Live as you Pray and Pray as you Live

How is your "prayer life"?  Is there some legalistic box you've put your prayer inside that you "should" pray a certain way.  We can live as we pray and pray as we live with infinite creative options to encounter God.  Join Aimee in this discussion as we sit at Jesus' feet and walk through the open door to encounter God.

Transcript

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How do you pray as you live and live as you pray? Join me. This is Amy Kowley Mulder saying it is possible to have a vibrant life, but it's also a life of prayer.

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It doesn't matter if you're rich or doesn't matter if you're young or alive. Often matters if you answer the door, just come to change your life. Give it up to God.

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Welcome to the All Glory to God podcast. This is Reverend Dr. Amy Copley Mulder saying to you that we need to live as we pray and pray as we live. We're talking today about your prayer life matching all of the dreams you have for your actual life and maybe not even having a separate prayer life, but it all coming together in a glorious quilt of you encountering God in every situation. Could it happen? Live as you pray, pray as you live. This is Amy Cockley Mulder. And I am just so tired, friends. I'm tired. I am excited to talk about this because this is such an important thing, and this topic has been brewing in me. This is something that I really want to engage with you. But I also just need to let you know that I have gone from twice a week on a podcast to once a week, and I'm feeling like I'm catching up. So I don't know if you know this, but when you're a mother, May is as crazy town USA as December is. It's Maycember. There are so many different things. There's assemblies and concerts and last games of the season, and my goodness. And then my middle guy is graduating next year, and I have to do all the senior stuff, but I'm not there yet. But May is insane and I didn't prepare well enough for it. I felt like this entire spring, I was just catching up and catching up. So I want to tell you that my prayer life has felt like as of late that I am catching up. I'm behind the ball. I'm not praying like I normally have. So I've been living in catch up and I've been praying in catch up. So if your prayer life has felt, you know, stilted, it could be that your life is feeling limited. And so today, as we look at Luke 10 in Scripture, I also just want to keep talking to you about the way that God expects us to pray. I want to talk to you today about what God expects, but maybe also the way that we pray and live, we have to be in a constant journey to give ourselves the grace we would give other people. Our internal clock, our internal voice, like is where we pray, and our prayer life can become this overwhelming massive ball of you're inadequate, you're not doing enough, you haven't, you know, you haven't given it enough silence. And this criticism that we can get into can completely destroy any time we have in the presence of God. So as we talk about our prayer life and living as we pray and praying as we live, I just want to encourage you to give yourself grace. Now, you also need to be on a commitment to grow somehow, because this business of orienting our life in a way where we can encounter God, it takes intentionality. There is no way that you can become a man or a woman or a person of prayer without constant grace that you give to yourself, you give to your circumstances, and then you open yourself up to a whole entire new world. I've been thinking about prayer. I've been praying a lot. And even in the chaotic moments of May Sumber, I really don't know where I would be without this constant invitation, this open door that God gives us to encounter him and to encourage time with him and just all of this open door that God has for us. I don't know where I would be without that open door. And as Christians, as members of a church community, as members of the group of believers, we also have to have the courage to pray for other people. Because each of us have times in our lives where we are so spent with the circumstances of the day. We are so overwhelmed by sickness or death or, you know, just life that we can't pray. And Jesus sits at the right hand of the throne of God and he's ever interceding for us, talking, praying for us. But we may need to take up the mantle and help someone else pray and to pray them through. Problem is with prayer. There's not really a problem. The problem, okay, the problem that people have put on prayer, well-intentioned, good-natured people, is people have put a legalistic box on prayer, that you should pray in the morning, that you should pray this way, that you should say these words, that you can make a mistake no matter what you do. And what I want to encourage you, as we talk about this in Luke 10, I want to encourage you to make sure that that legalistic box is broken, that your prayer life is open to the open door of the living God, and that you can throw off all of those perspectations of people saying you need to do this, and the prospectation that you need to be like this, and just anybody that is telling you you are not really praying, if you are filling the blank, I want you to run away from them and realize that God's open door of invitation is also incredibly creative on how you can pray. And I'm saying this to you as a very tired mama who is finding myself at the end of a very long to-do list, where my brain is a fog of weird things. I'm telling you this so that I will throw off the shoulds that I have on how I should pray and open myself yet again to the powerful way that we can encounter the presence of God. In Luke 10, and I'm reading from the message, we get this very famous story, and then we're going to go into Luke 11. Mary and Martha, it's the two sisters, and this is what Luke says through Eugene Peterson in the message. As they continued their travel, Jesus entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home. She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do in the kitchen. Later she stepped in, interrupting them. Master, don't you care that my sister has abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand. The master said, Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing. One thing it only is essential, and Mary has chosen it. It's the main course, and it won't be taken away from her. Now, as we've read that story, I I used to think that Jesus was a little harsh with Martha. Of course, I am a doer of all things. So I very much love Martha in here. I mean, Martha is getting the stuff done. Somebody has to do the dishes and feed the people. Mary just sitting there. I mean, I do not, I don't jive with the Mary at all. I'm into the I'm in the kitchen, I'm getting the stuff done. I'm telling people what to do. That I'm a Martha. But I used to think that Jesus was harsh. I was like, okay, but Jesus, you're eating the food that was prepared for you. You know, I was feeling it. I now feel in this text that Jesus is saying, Martha, dear Martha, like he's he's saying, Hey, Martha, look, that isn't the important thing right now. Just come and be with me. Come sit at my feet. Mary, who has been sitting at his feet the whole time, decided that it's not like she didn't know what had to be done. She decided that the most important thing was just to be in the presence of God. If we are going to live as we pray and pray as we live, we have to give priority to spending time and being in the presence of God. I want to encourage you to ask yourself if you have space in your day-to-day routine to open it up to what God has to say to you or just laughing with the Lord. You can encounter God on a walk with your dog. You're walking with your dog, you know, just look up at the sky. It's beautiful in Michigan here today. So maybe it's just easier for me to say. Look up to the sky and see, you know, God's presence is all around you. And you don't need to say some beautiful step prayer. You don't need to use the right words. Prayer is just talking to God. And we can do it a number of different ways. But Jesus is there, he's in the chair, he's waiting to be with us. And maybe sometimes we're scared of that. We don't want to get too close to Jesus because Jesus might convict us of something we shouldn't be doing. Or we don't want to get too close to Jesus because we don't want to slow down enough to listen. And Jesus is there, and we we could be like Martha rushing around, making sure all the things are done and missing the opportunity just to sit at Jesus' feet. Do you have space in your life to listen to what Jesus might have to say? As we go on to Luke 11, I think it's very important to look at what's said here in the beginning of Luke 11 as we reflect on what was said to Martha and Mary. Mary has chosen the main course, Jesus said. And then in Luke 11, one day he was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said, Master, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples. So he said, When you pray, say, Father, reveal who you are, set the world right, keep us alive with three square meals, keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others, keep us safe from ourselves and the devil. Then he said, Imagine what would happen if you went to a friend in the middle of the night and said, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread. An old friend traveling through just showed up and I don't have a thing on hand. The friend answers from his bed, Don't bother me, the door's locked, my children are all down for the night. I can't get up to give you anything. But but let me tell you, even if he won't get up because he's a friend, if you stand your ground, knocking and waking all the neighbors, he'll finally get up and get you whatever you want and whatever you need. Here's what I'm saying Ask and you'll get, seek and you'll find, knock and the door will be open. Or ending that at verse nine. It's interesting that Jesus says, What I'm telling you to do when you ask me to teach you to pray is that persistence is is a beautiful thing. Keep asking. It's not a like fun, happy message. Keep asking, be persistent, continually asking. It's something that we don't want to do too much naturally, but I also think we don't want to look at God as Santa Claus and God will just give me anything I want as long as I just keep asking. But there is something about the one who prays with persistence, where their prayer, even if it's a prayer of selfishness, um, even if it's a prayer that's about them more than about God, this persistentness of coming to God and saying, Lord, I need your help, or Lord, I want, you know, even if it's a list of something that could not be all good and holy, the continual action of going before the Lord and submitting to God changes something fundamentally in us. So Jesus says, Hey, be persistent. And he gives the most simple prayer in the Lord's Prayer. And I like reading it from the messages so we see it differently. But the simple prayer is, first of all, it's all about you, God. The world needs you, and I need you to provide nourishment for me and help me be a forgiving individual and keep me safe. I mean, it's not, these aren't hard words. It wasn't hard words for them. This was not a long prayer, the Lord's Prayer. But within it, think about the power of saying, in the midst of any circumstance, Lord, please, I need daily bread. Lord, please keep me on the path of forgiveness and help me via forgiver. Lord, please. It's very simple, clear, and direct that we are to be praying continually. Now there's a lot of scripture about praying and getting into the prayer closet and concentrating and not letting too much go. And then there's this rejoice always in Thessalonians, pray continually, always be praying. So I just want to make sure that the first thing we do is we throw off all legalistic shoulds and all prayer spectations when we talk about prayer. Your encounter with God is a beautiful thing that God has left an open door for you. You do not need to gussy yourself up to pray to God. You do not need to become a different person. The very act of praying, whether it's persistent or um or it's one-time or it's or if whether it's emotional or it seems like it's just words, the very act of continually going to God and praying with persistence fundamentally transforms who you are. Because you are someone who knows right away that you don't have to have it all together and that you need a savior. You are someone who knows that your daily thing, your daily things that you have to get done, that God cares about them, that he's right there. But just think about him talking to everyone in the room about Mary. He's saying, look, Mary sat here and she dwelled in my presence. And really, that's the most important thing. In this current day of noise and streaming, and um, you know, having a computer on our hand with our phones, it is hard to find moments of absolute clarity and absolute stillness. So, as a non-quiet person myself, I tend to go on walks with my dog. That's my way to encounter God and to pray. But there's also in the car, you don't have to have anything on. You can just pray. There are so many opportunities for you to orient your life around the God who is accessible to you through the open door and also is a constantly revealing who God is to you and I. What a beautiful thing. I think of Martha getting everything, I think of Martha getting everything together and worshing around and getting it all done. How many times I I forget to sit at the feet of Jesus and lay down my crowns and say all I need is all of you, Lord. There is a beautiful moment in my life where I prayed and prayed and prayed. And when I opened my eyes from the prayer, because I was kind of kneeling and crying, was one of those I knew what I had to do. And I wasn't looking forward to it. Then I went to meet the person I needed to have the conversation with that was not a joyful conversation, but I knew it was important and imperative to do. So I went in with purpose and fear, which is important to recognize the difference. I went in with purpose and fear. And because I had prayed, because I had prayed for this circumstance, I did not go. I might have gone in with a little fear, but I went in with more purpose. And I also was able to let go of the result. Well, I hope this person, blah blah blah blah blah, but I could let I let go of the result and let whatever happened happen. You know, you don't have to drive the bus every second of your life. What's great about being a Christian and living in the beautiful presence of God is that God's got you, his hand is holding you up, propelling you forward. I would not consider myself a fantastic prayer. I'm on a journey. I work really hard at opening space in my life for God to speak to me. Because I love noise and I love music and I love listening to information, and I I just love interviews. If I if I watch a show, I want to watch the cast interviews and know what happens behind the scenes. I mean, I'm just constantly curious. And that curiosity can just end up in a lot of chaos and noise. And so my tired self sits before the living God today. Sit in what I affectionately call my prayer chair. And I breathe in and out and I say, God, could you give space to me today? Where I just fix my eyes upon you. And do you want to know what? God is faithful every time. I am met by some beautiful thing in the presence of God that I never even knew was there. It's like a constant excavation of treasure when you're in the presence of God. When you're in the presence of God continually and you continually can encounter Him, there's a new nugget, a new gold nugget, a new emerald stone. And before you know it, you are so full of what being with God is that you have become someone who knows that they are not only God's child, but that God has filled them to the point where they are walking through life with God. Woo! It's exciting to be on this journey and live as we pray. So I'm just gonna go through some of the ways you might be praying and living that you don't have to be stuck in anymore. Okay, first of all, are you a last I need a help prayer? So you don't really talk to God until, man, there's a cast. Oh Lord, I need you, oh Lord, I need you right away. Now there's nothing wrong with this. Lord, the Lord loves to hear our prayers that we need Him. But if you are someone that just doesn't talk about God until you're in a pickle, you are the one. You are the one. Holding your hand up. Help me, help me, help me. You don't have to stick. You don't have to stick there. Are you someone that likes to be a golden girls prayer? Which means that before you pray, you're going to gossip about everybody to the Lord and talk about everybody. And you know what happens when your prayers are only all about other people? You don't do the work of reflecting internally and saying, okay, God, search me, oh God, and know my heart today. So you got to let that golden girl's prayer be in the show and not in your life. And are you a prayer that is filled with self-doubt? Are you a prayer that's filled with self-doubt? Oh, I don't know if I'm good enough to pray. Oh, I messed up here. Lord, I don't even know if I am worthy enough to talk to you. You know, the Holy Spirit came down on Pentecost to create a way for us to encounter God continually. And the enemy of your heart and souls is getting a hold of you and saying, you're not worthy even to pray to the God who created you. Will you abolish that today? You are worthy. God has called you by name. He will send you a purpose and he will send you his presence. You just have to get out of your own way. So if any of those burdens are in you, I just want to let you know that the open door of God is open forever and that you can encounter God in a fresh, new way. So the question is if you're going to live as you pray and pray as you live, is your heart hardened by life circumstance? Is your life hardened? Is your heart hard? Is your heart hardened by what you think you should get or what you know you should have? Is your heart hardened in a way that you will never know what God's gifts are because you have just decided that this life is going to be exactly what you perceive it to be, with no wiggle room? Is your heart hardened because you're into controlling everything instead of trusting that your creator has got you through any unknown circumstance? It's time to throw off the legalism of prayer and open yourself up to what God's presence could do for you today. There have been times in my life when God has seemed very distant and very far away. And as I come to you tired from the myriad of things that I have to do, which are not interesting to talk about, my to-do list is very boring reading. As I come to you today, I want to give glory to God for constantly being faithful to be right there in his presence. And sometimes God seems far away. But if you have the practice of prayer and you live in a way where prayer is a part of everything, it's the backdrop of your life or it's the lifeblood of your life, whatever prayer is in your life, if it's constantly there, it doesn't take much to recognize that God is right there beside you, within you, beneath you, before you, behind you, God is there. So today, if you have a chaotic life, you don't have to. If you have a life filled with with dread and lack of joy, you don't have to. Throw off everything that's in and that the sin that so easily entangles. Throw off the things that are weighing you down and realize that the God that created you wants to encounter you today, and that being in the presence of God is the thing that makes you skip through the tulips and know that you are chosen, you are God's child, and you can live in the beautiful practice of the presence of God. Are you married, sitting at his feet, choosing the main course? Today is the day not only to decide to sit down, but to realize that the seat has been saved just for you, and the door is open. Live as you pray, pray as you live. This is all glory to God, Amy Copley Mulder. Join me next week, next Thursday, where we will be talking about what I can't even anymore.

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It's the back.