Latest / The Lila Rose Show / E72: How to Pray, Especially When It’s Hard

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E72: How to Pray, Especially When It’s Hard · The Lila Rose Show

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Eternal life is knowing God and knowing in the full sense of no,
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like complete communion with God, the spiritual reality of
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what happens when you tell him, when you use your will to expose
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your heart to the Lord, you're opening your heart up for love.
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Any tiny little try, doesn't matter where you've been, how
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many days you haven't prayed, how many mistakes you've made.
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Just like Lord, I'm sorry, help me start over again.
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Hey guys, welcome back to the Lila Rose podcast.
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Today we're going to do an episode, a solo episode on the
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topic of prayer. This is going to be a very
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practical and personal episode on prayer.
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Prayer, which I think is one of the most important things that
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we can do with ourselves, with our lives.
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I'm going to share some of my journey with prayer.
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I'm going to talk about why I think prayer is important, what
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is prayer, and then six practical tips for how to
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actually pray. Hey guys, for this podcast
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episode on prayer, I thought it was fitting to introduce our new
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As you guys know, I am a Christian and my faith is the
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most important thing to me. Many of you listening share
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faith, which is beautiful. Some of you don't.
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But I think prayer is for everyone.
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I think that prayer is what we are actually designed to do.
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And what is prayer? Prayer ultimately is
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communication with our Creator, with God.
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That's what prayer is. It's as simple as communication,
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really any kind of communication with God where we are sincerely
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seeking to talk, to reach out, to Open U, to listen, to hear.
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So my story with Pear, you know, I was raised in a Christian
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home. Many of you guys know that I get
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into this in my book Fighting for Life.
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You know, my journey of being raised evangelical and really
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wrestling with faith and figuring out what I believed.
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I'm having a time where I wasn't sure if I was even a Christian.
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And then after reading and studying and talking to wise
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people, coming to believe that, yes, Jesus Christ is the Son of
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God. And then in college at UCLA,
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some of you guys know this part of my story.
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I would enter the Catholic Church.
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And so I have a lot, maybe for another time, another podcast to
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share some more of the details of that.
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But throughout my journey of faith, there's always been the
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question of, OK, what is prayer? How do I pray?
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What does it look like to have a relationship with God?
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And like I already said, I think prayer at its very fundamental
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core is communication. Saint Augustine says that true
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prayer is nothing but love. Ultimately, prayer is an
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experience, an act, a oneness with God.
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And I believe that's what heaven is.
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Heaven is ultimately glorifying God forever, but being one with
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God, being with him as his child forever in heaven and being
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united fully with God who is love itself.
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Saint Augustine says of prayer. He says, I beg of you my God,
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let me know you and love you so that I may be happy in you.
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And though I cannot do this fully in this life, let me
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improve from day-to-day till I may do so to the full.
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Let me know you more and more in this life that I may know you
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perfectly in heaven. In John 17 three, it says, Jesus
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says, and this is eternal life, that they know you, the only
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true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.
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What is eternal life? Eternal life is knowing God.
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It's knowing God and knowing in the full sense of no, like
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completely complete communion with God.
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And so prayer is this act of our heart towards wanting to know
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God, towards knowing him and being known by God, which I
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think is the essence of love, to be known and to know and
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ultimately to be willed into existence.
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I mean, that's what God does when he loves us.
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He wills us into existence and we light in the reality of God
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because he's perfection, right? So that's getting a little
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theological here. But I think that's such a
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beautiful prayer from Saint Augustine that he's begging God
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to know God so he can be happy in God and learn how to be happy
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in God forever in heaven. And then we hear that eternal
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life is to know the one true God.
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So prayer at its hardest communication so that we can
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know God and be known by God and all the details of our life, you
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know, the questions we have, the hurts we have, the aches we
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have, you know, wanting to understand what we should do
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with our life. All of that we can discover
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through a habit of prayer. A couple other things about
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prayer. I believe that prayer at this
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heart is very natural. It can seem really hard in this
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world of busyness and noise and communication because in order
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to pray, you have to be silent. You have to actually sit still
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and listen or sit still and speak to God and not be
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distracted by other things. And so it is particularly
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challenging to pray in today's world, especially with our
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phones, especially with, you know, just, I think we even have
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a lot of addictions like social media addictions, phone
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addictions. We're busy, we're working, we
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have families, we have kids. So prayer can be really, really
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hard. And I wanted to start by kind of
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breaking that down a little bit before getting to the
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practicalities of prayer because from my personal experience in
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my prayer life, in my faith walk, there have been seasons
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where prayer has been easier and prayer has been harder.
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I remember when I was first really discovering how to pray,
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and this was being raised again in an evangelical church.
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I was told, OK, prayer can be, you know, the acronym PRAYP is
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for praise, R is for repent, repent of your sins, A is for
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ask, ask God for what you need, and Y is for yield.
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And I remember thinking, OK, if that's how to pray, I'm going to
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try to do this, do those four things with God, you know, maybe
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once a day, right? As I learned more in the
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spiritual life and I started to explore more, I realized the
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power of, you know, spiritual reading, reading the gospel,
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meditation, you know, prayer aids.
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I'm going to get into that more soon.
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But then there were periods of time where, because I was really
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busy or I was struggling at one point with depression as a
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teenager, prayer was really hard.
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I was not really maybe interested in prayer or I just
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didn't really know how to do it and it was just awkward and I
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was distracted. And so there were seasons in and
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out where prayer was just, you know, kind of confusing, like,
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what does it mean to really pray?
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And then when I was in college, I got a spiritual director, and
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I discovered some practical tips for building a habit of prayer
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and having a habit where this is something that's part of my
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daily life, come hell or high water.
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And these are the practical ways for how to do it.
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And I discovered as I started to build a habit of prayer that
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there are new challenges now for prayer for me.
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There are also lots of new graces that I experienced.
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And so I want to talk about two things here.
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It's something called desolation and something called
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consolation. And so desolation, you may have
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heard this word before in reference to the spiritual life
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or prayer. Desolation is when maybe your
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prayer is really hard. You know, you're feeling a lot
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of temptations. Maybe you're also feeling
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desolate because you're going through a really tough time in
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your life and you're maybe you're even struggling with like
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a sin or a shortcoming. And so you're, you're not really
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feeling like, pumped up to pray. You know, you're not like, oh, I
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can't wait for my prayer time. Maybe it's hard to read the
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Bible. Maybe you're getting a lot of
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doubts in your mind and worries and frustrations in your mind.
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The temptations are coming. This can be an experience of
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desolation. And desolation can happen for a
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lot of different reasons. Desolation, by the way, can also
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be just an experience of just a complete lack of motivation.
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You know, it's kind of like, I don't want to get out of bed
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today and go to the gym. I don't have a pet today at all.
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I don't want to pray today. Like, I just don't have any
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motivation. Like, maybe my life is going OK,
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maybe things are kind of coasting.
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I just don't have a motivation to pray, right?
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And that could be an experience of desolation.
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Why does desolation come? Well, desolation can come for
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different reasons. Desolation can be completely our
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fault. It can be that we are not trying
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hard enough. We're not making the sacrifice
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of, like, doing something even when it's hard.
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And so we're kind of lukewarm. We are coasting.
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We're not praying. I have been in these seasons
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before where I've been just busy, distracted a lot going on,
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especially after getting married and becoming a mom.
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I think there were seasons, and there have been seasons where my
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old habits that I had as a single woman or as a newly
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married woman now had to change because now I was a mother.
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And so I didn't have the same habits in place.
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And so without the new habit of prayer, that kind of was
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adjusting to my new life as a mom, right?
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With a newborn baby as an example, if I didn't put in any
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effort at all, I could fall into lukewarmness, right?
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And then there can be the desolation of just not even
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wanting to pray very much. That's a dangerous spot to be in
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because if you're out of habit of prayer, you don't have a
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habit of prayer and you're not really wanting to pray, how are
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you going to open yourself up to God right in that time?
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You know, you, you, you need God.
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We need God. I believe he's the most
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important thing. He's, he is our Father and we
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need the Lord. And so he's our inspiration.
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He's the one who guides us. And so if we're not making that
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time for him every day, we are lukewarm and that's a dangerous
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spot to be in. So that could be something that
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maybe you're going through or have gone through.
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Desolation could also be a spiritual attack.
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So it could be something, you know, maybe it's our fault in
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part, but it also could be you're just experiencing
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spiritual attack. So Satan's mad.
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He doesn't want you to pray like Satan does not want you to pray.
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Satan hates prayer, Satan hates God, he's jealous of God.
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He wants you to be lukewarm or he wants you to outright rebel
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against God. And it's when you're feeling a
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lot of those temptations, or maybe this has happened to me.
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I'm starting a new habit of prayer, right?
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Maybe I was sick or my kids were sick and so I got out of a habit
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and I'm like, OK, I have to restart my habit to make sure I
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do my prayer. And that's when it gets really
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hard, right? I get, I get like a million
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things all of a sudden come up in my scheduled prayer time.
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And it's like, you know, this is this thing stopping me from my
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prayer, right? Or I get very frustrated and
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worked up about something, right?
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And it seems to interfere with the space and time that I had
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set aside for prayer. And so that could be a spiritual
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attack. And the beauty of that kind of
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desolation, like a spiritual attack, is that any little
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effort that you make in the middle of that to still try to
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pray even if you're driving and you're just like, Lord, help me,
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Jesus, I love you, help me like something super simple.
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The Lord loves that and he does reward it.
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And he does give us so much spiritual grace, even if we
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don't feel it in the moment. So you're trying when you're
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just being spiritually tempted or you're feeling lukewarm, your
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movement of the heart, your choice to try to pray in that
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moment is all the more powerful in in any kind of spiritual
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calculation because the Lord sees that it's hard for you and
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he's seeing your, your, your desire to love him even when
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it's hard and he will not be outdone in generosity.
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The Lord is never doubt outdone in generosity.
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So he will repay that with the maybe the consolation later on,
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maybe the the grace you'll experience later on.
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But in that hard moment, you're building a character and you're
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building at you're starting to rebuild that habit of prayer
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that is going to help make you be a St. ultimately and help you
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help you truly unite with the Lord.
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So if you're feeling desolation, it's just try.
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I mean, that's that's going to get to going to get to the
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practicality soon. But it really is just try like
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any tiny little try. Doesn't matter where you've
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been, how many days you haven't prayed, how many mistakes you've
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made, just like, Lord, I'm sorry, help me start over again.
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The past can be the past. I'm going to I've been given
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this day, this hour, this minute, this second.
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Lord, just help me in this moment, OK?
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Consolation is the opposite of desolation.
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It's when like the prayer is amazing.
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You know you're feeling it. You feel you can sometimes feel
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the spirit. It's tangible.
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There's joy. There's like is emotional gifts
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that come with consolation. Like you feel happiness, you may
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feel joy, you may feel peace. Consolation can also be in
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suffering or temptation. So you could feel really
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tempted, or you could feel really upset or hurt, broken
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hearted, betrayed about something or someone, but you
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still feel at this very deep existential level, a peace or
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joy. And that's a consolation from
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the Lord. And that's why we've seen, you
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know, when we've heard these stories, you may know, stories
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of people close to you who even on their deathbed, when they're
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in pain and they're dying, there's this and they're in
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physical pain, there's a smile on their face, right?
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Or even when someone loses a child to death, I mean, they,
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they, they, there's some horrible accident or tragedy,
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they still have peace and trust in the Lord.
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Or even if something terrible happens that you don't
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understand why, you know, you're a student, you're rejected to
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your favorite school, or your spouse betrays you like
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something really terrible, you get a cancer diagnosis.
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It's really hard. There's tears, but at a very
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deep level, you have a peace and even a joy knowing that God is
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on the throne. That's a form of spiritual
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consolation. And the beautiful thing is the
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Lord promises to never give us more than we can bear, to never
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tempt us beyond what we can bear, and to always give us
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enough strength to put our trust in Him no matter what is
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happening. And putting our trust in God is
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an active prayer itself. Just saying, Jesus, I trust in
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you. Jesus, I trust in you.
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Extremely powerful, simple prayer.
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You can pray anytime. You can pray this moment while
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you're listening to this podcast.
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No matter what's going on in my life, no matter the troubles
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that I'm facing, no matter the pain or the questions or the
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lukewarmness that I'm experiencing, Jesus, I trust in
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life. OK, And one other quick thing
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I'm going to mention about desolation and consolation
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before talking about practicalities is unrepentant
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sin. I think this is an important
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one. There's a lot of sin in our
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world. We are tempted to sin.
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We sin. I sin.
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It's human nature that we've been wounded by sin.
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You know, we weren't made for sin.
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We are made for union with God and each other.
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But ultimately, because of the fall, we have these wounded
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hearts. And so we do things we shouldn't
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do, right? That's life.
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Well, sometimes there's sin that we are secretly justifying or
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hiding. We're in a bad habit of sin.
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And it's like an idol, right? It's something that we're
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putting before God and we're hiding from God or we're not
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admitting to God. And that can put us in
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desolation hardcore. It can make us lukewarm.
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It can make prayer, real prayer, pretty impossible.
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And so I do want to call that out because I do think
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particularly there's, you know, sense of bitterness, resentment,
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There's sins of jealousy or pride, there's sins of despair.
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God isn't good. I don't trust him.
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God doesn't love me. You know, that's turning it,
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that's not believing. Yes, you might feel that way,
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but that's not true, right? That's where the Jesus, I trust
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you. Prayer is so powerful.
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Even if I don't feel good, I know that it's not true the way
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I feel that God is good, you know, and I can trust him.
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Another sin that's really common today is sexual sin.
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This is very easy to fall into for both men and women because
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of pornography and modern dating relationships and even like in a
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marriage, contraception or abortions in the past, things
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like that. And so if we have unrepented
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sin, that's something that we need to bring to the Lord.
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And he's not there to shame us or to, you know, punish us in
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that moment. He's there to forgive us if
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we're sincerely saying, maybe I have this attachment to the sin,
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but I don't want to sin anymore. Lord help free me of sin.
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And there's a lot of practical things there that are important
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as Catholics or if you're Orthodox, confession is
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necessary. Like go to confession.
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I try to go weekly. It's an amazing time to talk
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directly to the Lord, to the priest and say, Lord, here's my
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sin. Forgive me for I have sinned.
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It helps clean us and helps set us up for success so we can grow
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in virtue, right? But you can also confess to a
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friend, you know, before God and be like, I'm really struggling
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with this sin and I need accountability.
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Lord, I'm sorry, but I know sorry isn't enough.
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I need to like work on actually not sinning again in this way,
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especially if it's like a very serious sin.
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You know, it's like a sexual sin, a mortal sin.
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There's a mortal sin is distinguished from a venial sin
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as something that can really separate us from God.
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All sin separates us from God, but a mortal sin is the sin that
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leads to death. We're not going to get into all
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the details on that. Maybe we'll do a podcast episode
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on that in the future. But I especially wanted to just
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call that out, like sexual sin in particular, because that's
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particularly temptation, A temptation for a lot of people.
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Again, the power of just revealing it to God, being
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honest about it, repenting, and then setting up systems, whether
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it's an accountability partner, maybe it's a relationship you
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have to leave because it's just a sinful relationship.
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Maybe it's an addiction, like a sex addiction, a pornography
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addiction that you need to get actual help for, accountability
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for, support for. But those are all things that
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can lead to desolation and really hurt our prayer as well,
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right? The Lord is going to be
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generous. He's faithful, He's loves us no
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matter what. He wants us to be free.
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And if he's allowing a desolation, it's because he's
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trying to teach us something so that we can get out of a sin or
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we can change a habit or he's allowing us a tribulation, a
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trial, so we can grow in love of him, so we can say those words.
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Jesus, I trust in you. Even if we're not feeling the
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power of the trust in our hearts as an emotion or, you know, a
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psychological relief, it's a choice we're making to trust
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even when the world seems like it's falling apart around us or
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things are difficult, right? All right, So practicalities of
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prayer, this has really helped me a lot.
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And these are all things that I've practiced or practice and I
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share it out of my experience of trying to learn to pray and keep
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up a habit of prayer throughout my life.
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There's six things I wanted to share and before diving in, I
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want to just go back to the first point about what is
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prayer? You know, we talked about
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communication, we talked about love.
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But listen, like how do you get to know your friend if you're
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married? How do you really like love your
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spouse or when you're when you're falling in love with your
19:56
spouse? What was that like?
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We should have a child or, you know, a nephew or a niece or you
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know, someone that you really love a kid.
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How do you love them? How do you show that you love
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them? You show up, right?
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You spend time with them, you talk to them.
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You listen to them, you get to know them, you try to understand
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them. What makes them tick, What are
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their thoughts? What are their beliefs?
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What motivates them? These are all the normal human
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things we do in relationships. Well, that's what we should do
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with God too. God is a person.
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He's three persons, actually, Holy Spirit, the Son and the
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Father. And we can actually have
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relationships with them individually, which is amazing,
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as we have with just God. It's kind of crazy.
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We could have this relationship with the Spirit, the Holy
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Spirit, with Jesus Christ, Son of God, and with God our Father,
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and the richness of that relationship with the Trinity.
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It's so incredible, but we live it out, how?
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Talking to them, talking to God, sharing how we're feeling,
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asking to know God, how do I know you?
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Studying God, taking time for God, quality time with God.
21:05
All the things we would do or many of the things we would do
21:07
with another human being, right? All right, so the six things #1
21:13
persevere. Persevere in your prayer.
21:16
Another way to think about this is build a habit of prayer.
21:19
And this can be as simple as if you're like, how do I start?
21:23
How do I start? Set a timer.
21:26
You can use your phone for this, and then put your phone on
21:28
silent and set it aside. Put 10 minutes on that timer on
21:32
your phone. Set it over here.
21:34
Sit down and just say, Lord, here I am.
21:38
I want to build a habit of prayer.
21:39
Help me. I'm going to give you a few more
21:42
things you can do with this 10 minutes, but it starts by having
21:46
time and space that's dedicated to God, free of distraction,
21:51
where you're going to open up your heart to Jesus, open up
21:53
your heart to the Holy Spirit, open your heart to God the
21:55
Father. That is the core of prayer, time
21:58
and space, because we live in time and space and we are human
22:01
beings, and so we need time and space.
22:05
Set the timer. Just make a date.
22:08
Maybe you do this every morning and the pledges, I'm going to do
22:10
it every morning at 7:00 AM before my kids get up, or maybe
22:13
you're a student. I'm going to do it every day at
22:15
3 PMI recommend first thing in the morning if at all possible,
22:19
but any time of day is better than no time of day.
22:21
So set the time and do it. Persevere, set the timer, make
22:25
it happen #2 OK, what do you do with this time?
22:28
Tell Jesus everything. Tell Him exactly where you're
22:32
at. Be as raw as possible.
22:35
How you feel, what you're concerned about, what you're
22:38
thankful for, what you're grateful for, what you need,
22:42
what you want, what you desire, things you might be struggling
22:46
with. Be fully honest and transparent.
22:49
Here's the secret. God knows all that stuff
22:51
anyways, right? He does.
22:53
There's the spiritual reality of what happens when you tell Him,
22:57
when you use your will to expose your heart to the Lord, because
23:01
He sees your heart anyways, but you use your will to expose your
23:04
heart to the Lord, you're acting on love, and you're opening your
23:07
heart up for love. God knows the heart of the worst
23:11
Sinner who hates him, but the worst Sinner who hates him is
23:14
not going to get to really experience God's love or love
23:17
God because his heart's closed. So we got to open our heart
23:20
physically by telling God. And I recommend, do it verbally
23:25
or write it if possible. Part of being fully honest by
23:28
the way, too, is repenting, You know, tell him your sin.
23:31
If you got sin, be honest about that.
23:34
Ask for help with that. But the third thing is express
23:36
your prayer using a journal. Journals are not just for girls,
23:41
guys. There's some guys listening
23:43
here. Like, of course they're not just
23:44
for women. I've journal all the time.
23:46
Journals are not just for adolescent girls, although I
23:48
journaled a ton as an adolescent girl.
23:49
But I think journals are for people who really care about
23:54
intentionality with their communication.
23:56
It's kind of like when you write a love letter to someone that
23:59
you really care about, or a birthday card to your son for
24:02
their birthday or your nephew or whatever.
24:04
There's something very powerful about words, not just your
24:07
thoughts, but your words when you speak them or you write
24:11
them. And so especially, especially if
24:14
you're having trouble praying and you're not, you haven't
24:17
developed the habit of prayer, you get distracted easily.
24:21
I get distracted very easily. Writing your prayer is very
24:26
powerful. And I do this.
24:27
I just literally start, put the date at the top.
24:30
I have my timer set and I'm just like, I usually start with like
24:32
Jesus, I love you, Jesus. Maybe I say, help me, Jesus, I
24:36
trust in you, Jesus, here I am Jesus, Thank you.
24:41
Like just kind of get it rolling and then you can open up, you
24:44
know, and maybe you'll stop writing at some point and just,
24:46
you know, you'll be speaking in your heart to him.
24:47
But ultimately, the writing is a very powerful way to pray.
24:52
And you can also look back on your journal.
24:53
I do this occasionally and I look back and like, wow, look at
24:56
the way the Lord answered this prayer from six months ago.
24:59
Wow, look at what I was struggling with nine months ago.
25:03
And now the Lord has brought me through this and I have
25:06
different struggles, but he's taught me so much what a good
25:09
God he is. That's why there's so much in
25:11
the Psalms where the psalmist David writes about remembering
25:15
what God has done for the people of Israel, remembering what God
25:18
has done for him, You know, thinking back two times before.
25:22
I mean, there's a lot of power in keeping record of your
25:25
relationship with the Lord. So you can also pray out loud.
25:29
Obviously that's a little bit harder with if you don't have
25:32
like privacy. But it's also very powerful,
25:35
just like literally talk to God. Sometimes when I'm alone in the
25:38
cartoon, I find this very powerful.
25:40
I just physically just talk to God using my audible words.
25:43
And I think there's something very concrete about it that
25:46
makes it very real and raw. And it's powerful #4 read Holy
25:52
Scripture or good spiritual reading or other prayer aids.
25:55
Scripture is so powerful. The Bible is so powerful.
25:59
It's a priceless gift that God has given us through his church.
26:01
And it has so much fruit for prayer and meditation and
26:06
knowledge of God in it. So especially the, I mean the
26:08
Psalms as an example, they are prayers that are just beautiful
26:12
that you can actually pray the Psalms, you can pray throughout
26:15
the Bible. And so the Bible obviously is,
26:18
is priceless. It's holy Scripture.
26:20
It is an incredible way to start your prayer time.
26:23
It's read some of the gospels. If you're a new Christian and
26:26
you're listening, you could start with the book of Matthew
26:29
especially is really powerful, I think for new Christians.
26:32
And you could read through the book of Matthew, also the book
26:34
of John and just read a few passages in the morning, you
26:38
know, before your prayer and ask the Lord to give you light as
26:41
you read it and and inspiration as you read it.
26:44
Saint Teresa of Avila, one of my favorite Saints, would say that
26:47
she would never go to prayer without spiritual reading.
26:51
So she prayed a lot. She was very, very devout.
26:55
And you know, she would become a St. right?
26:57
But she always said that she took reading to her prayer
27:01
because her mind would just go. And so she sat there by herself
27:05
in silence. Her mind would just like like
27:09
check out, get super distracted, struggle, have trouble focusing.
27:15
I don't know if you relate. I definitely relate to that.
27:18
So Saint Teresa of Avila recommends like having some good
27:21
spiritual reading. Certainly the Gospels could be
27:23
that. The Bible could be that.
27:24
There's also some amazing treasure, treasure trove of
27:28
spiritual readings in the church in our tradition of our faith.
27:31
And this is one that was a great one for me a decade ago.
27:34
I want to share with you guys that I read and I reread parts
27:37
of Father Jacques Philippe occasionally.
27:39
He has a series of books that are really beautiful.
27:41
Another one, it's called in the school of the Holy Spirit that I
27:44
really like. This one is called searching for
27:46
and maintaining peace, especially if you're in
27:48
desolation or struggling with peace right now, like you don't
27:51
have that kind of existential peace in your life.
27:54
But if you're struggling with that, this is a great, great
27:56
little book and it's super easy to read.
27:58
It's like very short and read like a page a day.
28:01
So this is called searching for and maintaining peace by Father
28:04
Jacques Philippe. I also really like in the school
28:07
of the Holy Spirit is another great one.
28:09
Another great prayer aid that I like that's really easy is Saint
28:14
Jose Maria's The Way. It's this very short little
28:17
book. I don't have it with me, but
28:19
it's like these little, like spiritual quotations kind of,
28:22
and they're great food for thought.
28:24
They're often invoking scripture, and they're just
28:26
wonderful ways to just meditate and to try to communicate with
28:30
God. One of Saint Jose Maria's quotes
28:33
from The Way, which I love is this 1.
28:36
He says to persevere. A child knocking at the door
28:41
knocks once, twice, many times, loud and long, shamelessly, and
28:46
the anger of whoever comes to open is dispelled by the
28:49
simplicity of that disturbing little creature.
28:51
So you with God, Saint Jose Maria here is talking about
28:55
perseverance and prayer and like, you know, the widow in
28:57
the, in the New Testament, he's asking again and again before
29:00
the judge and the judge finally says, OK, I'll give you what you
29:02
want 'cause you're annoying me, right?
29:04
And Jesus is saying is how much more your father in heaven who
29:06
loves you than this judge and this widow.
29:09
But Saint Joseph Mary is saying the same thing.
29:10
We're like, be like a kid, like knock on the door.
29:12
Lord, I need you. Lord, help me.
29:14
Lord, what about this? Lord, give me this.
29:16
You know I need this thing. Help me.
29:18
The Lord loves our perseverance. He loves that.
29:21
And he will again not be outdone in generosity.
29:24
It also makes me think about my son Peter.
29:27
I remember reading this quote a few months ago and my son at the
29:31
time was getting up at like 2:00 AM in the morning randomly,
29:35
regularly, and just going, Mama, like yelling from his bed.
29:40
And so I'd go in there because I didn't want him to wake up his
29:42
brother, you know, our our youngest son.
29:45
And I'd be like, yes, ma'am, I'm exhausted.
29:49
And he says snuggle me. I'm like, OK, that's so cute.
29:52
But it's very, it's swinging away too because like I'm really
29:55
tired. So I would like snuggle him for
29:56
like a minute because I didn't want to fall asleep in his bed
29:59
and go back to my bed. And then Mama, like, you know,
30:02
10 minutes later he woke up. I'm upset that I wasn't there.
30:05
Snuggle me, right? So even like the frustration or
30:07
like the tiredness was dissipates because he's just my
30:11
beautiful son and he just wants to be snuggled right.
30:14
How much more the Lord loves us and wants us to pray and wants
30:18
to give us what we need if we just call out to him.
30:20
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31:02
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31:05
So yeah, read Holy Scripture, use good spiritual aids.
31:08
Another point #5 would be use the prayers that Jesus gave us
31:13
and that Mother Church has given us and that the Saints and, you
31:16
know, people who have gone forward in the faith have
31:18
written for us. So if you're having trouble with
31:20
your own prayers, you can use other prayers.
31:23
I kind of already mentioned this with the Psalms, but the most
31:26
epic prayer of all time, Jesus gave to us directly.
31:30
And he said, this is how you pray, children.
31:32
And he said, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name,
31:37
thy Kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in
31:40
heaven. Give us this day, Our Daily
31:42
Bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those
31:46
who trespass against us. You have like the whole
31:50
Christian life in that prayer. That's such an amazing prayer
31:52
from Jesus. You could meditate on every line
31:55
of that prayer for years. Like the first sign, our Father
31:58
who art in heaven, He is your Father who is in heaven.
32:02
He is our Father. And like, what does it mean that
32:04
God's a Father, right? But it's remembering our
32:07
relationship that we are his children, that he loves us.
32:09
Like that's the first core of prayers.
32:11
Like it's a relationship with the Father, right?
32:14
And it's, you know, you're asking for help in that prayer,
32:16
you're asking for forgiveness, you're asking for freedom from
32:18
temptation. You're asking for your daily
32:21
bread and what you need in your day.
32:23
I mean, it's just an incredible, it's an incredible prayer.
32:26
Pray the Our Father if you need help praying, can't go wrong
32:29
with that. There's the rosary.
32:30
If you're Catholic or Orthodox, even if you're not, you can
32:33
still pray the rosary. By the way, you can be even
32:35
tell, go and pray the rosary. The rosary is basically asking
32:38
for the intercession of Mary, the mother of God, but it's
32:40
basically a Bible verse. You're reading the greeting of
32:43
the Angel and then you're reading some of the words of
32:45
Elizabeth to Mary. So you're actually quoting
32:48
Scripture when you read, when you pray a Hail Mary, right?
32:51
You can pray very simple prayer like that.
32:53
There's a simple Jesus prayer of just saying the name of Jesus,
32:56
just saying Jesus, Jesus, just reminding yourself that he is
33:03
Lord and just asking for his help.
33:05
There's power, there's incredible power in the name of
33:09
Jesus, simply just saying his name, Jesus asking for him,
33:13
inviting him into the moment, into your heart.
33:15
I really love the prayer. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God,
33:18
have mercy on me, a Sinner. If you're really struggling or
33:22
if you just like need to remember who you are before God,
33:25
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a Sinner.
33:29
Have mercy on me, a Sinner. Incredibly powerful prayer right
33:33
there. There's a ton of other prayers,
33:36
so many beautiful prayers, but obviously the Psalms, the Our
33:39
Father, the Rosary, the Jesus Prayer, these are all beautiful,
33:45
beautiful prayers. All right, last point, last
33:47
practical tip for you guys, get a good spiritual guide.
33:51
We're not made to go it alone. We're not made to go the
33:55
spiritual life alone. Growing in prayer.
33:58
There's so much more that I could say.
33:59
There's so much more that I don't even know about prayer
34:02
that you know, Spiritual masters know far more than I do.
34:06
That's why having a spiritual guide is so powerful, someone
34:09
that you meet with, that you talk with maybe once a month or
34:12
once every couple weeks or once a week, who can help you grow in
34:15
your prayer, deepen your prayer, deepen your walk with God,
34:17
deepen your virtue, deepen your habits of Christian living, be
34:22
accountable to. I mean, it's very powerful to
34:24
have a guide. And it was only when I got my
34:26
first real spiritual guide in college that I saw
34:30
transformation in my prayer life and transformation in my
34:33
personal life. And I've never been the same
34:35
since. I'm work in progress, but it was
34:38
this like this like jump start of spiritual maturity that I
34:42
experienced because I was really struggling in college.
34:44
I mean, I was involved in pro-life work, but I was dating
34:47
and I was trying to figure stuff out on my own to a large degree.
34:49
And I knew I needed a mentor. And so I ended up finding the
34:53
spiritual director at this women's Catholic center near my
34:56
campus who was just amazing. And she and this other priest
34:59
would help disciple me. And you know, that's the story
35:01
for another day. But having that spiritual
35:03
guidance to grow in prayer, to grow an understanding of God,
35:06
Holy Scripture, virtue, it was transformative for me and still
35:11
is to this day. So there you go.
35:13
There's my practical tips for the day.
35:15
Persevere, you know, be like that child calling Mama or ABBA
35:19
Father, tell Jesus everything. Be fully honest, be real with
35:23
him, repent of sin. Tell him you love him, tell him
35:26
what you're thankful for. Tell him what your heart
35:28
desires. Express your prayer out loud or
35:31
in a journal. Give it a shot.
35:33
Read Holy Scripture, use good spiritual reading guides or
35:37
tools, use the prayers that Jesus and the church have have
35:40
given us, especially if you're struggling to pray, and then get
35:43
a good spiritual guide. If you give this a shot, I
35:46
guarantee you your life will change for the better.
35:49
Life with God, like really making him, intentionally
35:54
putting him as the priority of your day in prayer is the most
35:59
rich, fulfilling, dynamic, beautiful, joyful life you could
36:04
ever imagine. I mean, there's not even a, I
36:08
can't even describe dimensionally speaking.
36:11
It's like you're in one dimension without God, you're
36:13
living in one dimension. And then you enter into the life
36:16
of faith and a life of prayer and like all of a sudden you see
36:20
this like 3D4D world emerge that's more beautiful and
36:24
dynamic. And some ways, yeah, there's
36:27
challenges, it's not easy, but it's just tremendously rewarding
36:30
and meaningful. And that's our beautiful life of
36:33
faith. So I hope this episode was
36:35
helpful for you guys. Thanks for letting me share
36:37
about prayer. I hope that you are encouraged
36:40
to pray or inspired to start a new habit of prayer or
36:44
encouraged to continue the habit you've got going.
36:47
Share in the comments if you're watching on YouTube, tools that
36:51
have helped you with prayer, things that have helped you, and
36:54
share them with our community at the Lila Rose Podcast.
36:57
I love hearing from you guys and as always, if you are listening
37:01
on your podcast app, don't forget to give the podcast 5
37:04
stars and to leave us a review that helps the podcast reach
37:07
more people. Thanks so much and we'll see you
37:09
next time.