You are invited to step into a more authentic dialogue with the Father today, starting with the courage to pray out loud. Whether you are navigating marriage or personal struggles, committing to pray without ceasing will transform your spiritual life. Start this week by asking God to speak to you and trusting that He hears your voice.
I'm excited about today because we're continuing the conversations with God series. If you weren't in here in the beginning, my name is David John Phillips. I have the joy of being the pastor. I say it every Sunday, probably twice a Sunday. No place I'd rather be, nothing I'd rather be doing.
And we pray that you encounter and experience the love of Jesus in a very real way today. And today is designed for you to grow in your conversational relationship with God, in your ability to hear him, ability to pray, to speak to him, and understand how to pray. This is part 3 of this series. Didn't my wife do an amazing job last week? Come on.
You better clap. That's my wife. No. I'm very proud, to to get to be her husband. I'm glad that God gifted me with her.
And, she's an amazing woman and an even more amazing speaker. So today is gonna be kind of an interview style. You guys know Angie? Yeah. She's awesome.
And and praying about Step down. She's very And pray that's funny. She said, simmer down. She's married. And praying about how to to do this this series.
Like, this series came out of prayer. Right? So back in February, we had a leadership meeting and and the leaders were gathered together and it's really Angie, who was there and said, look, I just really feel that our church needs to learn how to pray. That we and constantly, we need to grow in our ability to pray and understanding what it means to pray. And it was so strong, like, I was planning on continuing the Corinthians series.
But when you got leaders and they hold you accountable and they help you for the direction of the church and they're feeling this real need for prayer, man, shoot. I said, well, let's do a prayer series called Conversations with God. And then we'll open up on Friday nights. We had at Moriah and Gabe's house, we have prayer. So if you ever want to come and pray, well, we'll we'll give you the the directions to Moriah and Gabe's house.
And Friday nights, we practice praying together in in unity, and it's a beautiful thing. And there's gonna be some powerful ministries that come out of that that prayer meeting. Before God does something, he he does it first through prayer. He invites his people to pray. So it was Angie and and, God gave me a word for the first part of the series.
If you haven't heard the first 2 parts of the series, you can find them on podcast. Just search Real Church Clear Water on any podcast app that you have, and you'll find it there. But 1 of the things that I felt led to do is to invite Angie to just have a dialogue back and forth with her and you about her prayer life. And here's why. Angie came to our church before we started.
It was she was a part of the first, like, launch team 5 years ago. It was about when when she started meeting with me and Courtney and getting ready to help launch the church. And in the last 5 years, I have seen her relationship with *God* just grows. I mean, leaps and bounds, specifically her prayer life. And I believe that God waits to do things in our church until we pray.
But *God has appointed Angie as 1 of the lead prayers* in our church. She's an intercessor for our church. And that wasn't her 5 years ago, but it is now. Because God's so merciful and gracious, and he's a loving father, a good teacher, an amazing coach. And he's loved her, and and she's been responsive to his leading so much.
Like, if I need things done in the church, I first ask Angie to pray for it. And then it happens consistently. So I think, like, we're gonna dialogue back and forth about our relationship with God and prayer and all of that. But I think the problems that we've had in prayer, her and I, might be some problems that you have had or are having or will have in prayer. Questions.
So I think it's gonna be powerful. So what's up, Angie? How are
you? Good morning. I'm doing great.
She also has an amazing British accent, so it kinda keeps you engaged.
I try and hide it.
Yeah. So, Ezra, you came to know Jesus a long time ago. Right? Would would you just briefly how did that happen? When did that happen?
So I got saved in '99. It happened with God just put some people in my life. My good friend, Melody, was 1 of them that she was a Christian. I felt God pulling me, but I didn't really understand God. And I got to work right next to Melody and I would just pester her with questions.
And she was so gentle gentle with her responses, and then someone invited me to a bible study, and I didn't even know what a bible study was. Obviously, you study the bible, but I didn't know what to expect. But it was the first time I felt God's presence, and then I started going to church, and shortly after that, I got saved.
Okay. Gave your life to Jesus. That was about what? Like, 2000?
'99.
1999. And were you married? You were married at the time to Mike. Right?
I I was and still am.
I was and still am. I didn't phrase that question good, did I? So you told me, and and I asked her, to to give a list of questions that she's had in her prayer life. But 1 of the things that we talked about this past week was her prayers for Mike. Could you tell me part of that, like, because I think this is 1 of the big answered prayers in your life.
What did that look like?
So I got saved, and I was attending church. And at the time, God had it that Mike and I didn't have a lot of time together. I was working on weekends. He was off on weekends. He had a second job.
So he started coming to church with me just to spend time with me. But in his own words, he
thought I would join the kool
aid cult. He was not believing in it whatsoever. Well, it made it really difficult in our lives because when you've got 1 someone that does believe and someone that doesn't, there's a lot of turmoil. Like, the bible tells us to be "equally yoked", so you're supposed to marry a believer if you're a believer. So this time was really difficult and I started praying for Mike to get saved.
But in all honesty, I really didn't know how to pray. And I remember right around probably the week before September 11, I might be off a little bit on that because it's a while ago, I remember going to the front of the church and just bawling. Mike wasn't at church that night, I don't remember why, but I just bawled and just cried out to God for his salvation. September 11 happened, and for most people, it's a miserable day. And I agree, it's devastating that so many people died on that day.
But as a result of that, we went to church Friday night, and I'll be honest, I expected a really, like, candlelight, lift everybody up service, and it wasn't. It was a make sure that if you give blood, it doesn't get wasted on someone that's not gonna become a believer. Like, I'm sitting in this message thinking, he's never coming back. Like, it's harsh. He got saved that night.
And that was like a week, to my memory, a week after I prayed.
Now, I want you to listen to the process. Yeah. Praise the Lord, Mike gave his life to Jesus that night. I mean, that's 22 years ago. It's It's awesome.
But did you hear the process? Angie was *God*'s daughter. Angie had a a desire to pray for her husband to give his life to Jesus. Angie responded to that invitation by God to participate in Mike's *salvation* by praying, by being obedient. And and she prayed what she the desire that God had put on her heart, what she heard the father doing, maybe not have realized that at the time.
And then God answered her prayer by drawing Mike to church and by opening up his eyes to be able to see him clearly, and Mike gave his life to Jesus that night as a response to what Angie had prayed a week before. I'm saying, like, when God when you have desires that come on your heart that are not selfish desires, but are kingdom desires, pray. Pray. God is inviting you to participate in the answer at least through prayer. Amen?
*Amen*. Okay. So I asked Angie to give me a list of questions that she's had in her prayer life that maybe she struggled with at times and different things. The first 1 you said was, what should I pray about? So where did that question come from?
Could you just talk about that?
Yeah. Like, 1 of the things you just said is, like, we're not supposed to be selfish in our prayer. Really early in my prayer life, someone told me I shouldn't be praying for things for myself because it's a selfish thing, and I shouldn't do that. And that's a lie. I pray for myself all the time because there's things I need from God.
There's things like sin in my life from years and years ago that I've forgotten about Yeah. That I need him to show me, unforgiveness in my life that I've forgotten about. It's not like I'm holding onto it and just thinking about this person, it's just it's buried so deep. I pray to God for everything, and that's my response to you guys. There's like, don't wait on the big stuff, pray on the little things.
I would encourage you before you get out of bed in the morning, pray for God to direct your steps. Pray that God will help you. Like, a lot of us struggle when we drive because there's a lot of "road rage" out there. 1 of the ways found that really helps me encounter that is when someone's doing something that could drive me crazy, I pray for that person. And you know what it does?
That changes my heart towards them. So I don't get angry at them as much. I mean, there's still a little bit there, but God's working on me. I'm not perfect. I pray for absolutely everything I can think of, and there's a story on this 1.
Go ahead.
So my husband and I were working in the yard 1 day. My husband's a pool guy, so he does a lot of stuff with hoses and pressure nozzles that put a lot of force through a hose. I don't know if you guys know, if you disconnect a hose, quite often in the winter, a lizard will go into that hose because it's warmer. So if you're ever gonna put a pressure nozzle on a hose, make sure that there's nothing in it before you do it. So I was having trouble connecting this hose, and I asked Mike to help me.
We connected it, we turned it on, and shortly after we turned it on, I see a tail come out the the nozzle and the pressure. And I'm an absolute animal lover, I can't kill anything. And so this devastated me, and I'm like, turn it off, turn it off. So he turned it off as quick as he could, and I'm like, we've got to pray. And Mike's like, look, I deal with this all the time.
There is just no way. The the pressure going through that nozzle is so strong that most of the time these lizard or all the time, these lizards are like mush. And I'm like, well, I'm praying anyway. So I prayed, we turned took the pressure nozzle off, and this lizard just comes running out. And Mike, the look on his face was just kind of like and and he said, I have never ever seen that.
And that's just an example of "God in the small stuff". Like, that's not a huge thing, it doesn't really impact my life, it would make me sad, but it's a small detail, and God cares about every area of our life. And that's the thing, like, when you're thinking about what you need to pray for, listen to the Holy Spirit. If you don't know what to pray, ask the Holy Spirit and he'll be happy to tell you what to pray for. And I say pray about absolutely everything.
The truth is we try and hide stuff from God, but God knows every detail in our life. And with us, we know the past and we
know the present, but we don't know the future. So why not give your problems, your issues, your struggles to the
*god* that knows the future? I mean, who's gonna answer it better? You trying to take this problem on by yourself or giving it to god that knows everything and knows what's best about you?
*Amen*? Preach. Come on. Dang. So would you just give another testimony of how you've seen God answer prayer?
You you gave the lizard lizard testimony. Get I mean, which is awesome. Simmer woah. Simmer down. Okay.
My daughter. Would you give another testimony of how God answers prayer? Or has answered specifically your prayer?
I sure can. Very easy 1 is my dad. So my dad, did not grow up knowing God. I don't ever remember him going to church, and he was heavily involved in the Freemasons, so much so that he became the chief at different times of 5 different lodges. And I remember going to pastor David and pastor Courtney and asking him to start praying for my dad.
And I'm like, I don't think it's gonna happen, but I really want my dad saved. And so I asked them to join me in praying for him. And honestly, I hate to say this, but I didn't think it was gonna happen. And and that sounds so silly now because it's like, God that created the whole world can't save my dad, but my fear was that he was so indoctrinated into what the Masons believed that he wouldn't get out of it. And he came over to The States, he lives in England, for his eightieth birthday.
And I remember we were at your house, and the first and only time I saw my dad cry was that night when he gave his life to Christ. And he is a "changed person" as a result of that.
Yeah. We we we prayed for him with you for a couple years, I think. And to get to be a part of the answer to that prayer with her, seeing her dad come to know Jesus, and then her dad's wife as well. Yep. And just an amazing thing.
So encouragement to you, **never give up** give up on the people you're praying for. Don't stop, but persist in prayer. God's a big God and he loves people. And he loves your family, your friends. And he may just be waiting on you to begin praying for them before he works, so you can get the joy of being part of the answer.
*Amen*? Alright. So does 1 of the questions you wrote was, does God always answer prayer? When when did you have that question or and just walk me through that. What's what's the answer that you've you've found?
Where you at with that?
Okay. It's something I've struggled with when I haven't received answers to prayers. I've been like, does he always answer? Am I not praying it right? The answer that I found is yes, he does.
Every single time he's gonna answer your prayers, but it might not be the answer you expect. A good example of this, many of you know my mom has dementia. I've been praying and asking God for healing for my mom, and every day, I lose her a little bit more. Sorry. So I believe that God's gonna answer that prayer, but it might not be until she gets to heaven.
He doesn't promise that everything's gonna happen here and now, but as a result of what I've been going through with my mom, like, can see where God turns everything to good. He has changed me in the dealing with my mom. He has turned me more to him. Like, I can't get through a day without God dealing with someone that doesn't remember how to put her underwear on, or that came out yesterday with a shirt as a skirt. It it's it's a frustrating disease.
It's a hard disease. Am I gonna stop praying? Absolutely not, because God tells us to pray until we see an answer. But I've also become grateful at this point for the changes that he's done in me as a result of what I'm going through with my mom. And you sometimes the answer from God is gonna be no.
But again, remember, he knows our future. We if you think about a painting, you can see like the tiny little bit of dust in the corner, and God sees the whole thing. So we have to trust him that when he says no to us or when he doesn't answer our prayers, I think Dixie was saying we're in a "microwave society", we want everything now including our ancestor prayers. Keep praying. Keep praying until you see the result.
What I hear in Angie's response is *James-1:2* and 3, count it all joy when you face trials of many kinds because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. And let's let perseverance have its finished work so that you may be mature and complete lacking nothing. Was I the only did you hear that in her? Not only that, rejoice always, like she's she's even rejoicing in the midst of the pain and the suffering, but experiencing God through it, which is a beautiful thing.
1 1 more thing. 1 thing I do see my God that God doing in my mom's life is my mom has not always been the happiest person. She's always kind of snippy and sarcastic, but she has become this person so full of joy and I know that's from God. Like, when I get upset with her and maybe I'll say something that I regret and I come back and I'm like, mom, I'm so sorry that I did that, I'm so sorry for my reaction. She'll be like, it's okay.
I deserve it. And I'm like and I tell her, no, you don't deserve it. And I just pray that for to God, my prayer with him and my mom is let me be Jesus to my mom. And he's slowly doing that. It's I'm a work in progress.
So does God always answer prayers? I'll give you a couple of verses. *1 John-5:14* and 15, which is basically a verse we're gonna quote every Sunday. We have this this series. It says, now now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
So there's a promise if we pray according to his will, he's gonna hear us. But there's not a promise if we don't pray according to his will that he's gonna hear us. Did you catch that? Yeah. So sometimes, your prayer that's according to your will and not his might not be heard.
We know that if we ask of anything according to his will, he hears us. Does that does that challenge some theology? Some thoughts about God? I'm just reading scripture. Okay.
And if we know that He hears us whatever we've asked, we know that we have the petitions that we've asked of Him. That's a big promise. If we know that he heard our petitions, we know that it's done. So we have confidence in going before him because we're forgiven. But then, when we learn to pray and learn the desires that he's put in our hearts that are for us and for others, and we learn to respond to what he's saying, we can be confident that our prayers are gonna be answered.
That's a big deal. Right? Maybe not always how we want it to be, but they will be answered, how our will is in the situation. The other the other thing I wanted to say about this is *amen*. Amen.
In in first Timothy I mean, Peter-3:7, it's another way your prayers won't be answered. You ready? Husbands, dwell with your wives. Likewise, dwell with your wives with understanding, giving honor to the wife as the weaker vessel. Now, doesn't say the wife is the weaker vessel, it says as the weaker vessel.
So just a thought there. If if I think that this is a delicate thing and I'm tough with it, I'm gonna break it. But if I honor it as something that's delicate, then I'm going to handle it very carefully. And and and and really value it, intentional on how every time that I I I'm with it. Husbands, treat your wives like that.
But then it says, and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. Meaning, if you don't honor and value your wife, your prayers are hindered. Men, you wanna know why some of your prayers aren't answered? You're too tough on your wives. That's Peter.
Repent. Change. *Amen*? I'm just *1 Peter-3:7*, there's no getting around that. And then last but not least on this is James.
It in James, it talks about having a a selfish a selfish life and and our we don't receive what we ask because we ask for the wrong motives with selfish motives. You know, our our motives as we change in relationship with with *Jesus* should be selfless, more in line with who he is. Angie, I got an idea.
Okay.
I wanna take a just a quick break of this because we see that God answers prayer. We see how he answers prayer. Jerry, would you come here? I'm a get you to pray for Jerry.
I already did.
I know, but we're gonna pray together with you. My brother Jerry, 1 of the elders of our church, is going with the 30 third company, is a missions organizations we're closely connected with and are a part of. And he's going to Iraq on Thursday, And he's going to share the gospel, with some people that we're connected to there, and to be a force for *Christ* in the midst of an area that needs Jesus. Would you agree? And so we wanna "pray for him".
Let the let let him know the church is behind him, but also that *God* would do amazing and wonderful things in Iraq. And man, praise the Lord, we get to send people to to do things around the world that "God commissioned us" to do 2000 years ago. How cool is it that we get to do this? Amen? Amen.
Jared, do you do you have anything you wanna say? No. No? You excited? Yeah.
Very excited. Very excited. Amen. Alright. Well, Angie, would you would you lay hands on him and and pray for him?
And let's just join in agreement with with Angie's prayer. He kinda got choked up. He got choked up a little bit. *Father*
*God*, we just thank you for Jerry and the whole team's willingness to go to Iraq. We pray that you will give them protection as they fly. Lord, we give you them protection for every part of their journey. Lord, we ask that you guide their steps while they're on the ground. Lord, we ask that you confuse the enemy that is trying to disrupt what they're doing.
We pray that they will hear your voice for everything that they're gonna do, that they will just be prepared above and beyond what you're asking of them, Lord. We ask that you prepare the hearts of each and every person that they're gonna encounter, that you break down strongholds, that you break chains, and that you open people up to your truth and just let them see the lies that they've believed to now, Lord. We just pray for each and every person that you encounter to get salvation, and we thank you for what you're gonna do, Lord. And we just pray for each person on this trip, Lord, that you change them as a result of what they're doing on their trip. We thank you, Lord, for what you're doing.
In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.
*Amen*. Amen. Amen. Amen. I love getting to be a a a church that's a sending church.
My prayer is that in some way, some shape, or form, whether locally, nationally, internationally, we get to send you on your mission for Christ. Whether it's to your job, to your family, wherever it is. Okay. Let's continue the interview. You ready?
You whispered to me as you walked by me, unforgiveness. I'm assuming you wanna talk about unforgiveness.
How did you guess?
Alright. With respect to prayer and everything, what about it? What about unforgiveness?
So in the Lord's prayer, which is our example of how to pray, it tells us to forgive those trespasses of those forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those that trespass against us. And this is something that people kind of like brush off, like it's not important. But I was listening to something the other day, and they said, trying to pray with unforgiveness in your heart is like trying to start a fire underwater.
Could you say that 1 more time? Just hold the microphone a little closer and say that again.
Trying to pray with unforgiveness in your heart is like trying to start a fire underwater. So we are told, God tells us to forgive us our enemies, and you may have heard me talk about this before, we make it so complicated where we hold on to what they've done, like, I can't forgive them because of da da da da. But the truth is, forgiveness is as simple as a decision. You just decide, I'm going to forgive this person, and you do it. And trust me, God will change your heart for that person.
I've had a lot of people in my life that I've held unforgiveness to for a long time because I was like, well, they don't deserve it. They haven't done anything to deserve my forgiveness. The truth is when you release them of that, and it's not it doesn't have to be something you do to their face, there's some people I don't even know where they are. It releases you. It frees you up, and it releases you of that burden.
So I encourage anyone that's holding on forgiveness, make a decision. Forgive them. It's powerful.
Yeah. Amen. And forgiveness is not saying "what they did is okay", because it probably wasn't. It was probably terrible. But forgiveness is saying, I'm not gonna "hold it against you" anymore, and I'm releasing it to God.
Would would anybody be so bold? There's probably a lot of people in here, but would be so bold to say, you know what? Hearing that, it hit my heart. I need to forgive some people. Go ahead.
Raise your hand. It's a sign of confession. Confessing your faults 1 to another. The Bible says, confess your faults 1 to another and pray for each other so you may be healed. So guess what?
We're gonna pray now. Alright? So I I'm a encourage you to to pray this and just repeat this. Angie, would you mind lead do you want me to lead it or would you mind?
Whatever you want.
Angie's gonna lead you guys in a prayer of forgiveness, and you're gonna repeat after her. And repeat loud like you mean it. Okay? And God is gonna "set you free" from those weights that have held you back because of unforgiveness. Because here's the deal, has Jesus forgiven you?
Well, then what right do you have to not forgive someone else? Alright. Let's pray.
*Father God*, thank you so much for what you do in our lives, Lord. Thank you
Hold on. Hold on. Hold You gotta do, like, half a sentence at a time so they can repeat.
I was just sorry. I was starting it, and I was gonna get to that point.
Okay. Go ahead.
Maybe I I I won't do the long intro.
Fair enough.
*Father God*. Father God. Thank you, Lord,
for everything that you've done for me. You, Lord, everything you've done for me. Thank you, Lord, that you've forgiven me even when I don't deserve it. Thank you, Lord, that you've forgiven me even when I don't deserve it. Lord,
I lift up this person, insert name
Lord, I lift up
I I forgive them.
Them.
I understand it's a decision. It's not a feeling. "I release them", Lord. I give them into your hands, Lord.
And I thank you for what that's going to do in my life. And I thank you for what it's gonna do in their life. In *Jesus*' name, pray. Yes. And Lord God, I pray for everybody that just prayed that that needed to to forgive.
Lord, that those weights in the name of Jesus fall off their shoulders. Lord God, they would sense freedom and Lord, every demonic attack on their life, guilt, shame, condemnation, or even repeating the very things that they had held against the other person would be broken right now. We break those those chains of unforgiveness. You are free in Jesus name. Amen.
And I would like to encourage you for each and every person that just forgave someone, start praying for them. Praying for their lives to be changed.
Yeah. **"bless your enemies"**. Pray that they would experience the love of Jesus and be blessed in every way, no matter what they did to you. *Amen*? Amen.
Powerful? Yeah. A little bit? Yeah. Alright.
Let's do let's do 1 more. Okay. You asked, how should I pray? You asked what areas? What areas of your prayer life do you struggle with?
Can I answer the other
1? No. Real church transparency.
So when I'm praying for someone else for healing, I believe a 100% that they're gonna get healed. And I've seen it happen many, many times, but I struggle when I'm praying for me for healing. Like, I've asked many, many people to pray for me for healing, and even when other people are praying, I'm not expecting it to happen because so far, *God has not answered many of my prayers* for healing. So that's been an ongoing struggle. Do I trust God?
A 100%. Do I believe he can heal me? Yes. Is there a reason why he hasn't healed me so far? I don't know, but I have to trust *God* that there is a reason, that I don't know what it is, and that maybe 1 day I'll find out, but I might not find out this time side of heaven.
Yeah. So on that, there was it was back from maybe 2014. I I messed up my my knee really bad on the on the inside. I needed surgery. And it wasn't healed for a year, and I wasn't going to get surgery.
I just wasn't gonna do it. And in that year I mean, it was bad. I couldn't I couldn't run on it, and I loved to run, and play soccer, all that kind of stuff. And and I tore my meniscus is what happened. In that year, there was 3 specific it could have been 5, but I know 3 other people's knees who were healed by me laying hands on them and praying for them of the same thing.
But mine wasn't. Until a year later, then it was completely healed. Praise the Lord. Jesus did it. It's awesome.
But man, for me, I had to stand in the fact that Jesus is my healer. That's 1 of his characteristics. That's who he is as part of its character trait. Jesus is your healer. So I never lower my theology to the level of my experience.
I always **"raise my experience"** to theology. And if it's not there yet, well, Lord God, teach me. I don't understand. I wanna know. Help my unbelief.
And I trust him with what I don't understand. And I'm okay with not understanding because you can have peace that passes understanding. But never make 1,000 excuses as to why this this this is isn't happening if you don't see that in the Bible. We always raise our level experience to what he says in scripture and stand in it until we do, even if that's in heaven 1 day, and our kids see the answers to the prayers. *Amen*?
It's so easy just to lower the theology to what we've experienced and make excuses, and then not pray about it anymore. That's not faith. Right? So we stand in what he said, whether we see it here or in the future, and praise him because Jesus is our healer.
I have a story.
Give me 1 story.
Okay. So I don't even know how many years ago. Mike's dad suffered a massive stroke, and he ended up in Kindred Hospital in Tampa on a ventilator. And we were praying for him, we were praying for healing, or or we were praying that he would go to heaven. He was safe, thankfully.
And he hung around for 6 months. It was hard on the family driving to Tampa because it was the only place that could house him, but I can tell you, looking back, if Mike's dad had died from that stroke when it happened, I think his mom would have followed because she didn't know how to do grocery shopping by herself, she didn't know how to drive, she didn't know how to do banking, she didn't know anything about living by herself, she was very codependent on him. And so during the 6 months that he was still around, she learned how to do all these things. So that when he did pass away, grieving was the 1 thing that she had to do, which in itself is enough and it's traumatic. Would we have preferred for him to have been healed?
Of course. But I just see, like, God revealed to me that he held him around long enough that she was able to take care of herself and that her faith was strengthened.
Praise the Lord. God works all things together for good because he loves us and we're called according to his purpose. Would you close this out, this part of the the the Sunday out by praying for our congregation, for our prayer lives, and and for God to give us a desire to pray and then for them to have the and us to have the obedience to to obey. Say
a couple more things first. Sure.
Quickly.
Quickly. Okay.
Yes.
So for couples in here, for married couples, I was reading a statistic that said 50 percent of first marriages end in divorce. 78 percent of marriages second marriages end in divorce. 1 percent of marriages of couples that pray together end in divorce. If you don't pray with your spouse, I'll be honest, it's awkward, it's different, it's weird at first. Start praying with your spouse.
Your marriage can depend on it, and it will change your married life. Pray with your friends. I have a great friend, Melody again, that I pray with at least once a week, we go for a walk, and it's amazing. And God has changed and grown our friendship as a result of that. Pray about everything.
Pray without ceasing. Don't stop. Give everything to God. What have you got to lose?
*Amen*. Pray Well, pray for us.
*Father God*, we thank you everything that you do in our lives. Lord, we just ask that the words that have been said today, the verses that have been shared penetrate deep into the hearts, Lord. We pray that people will begin to pray. If if you don't know what to say, just say, God, help me. Lord, we ask that you give them the words and help them to realize it's not about following a specific rule or saying the right things.
You just wanna talk to us. You just wanna hear from us. You know what we're gonna say before we say it. So I pray that you give people that have never prayed out loud the courage to pray out loud. I pray that you give couples courage to start praying together, Lord, and I pray that you change hearts as a result of prayer.
I pray that we become a church so powerful because each and every person coming here starts to pray. And we thank you for what you're gonna do in our lives, Lord. We ask that you keep us safe as we go through the week. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
Would you guys give Angie a big old hand? So good. Powerful, and she's powerful in prayer, and I'm very thankful for the for her persistence in praying for you.