How do you access the access? /// FOLLOW x UP

Episode 010: How do you access the access?

Prayer is one of the most common spiritual practices, yet many of us only know one way to do it: asking God for what we need.

In this first conversation of a five-part series on prayer, Eric Parks and Steve Carter explore a different starting point—adoration. Before requests, before confession, before thanksgiving, prayer begins by remembering who God is and allowing that reality to reshape our own.

Rather than seeing prayer as another religious task, Eric and Steve invite listeners to see it as the foundation of spiritual formation and a relationship that grows over time. Along the way, they unpack why adoration changes our perspective, what neuroscience suggests happens in our brains when we focus on God’s greatness, and how learning to “access the access” we’ve already been given can transform the way we pray.

Meet your hosts, Eric Parks and Steve Carter

Eric Parks

Eric is an Executive Pastor at Plum Creek Church in Castle Rock, Colorado, who cares deeply about helping people rehearse the way of Jesus in everyday life—and holds firm as a Denver Broncos fan, no matter how often Steve brings up the Bears.

Steve Carter

Steve is the Lead Pastor at Christ Church in Oak Brook, Illinois, offering a thoughtful and honest voice to the deeper work of formation and calling—and remains a devoted Chicago Bears fan, even with Eric representing Broncos country.

Explore all of Follow

We’re all following something—habits, expectations, ambition—but Jesus offers a different way. A way marked by love, presence, trust, and a life that actually leads somewhere good. Not perfectly, but increasingly, we begin to shape our lives around his.

We believe that if Jesus is right—about God, about life, about the soul—then is only makes sense to rearrange your life around what he says is true.

Follow isn’t a program to complete or a path to master, but a way of life centered on Jesus. A way of living that takes shape over time through a steady rearrangement of our lives—our priorities, our rhythms, and the things we trust most.

Links

Follow: https://www.followtheway.church/

Plum...

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Most of the time, I live with me at the center of the universe. In a given day, the tens of thousands of thoughts that I have, they're mostly about me. I am the center of my own universe, and adoration is really important because it sets the stage for the reality of how the whole wide world works. At least that's how I think about it.

SPEAKER_01 0:22

It's almost like this portal to a deeper level of presence with the God of all creation and with ourselves. The creator actually wants to hear from us all of it. A little amend to the petition, to the confession, to adoration, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_00 0:58

The single most important oriented belief that if Jesus was right about God and life and the human soul, then it would make sense that we rearrange our lives around what he said is true. So that's what we're exploring. All that Jesus said was true and how to rearrange our lives around it. And um I think this is gonna be good. I'm really excited about it. Well, I think the prayer guides have just been amazing.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

I mean, just good.

SPEAKER_00 1:40

I've had so many people. For those of you that that maybe aren't aware, you can check in the um in our notes. We have a prayer guide. It's a five-week study, and this study just walks you through specific practices of prayer, and they are five very distinct practices, and what's going to be cool over the next five weeks of our podcast. We're we're gonna touch on each of these practices, how to pray. So you so if if you're interested in checking out the guide, you're able to do that in the notes. But yeah, it's it really has been foundational, and I think I've been surprised by how many people have said I I don't know how to pray. You know, I don't I have no clue how to pray. I mean, we know how to pray, maybe a singular type of prayer, but in general, I don't know how to pray. And I think that might be a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:47

I I do.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I I think that for many people and the the different types of prayers we we explore are so beneficial, but maybe before we dive into one of them, just talk about your relationship with prayer. What is it? Why is it important? Um how does it get fleshed out in your life? And yeah, just because I think almost to set the level playing field for anybody who's kind of coming in, going, I think I know what prayer is, or I think I know why I pray, or I think we should pray.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

What what what is it to you? Okay, so we talk a ton about, I mean, this this podcast is about taking the idea of formation and making it accessible to anybody, right? Like formation is not a stream, it's not like a singular thing, just a few people do. But in the same way, what I've come to believe and understand is prayer isn't a part of formation. Prayer is formation. Like if you look at Jesus, one, we should be praying because our rabbi did, like this is what Jesus did. Um, you see, it weaved throughout his life. He uh he prayed consistently, constantly. He this was before big decisions, this was part of his life. It was a way in which he existed. So I don't I don't think he can be formed without prayer. We often think about prayer as even in the frameworks we're gonna teach, you know, we know the petition part, we ask for stuff, but what we're really doing in prayer is building a relationship with God. And through the relationship, we are formed, right? I have this little book, it's 101 conversations for date nights with Chrissy. And so oftentimes when we go on a date night, I'll pack that book in my back pocket, and it just gives us good starter conversations. I actually think about all these forms of prayer that we're gonna be processing over the next five weeks in similar ways. It is a the the guide, it isn't about me getting through the 101 questions. That's not the point. The point is these little little tools actually allow the relationship to sort of blossom, brings about things that maybe questions I hadn't thought about, um, or uh puts us in places we hadn't really considered. Similarly, I think there are more than five forms of prayer. The five things we're gonna talk about adoration and confession, and um uh we're gonna talk about lament, uh petition, thanksgiving. The these are all about ultimately forging a relationship with God. I mean, that's that's the point, right? Is a form is a relationship.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

So explain this to me because I think that there's people who are listening who are so, you know, they've they've been a part of the follow-up fam, like just kind of listening in. And then there's other people who are checking us out and they hear the word formation, or they think about prayer, and you know, you use this great example of you and Chrissy going on a date. Imagine you going on a date, and for the entire two and a half hours, it's just you talking. Or me asking for things, or me. Or asking for things. Or like, how does how does prayer work? And I always say this like, you know, often we'll be like, our producer Luke always asks these like most honest and human questions, you know, but like, but thinking about for like a person who doesn't have long-term church or theological training are you asking me to like talk to myself, talk to the spirit, talk to God? What do we ever hear anything back? What what do you feel? What comes how do you how do you how do you engage with that when there's new people at Palm Creek who are being introduced to the concept of prayer for the first time? Um how do you unpack that in regards to prayer is formation? Yeah, how do you how do you explain that?

SPEAKER_00 7:21

That's hard. Here's why. It would be like if Harry came to me, he's 18. That's our that's my son, and he said, Hey dad, can you explain to me exactly what marriage is? Right? Yeah. How do you even start to describe after 30 years? Christy and I have been married for 30 years, what marriage is, because marriage is a bunch of things, it's not a singular thing, it's not just the times, the the the times where we were on mountaintops, it's not just the vacations, it's not just the mundane, it's not just all the intimacy, it's not just it's all of these things. And in a moment, to try to describe like all of these different components of this relationship is actually a bit of a challenge. So when I think about prayer, I don't think you can describe it in one particular way. Yeah, I I I really don't. I don't think describing prayer as this one thing does justice to what it is. Uh, because at the end of the day, it is true that prayer, when we see Jesus do it consistently, this is about how we are deeply connected to God in a multitude of ways. But that is why. That is why beginning to explore it from a multitude of ways is exceedingly important. That uh that would, you know, it's like again, uh the stat on prayer is when Barnes asked people, do they pray? There's a lot of people who pray, but that's only because they describe prayer in a very specific way, and that is to ask God, I need you to do something for me. And what we're looking at is how to explore prayer from this relational component that looks more like marriage and less like, you know, just a singular request. What does that look like to build a relationship with this God that knows you, who has formed you, who thought you up? And that is the essence of prayer, and that is why it's gonna take more than a sentence for us, right? It's gonna take over the next five weeks. I'm really hopeful that people will um dial in. And what we're gonna teach in the next five weeks, hopefully, is a little bit like the 101 conversation books. It teaches you ways to engage with God, to build a relationship, and through that relationship, the formation of your heart and your spirit and your soul begins to happen. So it's hard to describe it beyond hey, this is a relationship. This is about a connection, it's about something deeper than just a request, so that you really can get in touch with the God who knows you. That's how I think about it.

SPEAKER_01 10:13

That's beautiful. Yeah, I think each of these postures that we're gonna explore.

SPEAKER_00 10:41

I like that word two postures. That's good. Yeah, it's a good one.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Each of these postures we'll explore with prayer. You will be surprised because what often the tide of today or the current of today works really, really hard to make us more closed off to ourselves, uh, to the spirit, to each other. Um in what these postures and what I think honestly the fruit of formation of prayer is is making us wildly more open to God's presence, um, to God's perspective, um making us more open as people, to another, to ourselves, to um to our pain or our grief or to um the the present moment that's right before us, uh to um even just uh to owning um when we've uh actually gotten something wrong. Like it it just it it's almost like this portal to a deeper level of presence um with the God of all creation and with ourselves. And and and just the way you said that, it's like oh, and and so I think sometimes when we think of prayer, it's like hands come together, head bowed, eyes closed, you know, both feet touching the ground, and and there's something in there, but even it's just that innately has us like closed off to what's happening around us, rather than what prayer is really doing is it's so expansive to help us understand that God is closer than our very breath. And how do we stay open um in in adoration or in thanksgiving or stay open in confession or lament or even in our petition?

SPEAKER_00 12:54

And so um no, I think it's gonna be really great. I think about so often we have this idea of a we all hear Christians talk about a prayer life. You know, like I have a prayer life, which I think is like, oh, this thing that I do in the morning for a few minutes, and you know, I don't know. A lot of people are like, Well, I I don't really have a prayer life, or I don't know how to do that practice. And I don't, I don't know if I it's sort of like saying, Do you have a marriage life? I'm like, Well, I'm married, yeah, it's all my life. Yeah, it I don't I'm not married when I go to the Broncos game, and I'm not not married when Chrissy doesn't happen to be with me. I'm married all the time, and I think for myself, I'm trying to move towards maybe a better understanding of prayer, um, maybe in that perspective. Do you know what I mean? Does that sort of make sense? A thousand percent.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

I mean, again, theological frameworks I think are helpful, at least for me. But if you think about in the Hebrew scriptures, what we know is the Old Testament, you would go to a temple, and depending on if you were a priest, a Jewish male, Jewish woman, or a Gentile, you could only get so close to the presence of God. And the the great reality of Matthew, when Jesus dies, that temple curtain is torn. Yeah. And then the whole idea of Jesus coming was to give us access to our creator, which means like the preacher on Sunday or the worship leader on Sunday and the listener driving in their Honda Civic has the same level of access to their creator, not because of a professional title, but because of what was done um on the cross and and on Easter and the Empty Tomb. And so I think part of it is like so much of us, I think we come like almost like I gotta do this well to get access without realizing like, oh no, like you you already have access because you're already married, like you're you're you're you have access right because of what has been done, and and I think prayer is kind of awakening and opening to that reality, like the creator actually wants to hear from us all of it. A little lament to the petition, to the confession, to adoration, and everything in between.

SPEAKER_00 15:35

So I love that. Well, and I think you know, you're a pastor, I'm a pastor. Our goal is to teach prayer as this foundational component of the relationship. Like you have access, but there's something that you have to do. As Dallas said once, I heard him say, uh, without Jesus, you can do nothing. But if you do nothing, it will be without Jesus. In other words, like, yeah, totally you you have access, but how do we then access the access? And I I really do believe the next five weeks of teaching us these frameworks of prayer are really key for every person who truly is trying to follow Jesus, trying to be transformed. This prayer practice is how we access the access.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

I just love how you said that. I'm gonna I'm gonna think about that for a while. Uh, the practice of prayer is learning how to access the access we already have.

SPEAKER_00 16:54

Quick stats on prayer. Forty-four percent of Americans pray every day. That this is what Barna said. Two-thirds of the country prays with some regularity, or at least this is what they say. Okay. So um when people say nobody prays anymore, that's actually not true. That isn't true. People are praying. The question is, what are they praying? And what you find at the center of our prayers is we don't really know about adoration or confession. We actually only know one type of prayer and it's petition. And the that's that's important. We're gonna talk about petition, but we actually talk about it at the very end. Like if you think about the process of prayer, there is something that happens when we first acknowledge who it is that we're talking to. And so when I think about adoration, honestly, it it this is this the true setup that takes me out of being the center of the universe, right? Most of my prayers have me at the center when it's petition, and and that's okay. We're invited to bring our prayers, but I think there's something that happens to us when we stop for a minute and we realize who we're talking to, like truly realize it. And that's what adoration does. Like, if you look at like the the framework of adoration, it is just acknowledging who God is, how big he is, how wonderful he is, how amazing he is. Like, there is something that sets us straight when we walk into the relationship and we don't start with me at the center. Really, adoration in a bunch of ways is putting rightfully God back into the center of all of it. Like He is the He is the thing, right? He is the dude, He is the light, He is the source. And so it does do something to our mental framework. And I do think when when you look at the Lord's Prayer, you know, we look at the our rabbi and how he prayed, he sets this up from the jump. He says, Our father who art in heaven. He doesn't say me who is in heaven, me who has you know the things that I want. He goes, No, no, no, you, you are in heaven. And I do think that for me, learning a particular rhythm of adoration has been important because, like I said, it um it sets the it sets my heart straight. It lets me know who I'm talking to. And honestly, there is a particular practice that I follow, which we'll unpack. But I think you know, to your question, why do we need to do this is because I honestly think most of the time I live with me at the center of the universe. Well, I don't mean to necessarily I don't know if I mean to, but I don't in a given day, with the hundreds of the tens of thousands of thoughts that I have, they're mostly about me. And what I want, what I don't have, where I want to go. I'm very I'll be honest. I love you, Carter. I probably just don't think much about you in a day. I really don't. I'm not going, I wonder what Steve's what what should I do for Steve today? Well, you know, like the it I am the center of my own universe, and adoration is really important because it sets the stage for the reality of how the whole wide world works. At least that's how I think about it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 20:28

Oh, I think it's really, really good. Richard Foster, his book on prayer. Uh, I remember the first time I read it, I I literally put it down. I stopped reading it. Oh, you did. Um, and it wasn't, and the reason I stopped reading it, um, no shade on Richard Foster, but he was talking about the human condition. Yeah. And he just said, um uh people who are beginning at prayer will start with prayers with them at the center. Absolutely. And I was like, I don't, I don't, I don't, I want to learn how to pray. Why are we why are we talking about this? And so I put the book down. And it wasn't until like I got to the point where as you grow in your faith and your maturity, you actually begin to realize you're no longer at the center and and God is at the center. It's huge. And and I and and he but he was naming the natural tendency is we center ourselves, we center ourselves in prayer, we center ourselves in prayer, all of a sudden, oh wait, maybe maybe somebody else is at the center. Oh wait, maybe God is at the center. I'm gonna trust that God's at the center. And there's just this progression and formation when it comes to prayer, the practice of prayer.

SPEAKER_00 21:33

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

When when you think about adoration, yeah, Eric, like you talked about a specific framework that you have. Are they phrases that like jolt you to the point that get you? Is it scripture? Is it a certain posture? What what is that what does that look like for you? And how does it play out?

SPEAKER_00 21:53

In Isaiah, uh, there's this passage in Isaiah, Isaiah six, where it was like, holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. I think I I think starting with it's not holy, holy, holy is Eric and his needs and wants. Like there is this God, regardless of what he's ever done for me, who is holy. And the the whole earth is full of his glory. Like setting myself straight to just go hold hold on. Like the God of the universe who thought all of this up, like thought it all up. Who thought me up. I'm about to talk to him. So I need to like understand for a second. Oh, he really is like holy and perfect and good. And and uh we did a prayer practice at at the church where we were walking someone just walking people through this first, like just acknowledging his greatness. And one of the prompts we use is if you saw what Isaiah saw, what would you say? Like for real, like in your words. I know we don't normally use the word holy, but if you saw, if you could truly see how big and grand and great the creator of the universe was, what would you say to that? And for me, I try really hard to recreate it in my words. Like, what do I say to this? There is something that happens when I stop and realize all there is this God who has traced all of this out, all of it. What would I say about him? How do I how do I articulate it in my words? Like I I'm better writing my prayers than I am like I get lost in my own sauce when I'm just like thinking. And so just walking through the practice of like, oh, okay, this is how I would describe it. This is how I would describe his holiness. And and I think that's important because sometimes it's it does move to another another part of for me. I I do want to think about his faithfulness to me, but I always start with how big he is and how holy he is and how grand he is, regardless of what he's ever done for me. This is the God of the universe, and that's sort of like a big deal. Yeah, so that's one of the ways in which I start to frame who I'm talking to, and that is adoration. That's a big part of adoration.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Yeah, it's it's interesting, like you think about you know, you going to meet your wife's parents for the first time. I mean, this is these are the people who made Chrissy. Yeah, these are the people who uh love her, yeah, have raised her. What did you wear? What did you think about going into that first conversation? You know, it's it's a it's a sense of in one piece. I think one one whole generation made God so distant. Yeah, uh, because he was just so powerful, right? And then another generation it got to a point like, you know, Jesus is my buddy, like uh, you know, and it got so yeah, so personal. I think there's this this managing of the tension, but you know, for almost 2,000 years, one of the primary um ways that the liturgy has been shaped and formed has been based on Isaiah 6. Absolutely. So starting with um a pronouncement of we are about to enter into the holiness of God and to give yourself silence and space to prepare your heart and your mind for just even slowing it down before like before any words come out of my mouth, it's just like do you know what you're standing before?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

Bro, this is so key. Andrew Newberg, he's a neuroscientist, he's done a ton of work on how things work. Listen to this that during adoration, like when we're doing this, what you just described, uh, the activity in the parritial lobe, is that how you say it? Is it the paratial lobe, the parietal lobe? Um, I'm not a neuroscientist, but I this lobe of your brain, right? That part of the brain that constructs your sense of self and separates you from the world, it measurably decreases while the frontal lobe, which focuses attention, it lights up, right? It there's something that happens where it actually takes the attention off of us, it makes our brain go, wait a minute, wait a minute. I am not the most important thing in the whole wide world, even though I think about Mia all the time, right? So, like adoration literally turns down the part of your brain that makes you the protagonist. It turns it down. You you stop being the protagonist of the story. And it it's like it's exceedingly important in terms of understanding our place, our place in the world, who God is. And we've we've we've we've talked about this before. The reason why that's important is because then we start to realize, well, maybe all of this isn't on me. Maybe I'm not the one that has to secure my own safety, secure my own future. Like maybe there is something bigger than me that cares for me, that walks alongside me. And um, my insistence of managing it and controlling it, it actually starts to decrease in these moments of adoration. The simple process of Isaiah 6 and going, You're holy and you're big and you're important, it actually does stuff to me to help me understand. And there's something in that that creates a sense of safety, belonging, connectivity that when it's only about me and it's only my stuff, I mean, I'm sure I I have been to dinners where someone has asked me how I'm doing, and I just word vomit all about me and realize by the time I went home, I never ask about the other person. Never because I'm so focused on me and my stuff because I live with it. Adoration jars me out of it for a minute, right? Goes, oh, wait a minute, it isn't all on me. There is a God that does love me, he is walking with me. And there's it does actually do something to your nervous system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:59

And you think about again, liturgy, then being to inform, and we talked about this, you know, in the first few episodes of the follow-up series. We just talked about um the liturgy as rehearsal. Yeah, when you start to kind of rehearse the Isaiah 6, but you walk into a church service, you know, for so many, many years, the hymns and the songs that we sang were all to lift our head, to lift our eyes up, to have this sense of, you know, the amazing grace. Yep. Um, to to sing the songs like about the character and the nature of God. It's interesting though, now we're we've we're in a season that some some of the worship songs are driven more around even centering ourselves, or even like centering a characteristic about God that's not even true. I was talking to another pastor, and he's like, Why would we even sing that he could not he he can't fail? Like, why, why would, why, why, like, you know, like we fail. Yeah, he can't, but like it's it's and and he just went on this massive riff on that, and he's like, all that does is it brings your head down when healthy adoration makes you see above the malaise and the mundane of of self and today, and um, and there's a moment to like then have the reflection of where I am and where God is and all of that, but to start with just uh how amazing it is, for those of you that don't know, Steve Carter is as devoted a Chicago sports fan. Goes go.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

He is so devoted. But you talked about the early days of that team that won the World Series, right? 2016? 2016. And how the general manager, Theo Epstein, uh how the the three of them sort of shared credit. It it has a little bit of this like buttered up. Tell that story because I think that's kind of a cool story.

SPEAKER_01 31:25

So Theo Epstein, uh general manager, uh the Tom Ricketts, who is the owner, and then Joe Madden, who was the coach. And not going to try to compare them to the the Trinity, but I will uh just for a moment, is they made a pact, they made a disagreement that if that they would share the favor. And so if somebody said, Hey, man, Ricketts, you're the best owner in baseball, and he goes, I just write checks. You know, I write checks about who Theo thinks we should sign, and I trust that we have the best coach and developer talent in Joe Madden. And then Joe Madden, you're the greatest coach. Well, I only can coach the players that are paid for, that Ricketts writes the checks for, and that Theo scouts and believes will help us reach our goal. And if you actually look at the way that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit interact, and Jesus says, and I only do what I see my father doing. He says that uh it's good for me to go, that there's one even greater than I that is coming, a father saying, This is my son and whom I love and whom I'm well pleased. Listen to him. Like the the shared adoration, even between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this is not something where they're like, just give me glory. This was a practice that they actually practiced in communing and connection um with one another. And I just I think for me, um, there's something so beautiful that when you can actually um really do that prayer of adoration well, um, you can start to see the image of God easier in others to call that out and be less driven by scarcity and threats, and more driven by the magnificent um gift God created um in this world and in people.

SPEAKER_00 33:28

I agree. And I I I do think that's why I really encourage people as they're starting their journey in this relationship. Access to the access, adoration is so important. It takes you out of the center, it makes you charitable because you realize you're not fully responsible. Yeah, you can be really charitable when you don't feel like you're fully responsible. You have this God that's looking out for you. And and I I will tell people often uh the second part of the framework is faithful or is is important. Yes, who is God? Start with who he is, but then go back and think about his faithfulness. When we this borderlines on the prayer of Thanksgiving, but there is something in adoration to recognize verbally, like God, you have been so good to me and faithful to me. I have seen it time and time again. There's something in just thanking him for his. I that's why I love that story, is something happens in the room when people are willing to just you know share, just to share, go, look, this isn't about me. Yeah, I see these things in you, and adoration is rightfully going, God, this isn't about me. And yet, in in your omniscience and in your perfectness and in your how much you love me, you have cared for me. Like you have genuinely showed up in all of these significant ways. I will tell you that if if if you just practiced adoration for a season and that's the only thing you did, it will revolutionize your life because it starts to help you understand your place in the universe. And here's what's interesting I don't feel smaller. Me not being at the center doesn't make me feel smaller at all. It actually makes me feel held and seen, makes me feel like I'm walking through life with the person who created all this and like he sees me. And it may not go the way that I exactly want it, but I'm pretty good with that because he's the architect of it all. And so there's something really comforting in that, right? Revolutionary in that.

SPEAKER_01 35:46

Yeah, in if you're listening to this, just take a moment and think if it's all on you, how does that feel? If it's all on God, how that feels like feel that in your and in in your body, like if it's all on you, just feel that in the openness, um, and the lack of it, or if it's all on God. Oh, just that that peace that comes. And so I think you're so right. But I also love then when you start to look back, and this is where adoration is going to bleed into all of the others. Yeah. Because you're gonna you're gonna have these moments, you're gonna look back, and you're like, oh, thanks be to God. Thanks. Uh you were you were with me, you never left me, you never forsake me. Thanks be to God. You got me through this valley, this desert. Uh, you're gonna have these moments of just profound uh sense of when it's hard that you actually, and I I can bring anything to you. And so you're so right. It's like how adoration. It is a great setup, you know, because all of a sudden you you're going on this path, and then it's like you're now it's like going down a lazy river. You're you're starting with yourself, and then all of a sudden, oh, Thanksgiving comes. Oh, all of a sudden, like confession comes, all of a sudden, oh, you know, um petitions come, and and yet you get to see it from a place of a God who is on high and who is holding it all together.

SPEAKER_00 37:26

That's it's huge, it's beautiful. It's the setup, and I think that's why we wanted to kick off the series with this. And I I do I like I like the way that Luke, our producer, talks about it. And Carter, you said this about uh how do we say it with a touch in the bottom of the pool? Um, is that how we say it? Touch the bottom of the pool. So I I don't either really. Luke says he doesn't understand it, but I think it's such a beautiful thing.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

So good at skimming the surface, you know, but but when you can get down to like actually like it, it's like taking all the meat off the bone. Yeah, you know, you're just you're getting to like the the thing, the the yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:07

So here's the invitation uh for our listeners. Before you do anything, one you you understanding prayers, this is foundational to you moving beyond acting like a Christian and becoming someone where these things just naturally flow out of you. What if you took one verse, one minute, one breath, you pick one attribute of God this week. Just this it holy or faithful or eternal or good, and you just sit with it on the way to work. Like as you're done with this podcast, what's the one thing? You just sit with that one thing, replay that thing on your mind. Just don't ask for anything, just like notice. Like, and that honestly, that practice, whether you know it or not, that is prayer. And this is the doorway, this is the access to the access. So maybe you'll try it this week. Try one verse, one minute, one breath. Pick an attribute of God and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01 39:09

So good. Well, the one I often regularly come back to is Zephaniah 3.17. And it says, The Lord God is with us, He's mighty to save, He takes great delight in you, He rejoices over you singing, and he'll quiet you and remind you of His love. And I and I and I can read that and I can center myself very, very easily. But then when I take a step back and I go, This is a God who is with people. This is a God who is mighty to rescue. This is a God who delights in his kids. This is a God who sings over us. This is a God who in my anxiety reminds me I'm loved. Just just saying this is this is a God, and then to be able to like flip it and go, This is my God. You know, just and and it's just one simple verse, just like you said, but like if you can find that, and that might work for a month or two, and then you gotta dig a new well and have another verse where it's like Isaiah 6, and you're like, you need a word like holy, holy, like you need something that wakes you up. Great, and then maybe you you just listen to even people the way that they start prayers. Um, blessed be the name of the Lord, the name of the Lord. Uh, you know, a name above every name. Like you just start to see it, and and I think take a verse, like Eric's saying, sit in it, and then just bring that level of appreciation and adoration and of like who God truly is, and watch how it pulls you farther away from the center, and as Eric says, puts you in your rightful place. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 40:57

Well, maybe maybe this week you guys will try it. And this is formational to formation. So I hope you will. I hope you'll dig in. And I do hope you'll tune in over the next four weeks because we're gonna keep uh sort of peeling back the onion on what prayer looks like. It's gonna be pretty cool. So that's gonna do it for today. If something landed for you in this conversation, don't just let it sit. Take it with you. Carry it into your week. Talk about it with somebody, let it do something in you. And if you want to go deeper, click on the link in the show notes. We'll be back soon with more. So until then, keep following up.