of living in this community. And he can fall into helplessness and despair.

But even though I'm like, yeah, I know, I know God's got this in his timing. But we can be

surprised by hope today in simple ways. And I think some people gave examples of that. And

that to me is don't stop. Kind of don't feel like you're letting God off and saying, oh, I'm going

to pray. Yeah, I know you've got this God. Yeah, it's terrible, terrible. And it'll be all right

one day. No, say, oh, I want to be bold. I want these things to happen now. I want this to get

better now. I want to be, tell me what to do. What do I do now? Not just suck it up until

until like Jesus comes again, right? But he can get into that if you're not careful, right?

Well, I can anyway. Speaking for myself. There's a homily that people say and sometimes abuse,

but God helps those who help themselves. And it's not giving us carte blanche to do whatever

the heck we want. It's saying that God has a plan and a purpose for this world. And he has a plan

and a purpose for us in this world. And so we are expected to participate in his plan with him,

not against him and not for our own good, but in conjunction with him. Yeah, for sure. Yeah,

one of the things that I really appreciated about anti-raids book, when he talks about this and he

talks about hope, is that it provides this sort of balance between like in what you were saying,

Rick, that it does, you know, we get to go out and we get to do things because we have this hope,

right? We get to, and God is calling us to partner with God in doing those things.

But also those things don't entirely depend on us. No, right? Because we have this hope,

because we know who God is. So we get to go and do the things, but we don't do the things entirely

on our own strength. Definitely not. Right? Yes, that's right. Because if it depended on me,

it's the world's going downhill. Yeah, oh, yes. Real fast.

So thinking back on this week, what were some of the highlights for you? What are some of the

things that you're taking away? Yeah, any any moments that stand out?

I loved the video that we did or that we showed from the Orthodox meme squad. Yes. Strange name,

but it was as it was a video. And if anybody has not seen it, I think it's still on the web.

It is. Yep. Please take a look at it because it is awesome. Like I was just blown away. It was

awestruck. I don't know how you cannot believe in God and in creation when you look at the beauty

around us and the intricacies and and then as well as that, I think when you go into the

visioning room and you see what people have created, what's on their hearts and you see the

prayer walls. And it's I'm always encouraged by the fact that people are still coming to God and

and and they have I learned from, you know, everything that that I see there. Yeah. Yeah. So

for folks, if you if you haven't gone and checked out our website already, you can go and there's

a button at the top that says week of prayer. And if you click there, you can see some of those

those prayers and things that people have been sharing this this video that Linda has mentioned.

And on our social media feed, you'll also find some of those pictures of the visioning board and

the prayer wall that you can see what we're talking about here. Yeah. Other highlights,

things that stand out to you from this week? For me, it's just the community aspect in general.

Like, I find it such a struggle to just sit down by myself, full my hands, close my eyes,

like and pray. Yeah, I just I just it's so hard for me. So doing it in community is so helpful.

And like having the tangible and visual aspects just really helps me. And then just yeah, like

seeing everyone else get involved with it is just really encouraging. Yeah, for sure.

I would never have thought of this. There are things like painting and just tactile

different things that you can do. So that's that's for me, that's something I would never have done.

But what strikes me and has happened every time is we break out into prayers, we put on some quiet

music, and people go around into the different areas. And that's just this tremendous feeling

of peace, peace in that in the room. I just it does. I think a lot of people that have come and

we're not expecting it and they come afterwards and they say, I just I could breathe out. It was

peaceful. Yeah. So that strikes me every time. And I'm surprised. I don't know why I'm surprised

by it every time. But I kind of am. And it's just like, Oh, this is great. Just relax. Yeah. Yeah, I know

there's it can be hard sometimes to sort of carve out time for prayer and to carve out, you know,

to say, okay, especially, you know, it's a whole week, right? And so say, Oh, I'm going to take

an hour every day this week that that can feel like a lot. But as you said, when we actually enter

into that, I think we we receive so much as well. We do. Yeah, I would agree. There is that sense of

peace in the time goes by so quick. I find it's already been an hour. Like, it just it flies. And

yeah, it's just the best feeling. Like, I just feel so calm and like, filled up again.

And as Jessica said, like, gathering as a community. And I mean, I realized that we do that

Sundays as well. But I mean, in a smaller, more intimate venue, I just feel a stronger connection

with the people, you know, the fellow, my fellow Christians or whatever. And that we have,

even though we all have our own problems and our own prayers and everything,

we're there with a common goal. Yeah. And there's nothing more powerful.

Yeah. And we do, as you said, we each have our own, our own struggles, our own problems.

But when you see someone has written on the board the concerns of your heart, right? And you know,

I didn't put that there. Someone else put that there. You feel a little less alone.

Other people are praying the same prayers that you're praying.

So I want to zoom out from our week of prayer a little bit and just talk about prayer in general.

And for each of you, you're obviously passionate about this ministry, passionate about prayer.

And so wondering, has there been moments in your life where you feel like prayer has really impacted

you or has sort of shaped your walk with God in some specific way? Yeah. Any particular

memories or moments that come to mind for you? I would say for me, my mom is also someone who's

really passionate about prayer. And when we were kids, she started this sort of tradition that

before we got on the school bus every morning, she would, we would pause and she would pray for us

as, as we went out to go to school. And some days that felt really chaotic, right? Because you're

trying to get kids to get on their lunch and get everything out to school. But she took that moment

to stop and to pray for us and with us before we went out to school. And that's something that

has always sort of stuck with me. And you're going to do that when you have children, right?

Perhaps, yes. Yeah. I don't know if I've ever had any, any real like boom moment or whatever.

It's just a comfort. You know, like, I mean, being able to bring my problems to God or share

others problems with him to praise him for what he's done and to thank him when he has

answered some of the prayers. We were praying for something in our family for

probably two years. And in December, we got our answer to prayer. And it was amazing. You know,

it was, I mean, so being persistent in prayer and then that teaches you to don't give up.

You know, God's listening and it's, he's going to work through this in his time and in his way.

And then when it does happen, there's such a joy and contentment and it reaffirms your trust in

God too. And that happens, you know, oh, yes, you know, he hasn't been ignoring me. He has been

listening. He's just been waiting for the right time. Yeah. For me, it's in our life group.

We are going to amend the life group on a Thursday morning for I don't know how long that

is trying to think before answered. I don't know. It's over seven years. It might be getting on for

10. So every morning, every Thursday morning at the end of the group, we pray for each other. We

used to, we used to sit in our rooms. It was easy. It was easy. Now it's on zoom. So we pray round,

sort of the zoom. But anyway, we, you know, we'll lift up each other in prayer and look back and

all the, those, all the number of prayers that have been answered over those years are incredible.

You know, there's some we're still praying for. Sure. And then to say there's some things that

we've prayed for all along and we don't know what God's timing is. But and, you know, I, the

guys have prayed for me through lots of things that have happened in my life. We all have, you

know, lost my father particularly was the time where they, they prayed for me and prayed for me

going to do his eulogy and things like that. So we've all had big moments in our lives where we've

been there and prayed for each other. And so that and because we do it every week as well, it helps

me. Like, like Jessica said, I honestly, I'm not, one of the reasons why I've run this,

tried to do this ministry is to help make me be more accountable. And that group helps me

accountable at least every week we pray. And I try and obviously I pray during the week, but

that is definitely a solid accountability time where if you're drifting away, you know, it pulls

you back in. So yeah. So for me, I went to a university in Hamilton and the churches there

every year, they gather together for a conference called true city conference. And this was

a conference from churches all across different denominations, which is really cool. And as part

of that, there's an organization called Greater Ontario House of Prayer, and they would run

coinciding with the conference a 24 seven prayer room. So 24 hours of the day, the prayer room would

be open for people to go in. And so this was when I was first exposed to like this different type of

praying. So it was really amazing. Just to see that and be like, wow, I didn't know you could pray

like this. This is so cool and so helpful. And yeah, so just really encouraging. So shout out to

true city and Greater Ontario House of Prayer for inspiring me. Yeah, yeah, that's great. Yeah. So

obviously we have this week of prayer in January. Obviously prayer continues throughout the whole

year in lots of different ways here at Trinity. But I think Rick, you wanted to share about another

prayer event opportunity that folks can join us in. Yeah, so we'll probably not have one at the end

of this month, but we're going to have the first Sunday of the month. We usually have a prayer evening

at 7pm. But the next event, if you like, is at Good Friday. So we have a slightly different

type. But again, it's an interactive kind of very peaceful time where you can spend time

reflecting on Good Friday after the service. We have a number of prayer stations set up where

you reflect on Jesus' journey to the cross. So it's a bit like the stations of the cross,

but it's not the same thing. Okay. But it's loosely based on that idea. Okay. So that's our next

event. So look out for that. Yeah, great. Well, thank you so much, folks, for joining me. And

thank you for all of the work that you put into leading our community in prayer this week and

all throughout the year. And so hopefully you have also been inspired to find new ways to pray,

whether that's joining us in our monthly prayer and worship nights or joining us in

this week of prayer, whatever it is, I hope that God has blessed you through this time. And

you can go forth and share that blessing with others. And we will see you next week.