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Breaking Prayer Ruts · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, you kneel down to pray in the morning, and
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  Speaker 1: before you know it, you're just kind of looping your requests,
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  Speaker 1: running through the same checklist in your mind that you've
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  Speaker 1: been praying through for weeks or months. You have a
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  Speaker 1: list of personal worries, you have concerns about the budget
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  Speaker 1: and bank accounts, stresses at work. It's certainly not bad
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  Speaker 1: to pray over these things, but it can often feel
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  Speaker 1: like that's where your prayer's default. They just get stuck.
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  Speaker 1: There becomes mechanical today on asbestor John breaking out of
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  Speaker 1: prayer rids. And it's a good time to talk prayer
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  Speaker 1: because we are reading a lot of prayers in the
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  Speaker 1: Naphgetter's Bible reading play these these first few days of
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  Speaker 1: July especially. This includes the collective prayers of Israel in
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  Speaker 1: Psalms one twenty three to one twenty sixth and Paul
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  Speaker 1: tells us what he's praying for for the Colaussian Church
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  Speaker 1: in Colustions one, verses three to fourteen. We get his
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  Speaker 1: prayer list, which is very instructive for our own prayer lists.
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  Speaker 1: So how do we take what we read in the
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  Speaker 1: Bible and pray it up to God? The New question
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  Speaker 1: is from a young woman, Pastor John, I have been
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  Speaker 1: trying to grow my prayer life, but honestly, it feels
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  Speaker 1: completely foreign to me to pray the scriptures. Whenever I
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  Speaker 1: try to use the Bible while I pray, it feels
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  Speaker 1: like I'm just reading a textbook out loud to God.
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  Speaker 1: It feels fake and mechanical. My regular prayers usually just
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  Speaker 1: end up being vain repetitions where I just loop over
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  Speaker 1: my own private concerns, my work stresses, my budget woes,
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  Speaker 1: and the various anxieties of my life. In my late twenties,
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  Speaker 1: I want to care about God's larger purposes, but I
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  Speaker 1: don't know how to turn the Bible into my prayers.
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  Speaker 1: Can you teach me? It's a great question. Here's how
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  Speaker 1: Pastor John answered a man named Dalibor with his very
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  Speaker 1: question in twenty seventeen.
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  Speaker 2: I love this question because praying the scriptures is so
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  Speaker 2: important in the Christian life. If we don't form the
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  Speaker 2: habit of praying the scriptures, our prayers will almost certainly
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  Speaker 2: degenerate into vain repetitions that eventually revolve entirely around our
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  Speaker 2: immediate private concerns rather than guard God's larger purposes. So
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  Speaker 2: let me try to help Delibor see this as less foreign.
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  Speaker 2: He said it felt foreign to him. Let me see
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  Speaker 2: if I can help make it feel less foreign. First,
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  Speaker 2: we should notice that the early Church prayed the scriptures
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  Speaker 2: in Acts four twenty four following. In fact, they explicitly
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  Speaker 2: quote scriptures. So the threats have been made against them,
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  Speaker 2: and it says they lifted their voices together to God
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  Speaker 2: and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the
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  Speaker 2: earth and the sea and everything in them, And they're
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  Speaker 2: exulting in what they know from God. In scripture in
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  Speaker 2: verse twenty five, who through the mouth of our father,
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  Speaker 2: David your servant said, by the Holy Spirit, why did
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  Speaker 2: the gentiles rage? And the people's plot of vain thing?
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  Speaker 2: The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers
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  Speaker 2: were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed, etc.
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  Speaker 2: So that's a quotation from Psalm two. So we know
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  Speaker 2: that the early Church prayed back to God the very
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  Speaker 2: words that God had given them, for example in the Psalms.
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  Speaker 2: Here's the second thing. Don't forget the obvious, namely that
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  Speaker 2: many parts of the scripture are prayers, so simply to
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  Speaker 2: read them is to pray if we're awake, if you're
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  Speaker 2: thinking about what you're doing. So Paul's got numerous prayers
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  Speaker 2: that he prays for the people that he's writing his
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  Speaker 2: letters to it. Every time we read those, we should
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  Speaker 2: be praying with Paul. And a great portion of the
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  Speaker 2: Psalms are prayers, and Jesus gave us some prayers. I've
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  Speaker 2: used the acronym IOUs from the Psalms to guide how
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  Speaker 2: I pray the scriptures. It says, I incline my heart
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  Speaker 2: to your testimony some one nineteen thirty six, Oh open
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  Speaker 2: my eyes to see wonderful things. Some one nineteen eighteen.
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  Speaker 2: You unite my heart to fear your name some eighty
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  Speaker 2: six eleven. S satisfy me in the morning with your
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  Speaker 2: steadfast love, psal ninety, verse fourteen. So the scripture models
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  Speaker 2: for us how to pray about reading the scriptures and
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  Speaker 2: turning them into prayers, and then think about this which
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  Speaker 2: is so obvious. The scriptures either tell us something about
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  Speaker 2: God and Christ when we're reading, so that we can
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  Speaker 2: praise him, or they tell us something about what God
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  Speaker 2: and Christ and the Holy Spirit have done so that
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  Speaker 2: we can thank Him and express faith in it. Or
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  Speaker 2: they tell us what God expects from us so that
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  Speaker 2: we can cry out for his help, or they tell
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  Speaker 2: us about something we failed to do so that we
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  Speaker 2: can confess our sins. It seems to me that virtually
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  Speaker 2: all of the Bible is doing one or more of
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  Speaker 2: those four things, something about God, something about what he's done,
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  Speaker 2: something about what he expects, something about how we've failed,
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  Speaker 2: so that they naturally lead into praise to God, thanks
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  Speaker 2: to God, crying for help to God, and confession of
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  Speaker 2: sin to God. So one caution here, let's be realistic.
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  Speaker 2: What we are praying is the meaning of text, not
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  Speaker 2: just words. This is important. So for example, when reading
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  Speaker 2: part of the Old Testament history book that takes a
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  Speaker 2: whole chapter to tell a story, say about Ahab's wickedness,
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  Speaker 2: I just read this morning about Ahab's wickedness. And I
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  Speaker 2: also read this morning a whole chapter about Shadrack Mishak
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  Speaker 2: and Abdi Go's faith and courage in front of that
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  Speaker 2: fiery furnace. Now, how do you pray scripture like that?
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  Speaker 2: You don't probably turn every verse into a prayer because
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  Speaker 2: it takes more than one verse to make a point
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  Speaker 2: like So that's that's my point is we're praying meaning,
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  Speaker 2: we're not just praying words. And so you have to
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  Speaker 2: read enough of the Bible to catch the meaning. What's
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  Speaker 2: the author trying to say here about boldness and courage
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  Speaker 2: and faith in Daniel chapter three, And so you might wait,
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  Speaker 2: you know, three or four minutes of reading and then
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  Speaker 2: pause and say, oh, God made me like shad wragby shag,
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  Speaker 2: get a bed to go, and forgive me for my
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  Speaker 2: pansy like relation to feeling embarrassed or whatever. And same
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  Speaker 2: thing with Ahab. I just got so mad in this
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  Speaker 2: morning when he when he took ny boss vineyard and
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  Speaker 2: killed him. Ooh, and the prophet came and really laid
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  Speaker 2: into him and told him we're going to be in
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  Speaker 2: big trouble. I mean that, that's just there's so much
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  Speaker 2: there to pray about. But you have to read the
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  Speaker 2: whole chapter before you can get it right in your head. Okay.
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  Speaker 2: So Dallibre asked me to do this some of the
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  Speaker 2: close by doing it, and I wanted to do a
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  Speaker 2: big section, but I realized it doesn't work, that it
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  Speaker 2: doesn't work that way for me. So I'm gonna I'm
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  Speaker 2: just going to start with Colossians two six because I've
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  Speaker 2: been in Colossians in my devotions, and I'm going to
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  Speaker 2: show you how I turn Colossians two six following into prayer,
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  Speaker 2: and I'll break it up in two pieces. It just
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  Speaker 2: turned out that way, So here we go. This is
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  Speaker 2: reading Colossians two six. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord,
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  Speaker 2: so walk in him, rooted and built up in him,
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  Speaker 2: and established in the face, just as you were taught,
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  Speaker 2: abounding in thanksgiving. Yes, Lord Jesus, I have received you,
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  Speaker 2: and I do receive you afresh right now this morning.
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  Speaker 2: I welcome you to take full control of my life.
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  Speaker 2: If I am estranging you in any way, pushing you
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  Speaker 2: away at all, show me and help me to kill
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  Speaker 2: that sin. I want to walk in you, in your power,
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  Speaker 2: in your way, in your fellowship. I dedicate myself to
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  Speaker 2: this right now again, just like I have so many
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  Speaker 2: times in the past, and I turned from all others,
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  Speaker 2: anything else that would compete with you as my closest
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  Speaker 2: friend and helper. You have given rootedness and foundation to
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  Speaker 2: my life. Thank you. I didn't create these roots in
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  Speaker 2: you or these great foundation stones of faith. You did that.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you. Thank you for sending teachers into my life.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for my father and Daniel Fuller and Jonathan
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  Speaker 2: Edwards and John Owen and Jai Packer and Rc. Sproll,
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  Speaker 2: and dozens of partners in ministry over the years that
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  Speaker 2: have exhorted me and kept me on the narrow way.
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  Speaker 2: Oh how I thank you, Lord. It has all been
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  Speaker 2: owing to you, My reaching you, and my walking in you,
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  Speaker 2: and my rootedness and foundation in you. It's all owing
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  Speaker 2: to you. All my teachers were from you. You are
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  Speaker 2: kind and merciful, a mighty God. I love you this morning,
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  Speaker 2: and then I keep reading. See to it that no
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  Speaker 2: one takes you captive by philosophy or empty deceit according
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  Speaker 2: to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world,
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  Speaker 2: and not according to Christ, For in Him the whole
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  Speaker 2: fullness of deed he dwells. Bodily, Lord Jesus, I'm not
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  Speaker 2: even sure I know what the elemental spirits of the
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  Speaker 2: world are. But until I find out, I pray that
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  Speaker 2: you would protect me from them. Your work in me
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  Speaker 2: is way more important than my perfect understanding. Guard me.
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  Speaker 2: But I know something of the dangers of human tradition
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  Speaker 2: and philosophy. I have felt the pull of forces away
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  Speaker 2: from you. Oh, thank you that I am still here
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  Speaker 2: right now, praying, and not over the cliff of unbelief.
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  Speaker 2: Oh give me discernments so I can see what is
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  Speaker 2: according to Christ, like you said in the books that
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  Speaker 2: I read, and the TV shows that I watch, in
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  Speaker 2: the movies and the news. Oh Lord, these forces are
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  Speaker 2: so strong, and I am so prone to be entertained
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  Speaker 2: by ideas and actions that are not according to Christ.
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  Speaker 2: Have mercy upon me and give me the courage to
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  Speaker 2: say no to anything that tends to undermine my fellowship
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  Speaker 2: with You and my boldness in witness. How could I
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  Speaker 2: ever be Lord away? Lord? For in you is the
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  Speaker 2: whole fullness of deity, Paul says, the whole fullness of deity,
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  Speaker 2: dwelling bodily, amazing, amazing, absolutely amazing. Oh Christ, help me
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  Speaker 2: all day, every day, this very day, to be more
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  Speaker 2: amazed at You and your fullness of deity, that I'll
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  Speaker 2: will never turn away more amazed than I am at
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  Speaker 2: anything else. Let my amazement at your fullness of deity
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  Speaker 2: spill over at work today, make me a means of
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  Speaker 2: others being amazed. I pray in Jesus's name.
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  Speaker 1: Amen, Amen, Yeah. The trick isn't in just reciting words.
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  Speaker 1: It's about learning to pray the meaning of the text
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  Speaker 1: up to God. Whether it's praising God, thanking God, crying
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  Speaker 1: out to him for help, or even in confessing to
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  Speaker 1: him our failures. It's all about letting the Bible shape
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  Speaker 1: our conversation with him. You read a passage like Paul's
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  Speaker 1: Letter to the Clautions, and then you just talk back
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  Speaker 1: to God and what it says and what it means
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  Speaker 1: for you. It turns prayer from a monologue of personal
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  Speaker 1: grievances into the word saturated joyful communion with the one
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  Speaker 1: who gave us his precious word so good. If you
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  Speaker 1: have a question to ask Pastor John, find a link
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  Speaker 1: to email us and find our complete episode archive at
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: the same place at ask pastor John dot com. Transcripts
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  Speaker 1: of every one of our twenty two hundred and sixty
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  Speaker 1: eight episodes, fully transcribed, fully available right there at ask
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  Speaker 1: pastor John dot com. Pastor John rejoins us in the
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  Speaker 1: studio next week. When your pastor feels distant, that's next.
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  Speaker 1: I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see you back here on Monday.