EP12: Why is Prayer a Discipleship Issue?

Grace Church members, welcome back to the podcast.

I'm Chris Rivers. One of your host and I'm really

glad to join you today. If you're a first-time listener,

we're excited. You joined us.

The goal of this resource is to address discipleship issues in

the life of Grace Church and discuss how to be more fully

devoted to God. I have to say, I was really

encouraged by this interview. You're about to here with Ryan

Donnell, and Scott Mozingo. Mostly because it gave me a

template for what sir Successful prayer.

Looks like we unpacked prayer as a formative practice and explore

how prayer can serve. As a barometer to what we truly

believe about. God, the gospel and our

Salvation stick around to the end because Ryan gives us a

model for praying. The Lord's Prayer you won't want

to miss it. Okay, let's jump into this

interview. Ryan's good to see you today.

It is he yeah, it's got good morning.

Chris. Good morning Scott.

Well, Ryan wants to just jump in.

Love to learn a little bit about you.

Your journey here at Grace and what do you even do here?

Yeah, that's a good question. I've gotten that a lot, it's

changed over time but right now I'm a worship minister.

So I say I play songs and Lead music and Try to welcome people

into worship and our services, they're singing and prayer and

all of that. And then recently I've gotten to

do some part-time work in videography.

So I'm on the video team now. Okay, then I'm on a couple of

different teams like that do projects for the church like not

of prayer. Good Friday.

Service has sort of special services stuff and yeah and

you've been a Grace for a while. Yeah.

Lydia. My wife and I came to Grace in

2009, summer 2009. So, I've been here a while and

yeah, we worship mostly at the Pelham campus and my wife serves

in Mosaic there and kids are in the Ministries there and you're

still a student. Right?

Right. Still student.

People ask. Are you done with school yet and

but they've been asking that for Almost 10 years, what are you

studying? So right now I'm studying at the

University of Geneva in Switzerland and their Systematic

Theology program. They have a Ph.D program there

that they let you study at a distance.

So I get to travel for courses and conferences and stuff like

that, but it's allowed me. Part-time flexibility to work

and study at the same time and University of Geneva.

Just fit the bill. What do you eventually hope to

do? Yeah, I mean I'm trying to just

follow the lord and Trust, whatever you want to do with me.

That's the true. But spiritual sounding answer.

I really do want to be able to teach in an academic setting and

right and I'd love to be in a setting where I could help equip

people who want to be in Ministry but also engage people

who are not Christians at all and the academic contexts of

secular universities, allow that to happen to have a conversation

about Jesus and and the church and that type of thing in the

context of pluralism and secularism and disagreement and

I don't think I just want to be Salt and Light there.

Ryan will speaking of bringing things into our world.

I want to talk about prayer from your perspective just how have

you grown in your understanding Of prayer.

And what is the passion for you? It's a great question.

I mean, I think for me, I don't think this is crazy different

from most people, I think, when you become a Christian, the Holy

Spirit, your your ushered into a conversation between God and God

and God, and I don't mean that there are three Gods, but when

you become a Christian On the first, you know, sort of cries

of your heart. Paul says it in this way and

Galatians 4:6 that. He says the spirit, the Holy

Galatians 4:6

Spirit, cries Abba, Father, and one of the first things, you

know, when you have the Holy Spirit, is that Jesus is your

brother. And God, is your father, and

that's a prayer like your response of faith is a prayer.

It's a response to God and Here, all of a sudden in relationship

with him, you know. So as a baby Christian, I was

like, I was 10 years old but nobody had to tell me.

This is what it feels like, because you just you're like,

well, I know, I just, I know God.

Now I I sense his presence. So, like you have these

immediate desires and emotions to talk to God, you don't have

to be convinced that he's in the room.

You're just You're aware but as you get older and as I got

older, you know, figuring out how to grow and and develop

practices is a different thing. And so I think like for most

people times of suffering pain, doubt those would always be

crucibles. You know, crushing pressing

moments, squeezing me and, you know, I'd cry out to God.

Pray in those in those times. But, but really developing

habits, or a practice of the presence of God through prayer

is not something that I could say.

Yeah. This is really, I'm really

developing and growing in this. So I think there's natural

intuitions when you become a Christian.

You're like, yeah, course, I want to be with God, but there's

so many other things that can shape you and distract you from

that that if you don't have developed habits and practices

and the Community and a trellis, if you will to help your your

plant, your your, your Vine of praying to grow, then it's not

going to happen or I'll get choked out.

So I think that happened for me over time and I got to a point,

I think a lot of Christians do when they're like, I missing I'm

missing the fullness of the kind of life with God, that I feel

like I'm supposed to have. And yeah, prayer was kind of one

of those check engine light moments things from me when it

was highlighted that I think I'm actually like fading away from

the kind of life with God, that was meant to have Ryan.

That's great. Make the connection for us

between prayer devotion. Why do you think this prayer

habit, ritual? Like whatever you have learned

and your Discovery? Why is it such a discipleship

issue? For us as members of our church.

That's a great question. I think I think there's positive

answers and negative in the sense that I think.

One of the things that prayer as a discipleship issue is crucial

for us in terms of our understanding or approach to

what Christianity is. You know, if a disciple is a

learner or an apprentice of Jesus, then it's not just

learning about content. Like you would read a book on a

shelf, it's about learning to practice a way of life and to

live with Jesus. It's about being in his presence

in all the corners of your life. So prayer.

Highlights what you really think the gospel gives you.

Okay, I'm gonna try to say this as forthrightly and clearly as I

can, but a lot of people in our church or who attend and in

America think that God is a resource to get something else.

Besides God, So how do we say that?

I'll tell you, we think that Jesus is a channel to get us to

a place called heaven. Which if you fill that out,

maybe so that I can have endless days without pain or crying or

tears. Now, do we all want that?

Of course we do, but which is the priority, is it a mortal

existence from day to day? Like it's just an infinite

sequence of days? Is that is that actually your

God? Actually probably is like for a

lot of people where the absence of suffering, right?

You're just the apps. It's like we think of Salvation.

Only in negative terms, like just subtracting sin, right?

From the equation, or subtracting death, and suffering

from the equation, or subtracting the problems in my

life or, or, and it's not to say that they're not problems of

course, they are. We all believe that look through

that, but I think if that's all you do, you never actually get

to what is the Christian Gospel? Which is that the best thing

that God can give you is God self?

Like the best thing you get with Christianity is God.

That's what makes God God, is he's the best.

But for example, Tristan, I were talking about John 3:16.

John 3:16

We supposed to learn that for Fusion right now.

Now call him out so you better be working on that tea and I'll

tease. Good translation says this is

how God loved the world. Not he loved it so much but this

is how God loved the world. He gave.

What did he give? What could he give?

What would be the best gift? God could give John says his own

heart, or the son, who's in his own heart?

He gave us his son, his one, and only son his unique son, whoever

believes in him, will not perish, but have eternal life.

And I said, well what is this eternal life stuff?

You know, is that something that's better than God?

Like is that a is that actually the real better gift?

That's a good stead of Jesus and his I mean I can't nothing's

better than God like he knows enough to and well, nothing's

better than God was like, right? So what is this eternal life

stuff? And I was like, actually later

in John chapter 17 when Jesus is praying to the father.

John 17 · chapter mention

He says this is eternal life, the life of the age or It's that

they may know you and Jesus Christ and you've sent.

So actually this is another way of saying I'm giving you life

with me giving you my self and I think prayer highlights to me

when I am starting to forget that.

The best thing quote-unquote that I get as a Christian is God

not something else. And when I start to to lose this

sense that I get to live my My life with God's presence every

day by his holy spirit. Then I'm already starting to

move my focus on something else. So I think it kind of challenges

us with. Well, what do you think the

gospel really is? What do you think it really

gives you? You think it gives you something

better than God? So that's, that's one approach,

I think the other thing in terms of thinking about that word,

discipleship, what forms shapes us teaches us?

Apprentices us because we oftentimes think that

Christianity or or being a disciple is like it's this

formation practices that we have to take on as something

additional to our life that we're not doing already and

there's two things about that. Like, I've heard this from other

other teachers recently as well as just that you're already

doing stuff, you already have patterns and rituals you don't

call them rich. Jules, you know you already when

you get in your car, There's four things that you do

immediately. I mean they're different for

everybody, or when you wake up in the morning you either check

you check something on your phone.

First, you turn your alarm off. If you make a cup of coffee,

right? You do your Wordle, you,

whatever your thing is, right. Everybody has a thing.

Well, that's, those are discipling practices, just

around something else that may or may not have anything to do

with the Lord, but you're already ingrained in rhythms and

right now. You're practicing away.

Your you have habits and rhythms whether they're intentional or

not and prayer challenges us to go.

Am I actually developing or working or yeah, training and

habits that put myself in God's presence and remind me that he's

with me and I'm with him every day and So the threat right now,

I think is that we're more trained and discipled by

algorithms from Google and then we are by the Holy Spirit or

anything, from the history of Christianity, or spiritual

mentors, or the Bible. So, let me make a big

observation but a couple things together and tell me if I'm

headed down the right path here. So part of the question about

Why do we struggle with this discipline?

Why do we neglect? It seems to exist around the

idea of how do I know it's working?

Like if I'm praying for other people, you know, how do I know

God, hears my prayers? How do I know my prayers

effective? But it feels like the prayers

and praying for other people and praying for things is skipping

the most important step that you just talked about.

So we talk about devotion Devotion to God Devotion, to

others, two great Commandments. I don't think of people.

A lot of people think about prayer.

As Devotion to God as much as they think about praying for

other people, as a sign of Christian, you know, discipline,

obedience and love you. I love you.

I want to pray for you. I want to care for you, but it

seems like if that's more of our starting point.

And we haven't cultivated this appreciation that God is the

gospel in a way that I really enjoy a part of that

appreciation, is by communing with him through prayer, right?

Then the second part of that equation, Asian praying for

others is going to struggle. Yes.

Does that make sense? Can you elaborate a little bit

more on that baby? Yeah, I know.

I completely agree. I mean, of course like, you

know, I heard recently, you know, the reason why we pray for

people's because we love them, right?

You know, and when you can't do for them, something that you

wish you could do then you ask for somebody to do that thing.

That's that actually can't. So you go to God and say, Could

you do this? Because I can't and I love this

person. That's not a bad impulse, but it

does remind me of. So I got a quote that wasn't

going to be very long, but I got a quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer on

this. But in his little book life

together, he starts by talking about community and he one of

his main points is you can't and you actually don't as a

Christian have Community with other persons or other

Christians apart from Jesus Christ and you start to distort

your relationship with others unless you see it in and through

Jesus Christ. So I do think that the skipping

of yeah, I don't I'm not really talking to God because I need

communion with him. I'm trying to get him to be a

cosmic vending machine for some problems right now, that

actually already distorts your relationship with other people,

right? Even when you're praying for

this right? You know, so you're just your

orientation can get Is distorted, that's not the spoken

motivation obviously not. But what you're saying is apart

from some healthy rhythms, we already have other rhythms in

our life that we may not recognize as rhythms and we fall

into that thinking because we are swimming in a world of

consumerism vending machine type.

Yes the ology. Yes, our are your economic like

James K, Smith talks about this a lot but your economic This is

our discipling. You so much everyday, your

buying habits, right that use, you can't help but start to

think about your relationship with God.

In those types of free market capitalist terms and when it

comes to your relationship to other people sometimes sometimes

you feel guilty. They feel like I'm actually

trying to twist God's arm to do something that he doesn't want

to do in my intercession for somebody else.

And this is just a well that's just wrong.

I mean, you don't and that's why the orientation.

Godlike. And this will get to this, but

hopefully the The Lord's Prayer it starts by going, like, you

actually are a good father, you're a good good father.

Like the song says, and you really are bringing the life of

Heaven to the Earth, and I really want your reality but you

want your will to be done. We're actually on the same page

about that. Yeah.

But that completely changes your prayers for other people.

And rather than just this like I'm desperately hoping that God

would care a fraction as much as I do about.

Out my loved one. No, no.

Like of course, you're going to throw it one pair because of

that, and then you're going to go try to do it yourself unless

you think of God differently and then you'll, you'll realize that

you're praying with God and you're praying with Christ.

And you're offering up prayers that are completely in line with

the desires of all these Spirit. Yeah.

So let's go back to this idea of nothing is better than God.

Okay, I really, I really want to double tap on that, but I want

you to Help us answer the question.

Like how would you encourage our church towards this?

So sometimes I think it's similar to a marriage where you

actually really do love the person that you married and you

really do want to be with them. Even if you guys frustrate each

other sometimes, but in order to remind yourself and the other

person of the intimacy you really do, have you have to cut

some things out and you have to To carve out some space and

time. So Jesus said, when you pray and

you go into your closet or you go into this little cabinet room

and pray that you know, Tyler sentences is an incredibly great

Insight because you're you have to carve out a space for this

and that's what something like the night of prayer has done for

our church body, it it carves out a specific time and space to

Give ourselves to the structure, the words, the Rhythm, the the

life and the truth of the Lord's Prayer as a as a trellis as a

form as a way to enter into God's presence and let it shape

us. It's a gift, right?

It's not it's a gift from from Christ himself to say, look,

this is a way to be with me and learn what it feels like and

looks like to be with me and be on the same page.

With me and so are not of prayers have helped to do that.

I mean, there's teaching there's prayer, there's intercession,

there's just being in God's presence and and letting that be

a pause to realize, and remember that.

Yeah, actually God's the God, we worship.

And, and because he's good, we don't have to doubt that because

of who we see in Jesus Christ and so we can bring the worst

parts of our life to him. Must broken pieces.

He can handle that. And we can also celebrate and,

and he'll he rejoices with us with the great thing.

You know, the triumphs, we can bring it all to him.

And as a community, we do that, you know, the Lord's Prayers

prayed in the plural. So so our night of prayers is

one of the structures that helps bring us back to 0, right?

Christianity is about life with God and How does the structure

of the Lord's? Prayer itself.

Orient Us in this Focus towards God first.

Mmm. I mean, this is nothing new but

because it does start with our father who is in heaven and the

prayer to how would be your name or Sanctified?

Be your name scientific. I'll do is we say in Spanish

that your name would be treated his.

Holy seen as holy received his holy, it's a, it's a complex

way. Of saying.

I'm actually good. I want to take care of you.

I love you. I'm a good God.

Everything that I share with you is out of an abundance of gift,

its Grace upon Grace, and to come back to his name as his

character. It's who he is.

It's it's his character not just revealed in the abstract and

like a list or a laundry list of attributes.

It's his name is identified with freeing Israel from slavery.

In Egypt. And, and of course, that goes

back to the point we made earlier, is, like, why did he

free him in the first place? Well, yeah, to get rid of

Oppression, but it actually says so that they may worship me.

Like, he's trying to save him, so that they can have this

intimate encounter this worship life of worship with God.

So, I think out of the gate, the first line is inviting you to

see God differently. And what about the, Father, how

should we think about God as father?

Yeah, so father this is not obvious but I do think it's

important to say father has different connotations for some

people that that's like oh that's a metaphor of a good

parent and for others it's that's actually a metaphor for a

terrible parent. So it is a human, it is an

anthropomorphic or, you know, for a title it is an analogy.

But I think it's important to Go.

Well, how does Jesus go? Let's go back to Jesus and Let

Jesus show us who the father is. And so, first and foremost, the,

the father is the one with whom Jesus has always been and a

great way to kind of shape how you think about God as father.

It would be to go back to John chapter 17 when which is this

John 17 · chapter mention

extended prayer from Jesus and it's just Just full of trust and

life and love. And so that should shape how we

think about God, the father is in and through Jesus.

So we pray the Lord's Prayer. Rowan Williams says on our knees

next to Jesus. So I don't think you should just

go straight to father and go, well, whatever, I think about

that good or bad. That's probably what it is.

We should go to Jesus and go. Why don't you teach me?

What it means to pray to God, the father and we'll know that

we're saying Abba in the way that his holy spirit does.

One of the things is not is that God's not mail?

So to call god father doesn't mean he actually has gender.

That's that's not what it's saying.

It's saying a whole lot of other wonderful, beautiful incredible

things, but it is, it's a title with, with great comfort and

great meeting and great provision.

But, but I would just It's a, let's go to Jesus and learn how

he thinks about God, his father, and it starts with him being the

source and cause of all good, life, and gift and provision in

love. Then, how does the notion of

Kingdom a kingdom? Come thy will be done on Earth

as it is in heaven. How does that idea?

Connect just keeping it simple devotion to God, verse and then

Devotion to other people and interceding, for other people,

is there a connection there, all absence Kingdom?

So, when we talk about Kingdom, you know, in the ancient world,

like most of the time Kings had bad connotations, especially for

Americans as well. It's like, well, that's

everything you everything you would associate.

Monarchy with would be like oppression, you know,

colonialism slavery. All these terrible, you know,

tyrants totalitarian regimes. That's what you think of with

kingdoms and Reign and Rule. You don't have any good

connotations with that, as a good Democratic American.

So it goes back Back to well, what type of King are we talking

about here? And the kind of Kingdom that

Jesus brought that he said, was the heart of the father was a

kingdom who became king through a crown of thorns, not a crown

of gold like he became king through suffering.

The first placard that he gets over his head as king of the

Jews is on a cross, right? So not on a Gold Label.

So the kind of Kingdom were talking about.

That is the heart of the father is one where the highest go

slow. It's the one who sends, you

know, the father loved the world in this way, he gave his only

son. So this is completely reshaping

and hopefully restoring what we think about the father and his

kingdom. And then it's not a kingdom,

that's abstracted from The Real World, which is why we're

talking. Talk to pray, your kingdom, come

your will be done on the Earth as it is in heaven.

It's not to keep Heaven away, its to invite the life of

Heaven, into your own life, and your own heart, and your own

family into your world and to your city.

And so, you can know right from that verse that.

God, actually, his design is to bring the life of heaven and his

kingdom to the Earth. And that's of course, what Jesus

did. But And I always whenever I pray

that prayer, always turn it. You Know, Myself and I say may

your kingdom come your will be done in me as it is in heaven.

And then, I say, also in my family and the life of my wife

and my church, and I know that I'm praying with the will of

God, I know that because that's the prayer Jesus came he to

pray. So, I think keeping Kingdom in

some other world is false. It's an error or making God

aloof. And so abstract that he doesn't

really care. Are no no that's not the kind of

father who dealing with and it's definitely not the kind of

Kingdom that Christ brought so apart from the Lord's Prayer,

what are some other ways that we can keep God?

Prayers to God communion with God big.

What are some other models? You mentioned the high Priestly

prayer. John 17.

What are some other ways that we can really cultivate this

Devotion to God through prayer? Again not to diminish, the

intercession for others but really as as fuel for that,

intercession for us. Yeah, yeah so I think of

intercession as work like, you're doing real work for that

person. Like in Acts, you know they

appoint the deacons and then I say so that we can keep doing

the Devotion to the word and prayer because they think it's

real work prayer is work. Like, Luther thinks it's sweaty

difficult work to pray and it does real things.

So you're serving people. When you pray for them, you're

actually doing work for them before, the Throne of God, when

you pray, but I say that to say that.

Yes, you can follow that in Paul, for example, his the

examples of his prayers, in the Epistles are doing work for the

people that he's writing to that comes out.

Yes, you can track with the prayers of Jesus.

All there's tons of different Encounters of Prayer in the New

Testament that you can draw from but I think one of the easiest

answers just to be sure. For is for the last two thousand

years and then before that the prayer book of the Bible is the

Psalms. And so when I don't know what to

pray, I pray the Lord's Prayer but the Lord's Prayer Luther,

said it penetrates the Psalms and the songs penetrate The

Lord's Prayer. So, I go to the Psalms because I

know that I will have access to the full range of emotion of

tragedy and celebration all there and It's always going to

challenge me. It's going to catch me off

guard, it's going to say things that I don't expect and it's

going to connect with my my life in a real earthy human way.

And so, I think one of the best ways to learn to pray with more

than just the Lord's Prayer is to get in the Psalms, and it's

okay, if you're like, pray phrase and you're like, okay, I

think I know what that means. Yes, God.

That's what I want to say. And then go to the next phrase

ago. I don't know what this means.

God. Yeah.

But I want to go to the next line, that's okay.

But I think that's a great and there's all kinds of books and

resources for that. But I think the Psalms are a

gift to us. Well, this has been great Ryan

so at the end of the day, what would success look like?

So I think I want to say that especially to somebody who's

discouraged about praying right now, they are getting all this

and they're like, this is so foreign to me.

And I feel sad about that. I think that just tells you that

you really do. Love God.

Even though discouragement says, I want something that I know I'm

supposed to be enjoying right now but I'm not there, I think

that's okay. And so to that person I want to

say you already have a successful prayer life.

What do I mean by that? Jesus is your prayer like, Jesus

is already. He already has scars on his

wrists. And in his side that plead for

you, they pray for you every day and they are fully Hebrews says

heard Jesus Christ. He uttered cries and tears and

groans for you already to the father and they've been

completely hard and the Holy Spirit is always groaning always

praying always As with you always already communicating

your needs and they're already being accepted.

So, the good news is, there is a secure sense in which your

prayer life is already acceptable.

Like, no matter how bad it is, and that's the, that's the

gospel. You already have communion with

God, God's party with you, you know, that's who Emmanuel is

Jesus, you know, he's God with us.

So I think that's the Starting place to grow their.

I think would be the first two words that come to mind are

presence, and participation. So presence is when you sense

and experience when you are living into a greater awareness

that you're with God, and God is with you and that you take that

into your presence to the rest of the world, you you sense?

You know, as I'm doing this Labor.

This work, this act of service or my job, my vacation, my

family life, I'm with God and God is with me, the more you

pray, the more you'll be aware of that.

You'll be living with God and experiencing his presence.

You'll be bringing his presence into all the corners of your

life and you're also more present to other people and you

can be present to them, you can love them, you can bring their

presence into into. Your prayer life, your

conversation with god. And so I think presence is a

part of and then participation the word participate, what I'm

trying to get at there is, you know, just participating in the

conversation with god but you actually going to be

participating in what he does in the world so it's very fruitful.

So Jesus is test for whether or not you're remain in him and

John's language and 14 and 15. I think of if your remaining in

him and his words Are in you is that you're going to produce a

lot of fruit? It's gonna be fullness.

Yeah, okay. So you're gonna you're going to

have joy and you're going to be doing the things that Jesus did

and you're going to be doing the work.

You're it's going to look like the father's will and Kingdom

coming in your life as in heaven.

And there will be real practical visible concrete.

Expressions to that, like, feeling less lonely feeling

more. Are experiencing more joy having

the energy to to meet the needs of other people, being able to

embrace moments of pain and tragedy.

Because you at the bottom of all of that, you have a deeper hope.

So you're going to be able to cry with people when you want to

and feel their their wounds because, you know, God can be

there too and God is there. You see what I'm saying?

So it helps you be present in all the moments God's calling

you to be present to be that kind of person.

Person. I think that goes back to what

it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

Well. Thank you.

I think we'll have some great resources.

You've got some good ideas of some, some books maps and

different things that can help. People will put those in in the

resource section. In the show notes, I have one

request. Want to put you on the spot

here, okay, as you close us is okay.

Chris, if I close this out today solutely, then I would love to

hear the Lord's Prayer and you get to pick the language because

you're okay. Your trilingual so Spanish or

French. Close this out with the Lord's

Prayer. Okay.

I can't I can't pray the Lord's Prayer in French yet.

You interesting brake parts of it in Spanish.

Obviously do it for an English but I'll throw in some tongs.

Okay, go for it. Our father in Heaven, by the

take it, that's a no Cielo santificado sea, Tu nombre.

God, we ask that your Holiness and presence your goodness and

fullness of it would be felt by your people today.

They'd be felt by us. God, I pray that we would not

shame or dishonor or treat as common who you are and what

you've done. And we don't want to do that

with our lives or with our speech today.

So I pray that as people look at our lives that they see that.

Your name is good and it's wholly and it's embodied in the

life of Jesus and we just want that knowledge and that reality

to be extended through us. So we ask that your name would

be Sanctified and God we asked that your kingdom would come and

that your will would be done on the earth as in heaven.

Not just in the future but inaugurated now Guy.

We recognize that that's going to be through suffering and

trial in pain. The kingdom doesn't always

especially often times. It does not look like luxury and

comfort and wealth and safety but it looks like heartache and

tragedy. I pray that as we meet each

other in moments of pain that we would be reminded that that is

not contrary to your kingdom coming but that you can come in

and through those moments and so you send us into those moments

today. I pray that we not resist them

or buffer them or distract ourselves with other things, but

be able to be present other people in their pain today.

And God we ask that you would provide for our needs.

God, give us today, the daily bread that we need Meet our

needs are Necessities. That are real, that cause

anxiety, but we pray to you. Knowing that you're good, that

you love to give good gifts to your children.

So we can ask you for all that we need for ourselves and for

those around us. God, we pray that you would

better, though, not with avocados, as we forgive us our

sins, as we are in the process of forgiving others.

This forgiveness is a two-way street, God, and Can't resist

that. So as we receive your

forgiveness, we ask that you would Channel it through US

towards others. Just drain us of the bitterness

that sometimes we walk around with towards other people in our

life, whether it's our spouses, our kids friends, co-workers.

God, we ask that you would, yes, forgive us our sins.

As we forgive those who sin against us and God guide us away

from Temptation and trial. I was not the fall into It or

just do stupid things that make us stumble into moments of

weakness and vulnerability that are our own fault.

Lord, let us not be tempted by our own desires.

So, Lord train our desires. Help us crave, what is good so

that we can overcome evil. And in that last part guy, we

just ask that knowing that you have overcome The evil of the

world. We ask that you would help us

resist evil that you would help us resist evil actions and the

works of those who are doing evil.

Knowing that or Jesus, you came to deliver to save us from evil,

and from all of its effects. And the end the final day, the

final analysis, you really will and darkness and death and evil

will be no more God. We want to bring that hope into

the rest of our day today. And so we ask for it in and

through you, Lord Jesus. I agree.

Thanks. Well, as we wrap up today's

conversation, we want to thank you for joining us.

We believe that discipleship is the process that one engages in

when they repent believe and follow Jesus.

And there's no better way to engage in the process of

discipleship than in community. So we want to encourage you to

share this episode with someone and discuss this discipleship

issue together. Ask for their feedback and any

takeaways they receive be prepared to reciprocate and

approach their feedback with a willingness to learn and apply

this This is a great way to move towards this discipleship issue.

If you have questions or want access to any additional

resources to help you, dive deeper into this subject, be

sure to check out our podcast page located in the show notes.

Thanks for joining us today and we look forward to joining you

on the next episode.