Prayer that Opens Doors: Praise, episode 120

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If you love a prodigal, you can discover help and hope for your wilderness journey right

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here at the When You Love a Prodigal podcast and also help and hope for your own life journey.

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We know that prayer is essential in our journey with our loved ones, and as we look at prayer

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that opens doors for the next three weeks, I believe you will want to jot down some specific

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helps for your prodigal pilgrimage.

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The key was in the lockbox.

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I had the code, but my normal inability to decipher how things work prevailed.

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My husband quickly figured it out, but the lock on the door seemed obstinate, and it

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took several tries to actually unlock the door to the lovely mountain cabin we were

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staying in for a week.

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Too often, that's how it is with events and relationships and opportunities in our lives.

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Unlocking them is challenging.

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I have found, however, that prayer can be the key to unlock those seemingly stuck doors

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in relationships, and when you love a prodigal, there are sometimes many stuck doors.

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I have found that these three specific prayers we're going to be looking at provide the access.

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Each one can do the job, but together they open the most stubborn situation.

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Today we will look at the first prayer, praise.

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Then next week we'll look at thanks, appropriate, since it will be right before Thanksgiving,

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and the following week, blessing.

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I think these will be perfect to prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving and the challenge

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we often face with our loved ones at holiday time.

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We are encouraged to praise God at all times.

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That sounds kind of impossible, doesn't it, but that's what the Word of God says.

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We most often think of praise as part of praise and worship music and singing at church, which

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is wonderful and uplifting and freeing.

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It's great.

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But praise as a way of life is life-changing.

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Scripture tells us, I will praise the Lord at all times.

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His praise will always be on my lips.

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I will glory in the Lord.

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Glorify the Lord with me.

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Let us exalt his name together.

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Notice the all in at all times and the always in always on my lips in this verse.

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Seriously, I am to praise the Lord at all times.

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How is that possible?

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So consider this from Psalm 22.

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David is saying, But you, Lord, are holy.

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O you who inhabits the praises of Israel.

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God inhabits.

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He lives in our praises.

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And that's why he wants us to be praising him at all times, because that's like a home

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for him right in our midst and in our presence with us.

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Our minds have far greater capacity than our immediate thinking, conversing, or acting.

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We always have thoughts about other things, even as we chat with someone or work on a

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project or reading something.

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In that reserved space, we can engage God in all we are and do by praising him, by acknowledging

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who he is and what he's like.

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Here are some ways that he tells us we can be praising him.

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We can call him by his names.

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Praise is basically lifting up the name of God.

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I often praise him by naming his names.

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Whatever my need, he has a name for himself.

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He is Jehovah Jireh, the provider.

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Do you need something provided for you?

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He can do it.

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He's also Jehovah Rafa, the healer.

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Probably most of us have desired that he would do that.

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He's Jehovah Shalom.

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He's peace.

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And there are many others.

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He is love, he says.

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And I certainly need that.

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Gratefully, he is also full of mercy.

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Sometimes I require that often.

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He is Jehovah Roy, the God who sees everything.

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He knows every single thing going on in our lives.

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He knows the pain.

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He knows the joy.

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He knows what's happening with our loved prodigal.

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He sees it all.

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And he is elshah died, the mighty one in every circumstances.

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There's nothing too hard for him, too big for him, too much for him.

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And so many more names.

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One way I can be praising him always is to lift up who he is and what he is like by speaking

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his names, by calling out his names to him.

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That will be praising him as we go about our daily lives.

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And speaking of names, I've always been grateful that my parents named me Judith because I love

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the meaning.

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The meaning of Judith is praise of the Lord.

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So my purpose in life has become to fulfill my name, to live out my name.

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And therefore I praise him a lot.

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I praise him when I am in need.

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The Lord is my strength and my shield, my heart trusts in him and he helps me.

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My heart leaps for joy and with my songs I praise him.

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I praise him when I'm discouraged.

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Why my soul are you downcast?

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Why so disturbed within me?

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Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.

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That's from Psalm 42.

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The Psalms are full of ways that we praise God.

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In Psalm 103, one of my very favorites, he says, I praise him for all he has done for

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me.

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The word says, praise the Lord, O my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name,

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praise the Lord, my soul, and don't forget all of his benefits, all that he has done

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for you.

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I praise him because he is worthy of praise.

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Praise be, we read in Psalm 72, to his glorious name forever.

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May the whole earth be filled with his glory.

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Amen and amen.

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We don't have to have a praise name, however, to make praise a daily practice.

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Almost every day I say, Lord, may my life be praised to you, and we can each do that.

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Here's something else that praised us.

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It banishes our enemy.

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If you have lived with a prodigal for very long, you know there is an enemy.

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Satan is intent on capturing the hearts and minds of our wanderers.

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Our natural tendency is to cringe in fear or to run and hide from the enemy.

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

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He said, submit yourselves to God and resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

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Praise is our best weapon against him.

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He really doesn't like it when he hears us praising God, when he sees God being lifted

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up, glorified, and praised.

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So when we do just that, then Scripture tells us what happens.

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He says, you, Lord, are holy, enthroned in the praises of Israel, of each of us who is

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a child of God.

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God's glory and greatness are revealed as we praise him.

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So when we find ourselves under attack, both ourselves or our loved one, and have a sense

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that Satan is really after us or them, he says, praise him in these simple ways.

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Anytime we feel the need, he says, name his names, his attributes, his qualities, the

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ones I talked about before.

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And these, he says, he is good.

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He is faithful.

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He is loving.

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He is merciful.

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He is also God Almighty, Jehovah Jireh.

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He's our shepherd.

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And you can probably think of many more, but when you feel under attack, start talking

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about what God is like and talk about these kinds of truths about him, names and qualities

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and the way he treats us, and that sends the evil one away.

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He wants not anything to do with hearing God being praised.

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And so you win when you do that.

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Here's some other ways that you can praise on a regular basis.

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Any of the Psalms might provide some prayers.

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If you go to Psalms 95 to 100, there's praise all throughout them and just reading them

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lifts your spirit.

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You can sing praise songs.

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It's not what I usually do since I got skipped on the music side of things when God was making

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me, but I can do it when no one else is around.

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Sing praise songs.

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Here's something you might not have heard.

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If you go to a more liturgical church, you can read beautiful praise from the liturgical

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guide that you would have in your church.

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And any time that you praise, it makes Satan flee.

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There is power in praising God.

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I find when I remember to praise him that my focus changes.

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Instead of dwelling on my worries, concerns, fears, or troubles, my mind and my heart instead

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remember what an amazing God and Savior and Redeemer and friend he is.

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And his presence in those remembrances gives me peace and hope.

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Praise not only puts us in the very presence of God and lifts our eyes from our problems

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to his ability to solve them.

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It also gives us plenty of practice for heaven.

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There as we go about the real life God has for us then, we will truly be praising him

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all the time.

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What about you?

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How might praise become a daily part of your walk with God?

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Think through.

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I trust you jotted some of these ideas down.

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Praise that you can make praise be on your lips all the time.

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Often, whenever you're afraid or concerned or downcast or fearful for your loved one,

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let praise come to your lips and see that God will open a door, a door in your trust

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of him, in your relationship with him, as well as with your loved one, and in peace

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just for you.

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God bless you.