Talking With God

This is Amy Thomas from the masculine journey podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man your chosen Truth Network podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing The Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network encouraging prayer, God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything on encouraging prayer Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling and many other books on prayer provides weekly physical insight help you learn to love and now we have something to make such a difference in way that we pray, but you have to listen very carefully because it's so simple you might miss it but so powerful that you may not want.

So James taken from their will and was working on the electric lightbulb. It took a lot of effort. The challenge with the filament inside of it.

Heat heated total of 2774 experiment before he landed on brilliantly simple solution that was a carbon filament based on bamboo and when he was working on another invention actually was a storage battery he had made nearly 10,000 tries and his associate Walter Mallory turned to him and said it's a shame you haven't been able to get any results in Edison responded results man got a lot of results. I know several thousand things that won't work. I mention this because it seems like in life. We tried so many things in so many ways that won't work with when the solution we need is more simple than we might want to admit I set that brings us back to prayer.

I'm guessing that's right.

I can pick the long way around the block, but prayer at its simplest and best at its most brilliant is not about talking to God. It's about talking with God.

I want to say that again. Prayer is not about talking to God. It's about talking with okay so this is the part I'm guessing where we have to listen very carefully as when we pray we are conditioned by our nature to make it about us we think about our lives, we bring our requests. We give God our reasons but you see where the focus is very tall on us can get kind of lonely because it's so one-sided, but Scripture shows us that prayer is meant to be so much more. Romans 1513 tells us.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit and an Paul's prayer here points us to the difference between talking to God and talking with God, or perhaps even better put, being with God, we talk to God.

Our emphasis is so often on sin and not really on on seeking his face. But when we talk with him acknowledging his presence not just coming to him with a list then we can receive his peace because then he helps us understand that we are with him and and we know that he is with us and nothing matters more than that. It's not that our circumstances no longer matter.

Were still praying about them. But then were able to see them in a different light in his light makes me think of somebody when held up the football and said gentlemen, this is a football and am saying this is prayer where essentially with God, which makes me think about someone think 19 says your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. When we don't have to walk with God in order for the path of me and you know when were walking with him in talking through things. I miss not just to him you know and that's essentially you know how we actually get through with it right right. He gives us just enough light for her feet. You know, and we have to trust him for what's in front of us and we often want to rush ahead and you know we want to answer right away and we have to to walk in his pace, but as we do. He will surprise us. You might think of it this way, God already knows the solutions to our problems and we can't see them yet, but he can. And when we go to him first, with our hearts set on him, not on the answers that our hearts are no longer troubled because the piece that he has about everything flows from him into us and if we let him he he will teach us how to just be quiet in his presence and not have an agenda, but just to to be with him to listen to him to let him make us lie down beside still waters. If you will hide. So this is one of the situations where the journey is actually more important than the destination exactly exactly as long as the journey is with him. He is the light into her feet, and when our focus remains on the circumstances. Things were praying about and not on him keeping Jesus at arms length. You know that's where our eyes are and instead of on him and and this is where the simple basic act of loving him and believing in him matter so much.

We rest in him and trust in his goodness and love. Even if we can only do it for a moment.

So much can change because he will meet us right there now, can be tough to do.

Sometimes just because it's simple doesn't make it easy. Yeah, it can feel that way especially when we don't know what God is doing or why he's allowed something, but I think the key is to bring all of that before him as well. You know all about not knowing it just to be completely honest and open with him and into resolve to rest in his goodness and love even when we can't feel it makes me think of something Spurgeon said we can't trace God's hand, we can still trust his heart. I love that yeah yeah and and we can rest in his heart, just especially, because reading about a German pastor in the 1800s. Try to say this right. Friedrich fumbled spring who lost four of his children to diphtheria within two weeks and there were young children, and he writes about this in his autobiography and the amazing thing was that in all of that and I can imagine what he went to Robbie. It's unthinkable, but in all that he didn't grow bitter and that was because he stayed close to God. He didn't just pray about a situation you know, how could you allow this to happen to me.

Christ did what he already knew of God's heart and walked with him through it. Talking with him, not just to human and even though it was so hard. God got in through an end and later the same man would eventually go on to to start this this orphanage and in ministry to disabled children that would influence his country for what it still influences today.

While I will talk about here is ultimately something that we can make happen right something we can accomplish in our own strength that God really has the right thing but our parties is to place ourselves before him in such a way that he will we have to lean you know we have to remind ourselves of his goodness and his faithfulness and his promises we have to go into our rooms and closed the door and do nothing other than just be with him clinging to him as we do that he will meet us there like conversing mentions in Romans 1513 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit joy that peace that feeling comes only after trusting that's right that's right, the power of the Holy Spirit is strength, not ours is power working through us and go there. We didn't just talk to him. We walk with him. Let's go there now I'm asked for his help to do just that. Jesus, thank you that you are the destination and and in there is a place of joy and peace and trust like it's such an opportunity for us to just try to go be help us to see that isn't something that we just talk to but we enter into that relationship.

We can feel your presence as we go through things that we can return to you because we know you're right is a man and man hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website James Banks.org or by visiting these church in Durham, North Carolina.

May God bless you and encourage you to pray