Prayer Without Performance | Amy Hughes

This Sunday we had the joy of hearing from Amy Hughes, who leads Trinity Church in Nottingham, England, with her husband Johnny. Amy shared her story of encountering God’s love in a life-changing way and taught from Matthew 6 on what it means to approach God in prayer, not as a tenant paying rent but as His adopted child.

She spoke about the freedom that comes when we stop trying to earn God’s attention and instead come to Him as children who are loved, known, and welcomed. Amy invited us to bring every part of our lives to the Father with trust and simplicity, confident that He is good and He hears us.

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"Here as in Heaven."

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Intro/Outro: 00:08

Welcome to Garden Church podcast. We are a community in Southern California dedicated to raising resilient disciples of Jesus Christ.

Ramin Razavi: 00:19

Well, this morning, we have the incredible privilege of welcoming up a long time friend of Garden Church. Would you join me in welcoming pastor Amy Hughes. Welcome, Amy.

Amy Hughes: 00:36

Hello. Oh, good. I'm on.

Ramin Razavi: 00:37

Amy and her husband Johnny lead Trinity Church in Nottingham, England. They are parents to five children and they've been out here in California enjoying themselves, but they are here today to serve and minister. So would you extend a hand as we pray for Amy and prepare to receive what the Lord has given her for us. Lord Jesus, we thank you for your goodness and the richness of your kingdom. And I pray now Holy Spirit that you would ignite the words that Amy's given us so that it would spark in us, Lord, to burn for you more brightly.

Ramin Razavi: 01:12

We thank you, Lord, for her love for you. We thank you, Lord, for her service to you. And we now, Lord, submit to the authority of the gifting that you've given her, Lord. Make us good soil to receive everything that you've given, Lord. We pray in Jesus name.

Ramin Razavi: 01:26

Amen and amen. Amen.

Amy Hughes: 01:28

Good prayer. Thanks very much. Well, hello. Just a huge privilege to be here. Johnny is preaching next weekend and he has I think he preached what?

Amy Hughes: 01:40

Maybe a couple of months ago here? Yes. And I haven't been here. So this is like, oh, I was jealous to hear. So here I am.

Amy Hughes: 01:47

So thank you so much for having me. Given that you have no idea who I am, I thought I would give you a little bit of a pot history of my story. Because I also said to the Lord that I would always proclaim his goodness of how good he has been in my life. And so buckle in. But I actually have my family here.

Amy Hughes: 02:08

We do have five kids. They're at the back, probably like, oh, here she goes again. But they are somewhere along there. And I have my parents here this morning as well, which is amazing. Yes.

Amy Hughes: 02:18

But I grew up in a little town called High Wycombe in England, in Buckinghamshire between Oxford and London. And I grew up with a Christian family, a lovely family. And they, you know, sort of we were church going, if you like. And so I did the sort of going to church thing and did to Sunday schools and all of that good stuff. But really, when I sort of hit maybe my teenage years, I just didn't own my faith.

Amy Hughes: 02:47

And so it wasn't my own. And so really the life of a teenager took over. And my parents basically said, you know, well, it's kind of open to you over to you. Do what you want to do. Because they knew that only it would work if I owned my own faith.

Amy Hughes: 03:05

And so I basically then sort of did other things on a Sunday morning and stopped going to church. But always would say that I had a faith, that I believed in Jesus. And if there were any debates about Christianity, I'd always be on the Jesus side. But never really, I wasn't really walking with him at the time. Anyway, sort of went through my teenage years and all of that, and then I went to university.

Amy Hughes: 03:27

And life for me as a teenager and life, you know, sort of at school was great. I had really good friends. It was kind of easy, like school was fine. But then when I went to university in England, often what you do is you go to a different place in the country to then go and study for three years. And so I left my hometown and I went to a place near the sea called Bournemouth.

Amy Hughes: 03:50

And I went to a Bournemouth University. And when I got there, it's like the only way to describe it is it's like this veil came over my eyes. And when I looked in the mirror, I hated who I saw. Like absolutely, I I I suddenly saw things about me that I just hated. And it turned into quite a severe self hatred.

Amy Hughes: 04:14

And I became increasingly socially anxious. I became obsessed with the way I looked and spent hours in the gym, hugely anxious in my mind and my thoughts. There were times in my university dorm room where I would just stay in my room. Just the sort of, I guess, the hassle and the effort it took to go and be with the community, be with the university community, which was too much. And so I would just stay in bed for a long, long time.

Amy Hughes: 04:48

Anyway, I sort of got through the study and toward the end of my final year, so in my third year, I kind of got to, I guess, sort of rock bottom. I remember just sort of lying in my bed just like, oh, you know, there has to be more, you know, there has to be more to life than this. And it's a classic phrase, but it's true. And I lent over and I actually saw my bible on the side in my dorm room, which was incredibly dusty. But I clearly bought it.

Amy Hughes: 05:20

Maybe my mom planted it when I was packing up for university. But anyway, my final year, the thought that came into my mind was, you know, my family of really good people, my parents are wise and kind, and they really believe this thing. They really believe Christianity to be real. And I think that was the work of the spirit. I think my mom has been praying her socks off for me for the last however many years.

Amy Hughes: 05:50

So praying parents, it works. Keep going. And and so, I lent over and I started to open my bible and I started to read the bible and it began to make sense. I had this hunger to find out what on earth Christianity was all about. All these times I'd been in the Sunday school, you know, wanting to actually like, what do these stories actually mean for me?

Amy Hughes: 06:12

And so I began this pursuit. I finished university and I left to go back home. And I was at home for sort of six months before I had to then before I then decided to travel the world with a friend. That's kind of what you do in England. You kind of do on a gap year.

Amy Hughes: 06:26

But in this six months back at home, I did Alpha. I did like loads of Alpha, you know, listened to loads of Alpha talks, did the Alpha course where really the understanding of Christianity was beginning to make sense in my mind. And and so the one of the sessions, it really clicked for me and I said the prayer, you know, Jesus, I'm sorry, come into my life, I wanna I wanna pursue you thing. And I literally said that prayer like over and over and over again because I was completely convinced in my mind that he was real, that Jesus is who he said he was. Right?

Amy Hughes: 07:00

And and so halfway through the Alpha Course, I couldn't do all of it. I then went on this trip with a friend of mine, a non Christian friend from university, I packed my backpack. I think we were doing like Thailand and then Australia and then you did a bit of America. And so I packed my bag full of like all the Christian books. You know, I put Purpose Driven Life in my bag, you know, the classic, which actually was amazing and completely changed my way of thinking.

Amy Hughes: 07:29

But anyway, so I put all the Christian books that people had told me to read over the years in my bag. And so I was convinced in my mind that Jesus is who he said he is. I'm really pursue this thing. And as I went traveling, the backpacker life just began to take over. And I wasn't really seeing any life change in me.

Amy Hughes: 07:50

So although I had decided in my mind that he was real, I wasn't like I was really struggling still with the same habitual patterns, the ways of thinking. I was still desperately seeking approval for the way I looked and who I was, and so it wasn't shifting for me. And so the backpacker life began to be quite appealing. You know, I began to do all the things that backpackers do, right? As an early I think I was in my late teens at that point.

Amy Hughes: 08:21

And so I went through Thailand, then I ended in Australia. And when I got to Australia, I mean, just the Holy Spirit at work. But bizarrely, I after so many random set of events, I turned up at a Christian conference in Sydney. And so I was at this Christian conference and I've been to a ton of Christian conferences. And like I said, I was beginning to sort of think, oh, you know, is this even real?

Amy Hughes: 08:50

Whatever. And so I went to this Christian festival and at the end, there was the last session at this festival. And it was all about God's love. It was all about welcoming God's love into your heart and all this good stuff. And at the end of this moment, I found myself.

Amy Hughes: 09:07

There was a call forward to accept Jesus into our lives. And without even really cognitively thinking, was at the front of this tent. It was a tent in a festival. I had my arms out in front of me. And I said to the Lord, it always makes me cry, but I said to the Lord, If you are real, if you are who you say you are, make yourself known to me.

Amy Hughes: 09:33

And I stood out and I had my hands out in front of me, you know, this sort of cool backpack of 20 year old, you know, back in my hands out in front of me, and I was begging. And I was like, Lord, if you make yourself known to me, you can have my whole life. You can have everything. I just need to know that you are real. And so I stood there, and I was begging, begging, begging him.

Amy Hughes: 09:56

And it felt like I was standing there for about fifteen minutes. I'm sure I wasn't, but it felt like that. I wasn't gonna leave until I knew. And so when I stood there, suddenly, I was filled with the Holy Spirit. And I had no context for this.

Amy Hughes: 10:11

You know, we are filled with the Spirit all the time. I had no context for what it felt like for it to be filled with the presence of Jesus. And so I was there and he filled my whole body and I could not move. It was like this statue that I was stuck in this sort of statue position. And this love came over my whole being and I was just saying, you know, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you.

Amy Hughes: 10:37

I know now, I can know now that you are who you say you are, that you are real. And so I was filled with the presence of God. And do you know what? That was amazing. And I went away, as you can imagine, just skipping, right?

Amy Hughes: 10:53

That actually, he's real. This is true. I mean, I became like the preacher of all. But you know, that was great and being filled with his Holy Spirit was just beautiful. But the most amazing thing was that I woke up the next morning and everything had changed.

Amy Hughes: 11:12

That was what was amazing. I woke up the next morning and you know I said that veil came over me at university when I looked in the mirror. It's like I woke up the next morning and this veil had been taken from my eyes. And I looked in the mirror, and I saw worth and dignity, and this overwhelming sense of, I guess, peace that there was a purpose for me, that he had a plan for me, that I didn't have to do, you know, sort of do life on my own anymore, but he was gonna guide me. It was this beautiful moment of shift.

Amy Hughes: 11:54

It was like these desires that I had completely shifted and changed. These habitual ways of thinking just got healed. It was quite profound. And as I've walked with God over the last twenty years, I'm now 42 or three, can't remember, one of those. But as I've walked with God over the last twenty years, I am just totally and utterly convinced that it's all about God and his presence.

Amy Hughes: 12:25

All about God and his presence. I am utterly convinced that his ways are so much better than my ways. That he constantly asks us to surrender our will to him because his ways are so much better. They might be hard, they might be costly, but they are so much better. They're so much more fulfilling.

Amy Hughes: 12:53

And one of my greatest fears is to march on ahead of him. One of my greatest fears as a church pastor, we lead a church as I said in Nottingham is to build the church in vain. Is to build a life in vain outside of what pleases him. And one of my favorite verses, one Corinthians two where Paul is speaking to the church in Corinth, he says, when I come to you, I did not come with eloquence or human wisdom as I proclaim to you the testimony of God. I come in fear and trembling.

Amy Hughes: 13:33

My message and preaching are not with wise words or persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the spirit's power so that your faith might not rest on human wisdom but on God's power. As a church pastor, our hope is that we will be a church which hosts the presence of God. A church which pursues God's presence and believes the most important thing about church is God. And I pray that I and our church community wouldn't rely on eloquence, wouldn't rely on human wisdom and strategy. But I pray that we would be a dependent church seeking God and His power.

Amy Hughes: 14:26

His power working in and through us to transform our lives and our cities. And I know, knowing now knowing Darren a little bit, that this is a 100% the garden's churches desire. That you want this stuff too, that you are living this stuff. And you know, in England at the moment, we are seeing the most beautiful things like God is showing up to people. These are the these are sort of the fulfillment of our prayers that God is showing up to people in the most profound ways.

Amy Hughes: 15:02

Know, Jesus is being revealed to people in dreams. People are walking the street and they're having glimpses of like light and knowing that they need to get to church. The other day, maybe like a maybe a month ago, I was at one of our church services and this woman came up to me and she said she said, excuse me, I I've got a child and and I'm I'm going through a really tough time, but I was reading my a kid's storybook, The Gruffalo. I don't know whether you've got The Gruffalo here. I was reading The Gruffalo to my daughter.

Amy Hughes: 15:32

No background in faith. She was reading The Gruffalo, and as she read one of the pages, she felt like Jesus speak to her. And so she came to me and she said, so I feel like I've met this person, Jesus. Can you tell me who he is? I was like, yes, I can.

Amy Hughes: 15:53

I mean, this is God showing off. Right? It's just quite humbling that our strategies do we strategize that Jesus would show up in the gruffalo? This is a demonstration of his power, and we are being awakened as the church to pray, to rely on him. It is humbling, isn't it?

Amy Hughes: 16:21

We are being humbled to rely and to have eyes to see the demonstration of His power, not our own efforts. So how then, as the church, as garden church, as trinity church, how do we posture ourselves towards a demonstration of God's power, not human effort and wisdom? It has to be prayer. And I know we're doing this series, a little mini series on the house of prayer. It has to be prayer because prayer is the ultimate posture of dependence.

Amy Hughes: 16:56

Prayer is the ultimate posture of surrender. It's the ultimate posture of submission to God. And so to be a house of prayer, we must learn to pray. And you know, I'm sure you have many, many different experiences of prayer sat in this room. I'm sure, you know, there are some people in the room where it's like, oh, prayer, you're, yeah.

Amy Hughes: 17:19

I'm like, at every prayer meeting, that prayer is like fiery for you. It's easy perhaps. Perhaps you pray and stuff shifts. Perhaps it's really fruitful in your life. Or perhaps you're sat here and if you're really honest, prayer is a struggle.

Amy Hughes: 17:39

Perhaps it's really boring. Perhaps when you think about prayer, you're like, oh no, not a series on prayer. It's like full of disappointment. Perhaps you're filled with this dread of all of the unanswered prayer that you've experienced. Or if you're really honest, maybe for some of you in the room, you've never prayed before.

Amy Hughes: 18:04

I hope there is. Or for the majority of us, maybe we just need a fresh vision of prayer. But whatever your experience today, I am absolutely a 100% convinced that through Jesus, we have access to the Father. And it's the same access that Adam and Eve had at the beginning of the Bible back in Genesis when it said that they walked in the garden chatting to God in the cool of the day. Who doesn't want that?

Amy Hughes: 18:37

We have been invited into that kind of relationship with the Father cultivated through prayer. And so we're gonna look this morning. I don't know any time. Is that my time up here? The twenty two, okay.

Amy Hughes: 18:53

We're gonna look at Matthew's gospels. If you wanna open your Bibles to Matthew six verse five. And we know this is the Lord's prayer. As we know through Luke 11, where also the Lord's prayer is stated there, that the disciples have asked Jesus at this point. The disciples have said, teach us to pray, Lord.

Amy Hughes: 19:16

They have been walking with Jesus. They've been observing Jesus, and they know that prayer was essential to him. They knew, the disciples knew that prayer was key to everything. It was key to union with God, instruction. You know, Jesus went away to hear from the father.

Amy Hughes: 19:34

It was where the power came from. And prayer and prayer is where Jesus speaks to the father to receive his will and way. Right? And so they wanted this. They they wanted this.

Amy Hughes: 19:43

They wanted to learn how to do this. And so they they said, Jesus, teach us to pray. And so in response, Jesus teaches the Lord's prayer. I'm just gonna read just Matthew six, and we're gonna stop. We're gonna read all of it, but here we go.

Amy Hughes: 19:59

Okay. And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door, and pray to your father who is unseen. Then your father who sees what is done in secret will reward you.

Amy Hughes: 20:25

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven. And the prayer goes, but I'm just gonna stop there.

Amy Hughes: 20:51

Our Father in heaven. The disciples would have been really familiar with prayer, right, in the Jewish tradition. But what Jesus is teaching right now is the Christian way, The Christian way to pray. And Jesus shows us before he then launches into the Lord's prayer, he shows us how we should approach prayer Because how we approach prayer matters. Because it matters because it then changes the way we pray.

Amy Hughes: 21:25

And so Jesus describes in this scripture two ways in which we as Christians are not to approach God. Firstly, he says, approaching God on the basis of self righteousness. Verse five, when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. A hypocrite in this context, I'm sure you're all aware, is someone who wears a mask. Right?

Amy Hughes: 21:54

Someone who cleans the outside of the cup to be seen as clean when the inside is pretty grubby. A hypocrite is someone who lacks integrity. And so in this context then, therefore, it's like using God to win the approval of others, To approach God in a way where people then think you are great. It is the epitome of virtue signaling. The attempt to show other people that you are a good person.

Amy Hughes: 22:28

Seeing and doing the right thing to be approved of, this is a fear based approach to prayer. Can anyone relate? Or is it just me? Yeah. You know, perhaps praying in a way which fits into what you think people wanna hear, you know, what might be impressive or spiritual, using the right words and right phrases.

Amy Hughes: 22:54

Or it might look like holding back in prayer. I don't want to pray out loud. I don't want to pray in this group because I'm afraid of what other people might think. In my early twenties when I had just encountered Jesus, I moved to London after traveling. I was like on fire for the Lord.

Amy Hughes: 23:10

And and I joined a church in London. And and they it was an Anglican church and it was not super traditional, but it had traditions in it. And one of them was to say the prayers upfront. And and I had observed people saying the prayers and people had their pieces of paper and the most beautiful poetic words, you know. And I got asked to do the prayers, you know.

Amy Hughes: 23:32

And I'm like this sort of, you know, new to faith person. And I was like, oh, no. What am I going to say? And so the whole weekend gearing up to Sunday, here I am writing out my prayers, I was thinking all the great words to say and da da da. And I was getting so stressed about it.

Amy Hughes: 23:54

And suddenly, I felt the Holy Spirit, What are you doing? What are you doing? Who are these prayers even for? And someone just said to me, Just pray. Just pray like you mean it.

Amy Hughes: 24:12

It might be messy, it might be inarticulate, but it's from the heart. Jesus says, the feeling of being approved of when you get slapped on the back for the good prayer is your reward in full. How temporary, how boring, because you'll probably be disapproved of tomorrow. Number two, Jesus says, approaching God on the basis of some kind of transaction. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans for they think they think that they'll be heard because of their many words.

Amy Hughes: 24:48

A pagan is a religious person, someone who worships many gods. A person who's probably prayed a lot, maybe recites all the right prayers, and then thinks because of their many words, they'll be heard by God. The translation many words, it means empty words, it means anxious words. And I have been helped to understand this approach to prayer by thinking of a transactional approach to prayer. It's like a business relationship.

Amy Hughes: 25:19

So I do my bit, I earn the reward, and then you do your bit in delivering the goods, God. Right? For example, it's a bit like a tenant renting a house. The tenant pays the rent, and the owner provides the house and everything else that's on the agreement. It can turn cold though, when either the owner doesn't pay the rent or the owner doesn't deliver.

Amy Hughes: 25:48

And so when we put this analogy on to prayer, we try to earn God's ear with our many words, saying the right prayers. And so when God doesn't answer our prayer in the ways we want to, we might start to feel a bit angry or entitled that, Hang on, God, I did my bit. I've paid my rent. I've done all the right stuff. What's going on?

Amy Hughes: 26:13

Or perhaps guilt because I haven't done enough. I've not been able to pay this month. And so again, I can't approach God in prayer. He's not going to hear me. This approach to prayer is based on performance.

Amy Hughes: 26:30

It can become cold and impersonal, it can become anxious or guilty or polite. Jesus is saying this isn't the way to approach God in prayer. It just I'm just like so there so often. How many of my prayers are like pleading and anxiety? God please make it work out the way that I can see it needs to work out.

Amy Hughes: 26:57

Or a bit cross that God hasn't delivered. You know, I've been fasting Lord, I've done the right thing, I've been really good. What's going on? Why haven't you delivered the goods? Or finding it hard to pray or approach God because you feel the lack you haven't done enough these are all prayers of a tenant But Jesus gives us a different approach to prayer.

Amy Hughes: 27:29

Jesus teaches us to approach God as a child. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father. Our Father. You know Jesus beginning this prayer Our Father isn't an accident or a nicety but it has huge significance. And you might be sat here thinking yeah yeah I know I know I know but just listen has huge significance because this approach when we come to God in this approach is based solely on God's goodness.

Amy Hughes: 28:09

On God's goodness to us and absolutely nothing to do with our performance. The reason to be heard by God has nothing to do with what we have done or can do but on the basis that we are His children. We humbly come to Him knowing who we are. In Romans, this is my favorite, right? Romans eight sixteen, The Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship and by Him we cry, Abba, Father.

Amy Hughes: 28:48

The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Now if we are children, then we are heirs, heirs of God and co heirs with Christ. When we accept Jesus as Lord and Savior we join God's family, we become one of His children and receive the same rights and privileges as Jesus. A child is your primary identity. A child is your primary identity and adoption is so powerful.

Amy Hughes: 29:22

Adoption is so powerful because it is the sole act of God. It is the sole act of the Father. Our family as I said we have a family of five our family have recently been through the process of adopting our fifth kid. Yes! A beautiful 18 little girl.

Amy Hughes: 29:44

And we took her when she was nine weeks old it's been the most beautiful journey ever. But this process has taught me so much about what it means to be adopted by God. And what has struck me the most is that our 18 little girl has absolutely no idea what is happening to her. Absolutely no idea. But everything is changed.

Amy Hughes: 30:15

When we signed those papers, when the judge stamped, everything changed. Her status completely changed. And so our choice, Johnny and I's choice to adopt her has nothing to do with how good she is. It has nothing to do with whether she sleeps or whether she reaches the right milestones at the correct times. Whatever she might do in later life, we adopt her simply because we love her.

Amy Hughes: 30:57

We have fallen head over heels in love with her and we want her forever. We want her forever and desire for her to have absolutely everything that my biological children have. This is the same for us. Our legal status as children will never ever change based on performance. Whether we're good or bad, but based solely on God the Father, His goodness, His love, His faithfulness.

Amy Hughes: 31:42

And what I've learned most, learning in this journey, is that this approach not only gets his ear but it pleases him. It pleases him. Our little 18 she has been really quick to speak like quicker than any of my other children. And she could say, Dada, which pleased Johnny very much, really early. You know, she was saying, Dada, Dada, Dada, Dada, which is really sweet.

Amy Hughes: 32:11

And then she began to say other things. So then she could say all of her siblings' names as well. And I was like, Okay, one day she might say mama, you know? Not even a sign of saying mama. She could say all the siblings' names.

Amy Hughes: 32:28

And I was like, you know, was like, oh, please, let's say mama. I was like praying about it, cutting off anything that would top stop her. A bit intense imprint. But you know, it really got to me when she started to say she'd be able to say my dog's name. So she could say Willow.

Amy Hughes: 32:49

Still not mama. And then it really upset me that she even began to say Neil, which is our neighbor. She could say Neil. Yeah. And so honestly, I was getting really uptight about it.

Amy Hughes: 33:02

I was like, why can't she say mama? What is it? What is it about me and our relationship? Why can't she say mama? And then one day, out of the blue, she basically shouted across the room, mama.

Amy Hughes: 33:18

And I was like, oh. It's true though, I was like crying because I was like, it was just this beautiful recognition of the intimacy. It was this beautiful recognition that she knows who I am to her. And I felt the Holy Spirit whisper to me and say, that's exactly what it feels when my children cry Abba Father because it's a recognition of the intimacy that I had paid to bring my children through his son. That when we cry Abba Father, it pleases him.

Amy Hughes: 34:05

It's like, oh, thank you. You know, I've got so many other names. Well, a few other names. Johnny has lots of different names for me. But I you know, I'm I'm Amy.

Amy Hughes: 34:17

Right? I'm Amy Hughes. I'm missus Hughes. I'm a reverend in the Church of England, which is funny, but I'm a reverend, right? I don't want her to call me any of that, even though that's true of who I am.

Amy Hughes: 34:31

I want her to call me mama. It's the same with God. We call him Lord Almighty Yahweh. They are his names. They are appropriate names.

Amy Hughes: 34:44

But he says in the scriptures that we are to call out Abba, the most intimate of names. So why does it matter? Why does this even matter? Because Jesus says the way that we approach prayer changes then the way we pray. Those two little words, Our Father, changes everything underneath it.

Amy Hughes: 35:19

Approaching God as an adopted child is the fire into the presence of God. It means that we can approach God in confidence. Hebrews four, Let us approach the throne of grace with confidence. He is this is crazy. He is as committed to us as He is Jesus.

Amy Hughes: 35:45

Through the cross means that being a child is irrevocable. It is a status that cannot and will not and will never ever be taken away from you. That's the confidence. We can go in confidence of his goodness, not our own goodness. Confident again as Jesus says in in this in these scriptures that he knows what we need when we don't even know what we need.

Amy Hughes: 36:21

Oh, oh, oh. He knows. We can trust him whatever the outcome. We can trust Him when it doesn't make any sense because we know that He's a good Father who knows and sees so much beyond what we can see. We can surrender to His goodness.

Amy Hughes: 36:49

We can rest and find peace in His presence. And when we pray in this way we also can pray as it says in Luke 11 in the similar scripture with shameless audacity. Because there is a unique dynamic in a good parent and child relationship. It's a unique dynamic. You know, my children have woken me up over the years for many, many, many different reasons.

Amy Hughes: 37:23

But if one of my children wakes me up in the middle of the night and says, Mom, can you get me some water? You know, I might, you know But I'll get up, right? I'll go downstairs, I'll get her some water, and I'll give them some water. However, if I was a landlord, and a tenant called me in the night and said, Oh, I'm a bit thirsty. Could you bring me some water?

Amy Hughes: 37:52

I'd have a quite different response. Or when I collect my kids from school, I get them from the school gate and they come running out of the gate, and they have these very heavy bags. I have no idea what they have in their bags. You can relate. And I'm there and I'm like, hi.

Amy Hughes: 38:10

And the first thing they do is they just dump their bags by my feet, right, for me to pick up. It's just an automatic, hey, mom, bag. And so I'm like walking to the car, I just pick them up without even thinking. If all their friends started to put their bags at my feet and expect me to pick them up, it'll be a bit different. I probably would, but it's a different thing.

Amy Hughes: 38:34

It's a different dynamic. Can you see that there's a parent child dynamic that is so unbelievably powerful. He says cast your cares onto me because I I care for you. It means that we can dump our bags at his feet and know in your knower that he is gonna pick them up without even hesitation. This is what Jesus died to bring us.

Amy Hughes: 39:07

This kind of relationship with the father. Thirdly, as we come as a child, we can approach in honesty. With no mask, You know, we've all, let's be honest, got a bunch of different things going on. Some of it's pretty ugly, probably. We need to hide that stuff.

Amy Hughes: 39:31

Does my kid hide their stuff from me? I hope not. We don't need to hide. We can come as we are, with all the good, the bad, and the ugly. Because knowing our identity as children is the key to authority.

Amy Hughes: 39:54

It really is. If you step into obedience and you know you are doing it as a child, just watch the authority. It's like this it's like this powerful presence of knowing who I am and whose I am. It's this humility that brings authority. And when you know you're a child, you'll just ask for things differently.

Amy Hughes: 40:25

And so, as I land now, the question I've been asking myself, I truly have I've preached to myself this: Where in my prayer life am I approaching God as a tenant? And where am I not approaching Him as a child? And so why don't we stand? I'm going to invite the Holy Spirit to come and search us. Maybe just where you are, I just want to close your eyes for a moment.

Amy Hughes: 41:06

We're just simply in in Nossium what we do is put our hands out in front of us and again it's not magical or anything it's just we we worship with our bodies right What we do with our bodies is a demonstration of what's happening inside and so we're just opening our hands invitation if you want to do that in front of us and we're just saying with our bodies you are welcome here Holy Spirit you're welcome here search me Search me. And so just invite you now in your own heart just to say come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. Fill me afresh. I'm just gonna wait a moment as the band.

Amy Hughes: 41:49

Just ask him to reveal. Holy Spirit, where am I not free as a child before you right now? Just let him speak. Let him pour his love into you fresh.

Intro/Outro: 42:22

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