The Neighborhood Podcast

Prayer 101: Why We Pray (November 2, 2025 Adult Sunday School)

• Rev. Dr. Stephen M. Fearing

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Presenter: Dylan Lewellyn

Ever felt put on the spot to pray and didn’t know where to start? We open the door wide: anyone can pray, anywhere, with words or without them. Together we map the landscape of gratitude and intercession, then dig into a deeper truth inspired by Eugene Peterson’s Answering God—prayer isn’t about acquiring favors, it’s about being formed. Instead of chasing techniques, we learn to bring our whole selves before God, letting the Psalms and even familiar hymns coach our honesty when language fails.

We wrestle with the tough stuff too. Does prayer change the world, or just us? What do we say when someone prays and still suffers? By challenging transactional habits and prosperity-gospel reflexes, we return to a relational core: nothing can separate us from the love of God. We don’t pray to get closer to a distant deity; we pray to feel the nearness that already holds us. That shift reframes healing stories, scientific explanations, and the slow work of discernment—not as competing narratives, but as places where grace can meet us.

You’ll hear practical models that actually help. The Lord’s Prayer becomes a simple scaffold for adoration, alignment, daily bread, forgiveness, and freedom. The ACTS pattern keeps our prayers balanced without turning them into scripts. We practice divine brevity so our words land, and we share child-friendly phrases that distill prayer into feelings a two-year-old can grasp: thank you when I’m happy, be with me when I’m sad, help me listen when I’m silly, make me gentle when I’m mad. We close with community intercessions, trusting that shared prayer stitches courage and compassion into a people who can carry hope.

If this conversation encouraged you, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a gentle on-ramp to prayer, and leave a review with your favorite one-line prayer—we’d love to read it on a future episode.

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Website: www.guilfordpark.org

unknown:

I'm just waiting to get recording. Whatever it is. And if you take one and pass it down, okay. The Lord be with you.

SPEAKER_05:

And when I was at uh seminary, we went to a church, and the pastor there did that to get our attention. She said, that's the Presbyterian way of saying. So I'm currently having him being passed out, thanks to George. I'm not going to have this thing because it's an affront to God and mankind for me to sing, so I will not be singing. But he mentioned this kind of thing, and it is just absolutely beautiful. And it plays in perfectly to what we'll be talking about. So have no fear. I will not be making this thing. But I think it's only appropriate to open a class on prayer with prayer. So please join me in prayer. Dear God, Heavenly Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, bless us and grant us the peace of your wisdom. That as we begin to plumb the depths of your mystery, may we be filled and invigorated with love for you. In your name, O God, we pray. Amen. Alright, so I wanted to give a brief introduction as to why I wanted to do this class. We did this in seminary, and I realized this is a common feeling. So, in order to make sure no one feels embarrassed, I'm going to have everyone close your eyes, and I'm going to have you raise your hand if you agree or have thought any of these statements, particularly recently. I feel like I don't pray enough, or I would like to pray more. Okay, put your hands down. I feel like I don't know how to pray, or I would like to pray better. Okay? And I feel like I pray selfishly, or I would like to pray more for others.

SPEAKER_12:

Wonderful.

SPEAKER_05:

Put your hands down and open your eyes up. Unsurprisingly I raised my hand for all those, and a lot of people did as well. So there's two books that I'm going to really talk about. Actually, I'm going to write these down and forgot to. It would help if I was looking at my lesson plans while I was preparing for today. My handwriting is terrible, and I'm going to try to make sure it's lit. 50 Ways to Pray by Teresa Block. It's one of the books I'm currently reading for one of my classes, and it's phenomenal. I'm going to be talking a lot more about that one in the second session. You do not have to purchase this book, you don't have to read it unless you just want to. One of my professors likes to use the phrase suggestive reading. They give us a lot of suggestive reading on top of the 500 pages a week required reading. So I don't do any of the suggestive reading. However, I keep not in the books. And then we'll see.

unknown:

I talk about this book all the time. Answering God by Eugene Peterson. This is another book I have been reading for seminary.

SPEAKER_05:

And this book is focusing on the Psalms. As we've been doing the outcome tab and talking about Psalms, I've been thinking about this book a lot. Effectively, the Psalms is a prayer book. You ever don't know how to pray? Just open up Psalms and pick one of them in case you're going to be able to do it. That was how ancient Israelites prayed was using the Psalms. Answering God is a book that's all dedicated to using the Psalms as a prayer book. So it's a beautiful book. It really talks about a lot of the confusing parts of the Psalms, why some feel very angry, some feel very happy and joyful. There's a reason. It covers the whole of human emotion. So two excellent books, highly recommend. You do not need to purchase them for this course because, unlike college professors, I don't get paid. So when I was kind of preparing a lesson plan for this, I figured I wanted to call it prayer 101 because it sounds cool. I think it does anyway. And I feel like the one-on-one course should answer six questions. The typical ones. Who, what, where, when, how, and why. A lot of these are easy. I'm going to breeze through three of them in hopefully three minutes. We shall see.

unknown:

Who?

SPEAKER_05:

Hey everybody. Pretty straightforward. Um, the main note I've made about this is that something that I've always felt when I'm asked to lead a group prayer. I don't know how to do that. I can't do that. I'm not qualified. I don't have titles, I don't have, I have a stole now, but I didn't have a stole then, and I felt very weird being asked to lead a group prayer. Particularly at Thanksgiving, about seven years ago, when my mom said, Doesn't allow don't you pray for us? I don't know how I can't do that. Alright. Started spawning off, and finally someone's like, Alright, shut up. Alright, alright, so keep it short. Good enough. That's true. Everybody. And anyone can lead rude prayer. What? I don't think I need to tell a church what prayer is. But just in case, I did write down a quick definition from Merriam-Webster, an address such as a petition to God or a God in word or thought. Pretty straightforward. Anything that you convey to the Most High is a prayer. Everything can be a prayer. Anything can be a prayer. Beginning with an address, ending with an amen. Pretty straightforward. Anywhere. Anywhere. Everywhere. There is no place, as I was trying to think, that I would feel really inappropriate to pray. God is with us at all times, never too far away to hear us. So anywhere you are, everywhere that you are. In the car when you're in traffic, like Stephen, I'm fussing at people. I know I do it all the time, and I have to keep reminding myself ever since that sermon, alright? Forgiveness. Understanding. Not judging. So anywhere, everywhere is where you can pray. When and how? Next session. That's how I'm settling the next one. Come back, and I'll answer that question. So today I really want to focus on why. And why really has two questions. Why do we pray? And why do we pray? I know this sounds simple, but I will exploit. So I'll open it up first. Why do we pray? What reasons do we have to pray?

unknown:

I was just gonna say to communicate to God and Jesus. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

It is a teacher's experience that a martyr dies. Anyone else? Yeah, forgiveness, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. You don't understand why it was too college.

SPEAKER_09:

Thank you, that was thankfulness. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_05:

Anyone else? Closeness. Closeness, absolutely.

SPEAKER_03:

I didn't hear that. Closeness. Oh.

unknown:

What else? Okay, cool.

SPEAKER_05:

Wrote down a couple just to make sure that I kind of kept straight. A couple we've already got up here. Gratitude is the one that I wrote down. Shared Thoughts, a conversation with God. Well, uh communicate. Um a couple that I'm kind of shocked I didn't hear. Prayers for healing. You know, to feel better, to get better. So, that over here. Um one that I just recently, uh, we just did last week as part of the uh assignments for this class of on this book is uh prayers for discernment. You know, God, what should I do?

SPEAKER_08:

Decision making. Also, prayers of imprecation, which is which is a big word for word, dear God, let the evil people get there. Yep. All over the Psalms. Psalm 137.

SPEAKER_05:

When we get to how to pray, that's gonna be the wrong way to pray, you know. Not always, but there's definitely some times where, you know, make them pay. It's not always the best feeling to have, but it's better to get it out to God. Yes, please. Um Lamentations is one of my favorite books of the Bible. One of the first books I ever actually read, covered covered. Um Blessings, I think uh generally somewhere in there. And then prayers. Um forgiveness, mercy. Yeah, yeah, gratitude's up here. Unity. Yeah, absolutely. Unity. Um kind of in forgiveness, uh praying for mercy. Um, I also put in prayer for strength and for wisdom. I kind of lumped all of those in together. Prayer to God to bolster us in some way. Anything else we want to put up on the board?

SPEAKER_03:

Well, sometimes I'll just say, you know, I cannot solve this. It's back. I'm getting it back to the world. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. The best in the best way possible.

SPEAKER_07:

Most of our prayers are for others.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00:

We need to pray for ourselves too? A hundred percent.

SPEAKER_05:

It's very hard to write that little forward.

SPEAKER_06:

I think also um there's prayers of adoration.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, a hundred percent. Absolutely.

unknown:

Yes. Yes. Questioning or asking questions?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, absolutely. I'll kind of tack that on to discernment because it's more or less what what we're going for, asking God, you know, whether it's decision making or just asking God why. That I feel like that all falls into the exact same feeling. Um, and you know, unfortunately we don't always get those prayers answered, but they are still very important prayers to pray. Anything else? Wonderful. We're good to stop with this list, because I do still have a couple more things, and I think I'm supposed to be done by 12, right? More or less. 1201, I'm told they were pitchforks. So I put these in two categories, really for one main reason, is to understand, at least in my own interpretation of how I'm starting to see this, is there's really two main groups of prayers that we pray. Prayers of Thanksgiving, which I think is very uh seasonal appropriate, are coming up on Thanksgiving. Um, and then prayers of intercession. Uh I'm definitely saying that wrong. Yeah, that is definitely incorrect. Stephen don't know. I don't have the book in front of me that I uh that this is where I'm drawing this from. So I'll talk about in our next session the Book of Common Prayer Daily Office. In the Daily Office, there's two sections for people to add in: prayers of Thanksgiving and prayers of intercession. Thanksgiving, basically, giving everything to God. Thanking God for everything God has done for us, thanking God for all of our blessings, everything that we have, everything that we don't have and are glad to not have. As well as just generally anything, in my opinion, of statements we're making to God, not requests being made to God. Whereas intercession, that's more what I think of. We're asking God to do something for us, whether it be something good to heal, something bad to uh maybe hurt somebody we don't agree with, um uh asking for answers through discernment, asking God why, um, praying for unity, praying for God to heal the division that's caused within us. Um that's what I all generally would consider prayers of intercession. So when I talk about the daily office next time, I will walk through the two different sections of the daily office that says, you know, people of God, what else are we thankful for? People of God for what else do we pray for? So that's kind of the first why do we pray, the actual reasons of why we are turning to God. But there's a second why do we pray? Why do we actually engage in this practice? Um, Eugene Peterson in uh the introduction to answering God says thus prayer is technology. Prayers are tools. But with this clarification, prayers are not tools for doing or getting, but for being and becoming. At the center of the whole enterprise of being human, prayers are the primary technology. Prayers are tools that God uses to work his will in our bodies and souls. Prayers are tools that we use to collaborate in his work with us. I love that. The reason why he keeps turning back to tools is he introduces the evolution of man uh as a tool using creation. Some other mammals have figured out how to use tools, otters using rocks to break open shells and things along those lines. But no one quite uses tools to the extent we do. No other creature has figured out how to make that microphone pick my voice up. Only humanity has done this. So he refers to a lot of humanity in the sense of we need tools to accomplish the task that we're looking for. And prayer is how we accomplish the work of God. So we pray to change the world. Christians and many, many, many religions around the world believe that the simple act of prayer changes the world. Um I had a professor just recently try to explain this using 10th dimensional. It was it was way out there, so uh I'm not going there because it lost me, and I like to think I understand sci-fi a little bit, and whew, she went off the deep end. So, um, but there is the general sense that prayer does actively work, it does actually change the world. Um, I was just told a story, I believe it was yesterday, about a young woman that was struggling with cancer, and she gone through treatments for six years, and in this time she became pregnant. And of course, the whole time she's praying and praying. As she gives birth to this child, they resume testing and the cancer's gone. Scientifically, they believe that the stem cells from the child basically healed her cancer. That sounds like a fine intervention to me. And so it's easy to attribute some things to science. Science works because God makes it work, in my opinion. In my opinion, and 75 cents will get you a can of Coke in the drink machine, so uh, but one of the main things that I did also want to address in this, because I've heard a lot of people say this when we were in seminary and we were talking about praying. Why do we pray? Why do we engage in spiritual practice? And someone said to get closer to God. And I think that's a general-accepted thing. A lot of you probably agree with that. But it's wrong. And I'm sorry to tell you that it's wrong. Because, as we heard in the sermon, I think a couple weeks ago, or maybe it was a reading, I don't know. I keep coming back to Romans 8 for some reason, for the reason. For I'm convinced that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. How can we get closer when none of those things can separate us? There is no such thing as becoming closer to God. He's already here, he's already right in front of my eyes. God is in this room with us right now, listening and probably writing down all the things that I'm saying wrong. But it uh there is no such thing as becoming closer to God. We do it to feel closer to God. And that is the more correct statement is to feel closer to God. When we model Christ and when we model all the things that we say that we're supposed to do, we will feel closer. We will feel more Christ-like. And that's the important thing. We pray to change the world, and we pray to feel closer to our divine. Um, so I'm going to open up the floor for a little bit for reflection. So, has anyone made any prayers, having given any prayers, or heard any prayers given recently that really stopped and resonated? And why? I know it's a hard question.

SPEAKER_12:

You mean did we pray for something and it came to fruition?

SPEAKER_05:

Uh that could be something, or or you know, if you her prayer gave her something that you keep coming back to. I have a couple of examples that we don't get anything, but yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_12:

Well, I had lung cancer recently in which um, you know, I I persisted that the doctors um they found a spot and I said, I'm it's gotta come out of there, it's gotta come out of there. And I prayed and and um, you know, I just continued to persist. And um with I I say it's a god thing because uh it turned out that finally I um you know they I got a biopsy and it was cancer. And and I found it, they found it early enough that that that was it. That's wonderful. So I had sort of meaning, but yeah, I say it's a it's a god thing.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, 100%. Absolutely. Uh anytime I attribute doctors to find anything, someone gave them the knowledge to do that. So that's that's wonderful. Um cancer is something we hear talked about more and more every day, and it breaks my heart. Anyone else? Yes.

SPEAKER_10:

I come from a Southern Baptist family, so when you ask someone to say uh grace before a meal, you very sit down. It's all a lot of these and thous, and and you know, it's it's great. And you just feel the presence and you feel united in this lovely group of people. Recently, they asked him to do a blessing before a meal, and he did this as a three or four sentence blessing. And at the end, this short prayer, he said, I'm in. And I looked around and everybody was like, wow. Those three or four sentences caught it off. Yeah. And I think there was a little shock in the middle of it, but but it was just it it says to me, you don't have to pray for ever and ever and ever. You can you can get that, feel, feel that closeness, and and be ready for the response without too much.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. One of my uh professors keeps putting a very short word limit on my papers. And um, if you've ever received an email from me, if you've ever seen any of my writing, it goes on and on, and it's unnecessary, and I put in fluff, and it just it's it's unnecessary. So he is attempting to teach me and all of us divine brevity. Let's say what you need, short. Because, you know, especially in the sense of um in a sermon, you know, by the time I get to minute 10, y'all probably forgot minute one. I mean, I'm I'm just pouring out and pouring out and pouring out, and you make sure the message is clear, memorable, and concise. So I love Stephen's uh sermons. I've been to sermons before, they're 30 and 40 minutes, and obviously by the end of it, so so it's uh the the intention of brevity is is a good one. So that's that's absolutely it. And that's that's something we'll talk about in uh the next session of how is this is focusing on that brevity as well.

SPEAKER_01:

On the point of clear and concise and memorable, uh another shout out to Stephen. Uh, I think his benediction speaking about the world's problems and our responsibilities. Uh I find I find myself coming back to that uh just time and time again during the week. And uh it sticks with you.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Uh his benediction is what inspired my second sermon, the sermon on grief. Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. As I had sat down to think about it, I just kept thinking, I am daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. So I love that benediction, it's fantastic.

SPEAKER_08:

I I find that when I struggle with words of prayer too, I I I open up the nearest end roll. That to me is, and the the the pray that the prayer that I've been praying a lot lately is uh I can't remember if we say it the last week, the nice and pre-class or not, but it's Spirit Open My Heart by Ruth Duck. And the very first phrase that they're praying is Spirit opened my heart to the joy and pain of living. I just always have loved that opening line. Open my heart to the joy and the pain of living. And so I've just been saying that over and over again. And then the first verse says, God, replace my stony heart with the heart that's kind of tender. So sometimes I just pray over and over and over again, God soften my heart, soften my heart, soften my heart. Absolutely. A lot of times when I'm driving through that intersection right there, because I said that's right.

unknown:

The prayer is in conjunction with shaping this place. Yes.

SPEAKER_11:

I grew up Catholic most of my childhood, and I'm gonna show my age, but everything was in Latin. And, you know, so I really got very little out of the prayers that the priest was giving us. And then when my family switched over, literally within a week we were no longer Catholic, and we joined the Presbyterian church because my mother was a Girl Scout leader there. But I learned in high school how to pray. And I remember saying we had to all take turns going around saying a prayer out loud. And this young teacher said, We get so bogged down with Am I doing this right? The technique, you know, am I saying the right things? Am I saying thou and the again? I'm showing my age. But, you know, she said, just speak from your heart. God doesn't care if you're pronouncing a word wrong. And that just was impactful to me as an older teenager.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's something that's the reason for the course is that I mean, I got that. I I kept feeling like, how am I qualified to pray? You know, I don't know. No one sat me down and said, okay, you begin with saying, Oh, Father, but in heaven, hella be the name. I I wasn't there, you know. No one taught me that. I didn't come into the church until I was 13, 14 years old. So learning to pray didn't happen. You know, it was more, I listened and I imitated, and I listened, and I imitated a little more, and I started feeling my own voice, and was able to start doing more things. I by no means claim to be an expert in this. I'm I'm still very much so a beginner, but I feel like that's an important lesson to take away from this is that God doesn't care. God doesn't care about grammar. You know, we made grammar. God gave us the ability to make it, but it's more the English professors that care, you know, whether you have a run-on sentence or things along those lines. So it's absolutely so thank you for saying. What else?

SPEAKER_06:

You know, I I asked this pastor from this church that I belonged to at one time, because I was concerned about, you know, there has to be some type of formula. There has to be some type of formula for prayer, or or is there? And uh he he he he said, uh, well, um if you're struggling with that, think of the uh acronym, the axe, the word axe, you know, which uh those, you know, A-C T S, those acronyms mean adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. And uh that just helped me a whole lot. You know, to kind of yeah, that's a triather one. To try to bring it all in. Yeah, then you neglect something else. You know, the adoration, you might neglect the adoration, you might neglect the supplication or thanksgiving or confession, you know. Um, and so that just kind of brought it all in for me, you know, okay, if I can think about those kinds of things and include those things in my prayer, then maybe I can just kind of, you know, uh, you know, not be so long-wheel.

SPEAKER_05:

I uh a couple weeks ago I went out to dinner with a couple of the guys from my lodge. We just finished up a session at Grand Lodge, and we sat down to eat and I said, Well, Dylan, you're gonna be a pastor. Can you pray for us? Sure. I start going, I keep going, I keep going. Finally goes, amen. I'm here to assist and serve.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm going to just share something that's a little uh well, sometimes I think God answers thoughts that you would not have put into a prayer because you thought it was trying. Yeah. Let me give you an example. Years ago, when I was trying to make a decision about whether to downsize or not, I thought, well, I don't know how to begin, I don't know how to do it. If the person that helped me sell the house was around, I would know what to do, but I don't even know where she is. Two weeks later, I was driving down the street and this big billboard was there advertising a new housing development, and there was her picture. I mean, it was a prayer, but God listened to a feeling that I thought was too silly to pray for.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. It is amazing what God knows. Um it's that that's um when we were talking about discernment, that's 100% what our instruction was talking about. You don't always know what the sign is going to be. Yours, very clear, big billboard. Um, but it's amazing to see how God works into all of our prayers, even if we don't realize that we're praying. Um, something that I will talk about next week. Um, and I forgive me, I don't know the scripture, but there's a scripture that says something along the lines of um pray without ceasing. Uh, there's another book that says that size shall Have been a prayer or something like that. So more to come on that when as I've done more research and written things down. So I remember them uh standing in here. Um, but yeah, absolutely. Everything is a prayer. Every thought God knows, every feeling God knows. So that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

How about the prayer that Jesus gave the disciples to use? Yeah. Since they said, I don't know how to pray. So that's a good one.

SPEAKER_05:

It is. And uh that's that's going to be kind of the model that we talk about next time is making our own prayers. Using a prayer is not a problem. We do it almost every week at church. Our Father in Heaven, hallowed be the name. We do that almost every week at church. I have multiple organizations that we do that every meeting. So there's nothing wrong with reusing prayers. There's nothing wrong with writing something and going back to it, maybe modifying it over time to better fit your needs at the moment. Um, but absolutely. I mean, everyone knows the Lord's Prayer for the most part. So yes.

SPEAKER_10:

A confession. I love football. I wish I did.

unknown:

And I had a favorite football coach, a college football coach, and I just thought he was the best thing in the world.

SPEAKER_10:

Until a press conference one time, he said before every game, he prays for victory. And frequently after victories in his press conference, he would say, God was with us, God granted my prayer.

unknown:

And it hit me. I don't think God really cares whether that team wants to be.

SPEAKER_10:

I think there are bigger things in the world that we should be in communion with God about. I don't like him anymore.

SPEAKER_03:

And you know, I thought that very same thing, and I thought, oh, you think he let me win? He let the other team lose? It just won him.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, that's uh that's always something very interesting when, especially when uh, you know, you think about like actors when they get up and they set the Grammy. First I'd like to thank God. You know, yes, God gave you life, God gave you talent. I didn't give you the Grammy. Some overpaid people in Hollywood gave you the Grammy, like, I don't know. It's that's always felt very weird to me, and I feel like it puts this idea of superiority into our culture. Of, well, I succeeded, so I am God's favorite. Absolutely not. And that's what irritates me a lot, and I'm not gonna get on the soapbox, but if I ever give a sermon about um Moses, I'm probably gonna upset some people. Because I upset some people in seminary because I had some harsh words about Moses. Um, I have a very big problem with the phrase God's chosen.

SPEAKER_09:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, I just had actually a conversation early in the morning hours uh Saturday morning as we were finishing up uh making barbecue. Of well, who was God's chosen people that wasn't Christians? So I had some choice words for that rebel. Um so, like I said, I'm not getting on the soapbox, but I don't I I fully agree. I don't like, you know, God gave us this victory. Okay, so God gave them defeat. No, your team brought you the victory, God gave them the talent to do so, but that's about it.

SPEAKER_08:

So there's a great cartoon. Uh and one slide is a football player who's just had a touchdown and he's going, this one's for you, Jesus. And then the next slide is Jesus up in heaven, uh nursing a beer and watching hockey. Always giving you a trouble when you have a positive thing with me.

SPEAKER_02:

I was gonna say uh piggybacking on that, I think prayer has gotten a bad rap because we've made it transactional. Yeah. Um, and then also um, I mean, what do we say to folks that say I prayed and prayed and prayed and I still got sick or I still you know, so that's where the prosperity gospel that that's part of that's one of the side effects of the prosperity gospel, this idea of God as the divine vending machine.

SPEAKER_08:

Right when life happens certainly does call into question. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Yeah, that's that that that brings it right back to, you know, we we do devalue the word prayer. Um we don't, I don't think. I think our church has been very good about, you know, making sure we understand how to address prayers, how to pray appropriately. Um but yeah, you know, God granted my prayer and won the football game, but a thousand children just died in Africa. So thank goodness we're watching the football game and not over there. So yeah, it's it's very interesting. Um so to keep us on track, um, like I said, I'm not gonna go through uh the hymn in full. Um I do recommend if y'all didn't get one in the back, I will make sure some gets back to you. Um but just take a minute to to kind of look through the hymn and uh speaking stick top to you. Um I will fully admit the first thing that uh George told me about this hymn, I got some memory back to it. Okay, just that very first line. Prayer is the soldier to your design.

SPEAKER_01:

Lots of our hymns are prayers.

SPEAKER_05:

Absolutely. Yeah, yeah. Um, and so like I said, you can turn to the songs, or Stephen said you can turn to the hymn book. The hymn book is full of prayers. Well, I should be talking about that next time because the hymn has a small piece of the divine offering, uh the divine office in it. So uh I will have uh a hymn book in here next time along with the book of common prayer and some other stuff. So yeah, anything else that sticks out to people? Um I I love this hymn, it's absolutely beautiful.

SPEAKER_10:

I like unuttered.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah, because a lot of our prayers are silent, and we'll talk about that a lot next week. Is that um, like Donna said, God answered the prayer that was a thought. Everything can be a prayer. Um, you know, and in the Presbyterian faith, we don't tend to have uh the prayers of intercession in the middle where people stand up and exclaim, you know, prayers of thanksgiving or interjectory prayers, I suppose, is more the word I'm looking for there. Um when we get to our uh confessions, when we get to our uh prayers of the people, we take a moment of silence and we pray in silence. Another prayers, that's what that is.

SPEAKER_01:

Put how to pray for your enemies on the list of things and talk about it next week. Yeah, definitely, absolutely.

SPEAKER_08:

I uh I really like verse three. Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try. Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high. I just I like the the thing about infants, uh, infant lips there. We had one of our youngest disciples make his way up to the table today. And um, I just love, it's not the first time that I've seen infants, toddlers, young kids approach the table with this sense of, oh, something different's happening here. This this sense of wow, what's going on? And then like after that, and then um uh Charlie uh was really impatient, really wanted to get to that bread. Like a lot a little bit. But like this idea, I want this, I need this, this sort of just like like that's a form of prayer of just being excited about grace, and I just thought that was a really great moment in worship today.

SPEAKER_12:

That was really sweet today when that tells. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So praying precious together was precious and he stood there and watching everybody come up the aisle to get communion.

unknown:

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02:

My grandson, when he was little, came up and said, When could I be fed? Oh wow. Oh wow. So he got fed.

SPEAKER_08:

That's a great prayer right there.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah. Wow. When can I be fed? Jordan and I were kind of navigating um how we can teach Jesse how to pray. And we're kind of going off no brevity, which was not good for a two-year-old. But we're like, how can we simplify? Because he doesn't know what like adoration or confession means, so how do we boil it down to the basics? And sometimes it was a thank you, God, for when I'm happy, be with me when I'm sad, help me listen when I'm silly, because that's helpful for a two-year-old, and be gentle when I'm mad. And that kind of boils it down to. Yeah, that's right. But that's it, and then it's over, and that was like it for Jesse, because he was like, I can understand those terms.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah. Remember, remember your audience when you're praying. Remember who's listening for group prayers. So just in order to make sure we get out as close to 12 as possible, we'll go ahead and move on. Um if there's any quick questions that the group might be interested in. Fantastic. Good. Because we're out of noon. So I'm gonna close with prayer. Um there any uh prayer concerns be addressed? I have to write them down because I have terrible over.

SPEAKER_08:

As I mentioned several times in the service, the tens of millions of people who are not sure if their staff benefits are gonna be there, or if they are, if they're gonna be delayed. You know, that's just heavy on my heart this day.

SPEAKER_00:

I found out uh my two best friends are in high school. Um one, um, her sister-in-law passed away, yes. Oh no, I'm sorry, her brother-in-law passed away. And then my other friend, her um stepdaughter's uncle passed away. So just within the last couple days.

SPEAKER_05:

So my hand.

SPEAKER_04:

Um Jordan and I lost one of our closest college friends to cancer this past week. She was uh 31 years old with a mom of three. What was her name? Kate.

SPEAKER_05:

Sorry, my my she's never given me permission to say her. My stepsister's name is Katie, and she was recently diagnosed with cancer, and I was like, surely my mom would have told me. Surely she would have told me, and then I remembered she has two children and not three.

SPEAKER_06:

So um my son-in-law has some health challenges. His name is Danny.

SPEAKER_05:

Uh is he the one that just had uh surgery? Was that your son? No, uh, you just had uh someone that had surgery a couple weeks ago. Is that the same? He said his name is Vinny. Yes. All right, please join me in prayer. Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, knower and understander of all things, giver of all good gifts and graces, we thank you for this time spent together in the study and your mysteries. We specifically pray for the snap recipients, may they be able to find food in this time of uncertainty. For uh Maria's best friends from high school that are both currently dealing with grief. For Katie and all of her family and friends who are currently dealing with grief as well, and for all those across the world currently suffering with grief and loss. And for Anthony's son-in-law Vinny, who is recovering. For all those named and unnamed, be with them, grant them peace and rest. May we all depart in peace, return home safely, and meet together once again next week to further explore your mystery. In the name of your Son, the risen Lord Jesus Christ, may we pray as he taught, saying, Our Father, who are in heaven, hallelujah be thy name.

SPEAKER_07:

Thy kingdom come, thy glory God on earth. Give us our kingdom prayer. Give us our desk. But deliver us from people with eyes of the kingdom and power and a glory forever.

unknown:

Can I say something? Absolutely.

SPEAKER_12:

Um I was getting up out of the pew and I looked back, I guess I was getting my jacket, and there was this coin. And I thought it was a quarter. So I was gonna look for somebody to how can I get this in the you know, and so I brought it in here. I thought, oh, somebody in here will know what I can do with it. Well, you know what? It's a coin, but it has an angel on each side of it. And I thought that was so interesting for today. And you know what we prayed for and celebrated, and I thought, wow.

SPEAKER_08:

And just flying around the bed. All right. All right, I hope all can uh come back at four o'clock for a hint stay if you're available. All right, thank you, Dylan.