Praying Without Ceasing | Duane Calvin

let's pray together. Father, uh, I thank you for this time together.

I thank you for the opportunity to share, uh, in your word today. Father,

would you help me today to hide behind you?

I pray that you would be known today.

I pray that the word of God would go out accomplishing everything that you have

for it to accomplish. And Father God, uh,

with the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart,

be acceptable in your sight because none of this is by my might,

nor by by power, but only by your spirit. Get glory in this place.

In Jesus' name. Amen. You know, it's so interesting, uh,

oftentimes, uh, when I start a message or start our time together, um,

I sometimes, uh, don't remember to pray, uh, right before it.

And I think what it is,

is a byproduct of me not necessarily making room for prayer.

And so today I really wanted to make sure that we made room for prayer right as

we start our time together. Uh,

because what I have seen over the past few weeks as God has been working through

Hope Community Church, uh,

in the conduct and the practice and the understanding of prayer has been

a phenomenal time for our church.

Anybody else been really blessed by this series on prayer these last two weeks?

Yeah. I mean, it's been a beautiful thing. Uh,

I have seen God move in some mighty ways and I've been really thankful for

the opportunity at each of our service times and throughout the week and just in

times talking with folks to just spend time focused on prayer.

And I've been reminded of the power of prayer.

I've been reminded that God moves through prayer.

And it's happened in some interesting ways. Some of them not so serious,

but some of them like really serious. Uh, like for instance,

the not so serious one. Uh,

I came to church last weekend and Aaron Nelson shared a word about the posture

of prayer.

And he talked about how even our physical bodies can send a message that we are

in submission to the Lord.

And I remember hearing that message and just thinking to myself like, man,

I'm gonna, I'm gonna go down and just,

just get on my knees before the Lord and lift my hands up and just in an act of

humility, I'm gonna stand before the Lord.

And I did exactly that and tears began to flow from my eyes and I was just like,

God, have your way in me. Uh, help me to be better at this, this,

this life of prayer. Like help our church to be better at this life of prayer.

And it was a beautiful moment.

And then I got to actually practice prayer because I had to pray to get up off

the ground. Y'all,

I'm 48 and my 48 and it's like showed up. I said, Lord,

would you lift these dry bones, uh, from the valley?

Would you help me get up? And he did. He was faithful.

And that was the not so serious moment.

But then there was actually this really serious moment that day. You see,

my wife and I are big basketball fans and my EE state Wolfpack women were

playing Notre Dame. And Notre Dame was the number one team, uh,

in the nation until they met our wolf pack women. Yeah,

they won that game. They did that, they won that game. It was a beautiful game.

We were having an amazing time. It went to double overtime.

And when the game ended, it was a beautiful thing. But during the game,

this thing happened, uh,

as I was sitting in my row that I sit normally, uh,

there was a man who was next to me who happens to attend Hope Community Church.

I saw him when I was coming in and I did not know that the man was a doctor.

And the way that I found out is because during the game,

right as it was getting ready to get really good, uh,

there was an incident that occurred where a man lost the ability to breathe and

had a cardiac arrest. And as this man was laying on the ground,

people began to scream for a doctor.

And the guy who was sitting next to me, he, he walked down there and,

and he began to immediately administer CPR.

And as he's performing CPR on this person, I am thinking to myself, God,

what is it that you want me to do? How can I help in this situation?

And then I just had a moment

we're dawned on me, I could pray.

And so I walked down the stairs and I got to a place

where I could see what was happening and I didn't want to be in the way.

And so I just stood quietly and I just began to lift up this man before the

Lord. I began to ask God to, to just be with him. And,

and as I watched his wife with tears in her eyes,

I began to ask God to intervene in the midst of this and to give her a sense of

peace. I just began to pray and lift them up before the Lord.

And I'm just so happy to say that I watched right in front of my eyes as this

man began to breathe again.

I felt like with Psalm 18 says that in my distress,

I called up upon the Lord. Uh, to my God, I cried for help.

And from the temple he heard my voice and my cry reached his ears

and he answered. And I'm not sure if it was my prayer,

but I'm so glad that I decided to pray because I watched this man breathe again.

I watched him come back to life again. You see,

this is what we've been talking about for the past few weeks here.

We've been talking about the heart of prayer. And what it's reminded me,

and that I hope it has reminded you,

is that prayer is supposed to be a practice that we walk in,

not just moments in our lives,

but all of the time because the scriptures teach us that prayer

is supposed to be a real part of the rhythm of our lives.

And the importance of that rhythm cannot be understated. Uh,

let me tell you what I mean. Uh, I have a whole lot of rhythms in my life. Uh,

and one of them is that every single day when I come home,

I hang my keys on the hook at the door.

Not because I'm a super organized person,

because my wife put that hook on the door.

She got tired of seeing me lose my keys every single day,

and she put that hook there. And if I put my keys there,

then I know where they're going to be. But if I don't put my keys there,

then I will be late for our coffee meeting that day.

It's become a routine. It's become a fixture.

It's become a part of my regular rhythm,

to leave my keys in the same place I've developed that regular rhythm.

And the beauty of having a regular rhythm, or a regular practice or a routine,

is that it helps us to recognize when something is off or when something is

missing. It keeps us focused on the most important things.

And when you take part in something consistently, what you notice

is that it becomes a real part of how you live. Well,

the inverse is true as well. When you leave something forsaken,

when you don't have a regular rhythm, when you don't do something often, uh,

you start to feel the effects of not having that thing in your life and you

become numb. And what often happens is you forget about it all together.

Well, this is what happens

most of us when it comes to prayer.

If we don't have a regular practice,

if it's not a part of the regular rhythm of our lives,

it quickly becomes an afterthought.

This is why we've been talking about it for the past few weeks.

This is why our whole church has taken a posture towards prayer. Uh,

because what we have seen is over the last two weeks,

God has moved in some mighty ways. I mean,

we have been walking through 21 days of prayer as a church,

and it's been powerful. We've had many opportunities to pray.

And every single week our campus has had midweek opportunities to pray. I mean,

it's been a beautiful thing and we're hoping that you have experienced some form

of breakthrough in your life where prayer has become a part

of how you live. But here's what I know.

If we aren't careful, if we aren't mindful,

then 21 days of prayer we'll just become 21 days of prayer

and quickly we'll have this apathy towards prayer.

We'll move towards this place where it was a cool thing that we did

instead of the way that we actually live our lives.

So how do you create a regular rhythm that becomes a real part of your life?

Well, it's pretty simple. Uh, you just don't stop praying, right?

Like you pray all of the time. And I know that sounds simple,

but in practice it can be incredibly difficult.

And so today we want to talk about having a regular rhythm of

prayer, and we wanna get into the practical ways that,

that a person can do that, a way that you can actually live that out.

And we find all kinds of ways to do that in the word of God.

So if you have your Bibles, here's what I want you to do.

I want you to go ahead and open up to one Thessalonians chapter five,

and we are gonna talk through the rhythm of prayer that all of us should be

walking through life with. Now, while you're turning there,

we're gonna be in one Thessalonians chapter five, verse 16 through 18.

Let me unpack a little bit of what this verse is talking about. Uh,

the apostle Paul is speaking in one Thessalonians and Paul is writing to the

church in Thessalonika.

And they were a population that was comprised of mostly Greeks.

And the Greeks would've sworn their allegiance to someone called Caesar, right?

And so for them to become a Christian would mean that they had to take their

allegiance off of Caesar and put it on to Jesus.

And in doing so, uh, it wouldn't have just been a simple decision. You see,

they would've become an enemy of the state.

I had a chance to spend a lot of time over in India.

And what is beautiful in India about new Christians that are coming to know

Jesus,

is that the moment that they say that they have put their trust in Jesus Christ,

the truth is, is oftentimes they become an enemy of the state.

It's the place where their family starts to disown them.

It is the place where relationships start to crumble.

And when they take water baptism and stand in obedience before God, boy,

that really sends a message to the people around them.

But yet they step forward by faith and they submit their lives to Christ.

Paul is writing to a group like that who knows that if they move away from

Caesar and onto Jesus, there could be some real problems.

And during their persecution,

Paul writes this letter to them to give them encouragement.

And the key encouragement that he offers them is meant to give them

hope. It is to help them to not give up.

It's to help them to remain faithful to the end.

It is to keep them in the fight. And if the church in Thessalonika is drowning,

Paul is not trying to throw them a rubber ducky.

He's trying to throw them a life jacket. He's trying to keep 'em alive.

He's trying to help 'em survive.

He's trying to give them a way to stay afloat and to have persevere, excuse me,

perseverance in light of all that they are falling victim to,

he's sharing with them a lifeline. And when he does this,

in one Thessalonians chapter five, verse 16 through 18,

he gives encouragement through the form of three ideas. He says,

rejoice, always

pray without ceasing and give thanks in all

circumstances for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.

For I see He commands them to do three things.

Rejoice always the focus of our time today.

Pray without ceasing and give thanks in all

circumstances. Rejoice, pray, give thanks.

This is Paul's encouragement to a church, uh, a church that's facing difficulty,

uh,

a church that is needing to be in constant awareness of God's power and God's

presence. And he gives them this to say,

this is what will sustain your life of following Jesus.

Pray without ceasing.

And the only way that this is practically possible is for them to stay connected

to Jesus through prayer. And Paul knows this.

So he's not suggesting that they just need to pray all day and all night,

quit their jobs. And the only thing that they do is sit in the,

in a room and pray. What he's saying is,

you need to recognize the Holy Spirit's work, the move of the living God.

And you need to stay in constant with our Lord and Savior.

And he knows that the only way to do that is through prayer.

He knows that they need to continue to take time, to talk to God,

to hear from God, to allow God to transform them,

and to equip them for whatever is ahead of them.

And they know what's ahead of them is persecution. You see,

Paul is encouraging them to live a life filled with the rejoicing and

thanksgiving that only comes through prayer. And at the same time,

that's what we've been talking about here,

staying connected to God through prayer. Uh, speaking to him, listening to him,

having him be a real part of how we live our lives.

What he's sharing with them is what we have been trying to share with our church

every single week.

That there needs to be this real rhythm in how we live our lives.

And he begins to answer questions for them. And if we're honest,

these are the same questions that we always ask. The first one is,

why, like,

why do we even need to have this life filled with consistent and constant

prayer? Why do we need to have this kind of rhythm? Well,

it is pretty simple and it's kind of reflected all throughout scripture. Uh,

the reason why we need to have this life of prayer is because prayer deepens our

relationship with God. Uh, when we spend time with people,

our relationship grows in ways that oftentimes we can't even imagine. Uh,

lemme give you an example.

Now I got a chance to coach my son in basketball from the time he was

a ninth grader until he graduated his senior year. I'm an old basketball player,

and long after my playing days, God gave me an opportunity to coach my son.

His coach had retired and so he was like, dad, who's gonna do it? Can you do it?

And I'm like, man, I don't want to do this.

I've watched basketball dad ruin his relationship with his kids.

He's over there screaming, everybody's watching it. I didn't wanna be that guy

and I was afraid of it, man. I didn't even wanna do it. But what I feared

actually ended up being the opposite. The more I spent time with my son,

the more I built a relationship with him. And so every day for four years,

we rode to practice together and we rode from practice together. And,

and we spent time together and we talked together and I began to hear about his

dreams and his heart and his concerns and his issues.

I began to see what he was really like when everything was stripped away.

I began to see all of the concerns that a young man brings to the table.

And it was this beautiful thing that happened. And what I learned in that time

is that the more we spend time with someone,

the deeper our relationship grows,

the deeper our intimacy grows,

the better our relationship gets.

Because what I've learned is that consistency builds intimacy

and it also builds trust. And that's what it did for us.

It built trust, it built our relationship in this beautiful way,

and we got connected together in ways that I could never imagine. Well,

the same thing is true when we spend time in prayer with God,

it builds that kind of intimacy.

It builds that kind of trust as he hears from us about our real concerns,

the real issues of our lives.

When everything is stripped away and we're just talking to God,

he gets to know us And we get to know him

and our relationship gets better and better. Can I give a quick check in here?

How's your relationship with God right now?

Uh.

Is it deep? Is it, is it, is it shallow? Uh, is it somewhere in between?

How would you classify your current relationship with God? And listen,

I know that prayer, the greatest enemy of prayer, is oftentimes our busyness.

So I'm not trying to get all up in your business. May lemme say it this way,

I'm not trying to get all up in your busyness,

but I love to know.

How.

You're doing with this relationship with God.

Are you talking to him?

Are.

You hearing from him?

Because the word of God affirms that this relationship of prayer is something

that we need to walk in daily. Like for instance,

if you look at James chapter four, verse eight,

the Bible teaches us that we need to draw near to God and that in drawing near

to God, that he will draw near to us. In Hebrews chapter four, verse 16,

the Bible tells us that we should come to the throne of God with confidence and

draw near to that throne of grace,

that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in our times

of need. In Philippians chapter four, verse six and seven,

we're encouraged to not be anxious about anything but in everything by

prayer and by supplication with thanksgiving to let our

requests be made known to God. And that the peace of God,

which surpasses all understanding,

will guard our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus. You see,

the Bible affirms that we need to have lives of prayer.

And that's like really the why.

Like if you wanna build a special relationship with somebody,

then you have to spend time with them.

And that time over time makes a huge difference. But here's what I know.

I know that the why is probably not the place where we

get stuck most of the time, and that's not the place where we get stuck.

The place that we normally get stuck is in the how. Uh,

it's in the actual practice of prayer. Uh, if we're honest,

oftentimes the reason why we don't pray,

the reason why we don't have these lives of prayer that is consistent or that

has a rhythm to them, is because truthfully, we don't make room for it.

It's our priorities, it's our plans. I mean,

surely we can find all kind of ways to be busy and we often

do. And when that happens,

prayer takes a back seat. You know,

it's not our busiest even that's the problem. It's what we're busy with.

I love the way Henry David the speaks of our busyness, when he says these words,

he said, it is not enough to be busy. The question is, what are we busy about?

What is the thing that we give our time and our energy

and our hearts to? 'cause, man,

prayer is just an essential part of how we should live our lives.

And I think we get stuck in the how.

And so for the rest of our time together today, uh,

we just thought it would be a really good idea if we got real practical in the

how,

if we began to share some things that will help us to stay anchored in a life of

prayer and to have a consistent rhythm of how we live this life of

prayer. So for the note takers in the room, uh,

let me start with the first thing that I believe will help us to cultivate a

life of prayer. And it's simply this,

that we need to be the kind of people who pray the scriptures.

We need to be the kind of people who pray the scriptures. You know,

there are some very practical reasons why we need to pray the scriptures. Uh,

and the first and the strongest argument that I think that will help to support

this idea of us praying the scriptures is simply because Jesus prayed the

scriptures. Like if you go to the word of God,

and even if you look at the cross and you look at what Jesus experienced on the

cross, uh, both Matthew's gospel and Mark's gospel given account.

And when they talk about Jesus on the cross,

they say that Jesus used these words. He said, Ilio,

I ilio ak box. My God.

Why has thou forsaken me? Now, you may have heard that before,

but what you may not know is that Jesus is actually quoting a

psalm. He's quoting Psalm 22

and he's praying the scriptures. That's right.

Jesus is praying the scriptures. And, and if we're gonna follow Jesus,

it would make sense that we would pray like Jesus. Uh,

let me give you another reason why we would pray the scriptures is simply

because praying the scriptures keeps us focused on what's important. You know,

one of the most challenging things that you experience when you first become a

new believer is when somebody says, brother Dwayne is gonna pray for us.

And you're like, I'm not. I I ain't never, I don't never done that before.

Uh, you don't know what to say. You're not sure what to, what to move towards.

You're not sure what to do. And it creates a lot of fear and anxiety in folks.

When we pray the scriptures, all of the things that we pray for,

all of the things that we want to lift up to the Lord,

they are found in God's word. You see,

praying the scriptures keeps us focused on what's important. You know,

oftentimes our prayers can be filled with all kinds of things. Uh,

they can be filled with our own requests.

But praying the scriptures reminds us of what is important to God because God's

word is God, breathe. And everything in God's word is profitable for correction,

instruction, and training and righteousness. When we pray the scriptures,

we communicate the heart of God,

praying the scriptures anchors us in the right perspective on the things that we

pray for. And there's all kind of ways to pray the scripture. Uh,

you could read a psalm a day, you could pray the promises of God.

You can just use the scriptures as a way to instruct and inform this powerful

life of prayer.

And so my first example of a way that we can have a great rhythm of prayer is

that we need to pray the scriptures. Let me give you another one.

We need to establish daily anchors for prayer.

Lemme say that again. We need to establish daily anchors for prayer. Now,

if you have ever been on a cruise ship,

one of the things that you notice when you walk up is that you see the anchor

kind of hanging off the edge of the boat. And you may not know what that's for,

but that's meant to anchor the ship.

It's meant to keep the ship in a place that when storms arise or when something

crazy happens,

the ship can stay focused on what it matters what's important.

It can stay still, it can stay steady, it can stay where it's supposed to be.

And anchors are a big piece of gear. They're pretty important.

They matter a whole lot.

But what I know is that it's not enough to just have an anchor.

You have to actually use the anchor.

And when I talk about prayer anchors,

what I'm talking about is an anchor that helps to keep you grounded.

A prayer anchor helps to keep you connected to what matters most.

A prayer anchor reminds you daily that God is bigger than us and it needs

to be something that's a real part of our lives.

A prayer anchor can consist in a lot of ways. Like for me,

one of the anchors that I've always had,

the prayer anchor that I use the most was that as I drive through school

zones, I pray for the school,

I pray for the kids inside, I pray for the teachers. See my wife's a principal,

and she would come home and tell me about all the amazing things that our

children do. Some of them were good,

but I thought to myself, how could I help? And so as I rode through prayer, air,

or excuse me, school zones,

I just decided that I was gonna pray and I was gonna lift up everybody in that

building and ask for God's blessing on them.

And it became an anchor in my life.

What are your anchors? Do you pray in the morning?

Do you pray at midday? Uh, do you pray when you're with your family?

Do you pray at the table? What are the anchors of prayer in your life?

What are the things that can't be moved no matter what the circumstances of your

life are?

Because prayer anchors can be a beautiful way to establish a life of prayer.

We have a family at our apex campus that prays at double digits on the clock.

So they pray at 3 0 3 and at 1111 and

at 8 0 8.

And it's become a way of them staying focused on prayer. You see,

prayer anchors can be a real powerful tool. So what's your anchor?

And the anchors are a beautiful thing because they help to keep us grounded in

prayer.

But what I've seen is that oftentimes when we walk into situations where things

get difficult, like the one that I experienced at the stadium,

we're not always sure what to do.

And while we have these regular rhythms of prayer that are anchors,

they're really good to have.

But there are times when we need to just pray in the moment. And so for that,

another tool that I believe will help us to have this fervent life of prayer is

that we need to be the kind of people who simply pray now,

who pray Now

you ever talk to somebody and they ask you to pray and you say yes to it,

and you commit to it in the moment.

And then you see 'em a week later and they tell you how God has moved in a

mighty way, and they say, thank you for praying for me. And you're like, Uhhuh,

because you know you ain't praying at all and you don't want to tell 'em.

But then you finally tell 'em, I'm so sorry, I forgot to pray. Oh, listen,

I have had so many moments like that, and because of those kinds of moments,

I have learned to live a life that says that we are going to instead choose

to pray. Now, when somebody asks you to pray,

don't you let 'em get outta your sight, You pray. Now,

Could you imagine what our churches would look like if we

just decided to pray? Now,

if when people began to unpack the issues in their lives,

if we just grabbed a hold of them and said, you know what? Let's pray right now.

If our kids came to us with the problems of their lives and we grabbed their

hands and said, let's pray. Now,

if every time we got a phone call and there was a person in the hospital on the

other end, we said, let's pray right now.

And we locked arms and we burned it to the ground in prayer.

Could you imagine what our churches would look like?

Could you imagine what our world would look like? You see,

if we are gonna live these fervent rhythmic lives of prayer,

we need to be the kind of people who are willing to pray. Now,

when somebody asks you to pray for them, don't wait till later,

pray. Now, prayer is not meant to be a last resort. Uh,

it's meant to be our first line of defense.

And we often tend to use prayer as a last resort,

but God wants it to be our first line of defense. And so when we pray,

we should pray. Now we should pray all of the time,

we pray when there's nothing else we can do. But when God wants us to pray,

It should be our first, our first priority.

We.

Should be the kind of people who pray. Now,

you don't have to wait till church meeting to pray.

You don't have to wait till it's prayer time to pray. Uh,

you can pray in the moment and the enemy would love nothing more for us to wait

until later. But what if every time Instagram or Facebook,

or every time we got a voicemail or an email that was concerning to us and we

felt the urge from the Holy Spirit to pray, we chose instead to pray. Now,

I believe our churches.

And.

Our families and our communities would be in a better place.

Lemme give you another tool that can help us to live fervent lives of prayer.

And that tool is something that we share all the time here at hope,

and we often share it through the lens of our small groups. Uh,

because small groups are a place to be, uh,

seen and known and loved and cared for. Uh,

you just get to hang out with some cool folks and spend time with them talking

about Jesus, living like Jesus, living missional lives in our communities.

And the reason why we think that's so important,

because it's really important to walk in relationship with other people.

And so one of the greatest tools that you can use when it comes to a fervent

life of prayer is that you can find a person or a group of people to pray with

you that will hold you accountable to pray.

You can get some people to walk with you through this.

You.

Don't have to pray alone

like you can reach out to a person and and pray for them and,

and they can pray for you. And I've seen this work some miracles. Uh, this week.

I had a guy call me who I've been praying with for 25 years on Wednesday,

he called me that morning and I had had a particularly challenging day

and he just prayed for me.

What's been so interesting about that relationship is oftentimes when we look

for a prayer partner, we look for somebody who's just like us,

who thinks like us, who acts like us. This guy don't think like me at all.

He doesn't act like me at all.

And I've watched how God has used our differences for his glory

through prayer. You see,

finding somebody to help hold you accountable to prayer is a game changer.

You, you know, where we can find some really good prayer partners. Uh,

it's a place that probably a lot of us aren't looking to our homes.

Could you imagine if your prayer partner was your wife

or your husband,

or one of your children or your college roommate?

And rather than simply praying by yourself,

You chose to hear what is on their heart and lift them up to the living

God. You know,

praying for a person that you know says to them that you care so deeply about

them, that you are willing to go to God on their behalf.

You know,

reengage started last week at our Apex campus and our pastor who

leads the reengage is a man named Dave Lanu.

And he challenged the couples to just every single day while reengage is going

to lock hands and just to pray for each other.

And if they do that for the next several weeks,

could you imagine the strength of their relationship?

The old saying, the family that prays together stays together is true.

And we need to be the kind of people who are accountable to each other when it

comes to prayer. Well, let me give you one last tool,

and this tool is a really strong one. You see,

the last few weeks we have seen God move in some mighty ways here at Hope

Community Church and every single one of our services,

we've created an opportunity at the end of the service to just spend time and

prayer right there in the room. And today is no different.

At the end of our service time today,

there's gonna be an opportunity for you to come down front and to pray if you're

watching online, to kneel right before the Lord where you are and to pray.

And what we have seen is God answer a lot of those prayers.

We've seen responses in moments where God has moved.

And we have a whole lot of tools here at church. Like for instance,

we have the app.

And the app allows you to pray for people to see the prayers of others,

to submit prayers on your own. And those tools are great.

But I told you earlier, the tools are not the problem.

The problem is often that we choose everything else over prayer.

And these moves of God that we've seen at our church have nothing to do with

our savviness or with our our ideas.

It is not our ideas that is making the move of God move. God is moving.

And I believe that the reason why he's moving so much right now in the midst of

this series is because we have made room for him.

We focused our hearts and our minds on prayer.

And God has hurt our cries.

And I think the greatest tip that I could leave you with is we close this

series,

is that we need to make room for prayer.

We need to make room. We need to make room in our lives.

We need to make room in our families. We need to make room in our church.

You know, a few weeks ago, uh,

Aaron Nelson shared with us that prayer is talking to God and giving him space

to talk to us. It's making room for him.

Key word, giving him space.

See, we could get through this whole 21 days of prayer

and it could just become 21 days of prayer.

And our deepest desire

is that it wouldn't be just another thing that we did,

but that prayer would permeate every area of our lives.

That prayer

will become a real part of the rhythm of our lives.

In just a moment, the man is gonna come and sing.

And as they do that, We wanna make room for you to pray.

So if you need to grab your family and bring 'em in close and pray, do that.

If you're at home and you just need to fall in your knees before the Lord inpost

your prayer, do that.

If you need to walk down to the front and lay on the ground, do that.

If you need to just sit there silent and listen for God to speak into your life

or to give him praise for what he's already done,

do that whatever it is right now, we wanna make room for prayer.

We are gonna trust that God can move

and that he will move as we make room.

Let's pray together. Father God, I thank you for this time together.

I thank you so much.

I thank you so much for your grace and mercy, for your love towards us.

I thank you for this time of prayer.

Father, may it position our hearts and our minds towards you.

May it reorient our priorities.

May it become a real part of how we live our lives. Uh,

may the rhythm of our lives be full of prayer.

And Father, may you be glorified in all of it.

We need to talk to you. We need to hear from you.

We need you to direct our path. So we choose

to make room in Jesus' name.

Amen.