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Thanks for tuning in to the Sandals church podcast.

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Our vision as a church is to be real with ourselves, God and others.

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We're glad you're here, and we hope you enjoy this message.

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Here we go.

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We are all becoming someone.

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In fact, one of the best questions that you can ask yourself is, who am I becoming?

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And to consider that the things that you do the most and what most has your tension, it's

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very much shaping the kind of person that you are becoming.

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For those of us who follow Jesus, we refer to this process as spiritual formation, which is

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another way for us to think about that.

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If we want to become like Jesus, then we need to do the things that Jesus himself did.

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And so today I want to talk to you about the practice of prayer.

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Now, I would define prayer as the practice of communion with God that is rooted in love.

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I say rooted in love because oftentimes this is a practice for a lot of christians and even

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religious people in general, that feels like a duty.

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But when you have a basis and a foundation that prayer is ultimately rooted and grounded in

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love, it radically changes your starting point with God.

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And it's communion.

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So, yes, it's a conversation.

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Yes, there's maybe some back and forth, but it's also just a presence.

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There's a kind of relationship that is very active and real in the practice of prayer.

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Ronald Rollheiser actually just described prayer as relaxing into the goodness of God.

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I have loved that quote.

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That quote has set me free in so many ways.

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And in scripture you see this model, psalm 65.

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The psalmist describes God as the God who hears and answers prayer so much as you take in.

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The story of scripture is ultimately about a God who pursues communion with people.

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Then you get Jesus on the scene, and one of the best questions he's given is, Lord, would

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you teach us how to pray?

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And then we get the famous Lord's prayer that is recited by thousands of people, millions

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of people, every single day.

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Then you fast forward into the book of acts.

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You see the apostles modeling a prayer life of morning, afternoon, and evening.

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Prayer is very much this kind of communion with God, and here's why I think we need it.

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Number one, life is too complex and simply too heavy for us to carry on our own.

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Prayer then becomes a way for us to outsource that weight and to outsource that complexity.

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Because if we don't practice this, here's where many of us find ourselves.

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Because of the weightiness of life, we outsource our pain, our issues, our relationships to

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our phones.

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We outsource them to work.

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We outsource them to addictions and to addictive habits that we have and patterns that we

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form.

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Right.

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And so I would imagine that Jesus, as a better teacher for us in our lives, offers us this

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practice as a way to outsource who we actually are before God.

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Secondly, prayer is something that we were designed to do.

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We are relational beings, and at the center of prayer is communion with God.

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And so you, in engaging in this practice, are actually doing what you were designed to do,

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both in body and soul, to belong to God at any moment of your day in life.

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And lastly, prayer, I think, is one of the primary ways that we become a more loving

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person.

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You and I do not become more loving by simply being told how to love better or by just

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learning it, or simply just being say, hey, yo, you better start loving.

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Prayer is a way for us to actually receive the love of God to the degree that we can

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actually offer it to other people.

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It very much shapes us into people of love who model and look a lot like Jesus.

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And so here's how I think you can begin to practice prayer.

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First of all, I want you to consider just imperfectly showing up for it.

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One of the biggest barriers for so many of us, myself included, when it comes to this

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practice is, I'm not doing it right.

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I don't know what to say.

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I don't know if I'm worthy enough.

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And so I would encourage you, just imperfectly show up for it.

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Roberta Bondi talks about the concern that people have in prayer.

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They think, man, did I do this right?

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And she says, if you're already praying, you're already doing it right.

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So just imperfectly show up.

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You're not sure what to say, just say whatever comes to your mind.

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And when you imperfectly show up, do that very thing.

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Just speak honestly.

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The psalms are filled with prayers, with sayings and things that you and I would be baffled

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at that people say before God.

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Like, are you allowed to say that?

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And the reason why I think those kinds of prayers were preserved for us in scripture is

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because they give us permission to be human in our prayer life.

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So speak honestly before God as you practice this.

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And then lastly, I would encourage you to pray whatever you can, whenever you can, and

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however you can.

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What do I mean by that?

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Whatever comes to mind.

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Say those things either verbally or in the quietness of your own soul, whenever you can.

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Morning, afternoon, evening, when you're getting ready, when you're driving, when you're on

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your way into the door after a long day at work wherever you find yourself, pray and then

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however you can standing, sitting, walking, exercising, there are so many places and the

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world is filled with the presence of God and if this practice at the heart of it is

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communion with him then that means you can have that wherever you are at and so pray

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whatever you can whenever you can.

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And however I would encourage you, like every other practice it's that it's a practice, it

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takes time.

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And so give yourself grace and know that the school of prayer is a place where you and I

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never graduate.

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None of us become masters, none of us become experts.

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This is something we are always learning collectively.

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And so breathe in and breathe out and receive this as a gift not as a duty, not as an

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ought, not as a should but as something we get to do.

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Why?

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Because God longs to be in communion with us.

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Grace and peace.

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Good you.

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But.