Participants: Jason Bradley (Host), Dr Nadine Joseph-Collins
Series Code: TMP
Program Code: TMP000003A
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00:35 Hello, and welcome to The Missing Peace.
00:37 A program that's committed 00:39 to making your prayer life go wow. 00:42 My name is Jason Bradley, 00:44 and our primary host for this program 00:45 is Dr. Nadine Joseph Collins. 00:48 Dr. Nadine, let's invite 00:49 the presence of the Lord into this program. 00:53 Dear heavenly Father, 00:54 we thank You for the opportunity 00:55 to talk about prayer 00:57 and how important and vital it is 01:00 to communicate with You and to commune with You. 01:03 Lord, we know 01:04 that nobody knows better than You 01:07 as to how to go about this, 01:09 so we invite the Holy Spirit to be among us, 01:13 to lead, and guide, and direct this conversation on prayering, 01:17 in Jesus' name we pray. 01:18 Amen. 01:20 Let me share a little bit about our host. 01:21 Dr. Nadine Joseph Collins hails from the Island of Saint Lucia. 01:25 She has been empowering the prayer lives of others 01:28 in the Caribbean, Asia, Canada, the UK, 01:31 and right here in the US 01:33 as a presenter on prayer for women's ministries weekends 01:36 and women's days of prayer. 01:39 She is an author, speaker, 01:40 and has a full time ministry alongside 01:43 of her husband Nyse Collins. 01:46 You have been making 01:47 some excellent points on prayer. 01:49 What's our topic for today? 01:52 First, let me ask you a question. 01:53 Have you ever tried to do something 01:56 you were not good at naturally without practicing it? 02:00 Yes. How did that turn out? 02:01 Uh, not very good, I ended up quitting. 02:04 Why? Well, it was piano. 02:08 And I begged my mom to let me quit taking lessons, 02:11 and I finally wear her down where she let me quitting, 02:15 I regret it to this day. 02:16 So do you think 02:18 that you could ever run a race like, 02:19 maybe 100 meters race, maybe come first. 02:23 You get that gold medal. 02:24 You broke a record 02:26 and everything without practicing? 02:27 Not at all. 02:28 So today 02:30 we are going to talk about prayer 02:31 as deliberate practice. 02:34 I am sure you've heard this saying that, 02:36 "Practice makes perfect"? 02:37 Yes 02:38 Or that even perfect practice makes practice perfect? 02:42 I haven't heard it put that way before, that's new. 02:45 Yeah, I heard that one a few years ago. 02:48 The thing about it is 02:49 when we are talking about our prayer life, 02:52 we are talking about 02:53 doing something or making it a habit. 02:56 And we're talking about 02:58 maybe having the habit of praying everyday 03:00 which is that hope that we want to talk about. 03:03 So making prayer a habit 03:06 would only come through practice, 03:09 'cause I hated math when I was in high school. 03:13 But I was told repeatedly, if you practice it, 03:15 you will be good at it. 03:17 I did not invest the time to practice, 03:19 I probably pass it a few times 03:21 but trust me, it was always a struggle. 03:23 Now, how do you feel about math today? 03:26 I stay as far away from it as possible, actually. 03:29 Yeah, I don't blame you, me too. 03:31 Yeah, you know but it's said that, 03:33 "To be good at anything, you need to practice it." 03:36 And prayer is really no different. 03:39 I'm sure you've heard the same, practice makes perfect. 03:42 Yes. 03:43 Have you even heard the other saying 03:44 that perfect practice makes practice perfect? 03:48 I have heard a variation of that. 03:50 You see one psychologist by the name of John Haze. 03:55 He is really a noted psychologist, 03:57 and he examined 03:58 the role of effort and practice, 04:01 and knowledge in the lives of top performance, right? 04:04 Such as Mozart and Picasso. 04:06 We like the music of these people, 04:07 most people do. 04:09 And so he practiced 04:10 or he actually studied their practices, 04:14 and his findings suggest 04:15 that top performers would spend at least a decade practicing. 04:22 Wow. Ten years. 04:24 Over, just over the course of their lifetime? 04:26 One work, one piece of work. 04:28 The incredible pieces of work that we are able to enjoy now. 04:32 They would spend ten years doing that, 04:34 and they call that a decade or ten years of silence. 04:36 Wow. 04:38 And so they would perfect that piece, 04:41 that piece of music, or art, 04:44 or whatever it is that we enjoy, 04:45 but they have that decade of silence. 04:48 Another I believe might be a sociologist Erickson found 04:52 that top performers 04:54 would put in as much as ten hours 04:56 of practice to perfect 04:58 or become expertise in their fields. 05:01 Hmm. Mm-hmm. 05:03 So they are showing that these people 05:05 who we look at as top performers 05:08 would dedicate deliberate time to practice, 05:12 'cause remember we are talking about prayer 05:14 as the liberate practice. 05:15 So yeah, basically we have to be intentional 05:17 about praying. 05:18 Intentional. 05:20 Are you a basketball fan? Oh, yeah, I play it. 05:22 You do, right? 05:23 So they say top performers like Kobe Bryant, 05:26 he would spend, 05:28 he did not just spend ten years or 10,000 hours practicing, 05:33 but he daily and deliberately 05:36 had a rigid schedule for practicing 05:39 he is at which is basketball. 05:40 Wow Right? 05:42 And some researchers even suggest 05:44 that it takes one hour of deliberate practice a day 05:47 to become good at what you want. 05:49 That sounds a lot like 05:51 maybe what your mom was trying to do 05:52 with you with piano. 05:54 Jason, you need to practice today, 05:55 and everyday probably singing that same song, 05:58 because somewhere in her mind 06:00 she knew that if you spend time everyday 06:02 practicing the piano, you become good at it. 06:05 And so that's what psychologists 06:07 and sociologists are finding. 06:09 Now you know Usain Bolt, right? Yeah. 06:12 The world's fastest runner. 06:14 So they say 06:16 that Usain Bolt practices at least three hours 06:19 a day not one, three hours a day, 06:22 seven days a week 06:25 and that's like about 52 weeks a year. 06:28 And so because he practices so much, 06:30 if you calculate the number of hours 06:32 that he practice and put that into seconds, 06:34 he actually practices about 262,080 seconds 06:40 to win a 100 meter race in 9.58 seconds. 06:46 Wow. Just imagine that. 06:48 The amount of practice 06:49 that he puts in to just perfect in his art of running, 06:54 so that he can win a race in that little bit of time. 06:57 And so the truth is whatever you decide to work 07:00 on as a habit, 07:02 and in this case 07:03 we are talking about improving our prayer lives, 07:05 developing that habit of praying 07:07 everyday, that hope. 07:09 The habit of praying everyday, 07:11 whatever, when we decide to actually spend time doing 07:14 that everything that may come up, 07:18 could come up. 07:19 Because you know when you want to practice 07:21 doing something good, there is always distractions. 07:24 Things are always going to come up, 07:25 but we need to be very deliberate 07:28 and that's why we need to be very deliberate 07:30 in setting specific times and to practice that habit, 07:34 just as we see these artists, 07:37 or these athletes setting specific time for them 07:40 to practice their art, 07:42 so that they could be become top performers. 07:43 Yeah, now especially when we want to talk to God, 07:47 it seems like or we want to have worship 07:48 or something like that, 07:50 it seems like all of the sudden the phone rings, 07:53 or somebody knocks at the door, 07:55 or you know the devil's always trying 07:57 to throw a wedge in between us and God, 08:00 so he's constantly trying to distract us. 08:02 And that's why we have to be so deliberate 08:06 and specific about what we are doing, 08:08 because I am sure if we are dating somebody, 08:11 we want to go out on a date tonight. 08:13 We would choose the place we want to go, 08:15 with the time we want to meet and everything. 08:17 And it doesn't matter what comes up 08:18 before we leave to go on that date. 08:21 We will make sure that we go on that date anyway. 08:23 And so, as deliberate as we are in doing that, 08:26 we need to be deliberate in our time with God 08:29 in practicing the art of praying. 08:32 I am saying the art just to suggest, 08:35 just like these artists are practicing their art. 08:37 If we want to become a top performer 08:39 in our prayer life, we need to be as deliberate. 08:42 Because biblical examples are so clear 08:44 that men and women 08:46 who were persons of deliberate prayers 08:49 were also persons of mighty acts. 08:52 And so, when we look at somebody like Elijah. 08:54 You remember Elijah story 08:55 when he was there with the prophets of Baal. 08:58 It's really one of my favorite animated stories in my head 09:01 in the Bible about prayer. 09:03 Because these people were out there, 09:04 I don't want to get into that story too much 09:06 but it always excites me, 09:07 because they were out there all day 09:09 trying to get their gods to answer 09:11 and the gods couldn't do anything, 09:13 and at the evening time Elijah is like, 09:14 "You know what, guys, come, everybody come for a show, 09:16 let me show you who is the real God." 09:17 And he just brought down the house. 09:19 He just close off everything. 09:21 By the time he was done, they knew who his God was. 09:25 And for Elijah to have done that, 09:27 we know that Elijah was the man 09:28 who deliberately spend time praying, 09:31 because he knew for sure that God would answer. 09:33 Why else would you put on such a big show 09:35 if you didn't know 09:36 that your God was going to answer. 09:38 And so we know he was a mighty man of prayer. 09:40 We look at for example, John the Apostle. 09:43 He received a vision for the Book of Revelation, 09:46 and to date 09:47 we are still using that book as our key reference 09:50 for end time results. 09:51 Because John was the person who deliberately prayed. 09:55 Then we have Paul, 09:56 he wrote the largest part of the New Testament, 09:58 and we are told 10:00 that he did a lot of praying about his ministry. 10:03 So these mighty people of prayer 10:06 were also great people 10:07 when it comes to doing everything else, 10:09 because their prayer lives are getting impacted 10:12 what they were doing. 10:13 And one of the persons 10:15 who really sets 10:17 the example of what it is to deliberately have 10:20 that habit of praying everyday 10:23 or to be deliberate in praying is Daniel. 10:27 And remember his story in Daniel 6:10, 10:30 "When Daniel had learnt of the decree 10:32 that had been published, 10:34 he went home to his upstairs room 10:37 where the windows were opened toward Jerusalem. 10:39 Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, 10:43 giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before." 10:48 Yeah, prayer and one of the things 10:52 about each one of those individuals 10:54 that you named, is they prayed with faith, 10:57 like they believed. 10:59 They had such a great relationship with God 11:01 that they trusted Him. 11:03 And, you know, we have talked 11:04 about intimacy as it relates to prayer, 11:07 and their trust came from them 11:10 being intimate with God in trust, 11:13 then they grew, they gain that trust. 11:15 And then they, 11:16 you know, spending that time with Him, 11:18 that valuable time. 11:19 And that had to come from a deliberate effort, 11:22 because no relationship will grow 11:24 if we do not invest the time in it, 11:28 in terms of the quality time spent. 11:30 If that person learning their voice 11:32 and all of these other things, 11:33 so these guys were very deliberate. 11:35 And so by the time it 11:36 would have come down for them 11:38 to be able to have or give an effective prayer, 11:41 it was very easy for them, 11:43 or to do a great work 11:44 it became easy for them in our eyes, 11:48 but they had put in all of the work 11:49 behind the scenes, 11:50 that's in investing time in their relationship with God. 11:53 Daniel was such a great man of prayer 11:55 that he was arrested for praying. 11:58 Wow! You remember he got arrested. 11:59 Yes. Yes. 12:01 But the thing is he prayed 12:02 when it was against the Lord to pray. 12:05 You understand? 12:07 His habit was... 12:08 The habit was so embedded in him 12:10 that even when he knew that his life was on the line, 12:13 that he could have gotten arrested 12:14 and get thrown into jail, he still went ahead praying. 12:17 Even though Daniel prayed in secret, 12:19 I am sure it was a far end 12:20 that he did not keep his prayer life a secret. 12:23 That is how his enemies were able to plot for him. 12:27 So yes, he was praying in his home in secret, 12:30 but they knew that this guy was a guy of pray, 12:33 and they knew exactly how to get him. 12:36 So we can learn a lot from that one verse. 12:39 It's amazing how just one verse, 12:41 Daniel 6:10 can teach us so many lessons 12:44 about how we can be deliberate in our prayer life. 12:47 And one of the things I can pull out 12:49 from that is that Daniel was committed to pray. 12:52 Because even after the decree was passed, 12:55 he could not stop, because it was a habit. 12:58 He still went there everyday, three times a day praying, 13:01 because it was his custom, it was his habit, 13:04 it was instilled in him, 13:06 and it had become natural to him 13:07 so he couldn't stop. 13:09 And I mean, I saw him putting that 13:10 and also another lesson in there is that, 13:13 God's law supersedes man's law. 13:16 God's law trumps man's law. 13:19 So if man's law goes against God's law, 13:21 you have to keep God's law. 13:24 Because he had an allegiance to the king, 13:26 but he knew 13:27 that his greater allegiance was to God. 13:30 And so that's why he was able to continue to pray. 13:32 Another lesson we can pick up from his stories 13:34 that Daniel had specific times to pray, 13:37 because the text was clear, three times a day he prayed, 13:43 and I call that having dates of God. 13:45 I remember when I... 13:46 Before I went to the Philippines to study, 13:48 I remember looking 13:50 at the aerial view of the campus, 13:53 and because it was going to be a genuine faith for me 13:55 in terms of not knowing 13:56 how I was gonna pay for it and even get there and so on. 14:00 I remember seeing the prayer garden on campus 14:02 and saying to God, 14:03 "I am going to meet you there," 14:06 'cause I wanted to have my dates with God there. 14:09 And Daniel set that example for us 14:13 having those specific times. 14:15 You want to make time, 14:16 some of us when we have our friends 14:19 or loved ones, or girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, kids abroad, 14:23 we will set specific times to call, 14:26 because there may be a difference 14:27 in the time zones, 14:28 or maybe we try to accommodate 14:30 the person's work schedule and so on. 14:31 But the point is that we set specific times 14:34 to speak to the people 14:35 that we love and Daniel did that, 14:37 he set those specific times. 14:39 Another thing he did, he had a specific place. 14:43 And I remember one of my friends Deane Fong. 14:46 One of my older friends, a very great example, 14:48 one of my prayer mentors. 14:50 At her home, 14:52 she had one specific sofa just for her to meet with God, 14:57 that was her place to pray, her quiet place. 15:00 Her place, she would dress up very nicely and sit there, 15:04 because it was her place to meet with God. 15:07 And Daniel shows us 15:08 that he also had specific place, 15:12 a specific place to pray with God. 15:14 And for me that prayer garden that I had mentioned. 15:16 And one of my friends, 15:18 a pastor friend of mine from Kenya, 15:20 we would meet in that prayer garden to pray, 15:22 and he posted online recently 15:24 saying about how important that place was. 15:27 Because you see right there in that specific place 15:29 we would go to pray, 15:31 we saw God answer so many prayers, 15:33 so that place had significance. 15:35 So just imagine, 15:37 if you have custom of meeting God here, 15:38 or just imagine you go on date at a particular restaurant 15:42 and the experience was so good, 15:44 every time you think of going on another good date, 15:47 you may want to go back to that place, 15:49 because the experience was so great. 15:50 Yes. Yes. 15:52 So while we could pray anywhere, 15:54 or we could talk to God anywhere. 15:57 If we have that specific place 15:59 that gives reference to experiences 16:01 that are great. 16:02 We would want to be in that place again, 16:04 because the experiences were great. 16:06 Do you hear people traveling to a new country 16:08 and oh, my goodness, 16:09 it was so good, I want to go back. 16:10 Yes. Yes. 16:12 So Daniel's specific place where his experience with God 16:15 may have been so fantastic that he is like, 16:17 "I am going to meet God everyday there 16:19 even though 16:20 I can probably pray somewhere else." 16:23 I know a pastor, 16:25 I met a pastor that he has a certain room 16:30 dedicated specifically for God in his house, 16:34 and he goes in there and prays. 16:37 I really like the idea of having 16:38 a specific place to pray. 16:40 Actually, I remember many years ago looking at, 16:43 you know, just like the practices 16:45 of some other religions 16:46 where they would set out a specific place 16:48 in their homes for prayer. 16:50 And then a movie came out recently 16:52 where the persons were also doing 16:54 the same thing, having that specific place 16:56 where you meet with God, 16:58 and I think it's an excellent idea. 17:00 And Daniel again in that one verse, 17:03 Daniel 6:10, 17:04 he shows us that he had a particular posture, 17:06 not that it's the only way we should pray, 17:08 but it just shows 17:10 some form of humility in his sense 17:11 where he was humbling himself before God, 17:13 when he knelt down. 17:15 And one of the things that I pull out 17:17 of that text again in his practice 17:19 was that he gave thanks to God. 17:20 You know, even in the midst 17:22 of what could have been chaotic. 17:23 Because remember, the decree was passed, 17:25 hey, nobody should be praying, except, 17:28 you know, to king and so on, but he gave thanks to God, 17:31 because it was his habit, his practice. 17:34 And another instance in his life, 17:36 there is another time 17:37 where you know God really revealed Himself 17:40 through the prayer life of Daniel. 17:42 And we find that in Daniel 9, 17:44 where the children of Israel 17:46 has been held captive for about 70 years. 17:49 And through Daniel's experience God reveals here, 17:52 the captivity will come to an end. 17:55 So from verse 3-19, we see Daniel praying. 17:59 Now, his prayer shook me sort of, 18:01 because Daniel wasn't praying for himself. 18:04 Daniel began to seek God for prayers 18:07 and having pleads 18:09 and begging God for mercy for him 18:12 and for his people, you know. 18:14 And so Daniel confessed his sins. 18:16 Imagine he was asking God 18:17 to confess the sins of his people as well, 18:21 that's how far Daniel went in his prayer life. 18:23 He honors God, he affirms God, 18:25 he gave thanks to God 18:27 just like he did in Daniel 6:10. 18:30 So we could see it was really his habit, 18:32 because there he was saying, God, 18:33 You were this, and You were that, 18:35 he told God, 18:36 "Hey, I know You understand that you know my people and I, 18:40 we may have gone too far", he said. 18:43 We had sinned, but Daniel set, 18:45 you know he was set in being deliberate in pleading 18:49 for forgiveness for both him and his people. 18:51 He was interceding on behalf of the people which is great. 18:54 A big part of prayer. 18:56 Like you have that selfless prayer, 18:58 you know everything 19:00 that Christ does is motivated by love, 19:03 so that's, yeah, that is nice. 19:04 That was powerful, and you know what he did? 19:06 He beg God, and I was like, wow, Daniel was bold. 19:09 He beg God to listen. 19:10 He actually said to the Lord, 19:12 "Incline your hear," 19:14 he told God, "Open your eyes, 19:16 you see the desolation of my people." 19:18 You see the desolation of the people of Israel, 19:21 he was coining on themselves and he was saying, 19:23 "God have mercy." 19:24 And what I thought was so bold, in verse 9, 19:26 he said, "O Lord, hear, O Lord, forgive. 19:27 O Lord pay attention and act." 19:34 That's Daniel talking to God in prayer. 19:36 "Delay not, for your own sake, 19:39 O my God, 19:40 because your city and your people are called 19:43 by your name." 19:45 So there he was sort of reminding God 19:47 of who you are God. 19:48 I am reminding You of who You are, 19:50 but I need You to act, 19:51 because we are called by Your name. 19:56 And God answers in the Mosaic unexpectedly. 20:00 He sends Angel Gabriel to reveal to Daniel, 20:06 the vision or explain that vision, 20:09 make that vision clear, 20:10 giving him insights into not the things 20:12 just about now, 20:14 but about the future and what it really meant 20:16 when God had revealed to him 20:18 about those 70 years of captivity being ended. 20:21 He didn't use any symbols or any mysterious things. 20:24 His Angel Gabriel was able to reveal clearly to Daniel 20:28 what God had been seeing. 20:30 So it is only in deliberate praying really 20:33 that God can actually reveal secret things to us. 20:38 So if we are rushed, if we are hurried, 20:41 how will we be able to hear God speaking back to us? 20:44 How will God be able to reveal secret things to us 20:47 if we always praying on the run. 20:49 If you're always praying in the hurry, you know? 20:51 Yeah, like being a relationship saying, 20:52 "Hey...Okay, bye." 20:56 Everybody feels cheated in that kind of a thing. 20:58 Nobody likes that kind of relationship. 21:00 One sided. Yeah, one sided. 21:01 You know, somebody just rushing talking to you, 21:03 just left there hanging like, really what just happened? 21:06 What did you just communicate to me Jason, I have no idea? 21:09 You know, these kind of things cause separation, 21:11 and you could imagine 21:12 the amount of times we go to God. 21:14 Just rushing through our prayers 21:16 and not staying there little moment 21:17 just to hear what He had to say. 21:19 How will we know what He want to reveal to us, 21:22 if we just jump off the bed? 21:24 If we just jump off from our knees and so on? 21:27 You know, it's, if we regularly rush 21:29 to practice a game. 21:30 So I remember one of my little sister, 21:33 she is really good at math. 21:35 So I maintained math early on is 21:36 because I have about three of them 21:37 they are really like, really good at it. 21:39 Really? 21:40 I remember the ministry of education 21:42 in my country calling my brother a math genius, 21:44 so they were really good. 21:45 But this sister of mine should rush through her exam, 21:49 so when they would come home, 21:51 I would go through the exam papers 21:52 and I would see her 21:53 getting one, two, or three wrong answers, 21:56 and I would ask her the question, 21:57 she would give me the right answer. 21:59 But do you know why she got it wrong 22:00 when she was at school? 22:01 Because she rushed. 22:03 Because the teacher told me 22:04 she would rush through her exam, 22:06 so she could go outside to play. 22:07 So the thing is when we are talking about 22:09 our prayer life, if we rush through our prayers, 22:13 and we never wait for God to reveal to us, 22:15 we cannot become a top performer. 22:17 Because I am sure, my sister 22:18 could have probably been the top in her class 22:20 in that exam, 22:21 but she would not be because she wouldn't pause. 22:25 That also speaks to priorities, 22:27 you know, we have to prioritize our time. 22:30 We have to put God first in all that we do. 22:32 Like with that test, 22:33 going out to play wasn't as important as getting 22:36 that everything right on the exam, 22:39 you know, so, yeah, 22:40 I think that's an excellent lesson. 22:42 That's why we have to make special times, 22:44 specific time like Daniel did. 22:46 Make dates with God 22:48 is only on the dates with our loved ones, 22:51 when we are dating somebody, 22:52 we make it a point to make sure we have dates, movie night, 22:55 this night, that night, 22:57 the beach, we plan all types of dates, 23:00 because our whole point 23:01 is to get to know the person better, 23:03 to get to know about the secret things 23:05 about that person. 23:06 Because seeing them on the externals, 23:08 interacting with them briefly will never tell us 23:11 the deeper things about them. 23:13 And so in prayer 23:15 in being deliberate in setting time to pray 23:18 and having that special time we got in, 23:20 so he is able to reveal things. 23:21 In fact in Luke 12:2, it says, 23:24 "There is nothing covered 23:26 that will not be revealed and hidden 23:27 that will not be made known." 23:29 Another text that I like, 23:31 when it comes to God been able to reveal things 23:33 is Mark 4:22, it says, 23:35 "For everything that is hidden 23:36 will eventually be brought in the open 23:39 and every secret thing will be brought to light." 23:42 And then we go back to Daniel again, 23:44 in Daniel 2:28, 23:45 "But there is a God in heaven who reveals secrets, 23:49 and he has known King Nebuchadnezzar, 23:52 what will he has shown King Nebuchadnezzar 23:54 what will happen in the future. 23:56 Now I will tell you your dream 23:58 and the visions you saw as you lay on your bed." 24:00 That was Daniel, God, 24:02 you know when Daniel had the opportunity 24:03 to reveal Nebuchadnezzar's dream. 24:05 But the only way 24:07 he could have known to reveal somebody else's dream 24:09 is because he had the habit of praying everyday. 24:13 He was very deliberate in praying, 24:15 so God could have revealed the secret things to him, 24:18 and many of us shortchange ourselves 24:21 in our prayer lives 24:22 because we do not spend time with God enough. 24:25 We do not make it a deliberate habit, 24:27 so that the secret things of life, 24:29 the things that we really want to know that God can tell us. 24:33 He cannot reveal it to us, 24:35 because we just don't give him the opportunity to do 24:37 so in our intimate time. 24:39 There we go again our intimate time with Him. 24:41 You know, I remember my friend Debby. 24:43 Now, we had the habit of praying 24:44 about everything, little things like, 24:47 Lord, what store should we go and shop in? 24:48 When we go into that particular store, 24:50 we would ask him to set up deals for us. 24:53 So when we go there, we can go into discount rack 24:56 and we can get what we are looking for. 24:58 Sometimes we go to the supermarket 24:59 and we will say, 25:01 "Hey, I don't want to spend 25:02 more than that amount of money." 25:04 Even now I still do the same thing. 25:05 Every time I go to shop, 25:06 I have in my mind, I have a budget, 25:09 even though I do not calculate while I am taking things. 25:12 And so we have to be deliberate about doing 25:16 that or asking God to do things for us 25:19 in the little things. 25:20 And it's only as we practice 25:23 the habit of praying everyday in the little things. 25:25 When the bigger things come, 25:27 it will be easier for us to go to God for it, 25:29 because we have already spent time 25:31 practicing these habits. 25:33 Remember, perfect practice 25:34 makes practice perfect or practice, 25:37 when we practice we become perfect at it. 25:38 So the thing is when we practice 25:40 in the little things, then in the big things 25:42 it's easier for us now to understand. 25:45 And there are so many other things 25:46 that I could say on the topic of us 25:50 really practicing prayer, 25:52 so that we can perfect these habits. 25:54 But some of the takeaways I want us to have 25:56 is that you cannot leave your prayer time 25:58 to spare pockets of time in your busy schedule. 26:02 You need to be very deliberate in setting times to pray. 26:05 And if you practice the habit of praying everyday, 26:08 you will perfect it. 26:09 It doesn't mean 26:10 that you would be more eloquent in praying, 26:12 it means you become more effective in praying. 26:15 And if you want to be a top performer 26:17 in your prayer life, 26:18 you need to have the habit of deliberately 26:21 spending time with God. 26:23 Is in practicing 26:25 that you learn not only to talk to God, 26:28 but you are able to hear His voice. 26:31 In fact, you are tuned to hear His voice, 26:34 and you are clear about His directions 26:35 and plans for your life. 26:38 And so we could say a prayer right now. 26:40 You know, Father, teach us how to pray. 26:43 Give us the desire to want to perfect the practice, 26:47 or the habit of praying everyday. 26:50 Help us to recognize that we can only get better. 26:53 We can only be more effective, 26:56 when we truly spend time deliberately practicing 27:00 the habit of praying everyday. 27:02 We thank You for giving us this avenue, 27:04 we pray in the name of Jesus, amen. 27:06 Amen. 27:07 Thanks, Dr. Nadine, 27:09 for that great information you shared with us today. 27:12 We pray that you were blessed by today's program. 27:15 Make prayer a deliberate practicing in your daily life 27:18 and watch your prayer life explode. 27:20 Be sure to tune in next time 27:22 when Nadine shares more information 27:25 to supply The Missing Peace. |
Revised 2018-02-07