Aligning Our Will: The Transformative Power of Prayer

"After watching and listening to Him pray, they concluded that, it's kinda funny, they concluded that maybe they'd been doing it wrong, that they had been praying the wrong way even though they had been praying their entire lives. They'd been brought up praying portions of the psalms, combinations of some Old Testament writings, they'd been taught to pray by their fathers and their mothers and their religious leaders, so they were actually still praying the way they had been taught to pray as children, reciting memorized prayers, and then Jesus came along and well, if He was praying correctly, I mean if that's the way it was done they had a lot to learn." [00:32:06]

"Jesus begins by pointing out the hypocrisy of so many people who pray the wrong way. In fact, here's how He begins His lesson on how to pray. Here's what He says, He says, 'And when you pray.' Again, here's the don't do. 'Do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others.' And this is the part about Jesus that you have to love, He had no tolerance for pretenders, He had no tolerance for pretension, people who thought they were better than other people." [00:48:04]

"Jesus instructs us to pray to God our unseen Father. Jesus instructs us to pray to God not Him, not His mama, not the saints, not the Falcons and not even the Cowboys, sorry, I just could not resist, but maybe I should have because this really is important. Jesus instructs us to address our prayers directly to God, but He's even more specific than that, Jesus instructed them, He instructs us to address our unseen God in relational terms. He says, I want you to pray to your Father who is unseen, our heavenly Father, our Father in heaven." [00:51:11]

"Gentlemen, He was saying, look, I want you to find a place where you can have a private conversation with your heavenly Father. I want you to find a place where you can say what needs to be said in whatever tone you need to use, whatever words you feel are appropriate, I want you to pray in private so you're not distracted. I want you to pray in private so you can pour out your heart. And then your Father, your Father who sees what is done in secret. This is amazing. According to Jesus, according to Jesus, God sees you praying alone with the door closed." [00:55:02]

"Jesus gives us another not to, but He shifts His attention away from their religious leaders to the Romans and their pagan priests, He says, now here's something else not to do when you pray. 'And when you pray do not keep on babbling like the pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.' That Greek term babbling actually sounds like babbling. The Greek term there is (speaking in foreign language). He says, don't keep (speaking in foreign language) don't say the same thing over and over and over. Repetition doesn't move God, link their style doesn't impress God, He's not looking for the right word or even the right words." [00:59:47]

"Your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. So what did you say? (mumbles) Wait a minute, will you? Okay, He already knows? Yeah, He already knows. Well, if He already knows then what's the next question that comes out of our mouth? If He already knows, then why ask or why pray? Have you ever wondered that? I think that that's exactly the question that Jesus wanted them to ask. I think He's got them right where He wants them, He's got us right where He wants us, this is the question He wants us to look up and ask, well, if God already knows me, and if God knows what I need, why in the world should I even pray?" [01:03:55]

"The point or the purpose of prayer is to align or realign ourselves with God's will, with God's purpose. The purpose of prayer, the purpose of prayer is to surrender our will not to impose it. Heavenly Father, before I ask anything I want you to know that what I want, I want what you want, your will be done. Prayer is not about moving God, but being moved by God, it's not about convincing Him to do our bidding, but allowing Him to get us to the place where we are willing to do His." [01:18:15]

"Jesus in this moment teaching His disciples to pray, teaching us to pray, Jesus is inviting us to pray and to live as He prayed, and to live as He lived, submitted to the will of our heavenly Father. To be blunt and to be maybe a little personal, according to Jesus if we pray with any other posture than a posture of submission to His will, His agenda, we aren't doing it right. This is why I like to pray on my knees when I can, and my dad taught me this. Now in our culture we don't bow our knee to anyone, right? I mean we're Americans, but Jesus says you should bow out of gratitude, out of gratitude that you can address your King as your Father, we should bow out of recognition that His will should be done even when it conflicts with ours." [01:21:50]

"When we pause to reflect on who God is, we gain a better understanding of who we are and why we're here. We gain a better understanding of the relationship between the Creator and the created. This is the place in prayer where we recenter, this is where we regain our bearings, this is where we remember the broader context of our lives, our little lives that are, well, they're only made significant not because of what we accomplish or how long we live, they're made significant because of whose image bear, and whose children we are." [01:32:45]

"If you quit praying because God didn't answer your prayer as legitimate as your prayer was maybe the healing of a friend or a parent, so you quit praying because God didn't answer your prayer and then you just gave up on God altogether, what does that say about your view of God? You assumed unanswered prayer said something about God, but really it says something about your view of God. If there is a God, God should answer my prayer, God didn't answer my prayer, my very legitimate prayer, so clearly God doesn't answer prayer, God doesn't care, I'm not even sure God is there." [01:48:34]

"What if prayer begins with recognizing and submitting? What if we're to begin by remembering who God is and who we aren't? So His will takes precedent over ours. To press this just a bit further, the reason and I know this is personal and you might be right in the middle of a situation like this, the reason you find yourself from time to time praying or trying to pray your way out of a situation that you behaved your way into, the reason you find yourself in that situation from time to time is because you don't begin your day this way, you don't begin your prayers this way, you don't begin surrendered to your Father's will." [01:54:52]

"Between now and next time, and next time we'll get to the us part, the give us part, the part that we usually begin with, right? But anyway, between now and next time I want you to try praying this way, the Jesus way, alone, undistracted, informal, short, begin by addressing God as Father, take a moment to reflect on His greatness and His goodness to you, His closeness, the fact that He's infinite and yet intimate, and then tell Him that His deal, His agenda, His kingdom is gonna be your priority all day long." [02:14:42]