Lord, Teach Me to Pray - Galatians 3

for me anyway. Hey, would you join me in

uh Galatians chapter 3? Galatians

Galatians 3 · chapter mention Galatians 3 · chapter mention

chapter 3.

Was walking down the hallway this

morning and a good brother pulled me

aside. He was like, "Hey, you know

you're not starting on zero today." I'm

like, "What?" He's like, "No, you're

starting on Jesus and that means you're

starting on victory." And I was like,

"Yeah, I need that like every morning."

I was like, "Dude, can you come to my

house and give me some inspirational

quotes like that every morning?" That's

what that's a way to get a day started,

man. But it is so true. We're starting

on Jesus today. We're starting in

victory. And I hope that that resonates

with your soul as we uh begin our our

new study um today. So, let's go to the

Lord in prayer, then we'll get started.

Father, first of all, I just want to

thank you for the privilege to come and

and teach your word. I thank you for the

opportunity to uh just gather with my

brothers and sisters in Christ. And

Lord, it is awesome that you bring us

together on the first day of the week so

we can encourage one another to good

works. And so I received that today. So

Lord, help me to give that back to my

faith family. Father, I just want to

lift up Reese Megs. I thank you for the

incredible uh work that you've already

done in that little girl's life. And

Lord, I pray that you would continue to

uh heal her, that she would be

completely uh free from cancer, and that

her family would be supported and

sustained as they uh take care of her. I

pray for Chase Tatum and his family as

well, that you would just meet them

where they're at and wrap your loving

arms around them. And for all the

concerns that we bring to the table

today, I pray that you would just help

us to be able to know that we are not

praying to an empty vacuum in space. We

are praying to our heavenly father. It's

in his name we pray. Amen.

Tim Keller had a quote and that quote

is, "Prayer is the key to everything a

Christian should do and be." And that's

going to be our our northstar quote for

the summer. Uh prayer is the key to

everything a Christian should do and be.

Now, I'm not a ashamed to admit that

chat GPT has become my second father.

Sorry, Dad. Um but but it's true. I

mean, I need to fix the little plunger

thingy on the back of the toilet, and

what do I do? I go to chat GPT. It tells

me how. I need to to replace the fuel

filter on my mower. I call Greg Gregory.

He doesn't pick up. So then I go, "All

right, fine. Chad GPT, teach me how to

do this." I need to get Art's new mic

working correctly. I ask Chad. Uh, I

need to learn to get the stain out of a

shirt that I'm trying to sell on eBay. I

asked Chad. Um, trying to take the most

efficient route to New York City for,

get this, my 25th wedding anniversary

this summer. LET'S GO. YEAH.

MY WIFE loves me so much she left town

on our anniversary, so that's cool. Um,

no big deal. It's just 25 of them. Uh,

but anyway, I'm trying to take the most

efficient route to New York City this

summer in July. And I and I asked Chad

and it tells me exactly how to do that

and save the most amount of money. It's

crazy. I feel like Iron Man. I feel like

Tony Stark. I got my own personal Jarvis

that just teaches me anything I want to

know at any time. But what if I want to

have a deeper relationship with God?

What if I want to have a deeper

relationship with God? Like chat GPT

can't do that. AI can't do that for you.

There's no life hack for that. There's

no YouTube tutorial that will deepen

your relationship with God. There is

only one way to develop a deeper

relationship with God. There's only one

primary tool that he gave us to deepen

that relationship beyond his scripture

and that is the power of prayer. Because

it's through prayer that you truly see

who you are. When you enter into the

presence of a holy God, it reminds you

of your neediness and his incredible

power. It reminds you of how much he

loves you and supports you. It's only in

prayer that you can truly change

yourself. Augustine had a great quote.

He said, "What makes you who you are is

not what you think or believe. It's what

you love." It's not it's not what you

think. It's not what you believe. It's

what you love. So, you can say, "Well, I

think about Jesus and I believe in

Jesus." But if you truly love money or

success or or comfort or if you're just

seeking the world's approval all the

time, then that's what's going to

capture your imagination. And it's only

in prayer that God can begin to reshape

what you love. Because the more you talk

to God and the more he answers, the more

in love with him, you become. And that

allows you to become the person that you

were created to be. It's only in prayer

that you can truly know God. Like you

can know people. You can Facebook stalk

them. You can get on their social media.

You can figure out what they like, what

they don't like. Like you can learn

about people. You can know people. But

to truly know someone means that you are

in communication with that person. And

so to truly know God, you have to be

able to communicate with God. And it's

only in prayer that you can face the

troubles of life. The Bible is filled

with people that are facing grief and

fear and betrayal and and suffering and

anguish and uncertainty. And and the

ones that are successful in those

battles are the ones that turn to God in

prayer. I mean, think about this. Jesus,

who suffered more than anyone has ever

suffered, would regularly go to his

father in prayer. We're talking about

the son of God would take time out of

his day to routinely go and talk to God

to to pray to his father. Why would he

do that? Well, he did that because

that's where you access your power.

That's where you access the strength of

God. Tim Keller said, "Prayer is the key

to everything a Christian should do or

be." And I hope you see that that

statement is not false. So, if that's

true, then we have to ask ourselves the

question, how do we pray? If prayer is

so important, how do I actually pray? I

want to make sure I get this thing

right. And so, for the next several

weeks, we'll be in a sermon series I'm

calling, Lord, teach me to pray. So, two

years ago, we had our our summer of

worship where we talked about what

worship really is. Last year, we talked

about our summer of spirit. We talked

about the Holy Spirit and how he impacts

our lives. And this summer I want to

talk about this idea of prayer. Lord,

how do we pray? So God gave the

disciples the Lord's prayer. And and

Jesus taught them this model prayer to

answer the question that they asked Jes

Jesus, which is how do we pray? All

right. And so we're going to look at

that and we're going to break it down

into all its little pieces over the

summer. And hopefully by the end of the

summer, you'll have a much deeper and

richer prayer life than you walked in

here with today. Uh what we have to

remember first and foremost though is

that the Lord's prayer is the Bible

compressed into a prayer. So every

phrase in the Lord's prayer contains a

lot of theological insight. Like when

when it says your kingdom come, that's

talking about God's rule and reign. So

you kind of need to know about that,

right? It talks about forgive us our

debts. Well, we got to understand the

gospel. We have to understand

forgiveness. What I want you to know is

the Lord's prayer is not a shortcut

around theology. It is theology that's

compressed into a prayer. This is not

some magic spell that you recite to help

you win a battle in Fortnite. Okay? This

is so much more than that. The more you

understand understand about the

theological truths that are contained in

this prayer, the deeper your prayer life

will be. So, the process for this

series, and shout out to Redeemer

Church, who gave us this uh teaching

model, is that we're going to start with

a phrase from the Lord's Prayer. And if

you don't know that prayer, it's in

Matthew chapter 6. You can go and you

Matthew 6 · chapter mention

can read it. Um, so we're going to start

with a phrase from that prayer. And then

we're going to expand on that phrase by

going to a passage in scripture that

would be required reading to actually

understand what that piece of the prayer

is all about. So, this week, we're going

to start at the very beginning of the

words prayer, which is the first two

words are Our father.

>> Our father. Our father. So why did Jesus

tell us to start our prayers with our

father? Well, we're going to learn more

about that in Galatians 3 26. So if you

could go over there with me. Galatians 3

26. If you got a Bible app or a Bible,

it'll also be on the screen.

Says, "But since that faith has come, we

are no longer under a guardian. For

through faith you are all sons of God in

Christ Jesus. For those of you who were

baptized into Christ have been clothed

with Christ. There is no Jew or Greek,

slave or free, male and female, since

you are all one in Christ. And if you

belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's

seed, hes according to the promise. Now

let's skip to chapter 4 and we'll start

reading in verse three.

In the same way, we also when we were

children were in slavery under the

elements of the world. When the time

came to completion, God sent his son

born of a woman under the law to redeem

those under the law so that we might

receive adoption as sons. And because

you are sons, God sent spirit of his son

into your hearts crying, "Aba, father."

So you are no longer a slave but a son.

And if a son then God has made you an

heir. Everything in the Lord's prayer

rests on verse 5 in Galatians which says

through Jesus Christ we have been

adopted into God's family. Before he

teaches us about asking for our daily

bread, before he teaches us about

forgiveness, before he teaches us about

how to overcome temptation, he teaches

us who we are talking to, which is our

father. The Lord's prayer does not begin

with a request. It begins with defining

the relationship. You know the DTR. If

you've been on in a dating relationship,

you know that's a that's an important

step in any relationship is to determine

the relationship. Like what are we? you

know, well, you have to ask that

question with God as well. What are we?

What's our relationship?

And you would say, he's your father. So

before we focus on our our needs, Jesus

wants us to focus on the one who

actually hears our prayer requests. So

God is not merely a creator. God is not

merely a judge. God is not merely a

king. God through Jesus Christ is our

father. So get this. The power of your

prayer is not the eloquent delivery of

the prayer. It's the focus of who you're

talking to. So if you know who you're

talking to, it doesn't really matter as

much what you say or how you say it. The

most important thing to realize is that

you are talking to your heavenly father.

And and this invitation is extended to

everyone. That's what the scripture was

saying in verse 26 of chapter 3. says,

"For through faith you are all sons of

God in Christ Jesus." And then in

chapter 4:5, he says he came to redeem

those under the law so that we might

receive adoption as sons.

Jesus didn't just come to to die on the

cross to forgive you of your sins. Like,

yes, that's the highlight. You know,

that's the most important part. We do

celebrate that. That's amazing. But but

that's not all he did. He didn't just

come to forgive you of your sins. He

went a step further. He died on the

cross and rose again to bring you into

God's eternal family. Like he didn't die

just to rescue you from something. He

died to bring you into something which

is his family. And you might say, "Well,

aren't we all God's children?"

Well, yeah. In a sense, yes, you're

right if you say that. I mean, God

created every person in his image. And

so technically we are God's children. Um

the Apostle Paul talked about this in

Acts chapter 17. When they asked him the

Acts 17 · chapter mention

same question he was like yes we are all

God's offspring because every human

bears the image of God and they owe

their existence to him. So in a sense

yes but being created by God and being

in a relationship with God are two

completely different things. Like I have

friends that know their biological

fathers but have no relationship with

their biological father because

relationship requires so much more than

just a shared DNA. Relationship requires

love, commitment, and connection. So, so

Paul's point here is that through Jesus

Christ, we're invited to move into a

relationship with God that goes far

beyond just the fact that we were

created by him. He can become your

father in chapter 3 28

says there's no Jew or Greek slave or

free male or female since you are all

one in Christ Jesus. See in the ancient

world and in some places today people

are divided by race and status and

wealth and nationality

and gender. In fact, the reason this

statement is so profound in the way that

Paul made it is the fact that in this

ancient culture 2,000 years ago, only

sons could be adopted as heirs. So, if

you had an estate, you didn't have any

children and you wanted to give your

estate to someone, you could adopt a son

and that person could then inherit your

estate. But women were not allowed to be

adopted as heirs to an estate. And so

this invitation into God's family is

extended to everyone including women. So

they are seen in the same light as sons.

That means they can receive the entire

inheritance that was due a son. And it

doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a

Gentile, if you're a slave or free or

male or female or rich or poor or

educated or uneducated. If you're a

Cowboys fan or a Redskins fan or a

Commander fan or whatever they're called

now, like the the the point is that

whether you're young or old, you are

given equal access to the estate of God.

You become co-airs with Christ to all

that God has. I'm going to wait there

till someone says, "Amen."

>> Thank you. This is incredible news.

Maybe I'm not preaching it well enough,

but wow, this is in insane. This boy

from West Virginia who never thought he

would get out of the mountains now has

access to the kingdom of God. It just

blows my mind when I think about it. So,

every believer stands in equal footing

before the father. There's no favorites,

right? You know how even in your own

family, if you have siblings, there's

probably a favorite. I'm sorry, but

there probably is. You know, some people

are just treated different. Not in God's

family. God loves everyone. There are no

secondass citizens, no secondass

children. There's no one with greater

access to the father than someone else.

Every child of God is welcomed and loved

and received through the work that Jesus

Christ did on that cross. But friends,

we got to understand adoption is not

automatic.

It requires faith. It's a gift of God

that was precured by Jesus when he died

on the cross, paid for our sin, went to

the grave, and rose from the dead. In

those moments, that's when God gives us

this free gift of grace and we have to

actually receive it. And when we do

through faith, when we do, we are

secured in our future. That that's what

adoption does. Adoption secures your

future. Look at chapter 4:7.

You are no longer a slave. You are a

son. You're an heir. And if you're a

son, then God made you that heir. So,

it's kind of like when my son was

applying for college, there was a lot of

uncertainty. There were applications,

there were deadlines, there were essays,

there was FASA stuff and transcripts.

And if you've gone through that process,

you know how stressful it can be. And

then you have to just kind of wait. You

just got to wait for that letter to come

in the mail. And you keep checking the

mail. You keep checking the portals.

keep checking everything. You're just

waiting. You're like, "Please God, let

this kid get into some school

somewhere." That was my experience. Um,

and you know, he would come down. He'd

be like, "Have you heard anything yet?"

I'm like, "No, you would hear before we

would." So, um, but then then the day

the first acceptance letter shows up and

you know, it's like the most joyful

experience. You open it at his family

and you look at it and then like

suddenly everything changes. Now, did

did his senior year get easier after

that?

any seniors gone through that? Like, you

know, your senior year doesn't get much

easier. There's still tests. There's

still deadlines. There's still teachers

who apparently wake up every morning and

say, "Hey, I got to give a a pop quiz

today or whatever." And and the thing

for me was after my son got accepted

into college, he was like, "Why do I

have to go to high school? Like, why do

I have to finish the the the year?" And

I I never really had to think about that

before. And I mean, I know what he's

saying, but he's like, "Hey, my future

is secured, so why do I have to go to

algebra today?" I was like, "Well, um, I

gave him the best fatherly answer I

could come up with." Because I told you

to. It's all I could come up with. Yes.

All the dads like that, right? Because I

told you to. I don't I don't know. I

think he might have been right, by the

way. I don't know. Maybe he could have

just stayed home. I'm not sure. But

here's the point. The the difficult days

did not disappear. the stress of all the

other stuff did not disappear. Uh they

just lost some of their power because he

knew where he was headed. And that's

what Paul is saying here. As Christians,

you're an heir to God's kingdom. You

belong to God. Your future is secure.

And yes, there's still going to be

struggles here on earth and there's

still going to be disappointments, but

we can face them differently because we

know where we're headed. That's what the

Apostle Paul was saying in Romans

Romans 8 · chapter mention

chapter 8. He said, 'Our present

sufferings are not even worth

considering in light of what we have to

look forward to before us. In light of

the heaven that we have, in light of the

fact that we are co-airs with Christ to

God's kingdom, these earthly sufferings

just don't hurt like they used to. See,

the acceptance letter has already

arrived for the Christian. God has

already adopted you into his family.

This doesn't start when you get to

heaven. It starts the moment you accept

this free gift of salvation. The

inheritance is already yours. Your

future is already secure. And so when

you know when you where you're going, it

kind of changes how you live dayto day.

Adoption also gives us a heavenly

father. I love chapter 4 6 says because

you are sons God sent his holy spirit of

his son into our hearts crying aba

father. Did a lot of research on this

word aba. Um it's a a deeply personal

term. Uh it's not childish. It's not

baby talk. I used to kind of think

that's what it was, but that's not it.

It's a it's actually a word that grows

with you. It's something that a child

would call their parent, but as they got

older, they would still continue to call

their parent that same thing. So maybe

like mama or pop or something like that.

It's a it's a word that that grows with

you. It can be used as a child or an

adult. And what it is, it's a reminder

that no matter how old you become, you

still have access to God as your father.

So, like I don't know if you ever got a

phone call from the the school like the

assistant principal calls and says your

kid got in trouble. Um I don't know what

that's like. Maybe you do. So you can

tell me after church if you want. But

let's assume that maybe I got one or two

of those calls um in my life. And and so

what what doesn't happen when I get the

call. The thing I don't do is I say,

"Well, that's unfortunate. Um sounds

like it's their problem, so I'm going to

let them uh deal with that. Uh, we've

been reviewing the situation and her

mother and I have decided that she is no

longer a member of our family. So, you

can go ahead and just take care of her

any way you see fit. Like, that's not

what we do, is it? Is it? I'd hope not.

No, it's it's probably what we think,

but it's not what we actually say out

loud. I hope.

>> No. What we do is the bigger the

problem, the more involved the parent

becomes. But like you start leaving work

a little bit earlier. You you make

different phone calls. You you show up

more often. Why? Because it's your kid.

It's your child. And that's the picture

that that Paul is giving us. God isn't

merely our creator. He is our father.

And fathers don't walk away during the

difficult times. They actually get

closer to you. Think about this. Saul

before he became Paul was persecuting

Christians. He was throwing them in

prison. He was having them executed. Uh

and then he met Jesus on the road to

Damascus. He had a vision and God spoke

directly to him. And what did God say?

God said, "Saul, Saul, why are you

persecuting them?"

All right, you didn't catch me on that

one, did you? Come on, Lynn. You've been

in church for 74 years. You know better

than this.

Oh [laughter]

yeah, I'm I'm in trouble now. [laughter]

I got Burgess mad at me over here. I got

L m anyway. No, like is that what he

said? Saul. Saul, why are you

persecuting

>> me?

>> Yes. Good job, Lyn. Why are you

persecuting me? He's taking it it

personally. He's taking it person. He's

saying, "Why are you persecuting me?"

And Saul's like, "I didn't do anything

to you. I did stuff to them." And he's

like, "No, no, they are my children and

I take it personally. What you do to

them impacts me. Why? Because I am a

good father." So when you belong to God,

you never have to face life alone

because you have a good good father in

heaven that is claiming you as his own.

Adoption changes literally everything.

You're no longer a slave but a son. No

longer a slave, but a son. In a culture

where your identity is largely built on

performance, some people spend their

entire lives trying to prove that they

are in fact good enough. They they spend

their entire lives trying to be

successful or at least looking like they

are successful. And either way, they're

constantly saying like, "Am I enough?

Have I done enough? What what do people

think of me?" Friends, that is a

miserable way to live.

That is not the way that God called you

to live. That is a miserable way to live

because your identity is going to rise

and fall on your success. And so, yeah,

if you're crushing it, wow, great

identity. It feels good. But there are

going to be seasons where you're not.

And then you just kind of like fall off

that cliff emotionally. Why? Because

you've been living for the world's

approval. But Paul says something

profound. He says, "Things have changed.

You are no longer a slave. You are a

son. You are a child of God. Galatians 3

27

says, "For those of you who were

baptized into Christ have been clothed

with Christ."

Look, baptism does not save you. It

publicly identifies you with Jesus. It's

your public profession of faith. You

become clothed in Christ and his

righteousness. His acceptance in heaven

becomes your acceptance in heaven. Like

like his standing before the father

becomes your standing before the father.

See a a slave is going to work for

acceptance, but a son is going to work

from acceptance. A a slave obeys because

they have to, but a son obeys because

they get to, because they belong. That's

real freedom. No longer worrying about

what the world thinks about you.

worrying solely about what the father

thinks about you. And the good news is

that there's nothing you can do to lose

his love. You don't have to earn it and

you can't lose it. So just living in

that that freedom. This is not so you

can do whatever you want and just go sin

and know that you're forgiven. No, this

is to to teach you that your reality has

changed. You you are a family member of

God and since he loves you perfectly,

you want to then love him. We love

because he first loved us. And you say,

"Well, how is this possible? How can

guilty sinners become sons and daughters

of of God? How can people who deserve

judgment in hell, how can they receive

adoption?"

Well, the truth is in Matthew 27:46 that

Matthew 27:46

there was a great cost for our ability

to be adopted. Matthew 27:46

Matthew 27:46

says about 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus,

who's on the cross at this point, cried

out with a loud voice and said, "My God,

my God, why have you forsaken or

abandoned me?" Throughout his entire

life, Jesus has called God father. Again

and again he calls him father or he

calls him aba but but on the cross

things have changed. For the first time

in the Bible Jesus cries out my god my

god. Not my father my father but my god

my god. Why? Because in this moment

Jesus was bearing the judgment that our

sins deserved. The son was abandoned so

that we could be adopted. Jesus lost the

relationship that we deserved so that we

could receive the relationship that we

do not deserve. He was cast out so that

we could be brought in.

Jesus paid the price for our adoption.

See, we we don't obey God because we're

scared of him. We don't obey God because

we feel like we have to. We obey God

because of his incredible love, because

of what he sacrificed in order to adopt

us.

A slave obeys out of fear, but a son or

a daughter obeys out of love. Not

because we have to, but because we want

to. And that raises one final question.

If God is truly our father, and I think

we've proven that he is, what does that

mean when we pray? What does that mean

when we pray? Well, it means that we

need to learn to pray like a child.

Chapter 4: And because you are sons or

daughters, God sent the spirit of his

son into our hearts crying, "Aba,

Father." So, the the the role, one of

the roles of the Holy Spirit in your

life is to draw you into prayer, not to

some distant entity that lives out in

space somewhere. not to some unknowable

being, but to draw you into a

relationship with your father, God. Have

you ever noticed when something big

happens in your life, you typically,

most people have that person that they

talk to first? Like you got your person,

that person that's like number one on

your favorites list in your phone. That

person that you have to call

immediately, whether it's good news or

or bad news. So, good news, you call

them, right? Bad news, you call them.

scared, you call them. Excited, you call

them. You need advice, you call them.

You don't stop and think, should I call

them? You just call them because they're

your person and you know they want to

hear about it. I have several people

like that in my life. And guess what?

Lynn's actually one of them. But now I'm

probably needing a replacement. So, uh,

if anybody else would like to receive

calls from me at 8:00 at night talking

about silly things. Um, but no, you just

you have that person because you know

that they love you. It's not an

obligation for them to pick up the phone

and listen to your story. You know, they

want to hear your story whether it's

good or bad.

So, my son doesn't call me unless he

needs money. All right? So, he's 20

years old, but he calls his mom all the

time because that's his person. That's

who he needs to talk to. Good times, bad

times, stressed out, whatever, he calls

her because she is his rock. She is his

his person. And that's what Jesus is

trying to teach us here when he says

when you pray say our father. So so

don't say big man upstairs. Don't say oh

holiest of holies. Don't say lord of

lord and king of kings. Like can you put

that in your prayer? Absolutely. Yeah.

God says honor him. Be in all of him.

You know put that somewhere in your

prayer. But don't lead with that. lead

with who he actually is, which is our

father.

Our father. See, you're going to know

that your your prayer life reaches the

next level when you stop focusing on the

the words that you're trying to say and

you start focusing on who you're

actually talking to. When you start to

really see a perfect father in heaven

just doting over you, you will be

excited to talk to him about anything.

You're going to know that you've taken

that next step in your prayer life when

God becomes that that first phone call

that you make. Before you go to social

media and complain or whatever, before

you you get on the group text and

complain, before you go to chat GPT to

talk it out, like when you start going

to God first, when he becomes your

person, your father, that's when you

know that your prayer life has taken a a

great leap.

So when you're hurting, who do you call?

Call your father. When you're confused,

you call your father. When you're

grateful, you call your father. When

you've sinned, hear me on that. When

you've sinned,

don't go like Adam and Eve and go hide

in the wilderness and think God can't

find you or that he's mad at you. When

you've sinned, you call your father. And

when you're afraid, you call your

father. Jesus paid an incredible price

[snorts] so that we would have access to

our father. So we would never have to

experience fear alone again. So don't

settle for merely knowing facts about

God. Don't settle for merely reciting

scripted prayers like this model prayer.

Call your heavenly father. Talk to him

and trust him.

because prayer is learning to live as a

child that already belongs to a father.

So, Father, we are grateful that we can

pray this morning and communicate with

you. And I know there's some people that

are having the time of their lives

today. There are people that are just

struggling with all kinds of stuff.

There are are people that are worried

over their loved ones because of illness

and financial struggle. And God, there's

just a plethora of emotions that are

gathered in this room. And then the

people watching online, Lord, I know

there's so many of them that are

struggling as well. And so, God, it's

just my prayer today that they would

begin to see you as a father. And I know

that can be hard for some people who may

not have had a great relationship with

their earthly father. But Lord, you you

tell us to look past that and to see God

as [snorts] who he truly is, which is a

a perfect father.

We have the entire Bible to look at and

story after story, true story after true

story. We see the father God showing up

to take care of his people in all kinds

of situations. And so looking at your

resume, we know that you're not you're

not a distant father. You're a good

father, father that cares about his

children. And so today, Lord, I just

pray that you would be with those

who are are struggling. And I pray that

right now they would just take a moment

to to just cry out to you and say my

father, father god.

And just let him know the requests of

your heart. You don't have to do it out

loud. You can do it in your heart.

Just talk to him now in this moment.

Take advantage of this opportunity.

That thing you've been hiding from

everyone else, the thing you've locked

away in a closet somewhere and tried to

ignore. Why don't you open the door

right now and just talk to him about

that?

Maybe it's that hurt you received as a

child, from a loved one, maybe even a

parent.

Maybe it's a rejection you've received

from someone you love, someone you're in

a relationship with.

Maybe it's some type of of a loss that

you just weren't prepared for that's

just rocked your world.

Talk to God about it.

Say, "Our father, my father,

I know you're listening.

I know you love me.

So just tell me.