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The Hardest Prayer · Rideshare Revival with Wally Bates

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: The Hardest Prayer. Hey everybody, I'm Wally Bates. Welcome back
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: to Rideshare Revival. I picked up Alicia and her son
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Elijah one afternoon. They were heading to Enterprise to pick
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: up a rental car. At first I assumed they were
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: just traveling, maybe heading back after a vacation. But no,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: that wasn't the story. They'd been living here for about
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: three years trying to make life work, trying to hold
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: a family together. trying to navigate a painful relationship with
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Alicia's ex-husband. And as we talked, I learned her sons
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: had biblical names, Elijah, David, and another son who pointed
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: us in the right into the conversation about faith. He
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: talked about his son being named Malachi. And we talked,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: we talked about God. We talked about trusting him. When
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: life doesn't make sense, about difficult things that happen. And
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: the old, you know, we don't have to know why,
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  Speaker 1: but what are you trying to show us, God, through this?
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  Speaker 1: And something unexpected happened. We hit a traffic jam. And
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: normally we might be looking for another route, but not today.
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: There was no way out. And I think God wanted
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: us exactly where we were because the conversation kind of
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: took a little deeper turn. We talked about forgiveness, real forgiveness,
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  Speaker 1: the kind that doesn't excuse what happened, the kind that
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: doesn't pretend everything is good, everything is okay. It's the
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  Speaker 1: kind that only happens because God first forgave us. Then
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  Speaker 1: something really made the car get quiet because I said, eventually,
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: we're going to have to get to the place where
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  Speaker 1: you can pray for him. Not because he deserved it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Not because the ex had acceptable behavior. But because forgiveness
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: isn't the only thing being set free. It's setting our
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: own hearts free. By the time we picked up her
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: son and arrived at Enterprise, the atmosphere in the car
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: had changed. There was hope. There was peace. There was
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a sense that God had been walking with us through
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: this entire ride. Before they left, of course, I asked
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: if I could pray for them. We all joined hands,
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: and I prayed for safe travels back to Atlanta, for healing,
• 2:39
  Speaker 1: for wisdom, for their family, and for the strength to
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: do the hardest thing of all, to pray for those
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: who hurt us. As they drove away, I thought about
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  Speaker 1: Jesus' words, let your enemies and pray for those who
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: persecute you. Love your enemies. It's one of the hardest
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: commands in scripture. Maybe because it's one of the most freeing.
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: Rideshare Revival. There's hope at every turn. These are my
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: prayers from the road. If you would like prayer, I'd
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: love to pray for you. Send me over a line.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: RideshareRevival at gmail.com.