Starting Right
Starting Right is a 5 minute Day Starter to help keep you motivated, encouraged, and focused throughout your day. DannyMac is a pastor, teacher, motivational speaker, husband, and father. His years of leading and training people have given him vast experience in helping individuals to accomplish change in their lives and meet their goals. He can help you set the course for your day by offering practical advice from God's Word in a positive and fun way. There is no better way to begin your day than by Starting Right with DannyMac.
Starting Right
Prayer Simplified
Have you ever felt completely lost when someone asks you to pray out loud? Or maybe you've wondered if your private prayers are "long enough" or said the "right way"? You're certainly not alone Join us today and find out how simple prayer can really be.
Good morning and welcome to Starting Right. I am Danny Mac and I'm going to be here every Monday to Friday to help you get a great start to your day. So grab your cup of coffee, sit back and relax for the next five minutes as I help you start your day by starting right. I heard a story the other day of a lady who attended a prayer meeting for the very first time. She wanted to learn some more about prayer and she also wanted to come together with other believers and just see what God can do through praying together. So she went to the church prayer meeting. She thought there might be some teaching about prayer, there might be some other people sharing some testimonies or something like that with it. But when she got there, the leader of the prayer meeting stood up and said okay, here's a list of things on the board we're going to pray for and we're going to pray now for an hour. Well, she was totally blown away, totally intimidated by that, because she had never prayed for an hour in her life and she didn't feel comfortable in knowing how to pray. But she determined to dig in. So she knelt down beside her chair and she prayed about everybody and everything she could think of and every situation she could think of. And then, when she was done, she looked at her watch and exactly 12 minutes had passed. She had no idea what she was going to do for the next 48.
Speaker 1:You see, sometimes prayer can be very intimidating, but really it's not all that complicated. First of all, we need to understand that we do need to pray. Colossians chapter 4 and verse 2 tells us that we are to devote ourselves to prayer Over. In 1 Thessalonians 5.17, it tells us to pray without ceasing. And in Philippians 4, verse 6, it says Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. In Christ. We're told to pray, but often we feel uncomfortable in knowing how to. But what we need to learn is that talking to Jesus is no different than talking to anyone else. I have a story that I want to share with you today and I think will help you understand the importance of just talking to Jesus.
Speaker 1:A man's daughter had asked the local minister to come and pray with her father who was sick. When the minister arrived, he found the man laying in bed with his head propped up on two pillows and an empty chair beside the bed. The minister assumed that the old fellow had been told of his visit and said I guess you were expecting me. The old man looked at him and says no, who are you? Oh, I'm the new minister at your church. When I saw the empty chair I thought you knew I was going to show up. Oh yeah, the chair, said the old man Would you mind closing the door? Puzzled the minister shut the door. The old man looked up to him and said I've never told anyone this, not even my daughter. But all of my life I have never known how to pray At church.
Speaker 1:I used to hear the pastor talk about prayer, but, man, it went in one ear and right out the other. I just couldn't seem to get it, and so eventually I just sort of gave up, Until one day, about four years ago, my best friend said to me he says, joe, prayer is just a simple matter of having a conversation with Jesus. And here's what I suggest Sit down in a chair, then place an empty chair in front of you and, in faith, see Jesus on that chair. And this is not weird or spooky, because Jesus promised that he would always be with us, and once you're sitting there, just speak to him in the same way you're doing with me right now. So I tried it, the old man said, and I liked it so much that I do it a couple of hours every day. I'm careful, though If my daughter saw me talking to an empty chair, she'd either have a nervous breakdown or send me off to the funny farm. The minister was deeply moved by the story and encouraged the old man to keep doing what he was doing. Then he prayed for him, anointed him with oil and went back to the church.
Speaker 1:Two nights later, the daughter called to tell the minister that her daddy had died that afternoon. Did he die in peace? He asked yes, yes, he did. When I left the house about two o'clock, he called me over to his bedside. He told me he loved me, he kissed me on the cheek, and when I got back from the store an hour later, I found that he had died.
Speaker 1:But there's something very strange about his death, pastor. Apparently, just before Daddy died, he leaned over and rested his head on the chair beside the bed. Now what do you make of that Pastor. The minister wiped a tear from his eye and said you know, I wish we could all go like that. Prayer is not complicated, it's just talking to your best friend, jesus. You can talk to him about anything and everything. I hope you have a great day. My friends, take some time to just talk to Jesus like he is your best friend, and we will talk again tomorrow. Thank you for listening today and I invite you to join me Monday to Friday, right here on Starting Right with Danny Mac.
