suffering produces perseverance, perseverance character, character hope, and hope does not disappoint because God pours his love through the Holy Spirit
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:
5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
if my people humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, God will hear, forgive, and heal their land
14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves, pray, seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Moses interceded asking Yahweh to turn from burning anger, and the Lord changed his mind about harm to his people
1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Come, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”
2 Aaron said to them, “Take off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them to me.”
3 All the people took off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
4 He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh.”
6 They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
7 Yahweh spoke to Moses, “Go, get down; for your people, who you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves!
8 They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”
9 Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen these people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people.
10 Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation.”
11 Moses begged Yahweh his God, and said, “Yahweh, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?
12 Why should the Egyptians speak, saying, ‘He brought them out for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.
13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your offspring as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.’”
14 Yahweh repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.
15 Moses turned, and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand; tablets that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other they were written.
16 The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is the noise of war in the camp.”
18 He said, “It isn’t the voice of those who shout for victory. It is not the voice of those who cry for being overcome; but the noise of those who sing that I hear.”
19 As soon as he came near to the camp, he saw the calf and the dancing. Then Moses’ anger grew hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands, and broke them beneath the mountain.
20 He took the calf which they had made, and burned it with fire, ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have brought a great sin on them?”
22 Aaron said, “Don’t let the anger of my lord grow hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil.
23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods, which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’
24 I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them take it off:’ so they gave it to me; and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 When Moses saw that the people had broken loose, (for Aaron had let them loose for a derision among their enemies),
26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is on Yahweh’s side, come to me!” All the sons of Levi gathered themselves together to him.
27 He said to them, “Yahweh says, the God of Israel, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and every man kill his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.’”
28 The sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29 Moses said, “Consecrate yourselves today to Yahweh, yes, every man against his son, and against his brother; that he may give you a blessing today.”
30 On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to Yahweh. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”
31 Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
32 Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.”
33 Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.
34 Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.”
35 Yahweh struck the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
a disciple asked Jesus to teach them how to pray after watching him pray
1 When he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”
2 He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
3 Give us day by day our daily bread.
4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
Deborah led the women through a portion of the Lord's Prayer, using it as a framework for understanding why prayer matters and how to do it honestly. She drew on scripture, personal stories, and the PRAY acronym to help the group see prayer not as a polished performance but as a real conversation with a God who bends down to listen.
What was said
Deborah opened by asking a direct question: does prayer actually change anything? She pointed to Romans 5 and the idea that suffering produces perseverance, character, and a hope that does not disappoint, because God pours his love into us through the Holy Spirit. The problem, she said, is that prayer is widely recognized as the hardest spiritual discipline, because unlike a conversation with another person, there is no visible response to confirm you are being heard.
She addressed the question of whether prayer can change the trajectory of a nation by walking through three Old Testament episodes: Moses interceding for Israel in Exodus 32, Jeremiah warning the people that God might relent if they turned back, and the people of Nineveh in Jonah 3 whose repentance caused God to change the course he had set. In each case she returned to the promise in 2 Chronicles that if God's people humble themselves, pray, seek his face, and turn from their wicked ways, he will hear them, forgive them, and heal their land. She applied this directly to the present state of the country, saying the responsibility does not fall on those outside the church but on the church itself.
Moving into the Lord's Prayer as a model, she worked through the PRAY acronym: Praise, Repent, Ask, and Yield. She spent time on the word "our" in "Our Father," noting that Jesus calling God "Father" would have been striking to his original hearers, who would not even speak the name Yahweh aloud. Drawing on Romans 8, she said the Spirit makes calling out "Abba, Father" instinctual for believers, and that when we do, we have his full attention and his favor. She illustrated this with her grandson Griffin wobbling toward her across the room, saying God does not require anyone to get it together before coming to him.
On "hallowed be your name," she pointed out that the verb "be" makes it a request rather than a declaration. She said Jesus was teaching his followers to pray that God's name would be represented well through their own lives, since holiness carries the meaning of beauty, purity, and being set apart. Charles Spurgeon's line came in here: the world does not read the Bible, but the world reads Christians.
"Your kingdom come, your will be done" is where yielding enters the prayer. Deborah shared her family's move to Jackson Hole as an extended example of what it cost her to yield to a plan she had not chosen, including opposition from people in local ministry, losing their well, a bat bite and rabies shots, and finally a death in their home. Each time she wanted to leave, she said the Lord made clear she was to stay. She connected Jeremiah 29:11, which she called one of the most misquoted verses in the Bible, back to its original context: God told the Israelites captive in Babylon that he had plans to prosper them and give them hope, but first they were not going home.
On "give us this day our daily bread," she shared that in April 2013 a doctor told her she was full of ulcers and that one appeared malignant. She described sitting on a plane that weekend with Psalm 91 and an A.W. Tozer devotional that told her the successful prayer must be one without condition, and that no one needs to fear putting their life in God's hands. She said she stayed in that place of scripture and prayer until she believed it, and told God she trusted him whether he healed her or not.
She closed the main body of the message by naming five hindrances to prayer being answered: letting something other than God hold first place, compromising Jesus to please people the way Pilate did, being a drama-maker or troublemaker rather than a peacemaker, doubting God during trouble, and plain busyness. On that last one she quoted Charles Spurgeon: for people who say they are too busy to pray, it is not a matter of time but of the heart.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages
in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
Deborah said that out of all the spiritual disciplines, prayer is the hardest, and that a big reason is not being able to see someone responding to you. What makes prayer feel difficult for you personally, and has anything helped you push through that?
Deborah walked through Moses, Jeremiah, and Jonah as examples of God changing course when people repented, and she connected that to Second Chronicles 7 and praying for America. Do you find it easy or hard to believe that your prayers can affect something as large as a nation? What shapes that belief for you?
Speaker 2Good morning, everybody. We're gonna get started here in a couple minutes. Just wanted to see if we could start sitting down. Alright. I'm gonna go open up in prayer.
I have this song that I have just keeps coming to my mind over and over, and I didn't put it up here, but I feel like I should play it. It's just something that this picture of God that keeps coming to my mind. So even if you all would just close your eyes as we settle in, I just love the picture of this song, and it will just be a couple words, but I just want us to kinda set our minds before the Lord and just imagine this because I love it. The scripture that it goes that was bringing to my mind was and even through the the study was just coming before him and his kindness and his mercy. Right?
And I felt like it just this song kept coming to my mind to remember how God delights in showing mercy. Like, if we actually imagined how much God delights in showing forgiveness and mercy, then we wouldn't be afraid to kinda come to him and bring everything. It was just something that really spoke to me, this picture cape this song kept coming to my mind. I was like, oh, I don't no one's gonna know it, but just thought I'd sing it over you guys. And if you could close your eyes and imagine the Lord in this song, it's really brief.
The scripture was my sacrifice, oh God, is a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, oh God, you will not despise. Lord, we just put this before you. Yes. We mean these prayers, Lord. Yours is Lord, Jesus.
We thank you for this day. We thank you for this gathering. Thank you for this study, Lord. Just a reminder of even how you just told us this is how you pray. It's so simple.
Like the manual. We thank you for your words, Jesus. We ask, father, that you would be with us. You would anoint the words today. We receive all that you wanna teach us, Lord.
We open our hearts to receive everything that's of you. Thank you for this gathering. We ask your presence to be with us in Jesus'
DeborahAmen. Oh, thank you, Charlene. Thank you so much. Whoo. What a beautiful voice.
So beautiful. Natalie, do you have announcements?
Speaker 3I do have some announcements this morning. First of all, in the back where you checked in, just a reminder, we have a little love offering basket. If you feel so led to contribute a little bit to help cover costs of childcare, setup, cleanup, and the print, you'd appreciate it. Deborah also left her daily devotion called nourishments at the front. If you would like a copy to help get in the rhythm of devoting daily, please grab one and feel free to leave a little donation to help cover the cost of that as well or not.
We just would love
Speaker 2to have it in your hands.
Speaker 3And I also wanted to circle back to the announcement last week on high school ministry. This is our sweet new graphic. We had 17 kids last week, and we expect more this week. That's awesome. So please, if you have a high schooler or know the high schoolers, 06:30PM on Thursdays, dinner is provided, and
Speaker 2we have a couple of awesome young adults leaders for their small groups. I also did not wanna leave out other opportunities
Speaker 3for high schoolers to get involved,
Speaker 2but Jackson Hole Young Life has a big archery tag competition coming up. So if you have
Speaker 3a high schooler that would be more into sort of fun and games, I would say this is intro to gospel. It's not Bible study, but this is a great way to get them engaged and have them invite friends. These are the dates of the fall hangouts for high schoolers at Classical Academy, 06:37PM. And if you have a middle schooler
Speaker 2or know of middle schoolers, also wanted to let
Speaker 3you guys know there's something for them as well. Mhmm. So if you need more information on any of those, come to the back. I can shoot you these graphics, but just trying to equip you ladies if you have younger ones at home because we've gotten a lot of questions about that. I think that's all.
DeborahThanks, Natalie. Awesome. Alright. So spread the word for high school. Do you think our high schoolers need a little hope right now?
Wow. Our my handout this week is a little bit different. I don't have, like, the traditional points because we're kinda going through the Lord's Prayer, not the whole Lord's Prayer, but some of it. And I just did a quick glance at my bookshelf and included some of my favorite life changing devotionals just to get me in the word and to get me praying. And the books on the bottom are some prayer books that I've used since I came back to the Lord.
And aside from my Bible, they have had the most impact on my life. So I hope that you check out some of those books online. So that's your handout. And of course, there's always room for notes if you wanna take notes. Alright.
So our key quote this week, chapter four is conversations with God or prayer is because God is the living God, he can hear us. And because he's the loving God, he will hear us. I included on your handout the Psalm one sixteen from David. David went through a lot while he was on earth. I mean, he lost a child.
He was betrayed by his son. His country had civil war. He went through everything that you can imagine, and this is what David said. He said, I love the Lord. I love him because he hears my voice and my prayer for mercy because he bends down to listen.
I will pray as long as I have breath. Okay. So the question is, if God bends down to listen to us, why don't we pray to him more often? In the small group I joined last week, we all pretty much agree that out of all the spiritual practices or spiritual disciplines, prayer is the hardest. It's just so hard because you're not looking at someone shaking their head at you or agreeing with you.
You're just praying and it's hard. So hopefully today, we're gonna leave with some tools in our prayer toolbox that will encourage us how to pray. And the question that I want us to think about is, does prayer really change anything? Does prayer really change my reality? Can prayer change someone else's reality?
Can prayer change our country's reality? You know, we we keep talking about that the verses in John where Jesus said, I'm giving you a gift. I'm giving you the gift of peace. You're not gonna get it from the world. It can only come from me.
So don't be afraid and don't be troubled. He's saying that because we are gonna have troubles and we are going to be afraid. And Paul wrote in Psalm I'm sorry, not Psalms, in Romans five three that suffering produces perseverance. Perseverance, character and character, hope. And that hope, that hope does not disappoint us.
Why? Because we will see God pouring his love into our life through the Holy Spirit. And I just love that because you know only Christianity hits it head on that we are messy, we live in a messy world and we're gonna have a lot of problems and suffering. But we can cry out to our Abba and he's there. He's there to help us.
And not only to help us, but to give us a hope that doesn't disappoint us. I will tell you that a faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. A faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted. Author Mark Patterson says about prayer and I love this. He says that prayers are prophecies.
You wanna change your life, prophesy over your life. Prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. A w Tozer says, the most important thing about you is what you think about God. And Mark goes on to say, who you become is determined by how you pray.
Wow. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life. You think prayers are important? This is why Jesus says, come to me. This is why Paul says, pray without ceasing.
And we just don't do it, but we're gonna start doing it. We're gonna start doing it. I was talking to my husband about prayer, and I had just shared something with him on my news feed and he said, I don't know Deborah. I mean, it seems like our country is going in a certain direction and you think that our prayers really matter. I mean, our how how is my prayer just me, Greg, on Ditch Creek changing our nation?
And I said, I'm so happy you asked that question. And we had a great discussion because I I just have to talk about our country for a second. You know, we've been talking about what's happening in our country the last few weeks. Right? So I wanna just talk about our country and then we'll jump into the Lord's prayer and make it more personal.
But with our country, I said to Greg, I what really became clear when I was looking at these verses is that God has plan a. He has plan a for you and me. He has plan a for America. And then somehow we just drift away from him and we get really off course and we just kinda forget about him. Our country turns its back on his ways and on him.
And God told us in second chronicles, he said, if you, my people, you, not the world, but you, my people, if you will humble yourselves and pray and seek my face and turn from your wicked ways, I will do three things. I will hear you, I will forgive you, and I will heal your land. You can our country can be in a certain trajectory, but if the remnant, you and me, will cry out to God, he hears us and he says, I will forgive and heal. And I looked up some verses to back this up. I thought it was so fascinating because remember we started off talking about Moses and how the Israelites were such a pain in the neck And they just kept going away from God and doing things against the Lord.
And at one point, the Lord said, I'm done. I you're never gonna follow me. I'm just done. And Moses in Exodus 32, Moses turns to the Lord and prays to him and he says, Yahweh, turn from your burning anger and change your mind about doing harm to your people. So the Lord changed his mind about the harm which he said he would do to his people because here's the deal.
If we keep going away from the Lord both personally and as a country, at some point, the Lord will say, okay. I'll just leave you alone and you will go to destruction because that's where sin leads us. But when Moses interceded, just one man interceding, praying for his people, the Lord said, okay. Back to plan a. I the Lord changed his mind.
That's what scripture says. He changed his mind. Now technically, the Lord isn't like us. He doesn't change his mind like we do, but he changes courses. He will change our course.
He changed Israel's course. In Jeremiah, the people, this is hundreds of years later, were turning from God again. And God said to Jeremiah, I'm going to allow the Babylons to take them captive. And the Lord said, perhaps though, if you warn them, they will listen and everyone will turn from his evil way that I may relent, that I may change my mind from the calamity I am planning for them. That's pretty amazing that God gives us that option.
Just repent. Change your mind. Jonah, the Lord sent Jonah, prophet, to a very evil people. A people that sacrificed kids without guilt. A people that would conquer other nations and literally fillet the people's skin off.
They were evil. And the Lord said, Jonah, go tell the people to repent. I'm gonna destroy Nineveh. And at first Jonah was like, no. I don't want you to save Nineveh.
So Jonah is just basically stands on the side of the in in the marketplace and he just he's just standing there yelling, repent or you're gonna be destroyed. Like with no mercy. He doesn't want them to repent. Repent or you're gonna be destroyed. And the people started listening.
And in Jonah three nine, the people are fasting and they're like, okay, this Yahweh is gonna destroy us, so we're going to repent. And the king says in Jonah three nine, who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will change his mind and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us. And in verse 10, God saw their works that they were fasting and repenting, and that they had turned from their evil ways, and God repented of the evil that he said he would do to them. Okay.
Have have you ever noticed that God does change his mind when we repent? Is there hope for America? Oh, yes. There is such hope. I mean, every day I keep thinking it can't get any worse.
We have a governor of one of our major states, one of our biggest states who basically just last week signed a bill for infanticide. The Lord will punish America if we don't turn around. But they don't have to repent, you and I have to. If my people will seek my face, I will hear you and I will heal the land. We have to rise up and cry out for America and for our souls.
Does prayer change reality? I'm telling you it does. Prayer absolutely changes reality. And I know that when we're suffering and when we're in pain and when we're anxious and we're afraid, we're like, where are you God? Where are you?
But I love what Paul said in Romans five. Paul said, if you persevere, the your hope will not be disappointed because God will pour his love into your life through the Holy Spirit. What is the language of the Holy Spirit, ladies? This is why America's in trouble. We don't know this anymore.
Second Timothy says, this is spirit inspired. These words, this is not just a book. This is from the Holy Spirit and it's alive. And when you open it and you're really seeking God, he will meet you where you are today. That is what this book is.
And the the culture is only a reflection of God's people, the church, because the church doesn't know this anymore, and the church isn't praying anymore. Second Peter one twenty one says that this book was written by men who spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. That's where these words came from. And here's the thing, we won't pray to a God that we don't trust and we won't trust him if we don't know him. We won't claim his word if we don't know his word.
Right? So that's why we encourage you to do the study guide. If there's no magic formula to the study guide, it's just an unpacking of his word in a way that we can apply it to our life. And Paul says, you wanna change your life? It starts by renewing your mind, by putting truth into your mind.
Not worldly philosophies, not what the world thinks. And you know, here's the thing about prayer. I think so often, I used to fall for this that I had to have all together to pray. That I couldn't just approach God all messy and all anxious and all afraid. And you know what the Lord says?
If you have a mustard seed, just just a mustard seed of faith, you come to me. A mustard seed is just the willingness to come to him. This past weekend, my son and daughter-in-law brought my little hunk of burning love to visit us for a few days and Griffin is one now. So he's walking and I'd set him on his feet and I'd say, to Nana. And it was hilarious.
He's like in that staggering phase where you're oh, woah, is he gonna make it? And he's just wobbling toward me and then he'd fall into my arms and I set him on his feet again. And he'd just wobble his way all the way to me. And I think that's how the Lord is. He's like, don't you don't have to get it together.
You just wobble your way to me and my arms are right here for you every time. He is just waiting for us. He loves us. I mean, I look at Griffin and I'm so in love with him. And he knows it.
Anything he needs, he looks at me. And our our loving Abba Father is no different. He's like, you don't have to be Griffin doesn't have to walk perfectly. I think his wobble is awesome. I don't care.
He's just coming toward me. That's all I care about. And that's all Abba cares about. Just wobble toward him. Your prayers don't have to be in any format or you don't have to be all cleaned up.
Just go to him. I love in Luke 11 and Matthew six, have the Lord's prayer. And I think I mentioned this in the study guide. In Luke 11, we're told that one day Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, Lord, teach us how to pray.
And I thought that was so fascinating that the disciples of all the things, they're with Jesus. Right? He had just multiplied the fish and the loaves. I mean, I might have been like, that was cool. Can can you teach me how to do that?
Or can you teach me how to be the best speaker ever? I I would have thought of those things, but the disciples had seen him go off and pray time and time again, and they knew he was connecting with Yahweh. So their ask was, teach us how to do that. Teach us how to pray. And in Matthew six, Jesus gives them a few things not to do first.
He says, I will teach you how to pray and before I do that, I just wanna say, don't pray like the hypocrites. Just to be seen by someone, just to impress people. Don't do that. Don't do that. I mean, maybe you've heard the story of the big thanksgiving dinner and John says to Paul sitting at the other end of the table, hey Paul, bless the dinner.
So Paul starts praying and John goes, Paul,
Speaker 2Paul,
DeborahI can't hear you. And Paul goes, John, I'm not talking to you. And I love that because we are talking to God Almighty. So Jesus says, don't be a hypocrite and pray to be seen and don't babble on like the pagans. Just tell me what you need.
Don't think that your prayers have more power because you prayed for an hour when it was just babbling. So I just wanna stress that the Lord's Prayer is a model for us to pray. It is not a magic formula. It's a model. And within that model, this helps me with my prayers, p r a y.
The acronym for p r a y. Praise God, repent, ask what you need, and then yield. Leave it with him. And within the Lord's model of the Lord's prayer is p r a y. The p, praise, is the very beginning, our father.
And I love this too because all the times I've grown up saying our Lord's Prayer, I somehow skimmed over our father and the importance of our father. Before I get to the hour though, if you haven't watched the chosen series, you have to check it out. I love how they portray Jesus. And one thing that Jesus says is get used to different because the new covenant was in wasn't what people expected. So when Jesus said, our father, that would have gotten everybody's attention because they would have thought, okay, that's new.
He's referring to God Almighty as our father. That's really different because remember up until this time, they didn't even say out loud Yahweh because that was considered so reverent. You didn't even say that. You could say titles of God, El Shaddai or Elohim, but you wouldn't even say Yahweh. And here's Jesus saying, when you pray, pray to our father.
That was very different. And and Jesus throughout the New Testament refers to father as Abba Father, which just means that he's attentive, affectionate, caring, and present. And Paul wrote in Romans eight, so you received God's spirit when he adopted you as his children, and now we call out to him, Abba, father. Paul is saying without the spirit, the Lord's prayer is just mechanical. It's just words.
It doesn't mean anything. But now when you have the spirit, it's instinctual within us to call Abba, father. And I was thinking about Griffin this weekend too. So he just jabbers. We don't even know what he's saying.
But on Sunday, he started jabbering dad dad dad dad dad dad. And my son was like, oh my gosh. He's saying my name. And every time he said dad dad, my son was like right there. He was very attentive to Griffin.
And I think Jesus is saying every time you call out Abba, he's there. He's attentive. And not only is he there, but you have his favor. He absolutely freaking adores us. I mean, that's why he made us.
But we we don't feel like that. Call out Abba, father and he is there. Hebrews says that we have this confidence that we can approach the throne of grace and mercy. That when we approach it, we have the confidence he's there. He's like, here I am.
Wobble right to me and let's talk. Another reason that Jesus said our father is because God is all about family. He's all about relationship. Divine institution number three is family, but we are part of an eternal family. So our father has a double meaning.
He wants us to pray for our family and he wants us to pray with our family. I will tell you, I led a prayer group like twenty five years ago and it changed my prayer life. You want your personal prayers to go a level deeper? Pray with other people because iron truly sharpens iron. Our father who art in heaven, yes, he is our loving Abba father, but this is a reminder that we are praying to the God of the universe.
Psalm 97 says, for you, Lord, are the most high over all the earth. You are exalted far above all little g gods. That's that's amazing. Those little g gods now, I see them everywhere after this study. For you are the most high.
You are exalted far above all gods. Holy be your name. This too was something I never realized. I thought this was us praising God for his holiness. Right?
Wrong. The verb be changes everything. It's not holy is your name, but holy be your name. This is more a request than a praise. What do I mean by that?
Well, we've been talking about name throughout this study. And a good name is like having a good reputation. Right? So this was a request. This is the first request in the Lord's prayer.
Jesus was saying, pray that God's name be represented well through my life. And my favorite definition of holiness because there are so many, you know, it means purity and all that's good, but it also means beautiful. And think about that. Like sin is ugly, and God is just the opposite of that. He has no sin.
He is beautiful, and everything he does is beautiful. Holiness also means to be set apart or dedicated to. So Jesus is saying, pray that we can be dedicated to God's beautiful ways. That my emotions, my thoughts, my words, my behavior will bear his beautiful holy name. I mean, what does Christian mean?
It means a little Christ, like we're reflecting Christ. Charles Spurgeon says, the Bible is not the light of the world. The world doesn't read the Bible. It is the light of the church. The world doesn't read the Bible, but the world reads Christians.
Holy be your name. May I reflect you, Lord. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. This prayer is both a personal prayer and a someday your kingdom come, your will be done on earth.
So this is the why at p r a y. This is yielding and I need a drink before I go further on this. Okay. So when we pray, your kingdom come, your will be done. We pray that meaning it.
I would just like to say, get ready to go out of your comfort zone. Because the king is more worried about his kids growing in character, persevering with him than leaving us comfortable and leaving us immature. And I can tell you, I think that was my whole move to Jackson Hole. Fifteen years ago, we came here and I am obsessed with the mountains and the forest. Love it.
But I came with the intention of a second home. And we found our place, bought it. After one summer, my husband said, I'm sick of the rat race in California and I don't like the direction California is going. I wanna stay. And I was like, okay, honey.
Someday we will stay. He's like, no. I wanna stay, like, now. I don't wanna go back. I'm like, well, our kids were born and raised in California.
They're starting high school. We can't just uproot them. So he's golfing and the Lord is just a god of details. Let me tell you. He matches them up with the football coach.
My son was a quarterback, but he was behind the number one quarterback in the nation at the time. So he knew he probably wasn't gonna play. And the football coach says to my husband, do you know any quarterbacks? Because our our quarterback just graduated and we need a quarterback. And my husband's friend Charlie from California is like, yeah, I know a quarterback, his son.
And my my husband comes home and and my son is listening to this and my son's like, wanna meet him. And I said, Grayson, okay, reality break. You think you're gonna go meet this team. These kids have grown up together and they're just gonna accept you? There's no way.
Of course he goes, has a great practice and he comes home and he says, mom, this is who I am. Wyoming is me. Wyoming is a free state. I don't ever wanna go back to California. And I still have my daughter on my side at this point.
And you cannot make this up. The phone rings. It's the principal from the high school. It's not I can't remember his name but he was the nicest guy. He's like, can I talk to Julia?
I'm like, yes. He talks to Julia and Julia's like, okay. Okay. She goes, mom, you need to take me to the high school. The principal wants to give me a tour of the high school because they have this amazing theater program and Julia had always been in theater.
And my son had told the principal, I can't stay if my sister is not sold on it. So I'm like, okay, family. I said to Grayson because he was the one really pushing for this. I said, Grayson, I think if you pray tonight, the Lord will give you a word. I don't think you really realize what you're doing and the the Lord will give you a word.
He comes in the kitchen the next morning and he goes, mom, I caught a word. I said, okay, well what day should we return to California? I'm pretty sure that's the word. Right? He goes, no.
The word was take the road thus traveled. He's like, I'm supposed to stay. So I was like, okay. We're staying. And it was crazy because I was teaching a big class in California and I like my thing was I'll just travel back and forth.
The the teaching partner I was with really was in this place where she wanted to take the class.
Speaker 2So she was super excited when I said we're staying.
DeborahAnd I was like, okay, we're supposed to stay. And the thing is, it's not that I didn't love it here. I mean, it's beautiful here. Right? I love the outdoor lifestyle, but spiritually, the next few years were really, really hard.
I have left a spiritual leadership team that supported and encouraged and kinda cushioned me. I felt like I was in this little cocoon. And I came here and there was none of that. There was no support. There was actually opposition.
I had a pastor's wife tell me, I will do everything in my power to make sure you never teach in this valley. Just crazy oppositional things spiritually. But life in the wilderness is tough too. It's very different. I mean, some of you went through this with me in Revelation.
We lost our well. And truth bomb, if you live in a house without a well, it's just a pile of sticks. We drilled for months for water and that was a crazy journey. We've had grizzly bears clawing at our front door. I came home one day, on a really hot day, exhausted.
I fell asleep on the couch, and I woke up, two marks in my arm and a bat flying in my house. So when I went to the doctor, he said, Well, here's the deal. We've had two bats with rabies this summer. So probably should get the rabies shots. And I'm like, what happens if I don't get the rabies shots?
I mean, I'm a girl who won't even take an aspirin. So this was a big deal for me. He's like, well, after twenty four hours, if you have rabies, there's no turning back. You're basically toast. And alright, I got the rabies shots.
But the thing that was hardest for me to yield to the Lord was Greg and I were in California and we got the phone call that there was an accident in our home that resulted in a death. Oh. And you know what? I said to the Lord, I'm done. I am staying right here in California, but I'll pray about it tomorrow.
So I got up the next morning and I prayed and the Lord said, no, you're not staying. You're staying in Jackson. And I said, but I can't go back in my house. I I don't have peace there. I called my prayer warrior Janet and I said, Janet, the devil was in my house.
And Janet said, no. Jesus was in your house, Deborah. Jesus was with Monica, not the devil. And somehow the way she said that, it was like God was talking to me. Like, I I knew that was truth.
We're tempted to believe God doesn't love us when it hurts, and that hurt. And I didn't wanna come back. But you know, one of the most misquoted scriptures in the entire Bible is Jeremiah twenty nine eleven. Jeremiah twenty nine eleven, God wrote to Jeremiah to tell the Israelites. They were in Babylon and they wanted to go home.
And they said, Jeremiah, can we go home? And Jeremiah prayed and the Lord said, no. He said, no. But tell them, I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.
Plans to give you hope and a future. And that's one of the verses he gave me. He said, Deborah, I I have plans for you. I know it's been hard, but my plan is to give you hope. I will tell you I'm on the other side of that now and only God knew what was gonna happen in California.
I wouldn't wanna go back. I there is no place I'd rather be than right here with you today. And living where I live, I absolutely love it. And God's hope does not disappoint us. It might be a journey to get on the other side.
It I mean, I'm a slow learner. It took me a lot of years. And I tell my husband with God's sense of humor, now that I love it so much, he'll probably give us a new assignment. But that's okay. But speaking of hope before we move on to the next part of the Lord's prayer, your kingdom come, your will be done.
That is a prayer that is also asking God to draw history to a close and establish his kingdom on earth. And we know that someday he will. And scripture tells us that even today, the earth is groaning for this restorer. Earth is groaning for the end of death and decay and horrible accidents and things that hurt. And someday, that's going to happen.
That's the hope that we have. That is our future in Christ. Give us this day our daily bread. That is PRA. That's the ask and pray.
Give us this day our daily bread. And I just wanna share another personal story with you because I want you to know that prayer does work and prayer does change the reality. I'm not someone up here just wah wah wah wah wah. I've lived this. It's the truth.
In April 2013, so nine years ago, we were back in California and I have suffered with some stomach issues my entire life. Whenever go to the doctor, they're like, so when did this start? And I'm like, Well, when I was four. That's when I remember. But this particular time it was really bad and I was really sick.
This was a whole new level. So I went to a stomach specialist and he did some tests and then he called me into his office and he had this screen with all these things lit up on the screen. And he said, do you know what those lights are on the screen? And I'm like, no. And he goes, well, are ulcers.
You are full of ulcers. And he said, there's one in particular that looks malignant to me. And I was like, Malignant? Do you mean like as a malignant cancer? And he's like, Possibly.
He said, Do you know where that one is? And I said, I do. It's right here because this constantly hurt. And he said, Yep. That's exactly where it is.
I don't know if you have ever had that word shared with you about you or a family member but it's a game changer. This was on a Friday, and I'm I can tell you I didn't pray that day. I felt like everything was just kinda spinning. To know that I I possibly could have had cancer and to know how sick I was, of course, as a researcher, I jumped online. And for my particular case, no chemo, no surgery.
Wow. He said to me, he said, Okay, this is Friday. I can get you in Tuesday. We need to do a biopsy. And I said, No, I can't.
I can't come on Tuesday. The next morning, Greg and I are going back to North Carolina. Both kids are in college. We're meeting our kids. And then Greg is speaking at a conference called Issacar finishing the task where they were going to the four corners of the earth to share the word.
And I needed a few days with the Lord because I wasn't in a good place. I mean, that is a terrifying, scaring place to be. And I share this with you because when God says seek me and you will find me, he's not kidding. The next morning when I got on the plane, I pulled out. I always you guys know I always have my note cards with Bible verses.
And my Bible verse that I had just written was Psalm 91. Those who live in the shelter of the most high will find rest in the shadow of the almighty. And then the psalmist David declared, this is a declaration. This is David who said, I chose to live in the shelter of the most high and I can declare this to you. He alone is my refuge and my place of safety.
He is my God and I trust him. He is my God and I trust him. And I sat there and I was like, Lord, is that true? Can I trust you? Will you be my refuge and place of safety?
And I just kept saying that verse over and over and then I picked up my devotional. I always have like three devotionals going to. This one was an AW Tozer devotional and I just pulled this out of my journal. I don't remember which one it was from but this is what the devotional said. It said, when entering the prayer chamber, we must come filled with faith and armed with courage.
Nowhere else in the whole field of religious thought and activity is courage as necessary as in prayer. The successful prayer must be one without condition. And I felt like the Lord was telling me, Deborah, don't start bargaining with me. If if I don't have cancer, then I'll do this for you, Lord. The successful prayer must be one without condition.
We must believe that God is love and that being love, he cannot harm us but ever must do us good. And then we must throw ourselves before him and pray with boldness for whatever we know our good and his glory require and the cost is no object. I was like, wow. The cost seems pretty high for it. But the cost is no object.
We should always keep in mind the infinite loving kindness of God and no one, no one needs to fear putting their life in his hands. That was my devotional. No one needs to fear putting our life in his hands and AW closed with a prayer. You know, when Jesus said, don't babble on, this was his prayer. Increase my faith, increase my courage.
Amen. Wow. Increase my faith, increase my courage. No one needs to fear putting their life in his hands. So I will tell you, I sat with that devotional and I sat with Psalm 91 until I believed it.
That entire weekend, on the plane ride back, I told the Lord, I'm good now. Heal me or not. You are my God and I trust you. Because here's the truth, I will die someday. We all will.
And a w Tozer says, if God gives you a few more years, remember, they're not your years. Your time must honor him. Your home must honor God. Your activity must honor God, and everything you do must honor God. Holy be your name.
May I honor you. Obviously, God healed me because I'm here today. Right? But it didn't matter at that point to me. It didn't, honestly.
I was like, I'm slipping my hand into yours. Wherever we go, you're with me and we're good. So forgive us our sins. This is the last part of the Lord's prayer I wanna share with you. Because I think that we don't realize what gets in the way of God answering our prayers.
Why are there barriers? Why isn't he answering our prayers sometimes? Isaiah 59 says, but your iniquities have separated you from God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear you. And I think we often think of like the the big sins.
Well, Lord, I'm not lying. I'm not stealing. I'm not committing adultery. Why aren't you answering my prayers? But any sin is a hindrance between God and me.
Any sin. And I wanna just touch on five that I see in my life at times, that I see all around me, that we don't even realize, but that could cause the Lord from not answering our prayers and we want him to answer our prayers. Right? So let's unpack these five sins. Well, first of all, the first commandment is to have no other gods before Yahweh.
So the first hindrance is, is he really my big g God? Is he my priority? Or do I just start my day, I don't even invite him into decisions I'm going to make? I don't invite him into discussions I have. I don't invite him into the details of my life, but I expect him to answer my prayers.
Have no other gods before me. He's a jealous God. Not like our sick jealous because we're jealous of. He's jealous for. He wants us.
He made us in his image. He knows how we operate best and he's like, you're not operating at your best when I'm not number one because I know what's best for you. Number two, do I compromise Jesus? Do I compromise him? Last week, we talked about Pilate and wishing to please the crowd.
Pilate handed over Jesus to be crucified. How many times in my life have I compromised because I wanted to make someone else happy? And I've handed over Jesus. How many times have I compromised just wishing to please the crowd? Pilate was a peacekeeper.
Peacekeepers will compromise truth not to have conflict. But Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called children of God. And this brings us to number three. What's the opposite of a peacemaker, a troublemaker, or a drama queen? Drama queens and troublemakers are the opposite of peacemakers.
Why? Because God is a God of unity. And drama makers and troublemakers cause relational conflict. I mean, think about what's happening in our country in general, but even within our homes. I mean, we are in this place where we have such a spirit of offense that heaven forbid someone say something I don't like, then I'm just canceling you.
I'm not talking to you. And it causes division. God doesn't like that. He doesn't like when we put unreasonable expectations or we have such a spirit of offense that no one can say anything around us like they have to walk on eggshells or we're in the doghouse or we're canceled or we're just written off. That is not God's way.
Blessed are the peacemakers because God says, that's my girl. That's what he says. He says we will be called children of God. Number four, doubting God during trouble. And I know it's hard during trouble because we feel far from God.
We're in pain. Micah said, as for me, I will look to the Lord. I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me. Micah said, if he can save my eternal soul, he can save me from this trouble.
I'm gonna wait for him. And I will tell you something I started to do. I I told the group last last week to stop that crazy tape in my head because you know how those tapes can get going that God doesn't hear me. Where are you Lord? I've been praying this prayer for ten years.
I interrupt that now and I just start saying, Yes. You hear me. Yes. You are a loving God. Yes.
You care. Yes. You saw that injustice and you're a God of justice. Yes. I can trust you to take care of that.
Yes. I don't need to worry about forgiving that person because you will take care of it. I can hand it to you. Yes. I just interrupt with the word yes.
Yes. The fifth hindrance to our prayers being answered is busyness. Busyness. You've heard the saying that if the devil can't make you sin, he'll just keep you busy. Why?
Because if if he can keep us so busy busy busy, we don't have time for this. We don't have time to pray. We don't have time to connect with Yahweh. You know, one of the definitions of worldliness is an over obsession with the details of this world. He keeps us so busy thinking about stupid things that have no eternal value.
You know, what am I gonna do this weekend? What am I gonna wear? What did she say? What did he Where am I going on vacation? Zippo eternal value and he just keeps us busy spiraling in this empty place.
Charles Spurgeon says, for the people who say they're too busy to pray, it's not a matter of time. It's a matter of the heart. If you have the heart to pray, you will find the time to pray. Amen. Yeah.
So, father, forgive us our sins as we learn to forgive those who sin against us. I love that the Lord says, as we learn because he knows it's a journey and it takes us time to forgive. Forgiving is the hardest thing. But father, forgive our sins as we learn to forgive those who sin against us. As Charlene makes her way up, I just wanna leave you with some closing thoughts on prayer.
I've been doing my own survey all week asking everyone. So how do you struggle with prayer? What would you like to hear about prayer? And one of the things that kept coming up was people saying, I I'm just I have a hard time focusing in prayer. And I wanna encourage you, so do I sometimes.
But take the spiritual disciplines and use prayer over them. What do I mean by that? When I can't focus, I start playing praise music and then I just pray the praise music. When I'm watching the news, I pray that God would intervene and save my country. And I pray over what's happening on the news that day.
You can pray for your country that way. When I'm cleaning my house, I pray that the Lord would clean my heart. I thank him when I'm doing laundry. Thank you Lord that I have this machine. I just push a button.
Thank you that I have water. That's a big one. So thank you. Just use the little details of life. Oh my gosh, driving in this beautiful valley is a perfect time to praise God for his creation and his beauty.
It don't overthink it. Just pray. Just talk to God. It's just talking to him. When we seek him, we will find him.
Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you that we can just talk to you 247. Thank you that you are such an amazing, loving, caring God. Lord, bless these ladies in their small group time. And I pray that maybe they will take some extra time today just to pray for one another and to pray for this great country where we can worship you in freedom and to pray that we turn around.
Thank you, Lord, for hearing our prayers today. Amen.
Speaker 2God, I look to you. I won't be overwhelmed. Give me vision to see things like you do. God, I look to you. Thank you, Lord, that we do declare you are the head.
You are in control, Jesus. Help us. Help us, Lord, to trust you, to grow in nearness to you, and to bring everything to you, Jesus. We just ask that you'd be with us in our small groups today. Lord, unite our hearts.
Come and rest and pour out your spirit and tenderness and unity and love and unite our hearts. Let it today be something that's the of midst We're together. So, Jesus, we just We're thank you for what you're going beginning today and continue. In Jesus' name, show your small groups.
