0:05

Prayer is spiritual communication between man

0:07

and God, a two-way relationship

0:09

in which man should not only talk to God, but

0:11

also listen to Him. Prayer to

0:13

God is like a child's conversation with his father. It's

0:16

natural for a child to ask his father for

0:18

the things he needs. Billy Graham.

0:21

Hey, we're Erin and Jennifer Smith, your host of

0:23

the Marriage After God podcast. Before we

0:25

jump into part four of our eight-part series, we

0:27

want to read a review that someone has left

0:30

recently. His name is Jake. It

0:32

says, finally, I was so excited

0:35

this morning when I found out you guys were still active.

0:37

I found your YouTube channel a few years back

0:39

and loved the content. I never saw any new

0:41

videos come up and figured y'all had stepped

0:43

away from any kind of content creation

0:46

and was, I was legit bummed. I

0:48

never thought to check any other platforms, but

0:50

now I have a lot of

0:51

podcasts to catch up on. God

0:53

bless you too. Your videos helped me break

0:56

through the awkwardness of being a man steeped

0:58

in sin, making the about face

1:00

and becoming a godly leader in my family. I

1:02

always felt so awkward praying in front of my wife

1:05

or talking about God or reading scripture aloud

1:07

with her. You all helped me see that

1:09

it was possible and it is better. Thank

1:11

you a million times.

1:12

Wow, that's awesome. Again,

1:14

it makes me want to start doing the videos again. Oh

1:17

yeah, I know. If

1:19

you have had an opportunity

1:21

to already leave us a star rating and review, we just want

1:23

to say thank you. Thank you so much. Not only

1:25

does this bless us from hearing from you, but

1:28

it also helps other people find

1:31

our podcasts. We also just want

1:33

to encourage you if you have not had a chance

1:35

to leave a star rating or review

1:38

to take two seconds out of your time to

1:40

do that today. It's really easy. You

1:42

just tap the star rating and give us whatever

1:44

you feel inclined and then leave a written

1:47

portion as well. Again, this just helps

1:49

others find the podcast and know what

1:51

we're about and it also blesses us. Thank

1:54

you guys so much for doing that.

1:55

Yeah. And you never know, we might be reading

1:57

your review on the podcast, so you

1:59

should do. that. Okay, so we're

2:01

on part four of our eight part

2:03

series and we've

2:06

been going through the Lord's Prayer in Matthew chapter 6 and

2:08

breaking down each verse seeing what principles we

2:10

can pull out from Jesus's own teaching on prayer

2:12

to his disciples and seeing

2:15

how we can apply those principles to our marriage. So

2:18

today in part four we're gonna

2:20

be breaking down Matthew chapter 6

2:23

verse 9 and up

2:25

until this point Jesus has been teaching

2:27

us about how to pray. He's been

2:29

teaching us how to pray, when to pray,

2:32

what to pray, but he hasn't yet prayed.

2:35

So we haven't we haven't gotten

2:37

to the actual Lord's Prayer yet. Yeah,

2:39

but today we're getting into the very

2:41

first verse, the very first part of the actual,

2:44

you know, the world-famous

2:47

most well-known prayer in the world, the Lord's

2:49

Prayer. And so that starts in verse 9. Why

2:51

don't you read that?

2:52

Pray then like this, our

2:54

Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.

2:56

So this is one little

2:59

teeny line, one sentence from

3:01

this prayer, but it's actually

3:04

got a lot in it. Yeah,

3:05

so today we're kind

3:07

of answering the question, who are we

3:09

praying to? Yeah,

3:11

and I think this is probably something

3:13

that we don't think about that often because we just we

3:15

just pray and we're like, oh yeah, we're praying to God. But

3:18

there's something very profound, very powerful

3:20

to have a conscious recognition

3:23

of who it is we are praying to. And

3:25

so that's that's what this whole episode is about, is

3:28

talking about this this first portion of Jesus'

3:30

prayer of who it is he's praying to, who's

3:32

he teaching us to pray to.

3:33

Also to note, right before he

3:35

actually starts the prayer, our Father in heaven,

3:38

he says pray then like this. So

3:41

just to point out that he's not saying

3:43

pray this, but pray this specific

3:45

prayer, which we can do. It is a good

3:48

prayer and it's general

3:51

but all relevant

3:52

over time. I mean it's a perfect

3:54

prayer for generations since Jesus

3:57

said it. Yeah, and it's

3:59

It's a beautiful prayer. But

4:02

Jesus isn't saying that we only pray this

4:04

prayer. He's saying we're praying like

4:06

this. And so I just wanted to point out those

4:09

two words before he jumped in. Yeah, the word

4:11

like, he's making

4:13

reference to like, hey, here's how

4:16

you can pray. Here's the template. Here's

4:18

the format, per se. And so we have to remember

4:21

when we're reading scripture to, you know,

4:23

we always hear this like context, context, context matters.

4:25

Like what is going on? What's the context

4:28

of this prayer? And

4:30

so the context of this prayer is actually the disciples

4:33

are coming to Jesus and they ask him directly. Jesus

4:36

teaches to pray like John taught his disciples to pray.

4:38

Like John taught his disciples, but we're your disciples. We

4:41

teach us. What's interesting is

4:43

you don't know this if you were only to read Matthew

4:45

chapter six, because it doesn't say that the disciples came

4:48

to him and asked. But if you go to Luke

4:50

chapter 11, which

4:52

is, it's another angle. It's another perspective

4:55

of the same event, the

4:57

same thing taking place. And it says this,

4:59

now Jesus was praying in a certain place. And

5:02

when he finished, one of his disciples said to him,

5:04

Lord, teach us to pray as John

5:06

taught his disciples. And so we

5:08

know that the context of the Lord's prayer is,

5:11

is him teaching how to pray. And

5:13

so we can look at this prayer and say, this

5:15

is a template for us to learn

5:18

from Jesus and saying, here's your

5:20

prayer to pray. He's saying, here's how

5:22

to pray. That's why he says pray

5:24

like this.

5:25

So he starts out the prayer, our

5:28

Father in heaven, and he's directing

5:31

his prayer to the Lord, God.

5:34

And so when we start off playing,

5:37

what do we say? Yeah, well, often

5:40

we say like, dear Lord, we'll say, you know, dear God.

5:43

I often when I'm writing my prayers, I force

5:46

myself to write out Father or

5:48

Heavenly Father, or Heavenly Father, because I want

5:51

to, this is kind of what we're talking about

5:53

today, is I want to reposition my mind of like, man, who

5:55

is it

5:56

relationally that I'm talking to? Because.

6:00

One of the most important places to start when we pray

6:02

is the

6:03

understanding of who we're praying to and

6:06

not just, you know, shooting one off

6:08

into the atmosphere. Or talking to ourselves,

6:10

which is kind

6:11

of feel like sometimes that you're just talking

6:13

out loud

6:13

or talking to yourself. That's actually a very good point. But

6:15

we even tell our kids, like when we're teaching

6:17

them, we're praying

6:20

to the creator of the universe. Like

6:22

we want to let the

6:24

kids know that he has our attention,

6:26

that

6:27

we're giving him our attention. And

6:29

that they're, and we always want to remind them that they're

6:31

not just saying words, like with

6:33

their eyes closed. Like you said, we're not

6:35

just saying something into the air as a ritual

6:38

or as something that we do. We say, hey, you're actually talking

6:40

to your creator. He's

6:43

your heavenly father. Like I'm your earthly dad, but

6:45

he's like your spiritual

6:47

dad. Like he's your heavenly father.

6:50

Yeah. Acknowledging who it is that

6:52

we're praying to. It's the

6:54

most important part of the prayer because it

6:57

shows you where your heart posture is before

6:59

the Lord.

7:00

Right. Well, and if, and when we do

7:03

that, like that posture, it's like,

7:05

you know, what's our position, it says children.

7:07

What's our, you know, place it's, you know,

7:10

it's definitely as, as younger as children

7:12

of God, we're beneath him and

7:14

he's above us. Like it's all this

7:16

perspective of where we're at with

7:19

him. Um, but it's very relational

7:21

too. And I know that there's a lot of

7:24

listeners that I, that would probably be really encouraged by

7:26

this, just like our children are encouraged

7:28

by this. Because another thing, we've probably mentioned

7:30

this in the past. Um, we always

7:33

tell our kids, not just who he's, who they're praying to,

7:35

but what his opinion

7:37

of them is. Yeah. What he

7:39

loves. And we say, you know, God loves hearing from

7:42

you. He does hear you. He does

7:44

hear you. He's listening

7:46

to you. Um, and he, and

7:48

so we just sound like he loves hearing you, which

7:51

is a really big deal for our children

7:53

to know that God loves hearing from them. And it's

7:56

comforting. It's super comforting. And it's a

7:58

really big deal that they know that we love. hearing

8:00

from them as their earthly parents. So

8:03

our listeners, you listening, did

8:05

you know that God loves hearing from you as

8:08

his child? And he desires to hear

8:10

from you as his child? And so

8:13

I think that's the main emphasis that Jesus

8:16

is bringing here in his parents, starting

8:18

off in this way saying, our father,

8:21

our father, and

8:22

I just, I love that.

8:24

Sometimes in thinking about

8:27

our children and how, like let's

8:29

say one of our kids comes to you, let's say, Ali,

8:31

because he's a little bit older and he'll talk

8:34

to you a certain way. And I say, hey, you can't talk to your dad

8:36

like that. And I just remind him who it is that he's talking

8:38

to. You don't come to your dad with

8:40

frustration the way that you just,

8:43

it's disrespectful, the way that you just said what

8:45

you said. Can you change how

8:47

you said it? And I think it's important

8:49

to remember that when we're praying to God, like we're not just

8:51

going to him for a sounding

8:54

board or someone to hear our frustrations. Like

8:56

we're going to him because we believe who

8:58

he is, that he is who he

9:00

says he is and that he is listening, that he does love

9:03

us and that he wants to hear us. But

9:06

I guess what I'm trying to say is it's okay to

9:09

go to God in your frustration and to share with him

9:11

your heart in that way, but remember

9:13

who it is that you're

9:14

talking to. I think the same concept

9:17

is just as relevant, not just between your communication

9:19

and relationship with God or with your

9:21

children, or I should say their

9:24

relationship to you, but in

9:26

marriage. So how many times

9:29

do we have a conversation and

9:31

we start off, we have a harsh

9:34

startup, or we

9:36

come not in the right

9:38

tone or attitude or we

9:41

forget that we are talking to our spouse.

9:43

We forget that we're talking to our wife or our husband, who

9:46

is our lover and our friend. Do you

9:49

desire to pray more for your spouse? Do

9:51

you desire to pray more with your spouse? We understand

9:53

that you may not know where to start or maybe you feel

9:55

uncomfortable praying, or maybe you don't know what

9:57

to pray, or maybe you simply wanna add something.

10:00

more to your current prayer life. This

10:02

is why we wrote The Marriage Gift, 365 Prayers for

10:04

Our Marriage. We desire that it would be used

10:07

as a daily reminder and catalyst for you and your

10:09

spouse to grow a dynamic and consistent

10:11

prayer life together. This book is

10:14

a compilation of 365 unique

10:16

and powerful prayers that cover a range

10:18

of diverse topics that every marriage deals with.

10:21

You can read it alone, or ideally, you

10:23

read it with your spouse. Also,

10:25

we hope that the topics that are brought up in these

10:27

prayers would become a starting point for deeper

10:30

and more intimate conversations with your spouse and

10:32

a desire to seek God on these matters together.

10:34

Visit TheMarriageGift.com today and order

10:37

your copy and give your marriage the greatest gift,

10:40

powerful and meaningful prayer. Visit

10:42

TheMarriageGift.com today. In

10:44

that, in the way we communicate.

10:46

Yeah, totally. I've experienced that in our

10:49

marriage where maybe I'm on the end

10:51

where I feel like, like, why are you talking to

10:53

me like that? I'm your wife. I want you to come

10:55

to me with gentleness and understanding.

10:58

Yeah.

10:58

Like, are you mad at me?

11:00

Like, what did I? Yeah.

11:02

Just like a reverence that I'm your wife

11:04

and vice versa. I know that there's been times that I've

11:06

approached you and you're like, why

11:09

are you talking to me like this?

11:11

Like, I want, I desire respect from

11:13

you or I desire you to understand

11:16

where I'm at. And instead, we let our

11:19

initial fleshly responses

11:21

come out of us with no control.

11:23

So in

11:26

communicating to your spouse, having

11:29

that understanding, just like

11:31

if you were praying and you said, you know, dear father,

11:33

and you're addressing him as

11:35

father, coming to your

11:37

wife and doing the same thing, dear

11:40

wife, dear lover, dear

11:42

friend, dear partner, dear myself,

11:45

because you're one with each other, it will

11:47

change the way you approach them.

11:50

They're not just your, you know, friend

11:53

on the outside, they're your spouse. So

11:57

it's, it's a different starting

11:59

point. Then we're then We

12:02

might be used to so to go just a

12:04

little bit further with this again. Jesus starts

12:06

off this iconic prayer with Recognizing

12:08

who God is in relationship to himself Just

12:12

like we've been talking about as Heavenly Father. He

12:14

doesn't say Lord. He doesn't say Creator He doesn't

12:17

say master. Although God is absolutely

12:19

all of those things And he

12:21

wouldn't be wrong to call him those and we can pray those things. We'd

12:23

like we said we say dear Lord dear God

12:27

in our prayers but

12:29

Jesus makes a point that teaches disciples of

12:31

who God is in relationship to us and Focusing

12:35

on that and pointing out that relational

12:37

aspect and a thought I just had

12:39

about this is there's lots of people

12:42

in this world right now spiritual people

12:44

quote-unquote that pray to

12:46

God, but they're not praying to

12:49

Our Heavenly Father. They're not praying to the God

12:52

of the Bible. They're not praying to their their Creator

12:55

They're praying to a God or whatever

12:58

they've designed and so there you

13:01

there's people that could be praying in that way But there's something

13:03

very special and intimate

13:05

about recognizing Who

13:07

he is tests that he's our father

13:09

and so I again, it's

13:11

not wrong to pray to God and say dear God I

13:14

just there's an awesome emphasis

13:16

on this idea of who he is and just recognizing that

13:18

so even if you pray dear God You can still

13:21

have an understanding in your heart of like man. I'm talking to my

13:23

Heavenly Father right now

13:24

one of the things that we were thinking about in

13:26

considering like Kind

13:28

of that aspect of a father

13:30

and and why it's so comforting we're

13:33

thinking about our children and how they'll run to the bedroom

13:35

in the middle of the night and They share with you

13:38

about a bad dream and they ask

13:40

us we pray for me and

13:42

so just understanding that they

13:44

come to you for their feelings

13:47

to be validated to be comforted

13:49

to be understood and to be led and That's

13:53

a really cool picture of like what we do for to

13:56

God when we pray and

13:57

and and we can have that

13:59

same perspective

13:59

of running to God as a little child in the

14:02

middle of the night and knocking on that

14:04

door. That's always open actually because

14:06

of what Christ did on the cross. And

14:09

we can share our fears and our struggles and

14:11

our rejoicing with him. And

14:14

we can thank him and love him

14:16

in our prayers. Yeah, that's

14:17

really cool. In

14:20

thinking about fatherhood

14:23

and his relation to us, we

14:26

know it's a universal thing. Everybody has

14:28

a father. Whether they know him or not. Whether

14:30

they know him or not. And

14:33

understands the ideal father, right?

14:35

Yeah.

14:36

What would you say to encourage people who

14:39

maybe struggle in their perspective of a

14:42

father? Maybe someone who has

14:46

had a rocky relationship with their

14:48

father and perceives God in

14:51

that same light or has a bitter

14:53

taste in their mouth because of an

14:55

experience with their father, or something like that.

14:57

Yeah, I think it'd be safe to say that

15:02

we would shape

15:03

naturally inside of us a perspective

15:05

of God based off of our perspective of our

15:08

earthly fathers. Because

15:10

that's what we, like our earthly fathers and

15:12

mothers are supposed to be a

15:14

representation to us of Christ

15:16

and the Church of God. And they're like

15:19

our first experience with

15:22

God's nature, if they're believers, right? That's

15:25

I think how God designed it. So I think there

15:28

could be an unconscious

15:30

association

15:33

of like, oh, my father

15:35

was always harsh with me or always, you

15:38

know, judged me, or always, you know, whatever

15:41

you put the keywords in of what your

15:43

father was toward you. Maybe absent,

15:45

gone, unloving, hurtful,

15:49

or worse. And maybe we have this fearfulness

15:52

or this sensitivity, especially

15:54

to this word father. And so recognizing

15:57

God as our Heavenly Father, and maybe

15:59

feeling similar things towards him. Oh,

16:02

my earthly father saw me this

16:04

way. That's probably how God sees me. Again,

16:07

it's probably a subconscious, like unconscious thing

16:09

that you're doing. And again, I think

16:11

it's another reason why Jesus prays this way. Saying,

16:15

well, we all have earthly fathers,

16:17

but our heavenly father is the one,

16:20

is the right one, is the good one, is

16:23

the one that has, is the example that

16:26

no father could live up to, and he's the safest

16:28

one to go to and just are concerned that you can,

16:31

that's good, you can trust him. And

16:33

so my encouragement would be, to

16:36

everyone listening, first of

16:38

all, ask God, hey, do I have

16:40

a perspective of you that's been shaped by my earthly

16:42

father? That you

16:44

want to change in me. Because

16:46

I think God wants to have his

16:48

perspective, or I should

16:50

say, he wants us to see him through

16:54

who he is, not through who earthly fathers

16:56

are.

16:56

So I just want to add to this real quick, as

16:58

you said the word shape, that our

17:00

perspective as God can be shaped by our

17:02

interactions with our earthly father. And

17:04

I think for some people, maybe

17:06

you listening, can

17:09

feel a little bit resistant to go to prayer because

17:12

of that, because of those negative effects

17:14

that you've had and negative perspectives you've

17:16

had of who a father is and what

17:20

a father does. And I just

17:22

want to encourage you guys that, I was listening

17:25

to a sermon by Paul Washer, and

17:28

he was saying that a prayer life must

17:30

be based on the knowledge of who God

17:32

is, and founded on the knowledge of who

17:34

God is. And I love that, and

17:37

this is an encouragement to you who may be a

17:39

little bit nervous,

17:41

trepidatious, scared to go into

17:44

an intimate prayer life with the Lord and recognizing

17:46

him as your father, your heavenly father. But

17:49

to go to his word first and discover

17:52

who he is. When you have a foundation

17:54

of who God is, then when you go

17:56

to pray to him, you know exactly who you're

17:58

praying to. And I just loved his engagement. encouragement there. And

18:01

then he says that you develop the mind of Christ

18:04

and as you practice prayer, you begin to pray biblically.

18:06

And so you can see how God's word

18:09

not only reveals who God is, but it starts to

18:12

shape you, just that same word through

18:14

experience. And then you

18:16

have his perspective of who, you

18:18

know, your relationship with him and who you

18:21

are in relationship to him.

18:22

And I feel like this has got

18:24

to be such a really amazingly

18:26

freeing concept

18:29

of recognizing what a good father is in God

18:33

and that he has made us his children. It says in 2nd

18:35

Corinthians 6, 18, it says, And I

18:38

will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and

18:40

daughters to me. So the freedom

18:42

and knowing that we're his children. And

18:44

I just I would imagine, you know, so many people

18:47

probably have some level of maybe

18:49

feeling insecure or

18:51

unworthy to come to

18:54

their Heavenly Father because they felt that way about their

18:56

earthly father, or he's inaccessible.

18:58

And I just he is

19:00

and you are worthy

19:03

and capable to go and stand before your father.

19:05

And he's made a way through Jesus

19:08

for us to come to him boldly, it says,

19:11

which is a beautiful thing.

19:12

There's one other kid

19:14

story that I wanted to share. Edith, our

19:17

three year old, I noticed that when she was praying,

19:19

she would jump right into, thank

19:21

you for everything. And

19:24

I always slow her down and say, Edie, don't

19:26

forget who you're praying to. And I

19:28

tell her, I say, Repeat after me, dear Lord. And

19:31

it's just good. It's good to recognize who

19:33

it is that we're praying to that we're not just spouting

19:36

off emotions or wants or desires

19:40

or complaints or even

19:42

praises and things of gratitude.

19:44

Those are good things. But let's not forget

19:46

who it is that we're praying to.

19:47

The next thing Jesus

19:50

says in this one line. So again, this whole

19:52

thing, we've only been talking about that first few lines, first

19:55

few words of that part of the prayer. But

19:57

the next part of the prayer, he focuses

19:59

on the holiness of God. So not only is

20:02

he Father, but he's holy. Like you're

20:04

saying, like recognizing who he is, God's holiness needs to

20:06

be remembered in our prayers.

20:08

His perfection, his holiness, his

20:10

goodness, what he's accomplished.

20:13

Do you want to break down what

20:15

you mean? Because I, from the verse

20:17

itself, it says, How would be your name? And does everyone

20:20

know that that means

20:21

holiness? Yeah.

20:23

How would be your name? It means that his name is set

20:25

apart, that it's above all, that it is special and

20:28

it should not be tainted or just used

20:30

in any random way, but it should be recognized

20:33

as like, Oh, this name is set apart.

20:35

And this is what the Jewish people always did. They

20:37

would even like the priest would once

20:39

a year whisper the name of God, you

20:41

know, under their breath to keep it special

20:44

and safe. And, but Jesus

20:46

is praying, our Father in heaven, hallowed

20:49

be your name. He's saying, he's like, you're my father

20:51

and your name is holy. Your character

20:54

is holy. That's what name means. The character

20:56

of God, the name of God, what he, what he

20:59

has chosen to show himself as to us

21:02

in his, in his character. And

21:04

so recognizing in our prayers, what

21:06

he has done, what he has accomplished,

21:09

that he alone is holy, that he

21:11

alone is righteous, that he alone is, has

21:14

done the amazing and

21:16

mighty work of salvation in our life through

21:18

Jesus Christ. And so all

21:21

of that is wrapped up in this phrase, hallowed

21:23

be your name,

21:24

that your name is holy Lord, that your name is,

21:27

is set apart, that your name is above

21:29

all that your character is

21:32

to be worshiped. Your character is to be recognized,

21:35

which helps us to set

21:37

that posture before the Lord too. When

21:39

you're going to him and you're going to pray and

21:41

you're going to share your heart with

21:44

him and share praises

21:46

with him and share requests of him, like

21:48

you're first recognizing who

21:50

he is and what he's about. He's

21:53

holy. That is who he is. And

21:55

I think it's really powerful for

21:57

us to humble ourselves and. and

22:00

know that and to believe that.

22:02

Yeah, I think a good, probably

22:04

the best example of the heart

22:06

postures we might be able to have is

22:08

when it comes to forgiveness.

22:11

And the Bible, we're gonna get to this in

22:13

another episode on this, in this podcast actually,

22:15

in this series. But there's

22:18

this story of, there's this parable

22:20

of the servant that owes 10,000

22:22

talents to the king and

22:24

he goes and he's begging.

22:27

He's going before the king, recognizing the king's power, what

22:30

he's capable of and what he's done. And

22:32

he's saying, I can't do this, will

22:34

you, I can't do this. And

22:36

the king forgives him. This is okay, I'm gonna wipe

22:38

your slate clean. That's kind

22:40

of this posture is like, oh God's character, he's

22:42

wiped our slate clean. How do we approach someone

22:45

who's done that? Do we have

22:47

a heart that forgets so quickly and goes out

22:49

and then requires the smaller

22:51

thing from our brother and sister, who

22:54

is also under that king, is also under that God,

22:57

who's also been free, could be forgiven or

23:00

do we have a posture of like, man, this is

23:03

the one who has set me free. This is the

23:05

one who deserves my everything. This is

23:07

the one who's wiped my slate clean. I

23:09

think that's the posture that Jesus

23:12

is teaching us when it says, hallowed be your name.

23:14

That's really good. You also have a

23:16

note here that it says that when we recognize that

23:19

God is holy, he is neither on

23:22

your side or your spouse's side, he's

23:25

on his own side. I think that this

23:27

is a good note for marriage because sometimes we can go

23:29

to prayer and we're praying

23:32

in that war room for our marriage and for our

23:34

spouse, but there's a little bit of it,

23:36

a one-sided perspective

23:39

of a situation or a character

23:42

trait that needs to be worked on that

23:44

we see clearly in the other person.

23:48

I thought that was a really cool picture that God

23:51

is neutral in the sense that he

23:53

wants his will to be done, not yours, not

23:55

mine. But he has a design

23:58

and a perfect plan for marriage He wants

24:01

us to desire and that

24:04

we want him to lead us through.

24:05

And if we come to him knowing that it's

24:08

his character and it is his holiness, then

24:11

we go to him in that posture and say, okay, Lord, here's

24:14

what I desire. But like we said,

24:16

I think it was in the last episode, but not my will be done.

24:19

I want truly, I want your will. Find

24:21

the plank in my eye. Help me

24:23

to see clearly so that I can lovingly

24:26

and respectfully and with honor

24:28

help my soul and my spouse

24:31

with the spec in their own.

24:32

I think understanding and

24:34

recognizing these things will help us as

24:37

we pray to be sensitive to

24:39

hear and understand what God

24:42

has

24:42

for us.

24:45

Yeah, I just love that you pointed out

24:49

that posture

24:51

of being sensitive to him, of

24:53

recognizing who he is and

24:55

that it's his side

24:58

that we want to be on, not the other way around. That's

25:00

really good.

25:00

Also, when you think of holiness, you

25:03

always hear that it means set apart.

25:06

Holiness to be set apart. And when we consider

25:09

and recognize God's holiness, we're

25:12

recognizing that his holiness stands out

25:14

in this world. And

25:16

while this world blasphemes God and mocks

25:19

God and turns their back to God, we are

25:22

willing to acknowledge his authority,

25:24

his power, his divine nature.

25:28

And we believe it. And I think that's

25:30

really necessary and powerful. Another

25:32

episode I was listening to on, because

25:36

I wanted to know more about this, how would be your name?

25:38

I thought it was really interesting. And so there's actually quite a few sermons

25:41

if you guys wanted to do a little, I did

25:44

a YouTube search. And so these

25:46

pastors popped up. I

25:49

was listening to John Piper, and he says this about

25:51

this portion of the prayer. We

26:00

lose a divine equilibrium in life

26:02

and we become increasingly vulnerable to

26:05

those problems overwhelming us. Meaning,

26:08

so when he's teaching about the Lord's Prayer,

26:10

he breaks up the first

26:12

three petitions

26:14

and the second three petitions, so there's six

26:16

total. How would be your name is the

26:18

beginning of the first three, which are all

26:20

about God. And then

26:22

the second set is all about us, so it's

26:25

our daily bread.

26:26

Very similar to

26:28

the commandment, starting off with

26:30

who got, you know, God, and then us.

26:32

Yeah, it was actually really cool to listen. But

26:35

I love this quote and I wrote it down for you guys

26:38

because when we don't, when

26:40

we go to God in prayer and we don't take a minute

26:42

to recognize His authority, His

26:44

holiness, who He is, His greatness,

26:46

His name, and

26:48

here He says His global will. We

26:51

lose that equilibrium or balance

26:53

in life. And what do we do? We end

26:56

up being self-focused, self-centered.

26:59

We think our problems are the worst

27:01

of them and that there's no

27:04

solution for them. And our prayers

27:06

become complaints instead of belief that God

27:09

actually cares about them or can hear us and

27:11

wants to walk us through them and help us navigate them.

27:14

I

27:14

think that's a really good point because

27:16

our natural inclination

27:21

is to operate in a way that

27:23

our name is holy, that

27:26

who we are is right and righteous

27:28

and that we are on the throne and that we are, you know,

27:31

we always say like, you know, God's still on the throne. But

27:34

every day our natural

27:36

inclination is to put us on the throne. And

27:38

so the very beginning of this prayer is, how would be

27:40

your name,

27:42

God? I'm

27:43

not. It sets Him in right position.

27:44

I'm not you. Yeah. You

27:47

are you. And so, yeah, it

27:49

immediately reminds us, oh,

27:52

I'm not God. You are.

27:54

And as a testimony to this, like, have you guys

27:56

ever seen Christian men and women walk through really

27:58

hard things and you're like, man, And how

28:00

are you so steadfast? How is your faith so

28:02

strong? How do you believe? And you know

28:04

that they weep. You know that they struggle and

28:07

wrestle with doubt and frustrations over the

28:09

circumstances that they're in. And yet,

28:11

they can remain steadfast. It's because they believe

28:13

who God is. And they have a

28:15

reference for His holiness and knowing

28:18

that He is on the throne and they

28:20

are not. They have Him in right position.

28:22

And I think that's what sets them apart. And that's

28:24

where the testimony comes from.

28:26

That was good. So

28:28

to conclude this, this first portion

28:30

of the Lord's Prayer is recognizing

28:33

that God is our Father. He's

28:35

relational. He's He were His children

28:38

and He desires us to come to Him. And

28:40

then the second part is recognizing

28:42

that He alone is holy, that His

28:44

name and His character stands above all.

28:47

And that we can go to Him and trust that character. As

28:50

God often said in the Old Testament, like, look what I've

28:52

done.

28:53

Remember what where I have brought

28:55

you, what I have accomplished. And

28:58

so we can do that when we come to Him in prayer.

29:00

And just again, as a reminder and

29:02

an encouragement, if you have

29:04

some negative feelings towards what a father

29:07

is and what a father does. And

29:10

I just we just want to encourage you to start

29:12

in the Word because the Word of God will

29:16

not only reveal to you who God is,

29:18

but it will transform your mind and shape

29:21

it in a way that helps you go to Him and

29:23

helps you enter into that spiritual intimacy

29:25

of prayer that is so wildly,

29:28

profoundly important and valuable

29:31

to a Christian's life. We need to be praying.

29:33

We need to be praying for our children. We need to be praying for our marriages.

29:37

And so we just wanted to encourage you with that today.

29:39

Speaking of testimony of

29:41

prayer. So last night we get a text

29:43

from someone just explaining

29:45

how they were going through something pretty

29:48

serious with their spouse and

29:50

just struggling. And they're like, I don't know what to do and

29:53

asking us to just to pray for them.

29:56

And so me and Jennifer just started talking. We're like,

29:58

man, what do we do? How do we deal with these? sorts of things. This is

30:00

hard.

30:01

And that came in the midst honest,

30:03

if we can be honest with you guys, in the midst of

30:05

us finally communicating after

30:08

an all day kind of quietness, because

30:11

we were having a struggle in our marriage.

30:13

And so we had finally gotten to bed

30:15

that night and we're talking through, we

30:18

were talking through these things and trying to share our perspectives

30:20

on the matter. Because sometimes you

30:22

can't get to that right away, whether work or kids

30:25

or whatever. And so we waited, finally

30:27

got to share our hearts on it. And then we get this text. And

30:30

the first thing it made me think of is like marriage

30:32

is always under attack and we need

30:34

to be careful for these things. So go ahead. Well,

30:36

and so we were talking and there's this

30:38

like, for a little bit, we're discussing like,

30:41

what can we do? Like, how do we help? Should

30:43

I do, should I reach out? What do we do? And

30:46

Jennifer, you just started praying and

30:49

you just prayed for them. And

30:51

then we started praying for other people that we know that

30:53

are going through things. And it was really awesome.

30:56

And then we went to bed and the next day we get

30:58

a text from this person saying, man,

31:00

the Holy Spirit was really moving. And it, and

31:03

there's been reconciliation and it's, and we're like,

31:05

praise God. Like how cool is that?

31:07

They said, thank you for being there. Even though we weren't physically

31:09

there, they knew that we

31:12

were there spiritually, that we cared

31:14

enough to pray for their marriage.

31:16

And believe that God is going

31:18

to move in them and they are. And so

31:21

that, I just, we want to encourage you that this is a, this

31:24

is a real thing that God's given us to be able to come to Him.

31:27

And especially how special it

31:29

is to do it for others and

31:31

on their behalf. So I just want

31:33

to share that.

31:34

Very cool. So that kind of

31:37

sums up this episode today. When

31:39

we end an episode, we always like to pray and

31:42

we've been doing this really cool thing for this series

31:46

where we share a prayer

31:48

from the marriage gift, which is our newest

31:50

book. And it's a devotional with 365 very

31:52

unique prayers for marriage, supported

31:56

by a verse from the Bible. And

31:59

so today's. We're going to read from

32:01

you is 44 and it says, Lord,

32:03

we need you. And the verse that goes along

32:05

with it is Hebrews 4 16. Let

32:07

us then with confidence draw near to the throne

32:09

of grace that we may receive mercy

32:11

and find grace to help in time

32:14

of need. Dear

32:16

Lord, in this moment, we humble ourselves and

32:18

draw near to your throne of grace and confidence. Thank

32:20

you for mercy and grace in our times of need. Lord,

32:23

we need you as our provider. We need you

32:25

as our protector. We need you as our healer.

32:27

We need you as our Redeemer. We need you as

32:29

our peacekeeper. We need you as our navigator.

32:32

We need you as our savior. Lord, we need

32:34

you in every capacity that exists and we

32:36

praise you for being our helper. Lord, teach

32:39

us how to love and how to communicate better, transform

32:41

our hearts and continually refine us. Lord,

32:44

we need you every day. Please cover us

32:46

with your peace and fill us with your strength so that we

32:48

may persevere in every way. Lord, we ask

32:50

you to use us today to fulfill your

32:52

purpose in Jesus name. Amen.

32:55

Amen. If you haven't already,

32:57

please visit themarriagegift.com

33:00

and check out our newest book, The

33:02

Marriage Gift, 365 Prayers for Our Marriage. We

33:06

just want to see marriages be

33:08

praying, praying more. Love

33:10

you all.