Live Free with Josh Howerton - Why Pray? | Ep. 160 | Friday September 15, 2023

Episode Date: September 15, 2023

What’s the point of prayer if God already knows everything? Jesus, Himself, regularly took time to talk to His Father, so let’s follow His example. God is never too busy to listen to us. Let’s not be too busy to talk to Him. In today’s episode, Pastor Mike reminds us to take time to connect with the one true God. For more information, visit lakepointe.church/dailydrive

Thanks for tuning in to today's Daily Drive with Lake Point Church, a daily dose of God's Word for your morning drive. When the word, not the world, becomes the majority of your week, your life will start to change. For that reason, our prayer is that God will speak to you through today's devotional. For more digital content to feed your faith, visit lakepoint.comit. Church slash daily drive. And now let's dive in to today's devotional. Hey, welcome to the Daily Drive podcast. My name is Mike Bro, and together we are in week three of a 21-day encounter with God. I mean, a whole bunch of us are taking these 21 days and getting real intentional about practicing some things that can draw us closer to God. I guess you could say we are prayerfully looking up and we're honestly looking in and we're humbly looking out to see who might need a touch from God.

This week on the podcast, I want us to focus on prayer. you need to know that I am absolutely no expert on prayer. I mean, is anybody really? But I'm learning that a huge part of walking with God involves talking to God. I mean, just living in the awareness of his presence and keeping those lines of communication open all throughout the day. My wife, Debbie, went to a consignment shop a while back and bought a huge, I mean, a huge flannel shirt to sleep in. It was like a triple XL and completely swallowed her. as she threw it on over a pair of sweats one night before dinner and we all circled up to pray before we ate

and her little granddaughter tyler said i'll pray and she started her prayer dear god thank you for this food thank you for our family and please help nana grow into her shirt and we all just cracked up and debby says real quick cancel that prayer god cancel that prayer i thought we begin our time together asking the question why pray i mean have you ever asked that i mean what's the use anyway I mean, if God already knows everything, then what's the point of prayer? Can you really change the mind of God? Does he even care in the first place? You know that texting and Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram, email, have all become a way of life for most of us in this wireless culture.

I mean, it's quick, it's super convenient. But, man, it can be frustrating, too. Have you ever sent something important and have it just mysteriously vaporized somewhere out there in cyberspace? Prayer can feel like that sometimes. George Butrick once wrote, prayer seems a spasm of words lost in a cosmic indifference. He wrote those words in 1942.

Before the fast-paced tech-driven world that we live in, we seem to have less time these days for real face-to-face conversation, let alone reflection. And the ironic thing about all the time-saving technology is that it's leaving us with this nagging feeling that there's just not enough time to do all we have to do.

We're moving faster than ever before, but we're jumpy, frazzled, tired, anxious, and running way behind, so into a busy life like that? How do you fit talking to God into your schedule? And if you were able to, would even listen? I mean, do request from less than perfect people like us

even get heard. Do they seem trivial to a very busy God? Can you even get through? Can you use up all your data space, or are there unlimited minutes, is prayer just a spasm of words lost in a cosmic indifference? Why pray? Let me offer this up, because we can't help it.

We can't help it. Every religious faith has some form of prayer. Tribal people for centuries have been pleading, singing, dancing before the gods for healing, rain, good crops, and protection. Muslims stop and face toward Mecca five times a day and pray to Allah, people in AA or in any of them. begin to pray to a quote unquote higher power to help them get their unmanageable lives back on track. I think we pray because it's hardwired within us.

I'm convinced that every one of our souls long to connect with the one true God who made us, even if we're not sure about his identity, even if we don't really believe in him. Even when he seems distant, we still long to connect. We pray because we're empty. We pray because we're grateful. We pray because we're scared. We pray because we're helpless. We pray for answers on a test.

We pray for test results from the lab. We pray for a deal to go through at work. We pray for our dad to be healed. We pray for forgiveness, for peace, for strength, for the assurance that we are not alone. I mean, you hit some unexpected turbulence on an airplane. Everybody's play at praying. We can't help it.

I mean, you search the pages of scripture, and you will see. Abraham prayed. Moses prayed. Both even negotiated with God actually changed his mind. David prayed. Nehemiah prayed. Daniel, prayed, Ezekiel prayed, Ruth prayed, Elijah prayed for raining it rained.

Mary prayed. Peter prayed. Paul prayed. Most impressive? Jesus prayed all the time. I mean, over and over in the Gospels that says that he would sneak off the quiet places and just pray. I mean, there's one time his friend Peter finds him.

There's a hint of frustration in his voice like, Jesus, we've been looking everywhere for you. Did you like turn off yourself? Did he get the tax? You must be still in airplane mode. But Jesus often snuck away to pray. He knew the value of talking often with the Father. He knew that prayer is basically keeping company with God.

So when doubts creep in and I start to wonder if prayer really matters, I'm reminded that Jesus, the one who spoke the universe into existence, felt this compelling need to pray. In fact, his number one passion was talking to his father. The way he moved through life with courage and joy, the incredible energy he possessed for loving people in a radical inclusive way, His ability to teach with wisdom and clarity, his ability to deal with criticism, all the difficult people. That required a little extra grace.

All of that flowed out of his intimacy with his father. All of it flowed from those times of prayer. He embraced prayer as an absolute lifeline. In fact, you know the only thing that disciples ever asked Jesus to teach him? You would think it would be, hey, Jesus, think you could teach us that water into wine trick? That'd be a great party trick. Hey, Lord, could you teach us that multiply the fish and bread thing, that wave-walking thing you do? Nope.

You know what they ask him? Lord, do you think you could teach us to pray? All they ever saw in their culture were these polished, well-crafted, theatrical, public performance prayers of these pious hypocrites. But when they saw his authentic conversation with the Father, the real life-given connection that prayer gave to Jesus, they wanted that too. and they ask him, would you teach us to pray? James, who is the brother of Jesus, also recognize the life-giving connection that prayer gives to us. Look what he writes in James 5, 16. He says, therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. So why pray? Because it's powerful and effective. So let's try it today. I mean, all week, for the rest of the 21 days, for the rest of our days of our life, let's try it. I love the advice of Don John John Chapman. He says, pray as you can. Don't pray as you can't.

I mean, if you can't pray for an hour, that's okay. Pray for a minute. Pray as you can, not as you can't. If you zone out while you're at home in a recliner, then try to pray them while you're running errands or you're out taking a walk. If you got bad knees like me, find a comfortable place and just nes. kneel in your heart. If you have a hard time concentrating when you pray, try writing your prayers out in a journal or even on your phone. God isn't bothered by the way you can't pray. He just wants you

the way you can. He wants to connect with the real you, honestly talking about whatever is on your mind. He longs for you and me to unpack our heart with him, whether it be gratitude and faith or cynicism and anger. He just wants to be with us. In fact, the only way to get prayer wrong is to try getting it right. I mean, if you're talking to God, you're already doing it right. I like what Tyler Staten says, pray as you can is an invitation for the rookies, the jaded, the faithful, and everyone in between. Keep praying, and somewhere along the way, you will make the most important discovery of your life. How much God loves you. So today, don't try to get it right. Just talk to the one who loves you. Thanks for tuning in today. For more biblical teaching and worship,

join us for our church online live weekend services on Saturdays at 6 p.m. and Sundays at 9.30 and 11 a.m. Central Standard Time. Also, if this podcast was helpful to you, would you be sure to rate, review, and share this podcast to help get the word out? For more information about all digital ministries of Lake Point, visit lakepoint.compt.com.com.