Dial In with Jonny Ardavanis - Discover the Power of Prayer: Biblical Strategies for Every Christian with Harry Walls and Jonny Ardavanis

Episode Date: June 3, 2025

Are you struggling with prayer? Feel like your prayers are just going through the motions? In this episode, we dive deep into why prayer often feels difficult for Christians and provide practical, biblical guidance on how to transform your prayer life.🙏 What You'll Learn:Why prayer is both a command AND a privilegeThe real power behind prayer (with biblical examples)How to pray relationally, not just functionallyThe Lord's Prayer as your model for effective prayerSimple prayer techniques to get startedWhy corporate prayer matters in today's churchHow to pray Scripture back to God📖 Key Topics Covered:Overcoming barriers to consistent prayerMoving from perfunctory to passionate prayerBiblical examples of powerful prayers (Elijah, Moses, Daniel)The ACTS prayer method (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication)Praying without ceasing throughout your dayUnderstanding God's timing in answered prayerWhether you're a new Christian learning to pray or a seasoned believer wanting to deepen your prayer life, this biblical teaching will help you understand both the "why" and "how" of effective prayer.Watch VideosVisit the Website Buy Consider the LiliesFollow on Instagram

I think it's important to understand fundamentally that prayer is not for super spiritual people. It's not for your saint grandma or for spiritual soccer moms. It's for the everyday child of God. It's not only a command, and this is maybe secondly, it's a privilege. But now I just want to talk through how do we pray. I think people understand that they should be praying more. I think people want to pray more, but they don't really know what to do. Praying is communicating your heart to God.

Talk to him. Yeah. He hears your prayer. Pray relationally. Pray recognizing that prayer is not just an act of worship. It's the pursuit of a relationship with a person, a person who is listening and a person who is communicating. Some of the sweetest prayers that I've ever heard have not been prayed by a theologian,

but a person crying out heart to heart as if God were a person and he was listening. Welcome to the Die Ellen podcast, Harry. Thanks so much for sitting down. Today, I want to talk to you about the priority of prayer. You know, you and I were in an environment that applauds the preaching of the Word of God, the studying of the Word of God,

just the simple meditation on scripture. But I think what potentially often gets neglected is just the priority of personal and corporate prayer. I want to just ask you off the bat, why do you think that is? Like, why do you think even doing an episode on prayer is maybe more foreign for us in an environment that really adheres to and affirms the power and sufficiency of Scripture? Yeah, Johnny, if I'm going to answer that question, I would say, at least from my vantage point, that oftentimes prayer is a functional thing.

You pray in the morning, you pray at night, you pray at church. Yeah, before meals. Yeah, it's more of a structured installment in your spirituality. And secondly, in other words, it's relegated to that. I do my list. I pray in this functional way. And I think it handicaps the passionate connection with God himself, a relational connection with God. So I think that's number one.

It becomes, I don't want to use the word perfunctory in a really bad way, although it can feel like that. Really robotic, yeah. Yeah, it's just a discipline that I practice. And I think that handicaps it. Secondly, I think that the fact that as a doctrinally sound Bible person, I know God rules. I know he's sovereign in everything. I know that I'm supposed to pray, but I don't always believe that, and I'm just saying what may handicap it in our circles is, but I don't know that necessarily prayer dramatically changes anything. God's going to do whatever God's going

to do. And I'm going to talk to him and he wants me to talk to him. But at the end of the day, I'm not sure it changes much, even though I would probably- You would affirm it theologically. Yes, correct. Yeah. Hey, thanks so much for taking time to listen to this resource. I want to make you aware of a few things before we continue on in this episode. First of all, I want to thank those of you who are monthly supporters that make the production of this content and the ministry that Dial-In does possible. If you sign up today for a monthly gift, you'll receive a free Dial-In mug on the house.

It makes even bad coffee taste good. Secondly, if you haven't already, you can sign up for our Thrice Weekly Devotional, which is a three to five minute devotional read to ground your day in God's word. If you head to our website, dialinministries.org, you can just enter your email and you'll start receiving those

on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning. Third thing is I just wanna thank those of you who have reached out and offered encouragement regarding my recent book, Consider the Lilies, Finding Perfect Peace in the Character of God. It's been really neat to see both individuals and church small groups walk through this book, which is essentially a book on the character of God and how it functions as the catalyst to peace and trust in a worried and anxious world. And then just last thing, we are always talking through different ideas for content that would be,

Lord willing, a benefit to you, to encourage you, to potentially challenge you. So if you have any ideas for future episodes or for future series, you can drop a comment in the section below. Thanks so much. Now, Harry, what I want to do in this episode, we've talked a little bit about this beforehand. I want to talk through why we pray. So I think people even that affirm the power of prayer need to be reminded of why we need to pray.

And we have maybe four or five reasons. And then how we pray. I think sometimes we want to grow in our prayer life. You know, we want to, Lord, teach us to pray. That was the disciples' request. And the Lord taught them. He doesn't teach them how to preach an expository sermon. He doesn't teach them in the scripture how to cast out a demon, but he does teach them how to pray. And so today, I just want to look through in this episode, why we pray and how we pray. And I just want to jump

in by saying, first of all, we pray because it's a command, right? This is a no order necessarily, but prayer in the scripture is not an optional suggestion. It's a command. It's an expression of our total dependence on God. And Jesus assumes that we pray. I'm looking at Matthew six and he says, so he says, when you pray, pray this way. He doesn't say if you pray, because he's assuming that we're all on the same page here,

that prayer is a duty, right? In it, we exalt God, we express our dependence on God. And I think it's important to understand fundamentally that prayer is not for super spiritual people. It's not for your saint grandma or for spiritual soccer moms. It's for the everyday child of God. And we start here that it's not only a command, and this is maybe secondly, it's a privilege. And do you want to just maybe harmonize those two realities together that it is a duty, so we don't neglect that, but it's also the greatest privilege we've been extended in life is this intimate and relational connection with God and prayer. Yeah. I mean, if I was going

to wed those two together, I would say, number one, God does what God does through the union of praying and his working. So he's ordained. The reason we pray is that's how God does what he does. He chooses to include our prayers in the fulfillment of his purposes. So the command is, I think, grounded in that theological perspective. That's how God has chosen to do what God does in relation to us. Number two, I think as it relates to the pleasure of it or the privilege of it, it is a privilege because it pleases God and God is worthy to be sought. And it's a privilege to be an instrument of worship, to be included in the worship team that acknowledges and honors God. Heaven is populated with angelic beings created

for the purposes of bringing glory to God through declaring things about God, about his worth and his glory. When we pray, we become a part of that team. We're honoring God. We're bearing witness to God. We're acknowledging God. We're declaring our dependence upon God. We're highlighting the attributes of God when we pray. It's a privilege to be in the worship choir. Yeah, and even just looking at the rest of the created order. Stars cannot pray. Oceans don't pray. rest of the created order, stars cannot pray,

oceans don't pray, mountains don't pray, animals don't pray, but we can pray. And it's the highest privilege we've been extended. And I think even when we, when we talk about the privilege, you know, sometimes we can think about the reality that privileges are often neglected, you know, like people enter lotteries to meet their favorite celebrities. They pay thousands of dollars to sit front row at a sporting event, but we get to commune with God in prayer. And I would venture to say that the average American male spends more time watching football on a single Sunday than they do in prayer for an entire year, because this is a privilege that's neglected.

And in order, I think you talked about this one time with wisdom, in order to appreciate the value of something, in order to know the privilege, you have to appreciate the value of it. And so I think, yeah, this is a huge privilege and it's a privilege that's granted to us. Well, and think about what it costs to secure this privilege. Yeah. First John 1, 12. In Hebrews chapter 12, the confidence that we have, Hebrews chapter 10 rather, the confidence that we have to draw near

because the curtain of separation has been ripped down and it's been torn and that was his flesh. So we have a high priest who can help us and represent us. We have bold access. We can come boldly into the throne of grace. That's a privilege to be able to come to God,

to access him personally, to have the high priest of heaven partner with us for that purpose, to have the spirit of God give voice to our hearts cry that we can't even articulate. That's a privilege. Yeah, and I think in order to have a perspective of the immensity of the privilege,

we have to have a right view of God, which we'll talk about. Cause I think it was John Stott that one time said that dull thoughts of God make prayer grab. Meaning like if, if you don't, if you don't know whose presence you're boldly entering, then it's not going to be that big of a deal to you.

So one prayer is a command. It's a, secondly, it's a privilege. And then three, we've kind of touched on this already, but prayer is powerful. Just looking at the testimony of scripture,

James says, Elijah was a man with passions like ours. He was a man. It said, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and it did not rain on the earth for three and a half years. Moses lacked fluidity of speech and he was afraid of Pharaoh and he prayed and he split the Red Sea. Jonah had many flaws and he prayed and the fish spat him up on dry land.

Hezekiah prayed, he was timid and the angel of the Lord wiped out 185,000 Assyrians. David prayed and God delivered him. Daniel prayed and God shut the lion's mouth. Joshua prayed and the walls of Jericho came down. The people prayed and Peter was released from prison. I love the line in the 16th century, Mary Queen of Scots hated Protestant preachers.

She hated the preaching of the faithful men. She burned over 280 individuals at the stake for preaching the gospel. And she said of John Knox, I fear John Knox's prayers more than an army of 10,000 men. Why? Because as we've just looked at prayer is powerful and I think we neglect this we look at it maybe as a duty and it's a privilege okay I should feel like that but we don't understand that God ordains the means as well as the end and he uses prayer to accomplish his purpose um I was one time, Harry and Katmandu,

I remember the Buddhist prayer wheels, right? That they would attach their prayers to these wheels and then spin them, if you've ever seen those. And they believe that the spinning of a prayer wheel multiplies the merits of their prayers. And it's so powerful that it is as effective as a hundred monks praying for their entire life, it's so powerful that it is as effective as a hundred monks praying for their entire life, one prayer when they spin it.

But it avails nothing because Buddha is dead. And we have to just be reminded of the fact that when we pray, prayer is powerful because our God is alive. Maybe why do you think that we're so prone to maybe mitigate or diminish the power of prayer so that it is perfunctory? I mean, it would change our prayer life if we really thought it was changing things, right? Why do you think we're so prone to just kind of diminish the value of it? I think that's a great question. And my first response to that is the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much is a claim of Scripture.

Right before the verse, before you talked about Elijah. And he uses Elijah as the example of these mammoth things. Heavens were closed. Heavens are opened. And you rehearsed all those ways in which God dramatically answered prayers in the past. I think the reason why, in my view, that Christians are not passionately pursuing God, at least I could argue even for myself, is because every prayer that we offer in passionate concern is governed by the will of God and the timing of God. A, will it be done? Should it be done? And when will it be done? So if you're praying for healing or you're praying for a mate or you're praying for things that really matter to you and it's slow in coming or it doesn't come,

it diminishes your enthusiasm. Like, okay. So I think that handicaps Christians. And because it's not readily obvious that there's a cause and effect between my praying and the outcome I'm desiring, because God's ruling and part of God's ruling is his timing and the variables that I couldn't possibly know that he knows. And I think it slows us down. I think it diminishes our enthusiasm because I don't know that it's even gonna make a difference because I don't see an evident outcome of that praying. So to me, I think that's one of the fundamental things that handicaps our praying is trusting him,

believing those claims of scripture, believing those examples were not exceptions, but examples for me to follow and to really defer to God, to depend on God in all the ways that praying requires. So I think it's the cause effect handicap. It's Not obvious. And it's often not evident that God answers prayer. And I think we probably have, in the church, not done a good job at communicating that God loves to hear our prayers. You know, like we talked about, obviously, that it's a privilege that we get to do that. But it says in Isaiah, while you are calling, I will hear you. Before you call, I will hear you.

That God loves to listen, just like a father would listen to his children. I think it was John Calvin that said that prayer is when I crawl up in my father's lap and whisper my needs into his ears. And I think that sometimes we neglect that. But it's so important that we build up this value. Well, he calls it incense, too, which was fragrant. That perfume had a formula. Yeah, pleasing to God, he said. And it sits in front of the holy place in the tabernacle and it sits in the heavenlies and it's a golden censer full of the prayers of the saints rising up to God.

It's pleasing to him. It's a fragrance to him. It's a reaction of God to the prayers of his people. Yeah, he's not a reluctant listener to our prayers. He loves to listen to our prayers of his people. Yeah, he's not a reluctant listener to our prayers. He loves to listen to our prayers. And I think that would even change the way we view it. Going to like, when I talk to God, he's listening as a father

who loves the prayers of the saints. And developing this idea of a prayer life is so important. Robert Murray McShane said, when a man is alone on his knees, that is who he is and no more. I think we've developed, I think, in a Christian culture, like externalism, right? Like how did they come across?

Were they respectable? But prayer is powerful and it's who we really are. Our relationship with God is a derivative of our prayer life. And that's why I think the devil opposes it. Corrie ten Boom says, the devil smiles when we make plans. He laughs when we get too busy, but he trembles when we pray. The question is why? Well, because prayer is powerful and it's pleasing to God. So that would

just be answering the question, why do we pray? And I think we've given a few reasons. It's a command. It's a privilege. It's powerful. It accomplishes much. James says you have not because you ask not, right? It's pleasing to God. But now I just want to talk through how do we pray? I think people understand that they should be praying more. I think people want to pray more, but they don't really know what to do. And I want to talk through the Lord's model prayer. And in that kind of just extrapolate some of the categories of how we pray

to God and how we do that in a way that actually feels intimate. Because if you're building or it's not just, God, help me with this, help me with this, but let's just talk about how we pray for a little bit. Yeah. Well, I think it's been helpful to me in acknowledging that some of the early church fathers recognized something they called simple prayer. And simple prayer, my way of explaining it, is when you consistent with God's prescriptive paradigm, the Lord's Prayer. When you pray, pray then in this way. So I'm coming to the relationship with God with the realities of my life, the burden of my circumstances, the needs of my heart. And I'm starting by saying, God, I'd like to give this to you, cast my care on you. I know you care for me.

And I want to be able to have a conversation. I want to be able to talk with you. But I don't want to be distracted, if you will, from that relational connection because I've got the burdens of these realities. And that was one of the things that helped me. How to pray then is to talk to God about the things on your mind until they're off your mind. In other words, you've cast them on him. The other thing that I liked that's been helpful and I think is worth hearing as a Christian how to pray, pray relationally. Pray recognizing that prayer is not just an act of worship.

It's the pursuit of a relationship with a person, a person who is listening and a person who is communicating. Prayer is not a one-way transaction. It's not just Harry talking to God about my needs. It's not just me praising God. It's God affecting and influencing and changing me as I interact with him in prayer. I think prayer is a two-way communication. And so relational praying, how to pray, scriptural-based praying is the best kind of praying. And so you are reading the Bible saying, God, what are you saying to me about yourself? And then responding to that relationally in prayer.

So God's talking through his word, by his spirit. And you're, as a Christian, responding to that revelation of God about God. And any passage of the Bible. So John 3, 16, you're thanking God. Thank you that you love the world. Thank you that you loved me as a part of the world. Thank you that your heart is big. That you gave Jesus to die for my sin. You've just taken a well-known verse

and you're praying it back in gratitude to God. Yeah, whatever the provoking idea of that verse is, God, what are you saying to me, Harry? My heart for the world is large and my love for the world is great. Help me to see the world through your eyes. I gave my only son. Yeah. That's how much I love the world. Help me to understand the magnitude of your love. God, help me to respond with your heart towards my neighbors and my friends, praying back to God based on what God has said to you. I pray for the people in my life that are perishing.

You know, like whoever believes in him will not perish, but have everlasting life. We're just going the same verse. Pray for those people in my life that don't believe, right? So you just can kind of draw different lines of prayer. Send people into their life to communicate this message of such boundless, big love. Yeah.

The love of God. How many have the right view of you, God? Yep. Help me to have your heart. Help me to behave to people so much that I'm willing to sacrifice out of concern for them. You were willing out of love for them to send your son to sacrifice for them. Make me that kind of a person. Yeah, we're just living out that kind of idea. But it's pressing into praying back to God what God reveals about God. And the second piece,

and I think it's important too, is you pray back to God what God reveals about you. Harry, I have commissioned you in the world as a go into all the world and make disciples, which is sending or communicating this message of hope and help. Harry, I've said in 1 Timothy chapter two, I want you to pray first of all with entreaties, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings for all men. Well, what am I praying for all men? For my neighbors. Yeah. So God, I want to pray. I am praying by name for my neighbors, for my family, for my friends. Harry, if that's my heart for the lost, God, I feel like it's obvious that you've paid a price for this. Help me to be willing to pay a personal price in order to engage the lost for the sake of the gospel.

I'm just engaging God through the word, relationally praying and responding. I think that simple prayer, praying off my mind what's on my mind, giving that to God, burdens, casting it on him, opening the door now where we can talk undistracted without the noise of my concerns. And now I can pray his concerns and I can pray back to him his concerns about me and for me. That's my primary how to pray. And then the Lord's prayer is the model prayer, which is basically a prescriptive paradigm. When you pray, I want you to pray about the honor of my name. I want you to elevate me. I want you to pray about my will to be done. So the realization of my rule and my reign in the world, my life and the world around me, you should be praying about my rule in the world today, government, community, my family, my own heart style, and then the needs that are relational, the needs that are physical,

you know, my daily bread, I need it. I'm dependent upon you for it. Even if my refrigerator's full, I need to acknowledge my dependence and my inability to guarantee anything. My insufficiency. Yeah, I'm trusting you. That's why God gave manna one day at a time, you know, just to remind us of that dependence. And I, for one, believe that I'm needier than I know and weaker than I think. And give me daily bread is the recognition that I can't live today apart from your strength. I need you to provide for me.

And then in that category, all the things that I know I need, let alone what God knows I need. Relational praying, God, I'm a debtor to you. I have people that are needing reconciled to myself, forgiveness from me. So you pray through those people and then keep me out of trouble. You know, my spiritual life, lead me not into temptation. If I get in trouble today, deliver me. And then I want to proclaim the supremacy of your name. For thine is the kingdom, the power, the glory forever. I'm going to make that. That pattern helps to know how to pray. You're praying what matters to God and making what matters to God matter to you. Yeah. One time I was talking with Joel Beeky and if you guys are watching or listening,

go back and listen or watch the episode on the Acts formula in prayer, which is a helpful paradigm, ACT, ACTS, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication, but Jesus starts off by explaining to people that you pray our Father who is in heaven, meaning that our prayer, and yes, you can call upon him in the day of trouble,

yes, simple prayers, getting off your mind. In the model prayer, our prayer begins with acknowledging God's greatness. And obviously you can call him, Psalm 145, God is near to those who cry out for help, right? But the typical pattern of our life should also include the acknowledgement of just how good God is, that we come to him as father father and that this is an immense privilege of being able to come to him. We adore him, hallowed be your name. You know, many people have grown up praying

to your heavenly father and they've lost the magnitude of that. So prayer becomes dull. But Tozer says, if we don't begin this way, our prayer life ends up becoming just like a grocery list of gets, as I said. So we wanna acknowledge in prayer. And this is one of the things I'm trying to do with my daughters more and more and with my wife and personally, God, thank you that you're a great

God. I was praying Psalm 8 as an example. Oh Lord, when I was in the mountains, you know, when I consider the moon in the heavens, the stars that you've made, what is man that you are mindful of in the son of man that you care for him and i just pray that back to god thank you god looking at your creation that you've made the entire world that was psalm 147 that you place the stars in the sky and you know them by name and yet you know me psalm 139 and i just thank god for that and adore him then there's the confession element that i think is a big part of prayer god i don't know the the ways that i've sinned today i maybe you do know specific things, but we confess our sins to God, not to be forgiven positionally, but just so that there can be the

restored fellowship with God, you know, the peace of a clean conscience. That's a part of our prayer life. We're just confessing little things to God, keeping short accounts with God. 1 John 1, 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us. One of the things I've been praying for more and more is that my conscience would be pricked by smaller things, you know, so that I would keep short accounts. Like I, if there's nothing you're ever confessing to God, you have probably a seared conscience, right? Like there's nothing, you know, we apologize to our wife if we do something or friends, but just, Lord, I'm sorry for, I confess my need. I confess my sin.

A, adoration, C, confession, thanksgiving. It says in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, rejoice always and everything gives, or pray without saying anything, everything give thanks. Meaning that we are the model. We enter God's courts in Psalm 100 with thanksgiving. So we don't just thank him for when he answers our prayer. We thank him for who he is and for listening to our prayer.

That's one of the things I've become more and more convicted of is that my prayer is starved of gratitude. And when we lack gratitude, we're going to lack worship. Worship is a derivative of our gratitude. So if we want that two-way street, and even when you say praying relationally and praying the scripture back to God, one of the ways that we can do that is, you know, it's telling you the example in Ephesians 3, where Paul says that we would know the height and breadth and depth and width of the love of God, or Romans 8, I'm convinced that neither height nor depth, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come. Nothing can separate us from this love. I thank God that that's true. And when I doubt that God's love for me is

indestructible and invincible, the greatest asset I have against my own doubt is to thank him that it's a reality. And I ask the Holy Spirit to assure and press that reality upon my heart even more. And then there's that supplication, adoration, confession, thanksgiving supplication. I have needs, right? You have needs. That's maybe you're, youation, adoration, confession, Thanksgiving supplication. I have needs, right? You have needs. That's maybe you're, you know, we're just saying, God, this is on my heart. First Peter 5, 7, cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. You can't cast your cares on God and bear them simultaneously.

And so I think following that pattern is sometimes helpful, but even, and maybe just touch on this, if we're to pray without ceasing, there is probably the need in our life as Christians for dedicated times of prayer, you know, maybe set a timer for five minutes. And then there's the, you're walking to your car, stream of consciousness, God, thank you for the trees, right? Maybe just, if prayer is gonna be,

just like with meditation, what we talked about, it's an all day reality. Maybe just talk about that as, we're talking with someone how to pray, setting up maybe a rhythm and a pattern of it, dedicated solitude or whatever. Jesus went up often to the mountains to pray. He was getting away, but then he's also,

I'm assuming just going about his life going, thank you, Lord, help me, Lord. Help me, Lord. You know, help me, Father. Yeah, and I think somebody has said that praying is like breathing. You know, it's a throughout the day interaction with God, sensitivity to God. But it's grounded on beginning your day formally, in my view, with connecting to God, which is this axochrostic, which you just gave, which is very common and helpful. Or it's one of the, I like relational praying in the morning because the Bible is open. And of course the Bible should be open in adoration, confession,

thanksgiving, and supplication. Use the Bible as a springboard or as a catalyst for the adoration you're offering. So that can be a target that you aim at. But that formal time in the morning, David lifted it up his eyes toward Jerusalem three times a day. And then you have six times a day in other places where you have this regular rhythm of habitual, formal pursuing God in prayer in the ways we've described. And then in the in-between time, there's this sensitivity, this alertness, this awareness of I'm connecting to God as if I'm walking with him. You know, Enoch walked with God. Housed in that is this kind of everyday along the way intimacy. You walk by the spirit implied in that as the spirit of God is communicating and

you're communicating. And I'm not talking about just pure mysticism, but I'm also saying it's not black and white on the pages. I'm interacting with God relationally. The spirit of God is in me. Taste and see his goodness. Yeah, and he prompts me. He leads me. He communicates to me. And I'm listening and I'm also communicating

direct to my steps. If you don't have it's stale Christianity, right? Yeah, it's, yeah, it doesn't, it's not. It's cardboard, you say. Yeah, it's not personal in the ways that it should be, could be, and needs to be.

And I think you miss opportunities when you're not alert to, sensitive to the Spirit of God as a breathing rhythm of your life, which is why I like biblical meditation all day and prayer is the complement to that all day. Yeah. It's an interaction with God. I think just a couple of things as we close, you know, in regards to when God doesn't answer prayer, you know, sometimes maybe people are listening or watching and they're like, I do pray and a couple of things, and we could do a whole episode on this is that Thomas Brooks says God's delays are not his denials. I always think that's an important thing to remember. You know, I've read the biography

of William Carey several times and he prayed for eight years before he baptized his first convert, you know, after being a missionary. Paul prayed three times that the thorn in the flesh would be removed. And, you know, and I take it in scripture to be reminded of the reality that Paul would have never learned to say, God's grace is sufficient for me and his power is perfected on the stage of human weakness, unless God had said no three times. And so God is working and moving. And even when we cannot see in regards to prayer, but our biggest problem often is that we don't pray. That's the lyrics of the hymn. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

So we need to bring him our prayer. And when he doesn't answer, we need to trust him. And then I think one, one other thing, and we can talk about this more at a different time, but I find it interesting in the Lord's prayer that there's not a single personal pronoun. And I don't think we talk about that enough. You know, that it's our father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come,

you know, give us this day our daily bread. It's corporate. Forgive us, it's all corporate. You know, when I was growing up, Wednesday nights, there was a prayer meeting every week. And I can't tell you one, you know, I don't know if we do those anymore. I don't, we should probably start doing those as a church, but it's assumed that when Jesus is teaching you to pray, yes,

you're having times of solitude, but it's pretty foreign for just friends to pray together. And I think that's a missed reality when you're going, when Jesus teaches us to pray, he's assuming brothers and sisters in christ are praying together together and uh maybe just touch on that because i think we think about the subject of prayer as personal which is true but we've lost i think in our contemporary church culture the corporate power of prayer when in acts 4 they all prayed and it says the place was shaken because of the power of God when people pray. Any thoughts there? Yeah, I think that's true. I think the corporate public prayer gathering has diminished over time and I think there's a missed maturing

with God's people by not benefiting one another. I know when I've prayed corporately with people who pray, and I'm not talking about just pastors and theologians and kind of the doctrinal content or the articulation of their praying, but just the passion of God's people praying for me has stimulated my own praying. Like praying with God's people when they're praying, praying that's praying. Real prayer, yeah. Is heart opening. It's unlocking. It's enabling. It's empowering. It's inspiring. I have often said when somebody prays in my presence that's really praying, it's like they're making a way for me. I'm following behind them. They're inspiring and encouraging.

And I think we forfeit that. I think we diminish our maturing in the art of praying. And I think sometimes praying in corporate prayer, we handicap ourselves by the structure we utilize for it. And so I think it's very valuable. Yeah. And sometimes it's praying in a way where the prayer meeting is you're listening to someone praying lengthy prayers sometimes instead of interacting in prayer together, moving forward. So they're shorter prayers, but more connected praying so that one person, you know, this happens, I'm sure, somebody dominates the prayer time. And by the time that somebody else gets to pray,

it's over. The time is exhausted or it's focused on needs instead of acts, the acrostic. And I think if the prayer meeting is facilitated in a way that's healthy with a corporate gathering, it prompts praying, it matures praying, it inspires praying. And it's effectual praying. It's impactful praying. Yeah, and your hearts are united. Yeah, and you watch God work together. I think it was John Bunyan that says, they who name my name in prayer love me best.

And I've even been thinking about that and convicted of it going like, the tangible way you express your love for the people in your life is by lifting them up to the throne of grace yeah and even you know i lately when someone says hey will you pray for me i said let me do it right now right because i think we're prone to forget yeah and people say like i'll be praying for you it's almost culturally the equivalent of i hope that goes well and it means nothing unless it's accompanied by real prayer. And I just, I think that's one of the things that I would want to punctuate is just the corporate element of prayer and that we have so much confidence in prayer that you've already mentioned. And we can close here, but Hebrews 7.25 says that Jesus ever lives to make intercession

for you. Even when we talk about prayer, I think you just, to think about the reality that we pray to a praying God, that the Son of God prays to the Father on our behalf. In Romans 8, the Spirit prays on our behalf with groanings too deep for words. And even when we talk about prayer,

and you already talked about it, like the structure of it, I think it's Psalm 34, David said, this poor man cried, and you who delivered him, meaning that our poor and pitiful mumbling prayers are powerful to God. And they're powerful because we pray in the name of Jesus. Because I think it's JC Ryle that says the bank note without the signature at the bottom means nothing. But the signature at the bottom of nothing. But the signature at the bottom

of our prayers is the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what makes it powerful to Jesus. And so I think even that idea going like Jesus prays for me is sobering. And so I think, yeah, just to recap, why do we pray? It's a command, it's privilege, it's powerful, brings God pleasure, it's pleasing to God. And then how do we pray? Well, we pray simple prayers. And we could do the Acts formula, adoration, confession, thanksgiving, supplication. You already touched on this, but I would just say evangelistic prayers. We pray for the people in our life. Yeah. We pray for the people in our life. As a family, that's one of the things I want my daughters to grow up thinking of more and more. That, you know, just we prayed for unbelievers. And we believe God will hear those prayers. George Mueller, you know, would be a great example of that. Prayed for certain people 50 years.

And they came to know the Lord after he died. I view that. George Mueller is the best in this he chronicles his prayer journals and i think he has 50 000 recorded answers to prayer over his life and his autobiography but that that would just bring us to praying with specificity not just god be honored but god be honored in the salvation of my neighbors, Bob and Mary, right? So such an important, big subject we could talk on. Yeah, and I think I just want to say, you just touched on it, is the fact that praying is talking to God.

Don't get lost in the specific words or style or vocabulary. Praying is communicating your heart to God. Talk to him. He hears your prayer, and he responds to the heart's cry. Some of the sweetest prayers that I've ever heard have not been prayed by a theologian, but a person crying out heart to heart as if God were a person and he was listening. And I just think it's important on any podcast like this about prayer is to punctuate or emphasize the idea, talk to God. Yeah. And let God talk back to you through his word. And he's not impressed by our words.

He is not. He sees our hearts. That's part of what Matthew 6 is all about. It says vain repetitions. He's not here and he doesn't need to be informed. He already knows what you need. He's just giving you the opportunity to partner with him, talk to him, depend upon him and be in relationship with him and benefit by the capacity he possesses. Harry, I don't do this often, but just for anybody watching or listening, would you pray for them? Oh, sure. And we'll close because I think we just, it's a privilege. So let's

participate in it even now. Yeah, my honor. Father, I thank you today that in this way, at this time, we can take advantage of an open door, open access to the King of everything. Our God seated on his throne of power and might with ears and the heart of a father to listen on behalf of those who know him and have access to him through Jesus Christ, the high priest, the one who tore the veil

by the giving of his body and his blood for our sin and access to heaven. Lord, I pray for the person listening who has lost hope and confidence in a God who hears. And I pray that you would teach them to pray, that their prayer would be what the disciples' prayer was. The Lord teach us, and that they would find in your word,

even in your words, the direction as to how to pursue you, to make what matters to you matter to them. I pray that they would pursue you by faith and that you would, Lord, respond to those prayers in ways that they understand to encourage and give confidence. And I do pray that your word would be their manual, their catalyst, their encouragement. You would bless them as they seek you. You are a God worthy to be sought and we're a people who need you and you're willing. And I commit each hungry heart to you

and ask you to draw them to them, to yourself, and that they would know you personally and powerfully. Thank you for prayer. Thank you for hearing. Thank you for caring. Thank you for Jesus, the high priest who opened the way. In his name I pray. Amen. Amen. Thanks, Harry. You're welcome.