April 19, 2022

Creative Ways to Pray for Your Prodigal, episode 59

Creative Ways to Pray for Your Prodigal, episode 59

Over the past year and a half, we have talked about many ways to help our prodigals, and many ways to help ourselves walk through this wilderness journey. And all of those are legit and helpful.

But the bottom line is, God is the one who knows what they need and we need—and He can do it. Prayer is our means to connect with God. But most of us need some help knowing how to keep praying.

Resources:

Stay connected:

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope

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for your wilderness journey right here

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at When You Love a Prodigal.

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And also help and hope for your own life journey.

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Recently on the Prayer for Prodigals community website,

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a mom said, please pray for my son.

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I've done all I know to do.

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I've tried to pray.

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I just don't know how to pray for him anymore.

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On this podcast over the past year and a half,

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we have talked about many ways to help our prodigals

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and many ways to help ourselves walk through this journey.

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And all of those are legit and helpful.

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But the bottom line is God is the one who knows

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what they need and what we need, and he can do it.

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Prayer is our means to connect with God.

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I promised I would occasionally focus on answering

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some of the questions that I've received.

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And in my first question and answer session,

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I talked about 10 lessons I had learned

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on my wilderness journey.

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And today we will talk about prayer.

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Be sure to write down the ideas that stick with you

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that really sound right to you, that will help you the most.

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At the end, I will tell you how you can get a free gift

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to give you more help.

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First, if you are like me,

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you find prayer a little perplexing.

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And what I wanna talk about now

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is that prayer is a conversation.

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Just like you have a conversation with a friend

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or your loved one or anybody that you encounter.

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And that's exactly what prayer is,

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a conversation with God.

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When I first met Jesus, all I knew about prayer

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was reciting from a prayer book.

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But someone gave me a life-changing book

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called Prayer Conversing with God.

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From the beginning of my journey with Jesus,

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I began to understand that prayer was not a list of wants,

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but a conversation with God.

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It was two-way, give and take, question and answer,

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honesty and respect.

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Ask and tell and listen.

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We can ask and God listens to us.

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One of my most helpful comments to God though is,

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what do you want to say to me?

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So keep in mind as I go over all these other

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possible prayer approaches,

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that bottom line, you're having a conversation with God

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and you will talk and he will talk.

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It goes both ways.

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Now, because when you have a prodigal,

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you're often in a sad, sorrowing, angry response.

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And we come to God more in lament than anything else.

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Now in the Western part of this world,

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we don't do much about lament,

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though I think we're getting it a little better.

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In other parts of the world, they understand it.

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But lament is a time where we bring to God

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what we are sad about, hurt, angry about.

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And we're honest with them and that's lament.

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When we lament, we take our tears and our fears to God.

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We let him know what we think and how we feel

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about the events of our lives.

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And we appeal to God to act justly

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and demonstrate his faithfulness.

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Many of the Psalms are songs of lament,

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most of which follow a similar pattern or approach to God.

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The first thing is a complaint.

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Probably all of us can identify with first

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going to God with a complaint.

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And then a request, which we tend to do as well.

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And then there is the expression of trust.

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Even though we may not have yet seen what God's going to do,

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we come and we complain, we tell how bad things are,

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we make a request that he would do something.

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But then we say, I'm gonna trust you, Lord.

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And that's what's throughout the Psalms,

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David especially, but others as well did just that.

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And there are many Psalms of lament

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and a whole book of lamentations that is lament.

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The concerns that we bring to him could be personal needs

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or threats for the Psalms, it was threats from enemies.

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Or for us, it might be threats from somebody

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who is angry at us like, oh, our prodigal.

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Or disappointments with God's action or inaction,

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or the choices our loved ones are making.

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In Psalm 80, we might find ourselves joining the Psalmist

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in his despair at the brokenness of Jerusalem,

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crying out, how long, Lord God Almighty.

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And then restore us, oh God, make your face shine on us

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that we may be saved.

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And I know, unless you're brand new

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in this wilderness journey, you've said, how long, God?

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How long?

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And that is an honest expression of lament

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of the pain that you're experiencing.

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And it expresses our desire, our efforts,

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to give that pain to God, to let him take it

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and carry the weight of it.

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So if you find yourself lamenting the situation for you

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or with your loved one, don't think that's wrong.

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It's very biblical because it's all throughout scripture.

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Another way to pray is to use scripture.

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Sometimes I just don't know what to pray

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or what my loved one really needs or even what I need.

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And what is God's will in this journey that I'm on?

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And when I don't know what to pray,

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I turn to the word of God.

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There are prayers throughout it,

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and many of those prayers will apply to where we are.

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And they can be prayed directly from scripture.

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And I'm gonna give you a couple of examples.

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Other verses tell us of God's desires

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and intentions for his children.

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So I turn those scriptures into prayers.

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So let me just share with you a few here

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or some words from God's word to guide your prayers.

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First, some assurances for you.

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In Philippians 4, we read,

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do not be anxious about anything,

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but in everything by prayer and petition,

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with thanksgiving, present your request to God.

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And what happens?

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The peace of God, which transcends all understanding,

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will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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So you can claim for yourself especially

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on this journey that if I come to him with my requests

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and my anxiety and whatever, and share it with him,

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he says, I'll give you peace.

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He doesn't say I'll give you exactly what you asked for,

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but he will give us peace.

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And in Hebrews 4, we read,

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therefore, let us draw near with confidence

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to the throne of grace,

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so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help

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in time of need.

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Does that just blow your mind?

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Come with confidence to God,

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just like you would do for the Queen of England

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or somebody of high position.

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He says, come on up, I wanna talk with you, I wanna hear.

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And do you get what it says, the throne of grace?

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I wonder if that means the throne of grace

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or the throne that God sits on is made of grace.

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What a beautiful thought, how he responds to me.

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And when we come, we will receive mercy and grace

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to help in our time of need.

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Then there's prayers for your loved one.

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And this is a word straight from God through Jeremiah.

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My eyes will watch over them for their good,

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and I will bring them back to this land.

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I will build them up and not tear them down.

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I will plant them and not uproot them.

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I will give them a heart to know me that I am the Lord.

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They will be my people and I will be their God,

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for they will return to me with all their heart.

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Now, I know that Jeremiah was talking about

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the children of Israel coming back from captivity,

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but over and over, I have heard God say, this is true.

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He's wooing the loved ones back, the prodigals,

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and we can come and trust him for that.

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And Jeremiah also quotes God as saying,

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I am the Lord, the God of all mankind,

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is anything too hard for me?

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You know, sometimes the case looks impossible.

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We have no idea where our loved one is

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or what they're doing or what trouble they're in.

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They won't talk to us or they're in jail

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or all sorts of things.

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And this says to me, I choose to believe

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that God is working and can do the impossible.

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Oh yeah, and here's another wonderful prayer

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to pray for your loved ones.

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This is Paul in Ephesians 1.

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I have not stopped giving thanks for you,

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remembering you in my prayers.

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Have you stopped giving thanks for your loved one?

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I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,

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the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom

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and revelation so that you may know him better.

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What a wonderful thing to pray for our loved ones.

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Going on, Paul says, I pray that the eyes of your heart

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may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope

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to which he, God, has called you.

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The riches of his glorious inheritance in you and me,

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in the holy people, in the children of God,

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a rich inheritance were called

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and his incomparably great power for us who believe.

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A lot of times, prodigals don't feel like

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they're very valued.

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That may be because they haven't been,

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but more often it's just a perception

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that comes a lot of times with growing up,

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and they think they're not wanted or valued or of value.

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And God says, oh no, you are of great value.

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You are a glorious inheritance through Christ to the Father.

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There are lots and lots of other scripture,

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and I'm giving you a book at the end

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if you choose to get it,

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that'll give you more, a lot more scriptures to pray.

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Sometimes we need prayers of forgiveness.

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Our Father in heaven is committed to forgiving us

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and to our forgiving those who hurt or offend us.

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Jesus made this clear.

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He said, if someone sends against you seven times in a day,

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and seven times comes back to you and says, forgive me,

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then that's what you should do.

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Jesus said from the cross, Father, forgive them.

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They do not know what they are doing.

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They didn't repent or ask for forgiveness.

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They were cheering and shouting at him.

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No, he says, forgive them.

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I forgave them, and you can forgive those who have hurt you.

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And surely your prodigal will hurt you,

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maybe even harm you.

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Sometimes they ask for forgiveness,

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but more often they don't.

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Jesus says we are to forgive them.

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Here is a prayer to help you do that.

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You can even pray along with me.

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I will read it slowly.

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Father, thank you for your mercy and grace toward me

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and for forgiving my sins through Jesus' death on the cross.

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Thank you that you forgive me over and over.

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For repeated sins and new sins, big or small,

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I am so grateful for your grace.

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Lord, I need to forgive, say the name of your loved one.

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I need to forgive him, her, my loved one who has wronged me,

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hurt me, betrayed me, offended me, sinned against me.

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It's hard for me to do this.

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I am still hurt, angry, confused.

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So I come asking you for the power to forgive, say the name.

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Fill me with your spirit and remind me of your love

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and mercy to me and to, say the name.

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By your spirit, I choose to forgive, again, say the name.

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I choose to extend grace and mercy to him or her,

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even as you have done for me.

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I choose as you enable me to live at peace

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with this person that I love.

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I ask that you bless, one more time, say the name,

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in your love.

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Please, may we be reconciled and our relationship healed

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and if that does not happen,

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may I continue to love and forgive.

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Thank you that this is possible

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in the power of your spirit, in Jesus' name.

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True confession, I've had to pray that prayer many times.

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Yeah, quite a few times.

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And sometimes I hurt my loved one, my prodigal.

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And sometimes you will hurt or offend your prodigal

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and you will need to ask for forgiveness.

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Now here's a very simple prayer to ask your loved one

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to forgive you for how you've hurt them.

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Say his name, her name.

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I was wrong to name the offense.

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Don't just say I'm sorry that I hurt you.

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No, name, what did you say?

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What did you do?

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What did you not do?

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I was wrong to, I know that was hurtful to you.

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Our relationship matters to me

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and I desire to relate to you in a better way.

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Will you forgive me?

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Thank you so much.

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So another kind of prayer has to do with the fact

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that we are in a battle.

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When you are on a wilderness journey with a prodigal

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or any other challenging event,

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you know that life is really a battlefield

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because after all, we have an enemy,

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the devil himself who is seeking to destroy us.

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Our natural tendency is to cringe in fear

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or to run and hide.

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God's word though tells us to do just the opposite.

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Submit yourselves then to God, James says.

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Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

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Seriously, resist the devil?

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Who am I to resist the devil?

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Well, you're a child of God, that's who you are.

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And there are specific ways that we can help you

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that we can resist the devil.

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How do we stand up against the lion seeking to devour us

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and those we love?

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Here are three things I would say.

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They're not the only things,

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but these are three really strong ways

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for us to send the devil.

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What does it say?

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He will flee from you.

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Send the devil fleeing.

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First, praise God.

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David tells us in Psalm 22, three,

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but Lord, you are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel.

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It's like God is lifted up on the throne when we praise.

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He lives, it says in another translation.

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He lives in our praises.

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And when the devil hears us praising God, he leaves.

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He doesn't wanna be around it.

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He covers his ears, says, let me out of here.

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So how do you go about praising God?

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Here are a few ways.

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List his names, attributes, and qualities.

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Here, for example, he is good, faithful, loving, merciful.

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He is God Almighty, Jehovah Jireh, our shepherd.

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You can also read aloud from the Psalms

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that especially praise our Lord, such as Psalms 95 to 100.

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You can sing the doxology if you know it.

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You can sing praise choruses that you've heard in church

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and maybe memorized.

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There are so many ways to send praises, honor, glory

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up to our God.

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And the devil wants nothing to do with it.

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And that will cause him to let you alone.

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He may come back later, but send him fleeing.

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A second way to send the devil fleeing

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is to thank God.

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It says in 1 Thessalonians 5,

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give thanks in all circumstances,

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for this is God's will for you and Christ Jesus.

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You see, when we thank God, even in difficult situations,

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we announce to the devil that we believe God is God

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and God is good.

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And he doesn't wanna fight that.

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And he leaves us, he flees.

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Did you know you could just send the devil away like that?

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Here's a third way.

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Speak truth.

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John 8 tells us, then you will know the truth

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and the truth will set you free.

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So quote some scriptures that speak the truth of our God,

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such as being confident of this, Paul says in Philippians,

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be assured that he who began a good work in you

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and your prodigal will carry it on to completion

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until the day of Christ Jesus.

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So Satan's trying to convince you that God's mad at you

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or he's through with you,

339
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or that he's never gonna let go of your prodigal.

340
00:20:51,820 --> 00:20:55,360
And he says, oh, I started a work in you,

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00:20:55,360 --> 00:20:57,580
I started a work in your prodigal.

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You can be confident that I will not abandon it.

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I will complete it.

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And Satan's gone again.

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00:21:06,420 --> 00:21:08,820
Another verse in Deuteronomy,

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the Lord is the one who goes ahead of you.

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He will be with you.

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He will not fail you or forsake you.

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Do not fear or be dismayed.

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Now just think, God's saying, I'm with you.

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I'm there all the time with you.

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And Satan's like, I don't wanna hang out with him.

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And so he leaves because we're with God

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and that's not where he wants to be.

355
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I love just going over this again.

356
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I hope it's blessing you and speaking of blessings,

357
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one of my favorite ways to pray is to bless people.

358
00:21:45,900 --> 00:21:48,080
Now really, what is a blessing?

359
00:21:48,080 --> 00:21:51,260
Just an old fashioned term, oh no.

360
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Blessing is the projection of good

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into the life of another.

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So when I say to somebody, God bless you,

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00:22:00,140 --> 00:22:04,980
I'm asking God to do good to them, to do good in them.

364
00:22:04,980 --> 00:22:09,980
And it's just a wonderful way when you have a prodigal

365
00:22:09,980 --> 00:22:12,500
to make a huge difference in their life.

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When I raise my voice or give a sharp retort

367
00:22:17,820 --> 00:22:22,820
or use always, you always do this or you never do that,

368
00:22:22,820 --> 00:22:25,180
I am not blessing my loved one.

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In fact, the Bible would call that cursing.

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But I want to choose to bless, to encourage, to affirm,

371
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to speak truth with love,

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to speak words of life to my loved ones.

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So I love to think about what are the needs of my prodigal

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00:22:45,260 --> 00:22:47,980
and think what scripture speaks to that

375
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and then turn those scriptures into blessings.

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Here are just a few of the blessings that I have written

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00:22:56,060 --> 00:22:59,220
and I have a lot more or so.

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00:22:59,220 --> 00:23:03,380
This is one of my favorites coming from Micah 7.

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May you rise when you fall

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00:23:05,900 --> 00:23:09,780
and come out of the darkness into God's light.

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00:23:09,780 --> 00:23:13,620
What a wonderful prayer to bless my loved one with.

382
00:23:14,780 --> 00:23:19,780
Jeremiah 24, may you be built up, not torn down.

383
00:23:19,780 --> 00:23:21,980
Planted, not uprooted.

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May you return to God with all your heart.

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00:23:26,540 --> 00:23:31,540
And again in Jeremiah, I bet you've never read this.

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00:23:31,820 --> 00:23:36,820
May you comprehend that it gives God joy

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00:23:36,820 --> 00:23:38,540
to always do good to you.

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I love that.

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00:23:42,100 --> 00:23:44,980
Oh, this is a great one from Hosea.

390
00:23:44,980 --> 00:23:48,980
May you feel cords of loving kindness

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00:23:48,980 --> 00:23:51,980
as the Father bends down to feed you.

392
00:23:53,300 --> 00:23:55,580
Can't you just see God the Father,

393
00:23:55,580 --> 00:23:59,140
like the shepherd reaching down to provide for,

394
00:23:59,140 --> 00:24:04,140
to care for a loved sheep or our loved wandering sheep.

395
00:24:05,180 --> 00:24:08,700
It says, cords of loving kindness.

396
00:24:09,980 --> 00:24:14,980
Then Romans 8, may you know that in Christ Jesus,

397
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there is no condemnation.

398
00:24:17,740 --> 00:24:22,740
I think most of our Prodigals feel pretty condemned

399
00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:26,940
because they may not say that they're doing wrong,

400
00:24:26,940 --> 00:24:30,580
but they know that they're making bad choices.

401
00:24:30,580 --> 00:24:33,380
And most people condemn them.

402
00:24:33,380 --> 00:24:37,140
And God says, no, Christ Jesus, he's not condemning.

403
00:24:38,460 --> 00:24:43,460
And again in Romans 8, may you be convinced

404
00:24:43,460 --> 00:24:48,460
that nothing can separate you from the love of God.

405
00:24:49,860 --> 00:24:51,700
I love blessings.

406
00:24:51,700 --> 00:24:54,380
Okay, we're getting close.

407
00:24:54,380 --> 00:24:57,680
Giving thanks is another way that we pray.

408
00:24:58,880 --> 00:25:01,520
Now, humans aren't naturally grateful.

409
00:25:02,380 --> 00:25:05,420
Just think of parents training a young child

410
00:25:05,420 --> 00:25:07,580
after somebody does something for them

411
00:25:07,580 --> 00:25:11,460
and the parent says, now, what do you say?

412
00:25:11,460 --> 00:25:14,340
And it just seems to take a long time

413
00:25:14,340 --> 00:25:17,600
for humans to grab hold that we say thank you.

414
00:25:19,700 --> 00:25:22,460
So isn't it right that we would say thank you

415
00:25:22,460 --> 00:25:26,540
to our God, the giver of life,

416
00:25:26,540 --> 00:25:29,300
and who even gave us the gift of a Prodigal?

417
00:25:30,340 --> 00:25:33,040
We'll get to that a little later, not today.

418
00:25:34,360 --> 00:25:38,780
God has observed, however, that we are much like children.

419
00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:42,980
He knows he must remind us often to say thank you.

420
00:25:42,980 --> 00:25:45,140
But he takes it a lot further.

421
00:25:45,140 --> 00:25:50,140
He said, give thanks in all circumstances,

422
00:25:50,140 --> 00:25:53,740
for this is God's will for you and Christ Jesus.

423
00:25:53,740 --> 00:25:57,780
Says something similar in Philippians 4

424
00:25:57,780 --> 00:25:59,680
and in Ephesians 5.

425
00:26:00,900 --> 00:26:03,600
So what happens when I give thanks?

426
00:26:04,940 --> 00:26:07,300
I've talked about this in another episode,

427
00:26:07,300 --> 00:26:10,020
but just three main things.

428
00:26:10,020 --> 00:26:13,180
The first thing that happens when I say thank you

429
00:26:13,180 --> 00:26:18,180
that my Prodigal came home drunk again last night

430
00:26:19,640 --> 00:26:21,760
or is in jail or whatever.

431
00:26:22,720 --> 00:26:24,960
When I do that, when I say thank you, Lord,

432
00:26:24,960 --> 00:26:29,740
my focus changes from the problem to God himself.

433
00:26:30,900 --> 00:26:33,140
Consistently, it does.

434
00:26:33,140 --> 00:26:36,980
The second thing that happens as I dwell on that

435
00:26:36,980 --> 00:26:41,980
is that my trust begins to expand, my trust in God.

436
00:26:42,540 --> 00:26:47,540
As I see what he is doing, it opens my eyes to see

437
00:26:47,560 --> 00:26:49,540
so I can trust more.

438
00:26:49,540 --> 00:26:51,660
But it does this other thing too.

439
00:26:51,660 --> 00:26:56,300
It opens the door for God to work in this situation.

440
00:26:56,300 --> 00:27:00,860
Sometimes my resistance is like a lock on the door

441
00:27:00,860 --> 00:27:03,500
and God says, if you say thank you,

442
00:27:03,500 --> 00:27:05,300
that's a key to open the door.

443
00:27:05,300 --> 00:27:07,500
And I have a good plan here.

444
00:27:08,580 --> 00:27:13,580
So finally, even with all these ways to pray,

445
00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:18,500
I find I often pray the same things over and over

446
00:27:18,500 --> 00:27:21,380
to my father about my loved one

447
00:27:21,380 --> 00:27:24,420
and for the many others who come to a prayer

448
00:27:24,420 --> 00:27:26,440
for Prodigals asking for prayer.

449
00:27:27,700 --> 00:27:32,140
So I'm just gonna read you a few of these

450
00:27:32,140 --> 00:27:34,860
so that if you don't wanna try to work on all the others,

451
00:27:34,860 --> 00:27:37,500
you can at least do this.

452
00:27:38,580 --> 00:27:43,580
So, Father, convict her of sin

453
00:27:43,580 --> 00:27:47,300
even as you convince her of your love.

454
00:27:47,300 --> 00:27:51,020
Yes, Lord, may she recognize her sin as sin

455
00:27:51,020 --> 00:27:53,380
and comprehend how that separates her

456
00:27:53,380 --> 00:27:55,460
from a relationship with you.

457
00:27:55,460 --> 00:28:00,100
May she then recall that you desire to give grace and mercy,

458
00:28:00,100 --> 00:28:03,700
to forgive her sin and to draw her back

459
00:28:03,700 --> 00:28:06,020
into a loving relationship with you.

460
00:28:07,380 --> 00:28:12,380
Another, may he realize that you extend open arms of love,

461
00:28:13,660 --> 00:28:15,500
mercy and grace.

462
00:28:15,500 --> 00:28:17,820
When he chooses his own way

463
00:28:17,820 --> 00:28:20,660
and encounters negative consequences,

464
00:28:20,660 --> 00:28:25,120
may he turn and return to your welcome home.

465
00:28:26,620 --> 00:28:30,260
And another, break down the strongholds

466
00:28:30,260 --> 00:28:32,220
of the enemy of his soul.

467
00:28:32,220 --> 00:28:36,060
Hear and answer our requests on his behalf

468
00:28:36,060 --> 00:28:40,500
as we resist Satan and rebuke his demons.

469
00:28:40,500 --> 00:28:44,460
May our loved one grow weary of his chains and imprisonment

470
00:28:44,460 --> 00:28:48,860
and turn to you, asking you to give him liberty.

471
00:28:48,860 --> 00:28:50,300
Set him free.

472
00:28:51,980 --> 00:28:55,400
And then finally, give her a vision

473
00:28:55,400 --> 00:28:58,340
of the person you have made her to be

474
00:28:58,340 --> 00:29:02,740
and the good works you have already prepared for her.

475
00:29:02,740 --> 00:29:05,500
May she understand that your way

476
00:29:05,500 --> 00:29:08,460
is always better than her way.

477
00:29:08,460 --> 00:29:11,940
May she remember that you're always working,

478
00:29:11,940 --> 00:29:16,060
even when her circumstances don't reveal it.

479
00:29:16,060 --> 00:29:21,060
May she determine to become the person you created her to be

480
00:29:22,100 --> 00:29:25,300
and to choose to do what you made her to do.

481
00:29:25,300 --> 00:29:30,300
So we've talked about prayer, a conversation with God,

482
00:29:30,300 --> 00:29:34,300
lament, praying scripture, forgiveness,

483
00:29:34,300 --> 00:29:37,100
the battle with the evil one,

484
00:29:37,100 --> 00:29:42,100
giving blessings, giving thanks, and some sample prayers.

485
00:29:42,100 --> 00:29:45,460
I hope some of these ways and words for praying

486
00:29:45,460 --> 00:29:47,220
are helpful to you.

487
00:29:47,220 --> 00:29:51,060
Have you picked out one or two to begin with?

488
00:29:51,060 --> 00:29:54,100
I have a small booklet that expands on these prayers

489
00:29:54,100 --> 00:29:55,660
suggestions.

490
00:29:55,660 --> 00:29:59,900
Prayers for Your Wilderness Journey is available to you free

491
00:29:59,900 --> 00:30:04,420
to download when you click on the title in the show notes.

492
00:30:04,420 --> 00:30:06,540
Just click on that title

493
00:30:06,540 --> 00:30:10,460
and we will send that little booklet to you free.

494
00:30:10,460 --> 00:30:13,620
And it will give you a lot of what I've said here,

495
00:30:13,620 --> 00:30:15,900
but more as well.

496
00:30:15,900 --> 00:30:18,140
And next week, we will begin a series

497
00:30:18,140 --> 00:30:23,140
on the most powerful resource we have with our prodigals.

498
00:30:23,140 --> 00:30:25,260
The Holy Spirit.

499
00:30:25,260 --> 00:30:54,260
God bless you.