SPEAKER_00: Hi friends, welcome to day 21 of our 21 days of prayer podcast.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of these 21 days, we brought a devotional to you to help you grow closer to God and to make room for his presence.
SPEAKER_00: I've loved this journey with you.
SPEAKER_00: I hope you've enjoyed it as well.
SPEAKER_00: If you've made it this far, let me encourage you.
SPEAKER_00: You are the real MVPs.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point of today's talk.
SPEAKER_00: My devotional title is Make Room a Habit.
SPEAKER_00: And my prayer is that what we've done through these 21 days won't stop now, but they'll keep going.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this whole devotional is written around the passage from Matthew chapter 6, verse 11.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is teaching in what's called the most famous sermon ever, the Sermon on the Mount.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: Hey, anyone remember when blogs were a big deal?
SPEAKER_00: It seemed like everyone had one.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you noticed this too.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you were like me.
SPEAKER_00: You had a friend who would start a blog.
SPEAKER_00: They would write on their social media saying things like, Hey, check back regularly for fresh, inspiring content.
SPEAKER_00: Then you check back in a week, and the only post that they had was one promising, inspiring content.
SPEAKER_00: Then a month or two later, you guessed it.
SPEAKER_00: Still nothing fresh, just the promise of coming inspiring content.
SPEAKER_00: What happened?
SPEAKER_00: It's actually really simple.
SPEAKER_00: Inspiration is easy, implementation is the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: I'll say it again.
SPEAKER_00: Inspiration is easy, implementation is the challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Look, you've made it this far.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make making room this challenge.
SPEAKER_00: Let's make it a habit.
SPEAKER_00: We all have the same amount of hours in a day.
SPEAKER_00: We probably are all juggling too many things.
SPEAKER_00: I've learned this to be true.
SPEAKER_00: We always have time for what matters to us.
SPEAKER_00: It's not coincidental that when Jesus taught his disciples to pray in what we now call the Lord's Prayer, one key line he gave us is give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_00: It's found in Matthew 6.11.
SPEAKER_00: All the disciples who heard that knew immediately what he was talking about.
SPEAKER_00: In Exodus chapter 16, God had miraculously delivered the people of Israel from generations of captivity and slavery in Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: On their way from captivity to the land that he promised them, he miraculously provided for them.
SPEAKER_00: One of the greatest needs was the provision of food.
SPEAKER_00: And every day, God provided a bread miraculously from heaven for them called manna.
SPEAKER_00: Now we don't know exactly what manna is.
SPEAKER_00: Scholars like to believe it was a resin-based bread, but I'd like to believe that God is a good God and the bread was something better, something like red lobster cheddarbay biscuits or those yeast rolls from Texas Roadhouse.
SPEAKER_00: Oh, come on, somebody.
SPEAKER_00: Those are good.
SPEAKER_00: Here's the point the Israelites were dependent on God to provide for every need.
SPEAKER_00: Every day they relied on God.
SPEAKER_00: And my prayer for you is that these 21 days of prayer has served as a launching pad into your new habit, the habit of depending and relying on God and His presence.
SPEAKER_00: I'd like to end this devotional with a simple prayer that I'm that I'm praying for you and for us.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Father in heaven, thank you for this time with you.
SPEAKER_00: I pray for my friends who have taken this 21-day journey with us.
SPEAKER_00: May it not just be something we do once a year, but it may it be the daily bread that sustains us.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you that as we draw near to you, you can't help yourself.
SPEAKER_00: You draw near to us.
SPEAKER_00: May we make room for what matters this year.
SPEAKER_00: You and you alone are what matters to us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we love you.
SPEAKER_00: And it's in your name we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Friends, I'm so proud of you.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for taking this journey with us.
SPEAKER_00: But like I said earlier, may it not stop here.
SPEAKER_00: May we be the kind of people who develop the habits that carry us into your presence.
SPEAKER_00: I love you so much, guys.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.