Finish Strong With Fearless Faith

The Power of Prayer #09

February 22, 2021 Fearless Faith Season 1 Episode 9
Finish Strong With Fearless Faith
The Power of Prayer #09
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Show Notes Transcript

Hosts Dan, Terry, and Brian discuss The Power of Prayer in our lives and how prayer really works!

They will help you live your life with purpose, change someone’s life for the better and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Everyone starts the race... but only the Fearless Finish Strong!
 
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Brian Roland:

I was kind of down, I'm going God, I asked you to extend your years and then your brother in law Ron goes, Brian, he did. You know, they didn't even give her a year. And luckily, three years later, here we are. And I thought, Thank You, Jesus, you're right. He did extend your years, we did have more time. But thank God hears our prayers. And that was a healing in my life to

John Matarazzo:

live your life with purpose, change someone's life for the better, and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Welcome to finish strong, the podcast designed to help you discover your unique purpose and develop a plan to leave a powerful legacy. In this episode, Brian, Terry and Dan talk about the power of prayer in our lives and how prayer really works. Let's get started.

Dan Wheeler:

Prayer is so important in our lives, we read about prayer throughout the Bible, men have prayed throughout history. In fact, the great Abraham Lincoln once said, I've been driven many times upon my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to go, my own wisdom, and that of all about me seemed insufficient for the day. So what exactly is prayer? Who do you pray to? How important is it in your life? How many different types of prayers are there? And how can prayer supercharge your life? We're going to talk about all of that, in this episode of finished strong called the power of prayer. I'm Dan Wheeler. I'm joined by Brian Rowland and Terry Steen, our producer, John Matarazzo. is with us on board. The first of all, Brian, what exactly is prayer? You know, Dan,

Brian Roland:

I always look at prayer as a conversation between God and myself. It's a time when I could just call him father. And I could just go to him I think of when I was used to sit on my dad's lap as a kid. And I was so secure and his arms around me and just listening what I had to say I had his undivided attention. And that's what prayer is like, when you're speaking to the Father, I often will just say, Father, creator of the universe, and then think of those words, I am speaking one on one with the creator of the universe. I have his undivided attention. He has mine. And it's a conversation. But it's not just one way, it goes both ways. Because in prayer, you're also listening to what the Lord has to say to you, too. So I take that time, during prayer that to meditate on it, to listen to hear what he has to say to me. And there's many different types of prayers, which we will get get on later on the show. So stay tuned to that. But Terry, how important is prayer?

Terry Steen:

Well, you know, I've always said that if you don't care to be obedient to God, or if you don't care about a relationship with Him, then prayer is not important. But obviously, we all do. So that makes it's critically important. And if you want to see change and results in your life and your spiritual walk, the only way for it to happen is through prayer. Jesus talks about it. He told the parable in Luke, the 18th chapter. And he basically was saying, always pray and don't give up. He was sharing with the story of the widow that kept coming to the judge and wanting justice. And the judge kind of sent her away and rebuked her and she just kept coming back kept coming back. Finally, the judge said, Oh, my goodness, I don't care about this case. But I want this lady off my back. And he saw that she got justice. And you know, the Lord will do the same thing for us. So that's part of that importance. And then I think about James when he was talking about the fervent prayer of a righteous man and and how critical that is in our life. It makes it prayer is powerful. And it's effective, if we'll do it the right way. And he went on to say that, that's how there's healing for the sick. That's how there's forgiveness of sin. There's nothing more important, then that forgiveness of sin is there,

Dan Wheeler:

And we need to be sure we're praying to the right person. Who are you praying to? Have you guys ever heard someone say, Well, I asked the universe to open up a parking space and magically a parking space open up, people pray to the universe. What is that all about?

Terry Steen:

And karma? You got your karma?

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, you know, in Romans 1:25. We read that they worshipped and serve the creature more than the Creator, and the universe is God's creation, but it's not God. Some people say I pray to a higher power. Well, who is that? God is very specific about who he is. He says, In Exodus 2320, verse three, thou shall have no other gods before me. And when Moses, when God was speaking to Moses of the burning bush, he said, I am the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And then Moses said, well, who should I say to the children of Israel, that sent me and God say you tell them I am son. I am who I am not I was not I will be I am. And that shows that God is, you know, omnipresent. He's always with us. He's always the same, he doesn't change. But you know, there's people out there that say, oh, it doesn't matter who you pray to Brian, I beg to differ with that. What do you say?

Brian Roland:

No, I agree with you. It does matter who you pray to. And the Bible tells us specifically, specifically to that our way to God was through Jesus Christ. So when we are praying in the name of Jesus is when we are speaking to God, the Creator of the universe, his father. And so it is it does matter who you are praying to,

Dan Wheeler:

we're gonna talk a lot about prayer. You know, some people say, I don't really know how to pray. I'm not eloquent. And as Brian said earlier, it is just a conversation between you and God, but you are talking to the God of the universe. And I often think the same thing, the God of the universe cares about me, he's listening to me, gives me a sense of awe, and respect. And you know, that leads me into a great quote by Max Lucado, who's a well known Christian author, he said, our prayers may be awkward, our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it, and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. I love that, Terry, because it's not up to us to make the prayer happen. It's who we are praying to.

Terry Steen:

It's so true. And it really that's encouraging for me to hear that because one area in my life that I feel like is a personal weakness, or a lack of discipline is my prayer life. And I've been a Christian so many years, but yet, I still don't feel like I give it the quality, it needs, the time it needs the focus it needs. I was reading the other day, about the the night of Jesus betrayal. And if you know if you remember the story, the disciples kept falling asleep, they just couldn't stay awake. And he'd come back. He'd go and pray, come back, and they kept falling asleep. He says, The spirits willing, but the flesh is weak. And we always have to fight that because the enemy is always wanting to keep us from praying. Because he does know how important it is.

Dan Wheeler:

It is you know, it's hard sometimes to stay awake. It's hard to keep your mind from wandering. I often when I start praying in the morning, I start thinking about all the things I have to get done that day. But it's important to stay focused. And prayer sometimes does take work, but we have to stay at it. You know, Brian, there are many different types of prayer. I mean, sometimes a simple prayer is is God helped me. And that's a prayer and he hears that prayer. But let's talk about the different types of prayer.

Brian Roland:

I think, in praying, especially when I when I start to pray, I want to praise God, but I have an adoration for him. And I want to focus on that to begin with, to let him know how much I appreciate what he's done for me, and what he's doing for my family and that he how he's blessing me. And in all different ways, spiritually, physically, financially. I mean, he blesses me in different ways. And physically is a great one for a guy my age, you want to be blessed physically, so you have good health. And he's done that throughout my life. But over in Psalms 148:13 Bible tells us Let them praise the name of the Lord, for his name alone, is exalted. His splendor is above the earth, and the heavens. And when you think of that, and you think of the Creator, how great he is, how can you not help but just adore him. And when I'm praying like that, I have Thanksgiving in my heart. It just comes out. And I start being thankful for everything that he's provided for us and everything he's been doing, and how he's taking control of our lives during this time that's going out of pandemic and that we've given it to him and I'm thankful that he is there receiving, what I'm lifting up. And he's blessing that

Dan Wheeler:

By the way, Brian mentioned a guy his age, I should tell you that he's 35, but he looks 70 I'm sorry, I flipped that. No, he's 70. But he looks 30 Yeah, let's get Terry there's many forms of prayer. Brian mentioned adoration and Thanksgiving,

Terry Steen:

yeah, another one's confession. And I it was interesting, as I was reflecting on that word, just two days ago, in my daily Bible reading, I ran across psalms 32. And it was David, and he was talking about that exact thing. And, of course, won't read the whole chapter. But listen to a couple of these upfront verses. He's saying bless it is he whose transgressions are forgiven and whose sins are covered? bless it is the man who sinned the Lord does not count against him, and whose spirit is no deceit. So he understood how blessed or how important it was to ask for forgiveness to confess to the Lord And if you read through that chapter, when we don't do it when we refuse to confess, it mentions that we become weak or miserable, we groan, there's a heaviness, our strength is gone. But when we do confess, the guilts gone, he guides us along our best best path. He protects us. He advises us, he watches over us, we have a pure heart, and we have joy. So obviously, confession is key to our Christian walk and live in the kind of life God wants us to live.

Dan Wheeler:

So guys, when Terry starts groaning a lot, we kind of know where he is in hiw prayer life.

Terry Steen:

Yeah, there's a lot of confession going on. And a lot of my groans

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, we don't want to be groaning

Terry Steen:

beyond my bad back. That's one of the two. It's either my back or confession. Gotcha. Hey, another one is vows. And we don't need to spend a lot of time there. But it's important when you make a commitment. When you make a promise to God, you keep that it talks about it in Ecclesiastes and Deuteronomy about, you make one you fulfill it. And James even says, Hey, don't make one. If you don't keep it, let your yes be Yes, your no be no. And just make sure you do what you say, when you're talking to God.

Dan Wheeler:

I'd like to talk about the prayer of reflection, right now. You know how sometimes you're walking along a pond and you'll see your reflection in the water, or you see a reflection in the mirror, sometimes it makes you kind of stop and look at yourself, look at yourself, honestly. And I like to reflect back though, where the Lord has met me at different points in my life, I think of key decisions or situations I was in when I thought there was no way out. You know, when you're a kid, sometimes you go to bed at night, and everything looks so scary in the morning, it looks a lot better. But when you reflect it builds your faith that God has really answered every prayer, maybe not always the way that we want, or we're hoping, but he answers it in the way that's best for us. And when we talk about prayer, I guess we have to think about the way God answers prayer. He either answers, yes, no or not. Now. That's right. And sometimes that's a tough place to be to wait. But I think it's important to reflect back on those key moments of your life and realize that God was faithful. He didn't leave me that he's not going to leave me now he's going to get me through this. And then I'd like to talk about the prayer of healing, obviously, going through three years with my wife when she battled stage four cancer, that was a time where we were in constant prayer. And you talk about praying and believing for healing. I felt like I had so much faith and I was just never thought that God wasn't going to heal or never let the negative happen. But near the end, when it became and really even up until the last breath but when when God did take her, I realized that he did healer, he healed her the ultimate way. She's in heaven. She's with him. Her race is done. Right. And she was out of her pain, which was really a sense of relief to me now, obviously, you know, I still miss her. I mean, I was I watched a video last night, Rory and Joey feekes. When Joey was dying of cancer, they recorded a song When I'm gone. And I don't know how they did it. She's singing and tears pouring down her face. And they showed him and he's crying. I just, you know, it all came back and I'll hit me. So I, I miss her, but I know where she is. But, you know, I do believe that God still heals. And we've seen that in the Bible, so many examples. And it says in the Bible that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow, guys. I believe he's still heals. And Brian, I know you prayed that God would extend Beth's years

Brian Roland:

Right, I did pray that those first thing I said before then I remember exactly where I was at when you call in gave me the news. And but I did pray to the Lord, you know, extend for years. And I felt that he hadn't I mean, I told you this when we were there. I thought this what God I have seen I was I was kind of down I'm going God I asked you to extend your years and then your brother Orion goes Brian, he did you know that they didn't even give her a year. And luckily three years later Here we are. And I thought Thank You, Jesus. You're You're right, Ron, he did extend your years we did have more time with and and you can see all that all that transpired during that time, especially with the grandkids and that which I thought was just beautiful. To see her with Google GAVI. I mean then and Cole and it was just, it was just a wonderful time. But you know, God called do that. He hears our prayers, and that was a healing in my life, too, that he did extended just because I was crushed and I've been a Christian. My whole life, but I was crushed at that. At that point, Ron reminded me and it brought it right back. You're absolutely right. And I almost feel like I was delivered out of that, of that down that pit I was in, because that's another part of prayer is deliverance, and how God will deliver us and, and I, I found a letter the other day, I was going through some old boxes, and I found a letter that I received from a girl that went to our church back when I was just starting in college. And she sent this letter and she was in drug rehab. And it was all about how the Lord had delivered her. And she was on heroin. I mean, she was on bad stuff. And he delivered her from that, and he helped her in her time of need. And I've been praying for her for a long time. And to get this letter was just amazing at the time, because I was in school, and she was back in Ohio. And the find that letter now, which is what 50 years later, and to read that and thought, wow. And especially now that we're talking about prayer, the timing is perfect on that. But God is there and will deliver will deliver us from from what is going on in our lives that we have to work on at that time that we cannot handle ourselves. But we hand it over to him. And it's a helps, and he does deliver us from that. But what helped out to I think in her case was that there were so many people praying for her. And that goes into intercession. And even Paul talked about it in the letter he wrote for this reason since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. This is in Colossians, one nine through 12. It talks about it, we continually asked God to fill you with knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Holy Spirit gives. And that's what we do. Even when we're here. The three or four of us are here praying together, God hears us. You know, I look at as God hears a beautiful choir. All he hears four part harmony Come on out here. And it's all a beautiful sound going up to him as we pray. And as we pray in concert, even when we're the four of us or when everybody that's listening is when we pray together. And God hears that that's intercession. We're interceding for one another at that time. And that's another part of the prayer that I think is wonderful when you can intercede with each other. I want one last story I'll tell us when I remember as a kid, and I was in high school and my parents praying at church together. I had no idea what they're praying about. Because they never let on if there's anything ever going on, then financially, physically anything in the family, but they were together with their arms around each other praying. And that struck me. They were interceding with each other.

Dan Wheeler:

That's why it's so important. We pray with our kids. We pray with our grandkids from an early age. Teach them to pray. And obviously, Terry, we begin our Christian walk with a prayer of salvation. Right?

Terry Steen:

Yeah, for sure. And you know, prayer, the neat thing about it is it no matter where you are in your walk, it moves us all forward on our spiritual journey. So of course, it starts with that prayer of salvation, acknowledging and admitting that we're sinners, that we're that we need a savior that Jesus is our Savior, asked him to come in and be Lord of our life. And then we begin that Christian walk. And then over the course of time, there's those many prayers of transformation, because we consistently daily want to see God transform us. You know, Romans 12;2 tells us not to be conformed to the world, but be transformed by the renewing of our minds. And that happens through prayer. So transformation happens through prayer

Dan Wheeler:

Certainly does. We mentioned these verses earlier, but I want to read them. James 516, through 18 shows the power of prayer it says, confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another that he may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. He Elias was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. Can you imagine? Three and a half years? And then he prayed again, it says in verse 18, in the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. You know, I'm gonna bring john in our producer in a moment. But I think many times we say, when we hear some bad news or something, we say, well, all we can do is pray. And I think, yeah, prayer is all we can do. It's everything we can do. It's the most important thing. And John, you're a young man, but I am sure that as you get older, you've realized more and more of the importance of prayer.

John Matarazzo:

Yeah, so prayer is something that is vital, and it's become more and more my first line of defense rather than my last resort. I think Brian said it earlier in this episode, that just having that constant conversation with the Lord is, you know, so important in our lives, and I try to make sure that that is something that from the moment I wake up in the morning, and I'm aware of my surroundings and what's going on. I try to get God involved at that point.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah, Brian. unmentioned, so our first has become his first line of defense. So often it's our last and we, we say, Why worry when you can pray. But in fact, we're saying why pray when I can worry, right?

Brian Roland:

Exactly right. But what does the Bible Tell us about that? And Philippians, four, six, and seven, it says, Do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God will transcend all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus? And isn't that great to know? And like john said, if we take that as our first line of defense, we don't have to be anxious about anything. We leave it at his feet, we say, Lord, you get the big shoulders, you do the heavy lifting,

Dan Wheeler:

right? You know, Terry, we're getting near the end here. But people were raised from the dead at Jesus, we know, raise Lazarus, but even the disciples, one of the disciples raised someone from the dead.

Terry Steen:

Yeah, once they were filled with the Holy Spirit, I think back to x, the ninth chapter where Peter raised Tabitha, and she was one of the dis not not a disciple, but an apostle, and she was with them. And she passed away. Everyone was all upset. Peter asked him to leave the room. And sure enough, he raised her from the dead. It doesn't get any better than that. And Jesus gave an example of how to pray and when to pray, right? Oh, yeah. And Jesus, many nights he prayed through the night. You know, remember, he was up on the Mount, praying and came walking on the water in the middle of the night and the night of his betrayal. He prayed most of the night. So he made a great example for us. Mm. Brian, Jesus prayed before and after big events.

Brian Roland:

He always did. If the Mark 6:46 told us how he wouldn't prayed on the mountain side, he left and went the pray. And he did before and after, like you said, I think about the garden got 70 or he prayed that he wanted to get out of this if he could, but it was the Lord's will not to. So he took that upon himself. But then on the cross, He prayed again, Father, forgive them for they know what they do. He did beginning and end and his prayers, he started with it. And he ended with it.

Dan Wheeler:

Yeah. And he often went off alone to pray. He wanted to focus on God, he got rid of the distractions, an example that is found in Mark 1:35, you can look that verse up and read it. But our concluding thoughts as we think of growing stronger through prayer, I think we grow stronger. by praying more, and making it a habit make it definitely a part of our routine. Guys, I want to quick comment, and then Brian, I'm gonna have you close us with prayer.

Terry Steen:

Yeah. You know, just this whole time is reminding me of how important prayer is and how it needs to be a discipline in our life and how we need to structure our prayers and maybe establish a prayer list. I mean, it's what pleases God and we want to get closer to him. And that's how you do it.

Dan Wheeler:

Brian, would you close this with prayer?

Brian Roland:

I sure will. Lord, our Heavenly Father, creator of the universe, how great you are, we just adore you, father. And we just thank you that they have this time together. And Father, My prayer is that we can all learn to pray more, pray better, pray fervently, that we would be more in tune with you as we pray, Lord, and we put our petitions to you or they also take time to listen to what you are telling us and how you are helping us grow in our life. We pray, Lord, for salvation of our people that do not know you. I pray right now that they would accept you as their Lord and Savior, Lord, so that they would have a personal relationship with Jesus. Lord, we just thank you that we can come to you in all things at all times. You're always there, you always hear us anytime night day, we have your undivided attention. I thank you and praise you in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Dan Wheeler:

You might find that prayer not only changes things, it changes you. It draws us closer and closer to the Lord, as we talk to him. When you think of a relationship. How did you become best friends with somebody by spending time with them? We need to spend time with our Lord with the king, the creator of the universe, and now more than ever, our country needs prayer. We are at such a transition point. It seems like and we need to stay strong. We're so glad that you've been joining us for finished strong. This is actually our ninth episode, the power of prayer. And I pray that it will become more and more important to you, john, how can people find our podcasts and how can they give us a rating.

John Matarazzo:

So you're listening to the podcast right now, but we want to make sure that you subscribe because that way, the next episode as well, wherever you're listening, hit the subscribe button but you can go to F faith.org and you will find all the episodes there and you'll find links to that. So pay attention to what's happening on social media on Facebook, and you'll be catching up with everything that happens with finish strong.

Dan Wheeler:

Alright, on behalf of John and Terry and Brian, I want to say thanks for joining us. Keep praying. Remember prayer builds your strength. It builds your faith God bless.

John Matarazzo:

Thank you for listening to finish strong. For more information about finish strong and fearless faith, check out their website Ffaith.org mak sure that you rate and revie this podcast to help more peopl accomplish their God give purpose so that together we ca finish stron