1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verse 17. That's going
to be in the New Testament, closer toward the
back of your Bible. Y 'all pay very close attention
to this passage this morning. I expect every
one of you to have this memorized by the time
the service is over today. I got confidence in
you. I think you can do it though. 1 Thessalonians
chapter 5, verse 17. We'll read the scripture
and then we'll pray. Pray constantly. Let us
pray. God, we come to you. We thank you for these
simple words, this simple command that we see
in scripture. And God, I pray that we would take
these words to heart, that we would be those
who seek you, dear Lord, who seek you in every
aspect of our life, who praise you, dear Lord.
I pray that you'd free us from the distractions
and the worries and the thoughts of this world,
dear Lord. Maybe we came into this place today
and our attitudes weren't in a good spot, or
maybe we just are worried, or maybe we're angry.
Maybe we're just distracted, dear Lord. Whatever
it may be, if we have any of those things going
on, I pray that your Holy Spirit would be among
us. I pray that your word would speak to us today,
dear Lord. I pray that you would take away any
pride or any fear that's within me, that I would
preach and teach your word in a way that brings
glory and honor to you. Because everything that
is here today, dear Lord, it has to be for you.
So I pray, God, that we just would feel your
presence, that you would work in our life through
your word today. In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen.
Pray constantly. This is a good instruction that
Paul gives us in 1 Thessalonians. Quite literally
speaking, I don't think he just means that we
are to walk around praying 100 % of the time.
I mean, that'd be kind of hard. A lot of us pray
with our eyes closed. We'd be in trouble driving
down the road trying to pray and walking around
trying to pray. But the idea is that prayer needs
to be a constant part of our life. And I suspect
for many of you, you do pray throughout the day.
Maybe you have a set time that you pray. You
might pray in the morning or you might pray in
the evening. And that's good. And maybe even
in between those times, you find yourself praying.
And I find that in my life, probably as I get
older, the more I pray here and there. You know,
I used to, growing up, I had a set time. You
know, I'll pray in the morning or I'll pray in
the evening. But I have discovered that the best
time to pray for somebody is when you think about
them. The best time to do anything is when you
think about them. Because if you don't, you'll
find something that's going to distract you.
And you'll say, oh, I need to pray for so -and
-so. But by the time you go to bed at night,
you may forget about that person. It also may
be helpful to write it down. I used to not have
to write stuff down. When I first started in
ministry, people would say, oh, you need to pray
for so -and -so. You need to put them on the
prayer list. And I could remember it for a week,
and I'd put them on there. But nowadays, as soon
as somebody tells me you need to pray for so
-and -so, I write it down. That may be a good
habit for us to get into. Make sure that we remember
to pray for those people that we say we will
pray for. The best time to pray is when you think
about it. Maybe when you're driving down the
road. Maybe when you're taking a shower. Maybe
when you're laying down in bed. Maybe when you're
working. Whatever it may be, there may be occasion
to pray. There may be a thought that comes to
your mind, someone that you need to pray for.
Or maybe you just praise God. Whatever it may
be, Prayer should be a constant part of our life.
And the question I ask you today is, is prayer
a constant part of your life? Is it a part of
your life at all? Maybe it is or maybe it's not.
Maybe there are some of you that don't ever pray.
Maybe sometimes for us, if we were to chart out
our prayer life, it may kind of line up with
when our life is the worst, our prayer life is
the best. And maybe the opposite is also true.
When our life is the best, our prayer life is
the worst. Sometimes I believe we fall into the
trap of viewing prayer as nothing more than asking
God for something. Now that is certainly part
of what prayer is. God wants us to ask Him. God
wants us to come to Him. God wants us to make
our requests known to Him. But prayer is not
simply just, God, I need this. God, help me with
this. Now those are parts of prayer. Praise the
Lord. We need to ask God for the things we need.
We need to ask God for help in our life. But
if that's all our prayer life is, then we are
missing out on some of the blessing of God. If
all we ever do is ask God for things, then we
are missing out on the blessing of what it means
to have a good prayer life. Our prayer life should
not just consist of asking God for the things
that we need. but thanking God for the things
that we have. Now, we might spend a lot of our
time, not physically, but maybe in our mind,
thinking about all the things that we don't have
and complaining about what we don't have. But
maybe it would benefit us if we spent some time
counting our blessings, if we spent some time
thanking God for the things that we do have.
So we ask God for what we need, praise the Lord.
But we also need to thank God for what we have.
We need to praise God. If you want a good example
of what it means to praise God in prayer, then
I would encourage you to read the Psalms. You
will see some of the most beautiful prayers of
praise calling out to the Lord and recognizing...
God and who he is, that he's the creator of everything,
of the heavens, of the earth, and oh how he blesses
us. And you see beautiful language of that throughout
the Psalms. We need to be those whose prayer
life is constant, those who are seeking God for
what we need, thanking God for what we have,
praising God for who he is. And whenever we just
take a moment, and sit in silence and really
begin to seek God and praise Him, it's a beautiful
thing. And maybe we don't do that enough. We're
too busy, right? It's hard to sit in silence.
Everything that is made for us today is made
for us not to sit in silence. Everywhere we go,
there's noise in our pocket. We got a cell phone
that we can't dare turn off or put on silent
mode because we might miss something. And so
it's constantly dinging. And you have to check
it as soon as it dings. You have to. Heaven forbid
you wait five minutes after it dings. You've
got to check it right then and there. You'd think
somebody had a fire in their pocket. That thing
dinged. Oh, I've got to get it out as quick as
I can. But you know it's okay for us to put our
phone down for a moment. It's okay if it rings
and you don't answer it. It's okay if that text
message dings and you don't look at it instantly.
It's okay because our world has made it. This
is going to shock some of you, but we have made
it for thousands of years without cell phones.
And we can do okay. I think that's one of the
devil's greatest tactics is, boy, he keeps us
busy. He keeps a lot of noise in our life. And
I think he does that because he knows that perhaps
in the silence we begin to reflect. And perhaps
when we begin to reflect in the silence is when
we, really begin to think about our lives and
our choices and our conscience gets the best
of us and we begin to think about God and the
things of God and the Word of God. And so the
best way to keep us from recognizing who we are
and seeking God for who He is is to keep us distracted.
And I would say that he's done a pretty good
job. For me, I don't know about you. You may
be doing better for me. But those distractions
are ever before us, whether it's our cell phones
or our jobs or our kids or whatever it may be.
There are a lot of things in life, some of which
that aren't bad. There are many things in life
that aren't bad, but they can become distractions
for us, and they can draw us from the Lord. But
I want to encourage you today. If you don't take
time to pause and seek God and praise Him, I
want to encourage you to do that. Maybe it's
on your back porch when you get home at night.
Maybe it's on your front porch when you get up
in the morning. Maybe it's on a ride to work.
Maybe as simple as saying, hey, this week I'm
going to take one day that I'm not going to turn
my radio on when I go to work. That I am going
to put my phone on silent. That silence, sometimes
it's kind of scary, right? Boy, we start thinking
about all kinds of stuff. Man, our mind gets
overwhelmed. It'll be kind of tough at first.
But if we really take the time to pause and to
seek God and say, God, this is your time. God,
I just thank you. Push all of our wants and our
needs and our stresses. Just push them aside
for just a moment. Don't forget about them. Just
push them aside. And just begin a prayer life
that starts with us praising God. With us going
down a list of all the ways in which God has
blessed us. And thanking God for those things.
And rejoicing in God in those things. And just
taking a few moments to pause in the presence
of God. If you don't do it, you might find that
it will change your day. I can almost guarantee
you that it will change your day. That if you
start your day out pausing in the presence of
God and rejoicing in Him, I can almost guarantee
you it's going to change your attitude. How we
start our day, it changes how our day goes. And
what better way for us to start our day than
praising the Lord? Don't not bring your request
to Him, bring them to Him. But we need to have
a heart of praise and thankfulness to the Lord.
Our prayer life doesn't just need to treat God
like he's a genie in a bottle, like God just
sits in heaven all day waiting for us to ask
for what we want. He does want us to bring our
needs for him, but we need to recognize that
God is so much more than that. He is a God who
loves us and cares for us. He is a God who brings
us comfort and peace. And often we don't experience
that in our life because we are too busy and
we are too distracted. And so Paul's instruction
here for us is a good instruction. That we need
to be constant in prayer. Not just for ourselves,
but for those around us. Prayer makes a difference.
I'm going to tell you it makes a difference.
I guarantee you it makes a difference. You're
going to say, well, I prayed about some stuff
and it didn't happen. Yeah, well, that's true.
We all have. We have all prayed for things that
they weren't answered in the way in which we
prayed and desired, but I can guarantee you that
prayer works. Now you can look online and you
can search why do we pray and you'll find a lot
of people that say why we pray and oh well everything's
predestined and God knows you're going to pray
for it and he's already done it but you still
got to pray for it even though and you'll find
all kind of people coming up with all kind of
reasons of why we pray and I'm not going to get
into any of that because it doesn't matter. I'll
tell you why we pray. We pray because God tells
us to. I don't know how God works. I don't know
why God works. I don't know the way in which
God carries out our prayers and the way in which
God hears our prayers and the way he makes all
that work together. I don't know how God does
it, but I know that God hears our prayers and
responds to them. And a lot of you can attest
to that today. A lot of you can attest to something
that you've prayed for. And some people will
say, well, I don't know if prayer does anything.
And somebody else will say, well, if prayer doesn't
change your situation, it changes you. Well,
yeah, it does change you. That's true. But there
are plenty of situations in our life that we
have prayed and God have done things that are
impossible. It could not have occurred any other
way. We have prayed for things that nobody else
knew about. Things that we thought, this is hopeless.
And God would answer those prayers and God would
meet those needs. And it's not just a coincidence.
It is God hearing when we call out to Him, when
we pray to Him. Even Jesus Himself gives us instruction
on how to pray. Jesus tells us when we pray,
we're to pray in a certain way. Perhaps you've
heard the Lord's Prayer or are aware of the Lord's
Prayer. You can find it in Matthew. Chapter 6.
Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy
name. Boy, that's a good way to start a prayer,
isn't it? Obviously it is. It's Jesus. It's got
to be pretty good. He didn't just make something
random up. He said, look, this is how you need
to pray. You need to pray by recognizing that
God is hallowed or that God is holy. Our Father.
God, you are in heaven, the creators of the heavens
and the earth, and you are holy. Holy be your
name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth
as it is in heaven. Now this is an important
part of our prayer life. That when we pray, that
we always need to desire the will of God. Do
we always desire the will of God? Because here's
what will happen. If we pray according to our
will and God doesn't answer according to our
will, then we become angry with God. But our
desire in life should not be our will. Our desire
should be to live by the will of God and see
that His will is done. And when we pray, even
if our prayers are not answered, we still can
rejoice. Why? Because we know that the will of
God is done. And it is always good. And we can
say, God, I asked for this and I prayed for this
with all the faith in the world, but God, you
did not answer, but I rejoice in you, God. Because
even though I thought this was best and this
was what I was desiring, God, I rejoice in you
that your will is done. Even Jesus, before he
went to the cross, what did he do? He prayed.
He said, God, if there is any way to let this
pass from me. Jesus knew what was about to take
place. He knew he would soon be crucified. And
he said, Father, if there is any other way. Let
this cup pass from me. Let this experience that's
about to come upon me, let this pass. Let me
be freed from it, Father. And that was a beautiful
prayer, and that's your prayer sometimes too.
There's something that you're up against. There's
something that you're struggling with, and you're
praying earnestly that God would hear your prayer
and answer your prayer just as Jesus did. But
Jesus ended his prayer by saying, but not my
will be done, your will be done. God, this is
my desire, this is my request. I call out to
you. But God, more important than what I want
in life is what you want in life. And the moment
our prayer lives begin to be founded in the will
of God, then it's going to help our prayer life
to change. for the better. When we humble ourselves
before God and submit ourselves to Him and say,
God, I know that You are the one who is in control.
I know that You are the one who hears my prayer.
And God, I make my requests known to You. But
God, more than anything in this world, I want
You to be glorified. I want Your will to be done.
Jesus continues on. Give us this day our daily
bread. Praise the Lord. That's a request. We've
probably made that request to God many times.
Sometimes in serious situations, when our daily
bread was beginning to dry up, what's Jesus saying?
He says, look. You need to go to the Lord for
your request. It is the Lord who sustains you.
It is the Lord who provides for you. It is the
Lord who has given you everything that you had.
Did you know that this morning? It is God who
has given you everything that you had. And some
of you may be saying, uh -uh, I got up and went
to work this week. I worked 60 hours this week.
You know who gave you that job? God. You know
who created bread? God. You know who made the
wheat in the field to make the bread? God. You
know who made the dirt to grow the wheat? God.
Everything that we have is because God has allowed
us to have it. It is God who provides for us,
and we need to ask God to provide for us, and
we need to praise God when he does. And our provisions
may not always be what we want them to be. Sometimes
we might have to eat the off -brand Lucky Charms
instead of the real official brand. But that's
all right. God's good to us. We need to ask God
to give us what we need, our daily bread, the
things that we need to survive, and we need to
praise God when he does. And forgive us our debts
or forgive us our sins. That's a good one, right?
I suspect that, I don't know if this is true,
but I'm going to guess that probably every one
of us sin every day. Of course, the Bible doesn't
say that you sin every day, but I think it's
safe to assume for most of us, if not all of
us, that we do. And praise God, through Jesus
Christ, our sins are forgiven. Now, that's good
news. A lot of times we walk around and, man,
we feel the burden and the pressure and the pain
and the shame of our sin. And did you know that
maybe the relief from that for you is praying
to the Lord? Have you done that lately? Have
you brought your sin before God and said, God,
I pray to you now and I know that I have sinned.
Would you just forgive me for that, dear Lord,
through Jesus Christ? Have you tried that? It's
the simplest thing and it's something that we
all know. But sometimes the things that we all
know we kind of forget about. Sometimes we battle
and struggle against our sin. And maybe the peace
that you need is just a prayer away. Maybe you
come into this room today with a lot of burden
in your life, a lot of sin in your life. I want
to tell you today that Jesus says we need to
pray to the Lord that our sins would be forgiven.
And the second half of that command is as follows.
And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.
So God, forgive me for my sins as I forgive those
who have sinned against me. That's a tough command.
Not only are we praising God, not only are we
thanking Him for what we have, not only are we
praying for the things that we don't have, not
only are we seeking forgiveness, but we are also
forgiving other people who have wronged us. Some
of y 'all was good to go until we got to that
point. That's the tough part, right? That's the
tough part. Because, man, we love to feel that
peace and that joy of forgiveness. But it tears
us up to give it to somebody else. And a lot
of times we will hold on to bitterness and we
will hold on to anger and it will tear us up.
And maybe that's the source of some of your pain,
some of your strife, and some of your just...
Just hatred that you've got today. Is that somebody
has wronged you. And people do wrong us. People
wrong us in a lot of ways. I'm talking about
some horrible ways. In the same way that we have
wronged God. And God forgives us. And God calls
us in our prayers to forgive others. You may
be burned down today because you are walking
around with unforgiveness in your heart. And
I can tell you today, I can tell you that the
way to be delivered from that is through prayer.
That you would forgive that person. That you
would ask God to forgive you. That you would
pray for that person. That is the best way. The
best way. If you hate somebody, if you hate them
with all your heart today, and you just wish
horrible things on them, and you don't bear to
think about them, and you don't want to see them,
if you've got that hatred in your heart today,
I can tell you how to fix that. And you said,
yeah, I'm going to punch them in the nose. Nope,
that's not how to fix it. I can tell you how
to fix it. The way you can fix it is to begin
to pray for them. And you don't want to do that,
you'd rather somebody pour you down with gasoline
and light you on fire than you'd pray for them.
But essentially, your unforgiveness and your
attitude, That is what it's going to do. It's
going to burn you up one day. But I can tell
you the solution to that. It's prayer. And you
may have to grit your teeth, and you may struggle
to get those words out, but you need to pray
for that person. You need to pray that God would
love them, and that God would forgive them, and
that God would change their heart, and most importantly,
that God would change your heart. If you've got
hatred like that in your heart, here's your assignment
this week. I want you every day to pray for that
person you hate. I don't mean just saying, God
pray for that person, I don't like them. I don't
mean that. I mean like really pausing for a second
and really saying, God, I'm struggling with this.
You don't have to pretend. You don't have to
like go before God and pretend like, oh God,
I really want this person to change. God knows
your heart. He knows that bitterness and that
anger that's in there. And you can be honest
with God. He's a big God. He already knows what's
in there. And you can say, God, I'm really struggling
with this. I don't want to forgive this person.
But God, your word tells me I have to. Your word
calls me to. So God, I pray for this person.
I pray that you would help them and that you
would change them. I pray, God, that you would
bless them. As hard as it might be to get the
words out. And if you do that for a week, you
come back to me and you tell me if you still
hate them as much as you did. I can just about
guarantee you that you won't. The solution to
a lot of our problems is prayer. And Jesus, praise
the Lord, tells us exactly how we need to pray.
He continues on in verse 13. And lead us not
into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For
thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory
forever. Amen. Boy, that's a good prayer, right?
Because as soon as you wake up, temptation is
before you. Used to, you might have had to leave
the house to be tempted. Not anymore. You wake
up, your cell phone's right beside you. Anything
in the world you can think of to be tempted by
is right there within arm's reach. Our temptations
are ever before us. And everybody's temptations
are different. We're all tempted by different
things. Some of you can overcome some temptations
and you can't overcome others and vice versa.
We all have our temptations. So how do we overcome
them? We pray that God would help us. Lead us
not into temptation, God. Help us to be able
to avoid those things. Deliver us from evil.
It's all around us. We don't want to give in
to those things. We don't want to give in to
that temptation. So if you don't know this prayer
that Jesus teaches us in Matthew chapter 6, verse
9 through 13, then maybe you want to bookmark
that. You might want to study that this week.
I'd advise you just pray it as Jesus said. Pray
it just as Jesus said. If Jesus says this is
how you need to pray, that's a pretty good place
to start. And maybe you can use this kind of
as a skeleton to guide the rest of your prayer
life. That you pray for the things that Jesus
says and you see people and areas in your life
that fit into these categories and maybe there
are more specifics that you want to pray for
but Jesus says this is how you pray. And maybe
The way that we pray will have a greater effect
on the way that we live than we realize. So what
does Paul say in 1 Thessalonians 5, 17? He says,
pray constantly. Before that, he says, rejoice
always. Beautiful chapter. Y 'all should go and
read that whole section. Beautiful instruction
right there at the end of 1 Thessalonians 5.
But maybe Paul says we need to pray constantly
because of what he said a couple of verses before.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, verse 14, he says this,
And we exhort you, brothers, warn those who are
irresponsible, comfort the discouraged, help
the weak, be patient with everyone. Now, I don't
know about you, but those things are hard to
do. Warn those who are irresponsible. I don't
know about you, I don't enjoy that. I don't look
out at people every day and say, boy, I see him
and her and him, and I'm going to just come see
y 'all this week and say, you're irresponsible.
I don't look forward to that command that Scripture
gives us, but nonetheless, Paul gives us this
command, and Scripture gives us this command.
Well, how are we going to be able to carry out
the commands of Scripture that are hard? Pray
about it. That's a good place to start. What's
the next thing he tells us to do? He says comfort
the discouraged. Well, that's kind of hard to
do too. I mean, we all see people who are discouraged.
Have you ever seen somebody who's discouraged,
and their heart is broken, and your heart is
broken for them, and you just feel so broken,
it's just sad, and you want to help them, and
you say, I don't know what to say to them. I
want to be there for them. I don't know what
to say for them. I don't know how to help them.
I don't know what to do. So we just don't do
anything. Because we want to do these things
that Scripture says, but we don't know how. I
can tell you a good place to start. Pray. Say,
God, help me to be able to be a comforter to
the discouraged. There are people we encounter
that are discouraged. Maybe we don't know words
to say. Maybe you don't even have to say any
words. Maybe your presence is a comfort. It is.
I don't know if you know that or not. I can tell
you a lot of times it's not about what you say.
It's just about you being there. People are discouraged.
Somebody loves them, comes by. Maybe all you
need to say is, hey, I see you're discouraged.
I love you. And I'm praying for you. The next
thing he calls us to is help the weak. All right.
Easy command, but it's not always easy to do.
How are we going to help the weak? We got stuff
to do. Helping the weakest, sometimes it's scary.
Sometimes it's dirty. Sometimes it's nasty. How
are we going to do this? How are we going to
have the strength to help the weak? I can tell
you how. We're going to pray. We're going to
say, God, I see your word and what it calls me
to. And God, I'm kind of afraid to do this thing
that's before me. Or I'm too busy to do it. God,
make time. We're going to pray that God will
help us to be able to carry these things out.
And finally, the last command in verse 14 is
be patient with everyone. Now, we don't have
to pray about that because we're all patient
with everybody all the time, aren't we? Don't
think so. I was in the hospital with somebody
just last week, and boy, they were so impatient.
I said, you know what they call people that wait
on doctors? He said, what? I said, patients.
I said, and that's what you need to have right
now because you're waiting on a doctor. And we
are called to be patient with everyone. Well,
guess what? How are we going to be patient with
people? Well, I can tell you a good place to
start is to pray. Because there are some people
that, man, they try your patience. And they may
not even be bad people. They may not even be
doing bad. It's just some people. And you've
got them. You know who they are. I may be one
of them in your life. I don't know. There are
some people and they just, oh, they just, oh.
When you see them, you get impatient instantly.
I can tell you the solution to that. Say, God,
I need you to give me patience. God, I need you
to give me patience. And I'll tell you the good
news, God is patient with us. That needs to be
our example and motivation. God is patient with
us. He doesn't want any to perish, but all, all
to have eternal life. God is way more patient
with me than I would have been. And maybe for
some of you too. Maybe that's a good place for
us to start. Say, okay, God, I've experienced
patience. God, help me to... Have patience with
others. There are lots of commands in scriptures.
This is just one verse, verse 14. But all of
these things are things that we probably need
some help with. We probably need to pray to God
that he would help us to be able to live in such
a way. The scripture are full of commands that
are too hard for us to carry out and live out
on our own. So we must pray to God. That God
would change our heart and that God would change
our attitude. That God would give us grace and
love and mercy and patience for others as he
has had for us. So I don't know what your prayer
life is like today. If your prayer life is good,
then praise God. Keep praying. If your prayer
life isn't good, well, praise God. You come here
today and you hear God's word, you hear these
scriptures. And you can change your prayer life
today. But I would encourage you to praise God
for who He is, to thank Him for how He has blessed
you, to ask Him for the things you need, to forgive
you of your sins, to help you to forgive those
who have sinned against you. And to keep you
safe from all the temptations in the world. And
when we begin to really seek God and ask God
for those things and experience who God is and
praise who God is, not only does it change us,
but it changes things around us. James chapter
5 verse 16 says this, The effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much, to put that
in English, when you pray, things change. When
you pray, God hears those prayers. So be faithful
in your prayers. Be fervent in your prayers.
And in all your prayers, pray that the will of
God will be done. Let's pray this morning. God,
we thank you for being good to us. We thank you
for being patient with us and for loving us.
We thank you for Jesus Christ who gave his life
on a cross so that we could be forgiven. We thank
you that Jesus gives us these beautiful instructions
on how we are to pray, God. Maybe there are some
in this room and their prayer life has just not
been very good. Or maybe there are some, God,
and their prayer life has been non -existent.
But maybe today, for the first time, there are
some that are going to seek you, that are going
to pray to you, dear Lord. I pray, God, that
everybody in this room would know that you are
the creator of the heavens and the earth. And
that all we have is because of you and through
you, dear Lord. So, God, I pray today that we
would just rejoice in you, first and foremost.
Knowledge that you are a holy and good and loving
God. And we thank you for that. God, I know there
are some that have needs today, God. There are
a lot of requests. There's a lot of struggle
and a lot of pain and a lot of sickness. And
dear Lord, we do pray that you would meet those
needs. That you would meet them quickly, dear
Lord. But we pray that your will be done. And
God, should you not answer our prayers in the
way in which we ask, or in the time frame in
which we ask, dear Lord, that we do not question
you or doubt you, dear Lord, but that everything
we pray, we pray for your will to be done. God,
maybe there are some today that are distracted
by the world and the burdens of the world. I
pray that maybe even right now, just for a moment,
that they would pause, that they would seek you,
dear Lord, that they would rejoice in you. God,
maybe they're a son today and they just need
to be forgiven. I pray that they would know that
through Jesus Christ that there is forgiveness
for their sins. I pray that they would confess
them to you right now, dear Lord. Maybe there's
some bitterness and hatred and anger in our heart
toward others. I pray, God, that you would help
us to be able to pray for those that have wronged
us, sinned against us, and treated us in such
horrible ways. God, that we would just lift them
up today, that you would begin to change their
hearts and that you would begin to change our
hearts, dear Lord. God, we thank you for these
scriptures and these commands. God, life is tough.
But we thank you that you are a God that we can
pray to and seek. And I pray, God, that in these
next few moments that we would do just that.
In Jesus' name I pray it. Amen. I'm going to
ask everybody just remain seated. Keep your heads
bowed, eyes closed. Macy's going to play for
a moment. We're just going to pause in the silence
for just a moment. Maybe there's something in
your heart today. And maybe today you want to
spend just a moment and pray to the Lord as Macy
plays. Now's your chance to pray.