Prayers of Rest

Are you too busy to pray then maybe it's time to find rest in God's presence. That is his heart for us that we would pray more, not because we need to impress God it was because he or she wants to find welcome Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the New York Times bestseller "The 5 Love Languages" today. Author asked Rita to to sense a respite from your spiritual to do with our featured resource.

Today is her book titled pairs of rest.

Daily prompts to slow down and hear God's voice living reintroduce her just as she read choo-choo is a best-selling author, national speaker, host prayers, rest. She is the founder one thing alone ministries online ministry that helps women find joy in Jesus through creative and consistent time in God's word as Rita grew up in Romania as a missionary kid studied English and women's ministry at Cedarville University. Her latest book is titled prayers of rest. Daily prompts to slow down and hear God's voice. For more information, you can go to Moody books.org that's Moody books.org welcome back to Building Relationships. Thank you so much for having my back on this topic of prayer goes right along with your heart for people to spend time in the Bible right like he said in childlike prayer is a conversation for so many of us it feels like a one-way monologue and we know prayer is important we share from the pulpit every Sunday that we should be spending more time in prayer and genuinely want to pray more. Don't know how and oftentimes I just don't know what to say in prayer and that's why I think that learning how to pray God's word and learning how to listen to God's voice and prayer can have such a revolutionizing change in our prayer life and in a relationship with God to spur symptoms feel so natural for some people struggle for others, even those who erosion the church I was raised in the church and I watched people pray and the way he talked with God was so familiar like talking to a friend and yet there was that proper response and reverence and faith and believe God hears and God will you and I remember thinking as a child like I want.

I want to learn how to talk to God. That way, and how to listen to his voice way to have confidence that she hears me and that is in response to my prayers.

I really think the difference lies in practice, like so much of our spiritual life.

The more we pray more confident, we become in prayer and unconvinced that part of what is affecting the Western church today is not that were praying the wrong prayers and utter lack of prayer we feel too busy to pray we feel like God doesn't really care about the concerns that we have in our life are the things that were facing might be too insignificant to bring up in prayer in our hearts are suffering for our families, our marriages, our children, our parenting relationships are neighborhoods. All of them are affected by our lack of prayer. This is something that we add to our to do list like oh okay I need to pray more invitation from the God of the universe, who welcomes us to come to him weary and heavy burdened come to me, that is his heart for us that we would pray more, because we need to impress God because he expects he wants to find only found in his presence. Symptoms like this in terms of listen time with conversation for reading the Scriptures and listening to God is this natural to talk back to God about what we do through the real conversation which is this books can be really helpful to people to learn the motor feeling natural relationship with God see this in marriages as well that sometimes some of your wife will be much more comfortable praying out loud, but your husband's not or could be the other way around. Of course what what you think that is sometimes true spirit of comparison in prayer as file where we think that people who pray a certain way more confidently, or maybe in some cases more pompously with big words with we compare our prayers to those prayers. I hope I don't sound like that God must not listen to my prayers. He must be disappointed. I pray but just you and I have different cadence and are in the way we talk to people.

My husband and I have different ways of conversing with people so we have different ways of talking with God as well. We serve a creative God and he created us in so many creative and different ways. I think that we might have different personalities types when it comes to prayer. My husband will pray sincerely and from his heart.

And yet, his prayers often tend to be short and to the point is just the way that he communicated in day-to-day relationships. The way that he talked with God as well, and I might be many more descriptive in my prayers. Or maybe I bring to mind versus in my prayers because that's the way that I talk in conversations with my friends to give examples are menial bits of dialogue telling a story that translates to my conversation with Scott as file so I think we better served comparing the way I pray to the way you prayed to the way someone else prays but rather coming back to the basics and saying this is a conversation with the God of the universe created me and who knows me being honest in my opening my heart to him, holding nothing back. Having this conversation because he welcomes us again to come just as we are to be bold and confident in tech in the way that we talk with sometimes Cobos to personnel who talks pointers and painters.

The porters in their conversations. I just get right to the point painters the whole picture. You know what color the room was what the floor look like their personnel is overbroad got the prayer.

The porters get right to the port report told her part of the printer will do more what you're doing. So that's like accepting the big issue talk about the main challenges that people face to good in their prayer lives, but First Central Christians probably didn't face, and how do we overcome sure that every generation of Christians has faced challenges in their spiritual growth but one that challenges they think is probably more distinct for our generation or those of us living in the 21st century is just attention span so short these days we feel dizzy and rushed and hurried and overwhelmed and hustling from one thing to the next. In fact, there was a research done by Crossway number one obstacle in your life when it comes to printing more what you feel keeps you from praying and by far the majority of respondents said distraction.

They had every intention to pray and yet something like thing on their phone or an email for a child comes in and interrupts asking for a snack. Something that distracts us interrupts us is asking for attention and even when we do sit down to pray. And sometimes it's not the external distractions that keep me from being fixed in prayer.

When I finally have a moment to sit down and talk to the God of the universe to me and created me.

I might get 45 seconds into my prayer and stillness.

I remember we need to pull out the meat from the freezer for dinner tonight.

There is a load of laundry and washed the dryer before my friends birthday is next week and I didn't get her a gift.

All of these tumbling into the moment of stillness because the rest of the time, going nonstop and I think that's most of our experiences. From the moment we wake up in the morning to the moment her head hit the pillow at night. We have very little time to be still to be silent to sit quiet until that level of noise pollution in our lives is something that is definitely a development in the last hundred years hundred and 50 years where there's constantly something asking for attention. Even my own grandmother and great grandmother living in the farm life in Romania. Most of their time was spent in quiet and in silence, working the fields are preparing the meal unless there was a person with them.

They didn't even have a reason to turn on for noise, our lives are filled with noise if we set aside intentional time for silence and stillness for quiet rest in conversation with God. It's just never happened naturally. This is Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, our guest today is saturated, choo-choo, author of prayers of rest. Daily prompts to slow down and hear God's voice. You can find out more and hear our program again at our website. Five love languages.com you can also find more simple ways to strengthen relationships right there that's five love languages.com a ghost as Rita choo-choo is a best-selling author, speaker post of the prayers of rest podcast. She's married to love you hi school sweetheart.

Together they raised their three children in Northeast Ohio. If you want to know more about prayers of rest. You could also use the website Moody books.award that's Moody books.org before the break we were talking about the challenges that we have today of this being so busy this voice is calling so long. You should terms of overcoming the if we don't have an intentional time to sit down with God and listen and talk to God were not like to go so is that what you see is really the way we overcome this tendency to just be too busy might just want to say yeah I mean how many of us have heard that phrase that you have time for the things that you make time for an open trail in my own life sweetheart and we have three kids ages eight and under and there is hardly a moment of silence in my life from the moment make it that and it is only when I build intentional time to be with God to listen to his voice to tell him the things in my heart that I love to be able to have two hours every morning quiet Jesus with my hot coffee in the sun rising over the horizon and that's just not my life so I need to find ways to build in the habit of resting in God's presence talking with pain pulses walk in the spirit as well as pray without ceasing. Those two are connected. There are ways that I've learned that we can building the habit of prayer talking with God, alongside other like making coffee or going to drop off the kids at school like their ways that we can connect conversation with God a time of intentionally telling him with Tana Hartson and listening to what he has to say for us in the same time as were doing our regular day-to-day things, rather than having this idealized monastic view of chunk of time dedicated to prayer and holding off until that that idealistic date, which I think will never come.

I think it's so much better for us to look for ways that we can fool moments of prayer into our day-to-day life becomes really because of an ongoing conversation with exactly yeah you into the question. The people sometimes raise if God knows everything, what are we need to pray a question and I think it lies in how we view prayer.

Prayer is a transaction in which we inform God of our needs and then expect him to do something about it, then yes, that question would make sense because in an all-knowing God already knows everything. So why would he expect us to even have to pray he should just magically be able to take care of our situations.

Prayer through the lens of Scripture through through the lens of Jesus invitation in Matthew 11 when he says come to me all you who are weary and heavy burdened will give you prayer is not simply informing God about what's happening in our life that prayer is an invitation to come and sit in the grass with the God of the fling open the heavenly throne room and in us being able to boldly approach the throne of grace with confidence because of our high priest, Jesus who lives to intercede for we got to spend time with.

We get to tell him all the worries and heavy burdens, not because he doesn't know because he wants us to to lift that burden off our shoulders and place it on his grasp that comes only when we pour everything out to him, Peter says cast all your cares on him because he cares for you. He wants us to tell him those things not because he doesn't know because he knows that we will we meet we need to be the one who put words to those burdens because in doing so were able to release them to hand and then receive the rest in the peace that comes only in his presence sometimes are people say I really don't know what this prayer here of the people praying in public and in the distal, especially when they come to fill our God. God is not listening anyway.

This didn't happen this responders people all seasons feels like God are you listening to them saying my prayers hitting the ceiling, or even making a difference and encouragement for me comes from knowing that even Jesus cried out my God, have you forsaken me. Where are you at those feelings of abandonment of desperation saying I'm not emotionally feeling connection with you right now and so it's hard to even what we see Jesus modeling is that he prayed Psalms on the cross. In those last few moments the words of the song this with the words that he he has his own, and I found that practice so helpful for me, even recently with with what's going on in the news. With so many heavy developments of the last few years and it just seems like it's been one crisis after another, one heartache after another and when I have no words to pray. One thing that helps is going to the Psalms and just starting to pray the words of Psalm Psalm 46 is one of my favorites.

God is our refuge and strength ever present help in time of trouble, and there have been seasons where spend my whole prayer is just repeating that over and over again preaching the gospel truth to my own heart even when it felt like God was far away, reminding myself that God is our refuge and strength ever present help in time of trouble. The other thing that's been so helpful to me is the assurance from Scripture that when we have no words to pray the spirit of God is praying for us in our own moans and groans and got overwhelming heartache of I don't even have a song to hold onto you.

I have no lifeline. And yet I'm going to still bow my face before the Creator only knees before him. Instead of running to Instagram to scroll and and none the pain instead of running to the pantry and choosing I scramble to kind of give me that momentary relief or just dozing in front of the TV.

All those things that we can turn to to try to meliorate the pain in her life. I'm still going to make my way before God even if I have no words and I'm going to sit before him and grown knowing that the Holy Spirit is taking those grounds and interceding with Jesus Christ before the father and their making sense of it when I have no words. What a loving God still invites us to come to him. I'm sure some of her special into going through a hard hard time you're heartbroken over what literally growing well maybe we could pause right here – we go back. That's one of things about the book so helpful is you how you walk us through that. Could you go back to that song that you just mentioned a moment ago and could you just pray that for the listener who's going through some of that deep water at this point in the program 616 God is our refuge and strength, under present help in trouble. Therefore we will not thank you that you are refuge, thinking that when we're surrounded by trifling challenges and difficulties in unexpected and the unknown thinking that we run to you that you welcome. You don't turn us away. You don't expect us to put on a smile and pretend everything is okay in the midst of her traveling tribulation open wide your arms and you say to me kindly confess that in the midst of the challenging times that were facing right now. It's so easy to run to all the other things to numb the pain to ignore the cry for hearts to pretend everything is all right because sometimes it's easier then facing the sorrow and the grief and heartache, thinking that we'll have to face because you are refuge because you are strengths that we can go into those hard and dark places with you confidence that he will never leave us or forsake us. So we rest in you right now God we trust that you will be with us in the storms and the hardship thinking that we don't have to fear because you are in control. You are the God of the universe, and you hold us in the palm of your hand and you will never let go of God we trust you regardless of what tomorrow brings. Matter what the headlines say that we trust you and we will rest in you because you are our refuge. Refugees router. There are people who will say this struggle loosely focused on improving produced dues, rooms or other places. Can we develop deeper focus and concentration are prayers I needed. I struggled with that to I am a millennial. So my phone is glued to my hand so I can understand that struggle of sitting down to pray and then thinking of all the things and in the midst of that two things that I found so helpful in developing a habit of restful prayer on one something I've already mentioned before and that this in the times when I sit to pray in all these other thoughts come to mind all have a little sticky note next to me and I'll remember the meat in the freezer and celebrated down on a sticky note and release it and then you know the other thing will come up and write it down so I can come back to you a place that centered on silencing and seeking God's presence.

The other thing that I found really helpful in developing a habit of stillness and quiet in prayer is something that has read someone else doing it, called homes down, palms up, taking those worries and instead of ignoring them on visualizing that I take each one and a place in God's hands, palms, and so the friend's birthday. That's next week that I don't have a gift yet and in some time to start pickup my phone and and researching guess I could get from a friend instead of spending time in prayer. This is just realized I might take that, worry, concern… Visualize taking my hands and placing palms down and got to not, thank you for this gift of friendship. Thank you for the ways that she makes me laugh and smile and got worried about getting her the right gifts to communicate what she means to me with you. Help me just just leave me to your spirit guide Kristin show me how to communicate how much she means to me and then I'll turn my hand and just sit in silence God receive anything he might get me sometimes pops to mind and I remember she really likes this particular book. She likes that flavor ice cream and plot spirit sitting just a sense of peace. He gives me an exchange really helped me to view the thoughts that come to mind when I try to pray that I used to think were distractions yet so hard on myself. Why can't I just be more focused in prayer and in such a gift, palms down, palms that to take this distracting thought and help them be prompt for conversation with God. Those things will keep coming to mind and I keep handing them over to God until finally my mind in a convenient place to do this literally anywhere you can be on the sidelines of your kids soccer game and spend time in prayer you can be in bed trying to go to sleep and that's when so many of us struggle with anxiety. In this way, having conversation with God helps us to stay focused. We hope today's broadcast is encouraging. You tell a friend about our program. They can hear the conversation with Ashley to choo-choo@ 5lovelanguages.com Dr. Gary Chapman is our host, author of the New York Times bestseller "The 5 Love Languages" are featured. Resource is the book prayers of rest. Daily prompts to slow down and hear God's voice, go to five love languages.com and click resources, then Building Relationships.

Again, go to five love languages.com is really what you were just talking about a move to go that last segment was so freaking about the palms of palms down.

I think a lot of people beat themselves up for having these thoughts and you don't go do this, that and have the piece of paper right next to you. We could drop that down member.

Later, a ghost of this email that kind of thing. But rather than saying oh you no good prayer know you just say thank you God for bringing that to mind go to leave that with you what you're doing is you're engaging what's really going on in here and and leaving with him right so it really has been so spring in my life to change the way that I think about this.used to be myself up in a Christian family. I should have this figured out by now. I feel like I should be so good at praying and yet these thoughts keep coming to mind instead of viewing them as distractions. Once you refrain these concepts. Now these are prompts for prayer.

They are coming to mind for a reason. This is the beautiful thing about God's invitation to prayer. He wants us to bring all those things to him. Nothing too small, too insignificant to think too hard to win their scene to talk to him about there might be a conversation that comes up. Maybe for example just this morning as I was talking to God just woke up, brushing my teeth getting ready for the day talking him about about the day the conversation came up that I had last night. And there's something unsettling in my heart about it to me to say something wrong there did I do something wrong.

I love hearing the words of Psalm 139 search me oh God, and know my heart test me and know my anxious if there is anything that's not the right way me and lead me in the way. Instead of allowing conversation cause anxiety in my heart to cause a sense of restlessness.

I bring it to him and I say God will show me the trust that God's heart for me is good and if I did something wrong. His spirit will convict me so I can ask for forgiveness and for strong ones is if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us or send and cleanse us and that's been such a screen perspective shift for me that I can bring all of these things to him in prayer. I can lay them before him, I can ask questions Jesus as my sheep know my voice hear my voice.

I talked to them they follow my voice he said he would send his beer and who would lead us and guide us in everything you need to know so if there is ever a sense of restlessness in our hearts about something. If there's something that's distracting us from prayer and we try to shut it down and ignore it and keeps popping up, maybe that's the very thing that God is inviting us to talk with them about so that we can experience the rest that he wants to give us in that situation. This is so good in the book you talk about the rest. Prayer format. What is does it differ from other prayer models have so the rest way of praying is something that I developed for my own personal prayer life because like I said I grew up in a Christian family. I learned to pray by watching other people pray and I grab on the ask model adoration, confession, Thanksgiving supplication so helpful for me as a child and teenager, but what I found as an adult is that I waited when I make time to pray.

I went talk talk talk talk talk talk about all the things that run off.

We live busy lives. Anything that I never really had time to be still, with God to be quiet with him to rest with him and my soul was craving that stillness. Psalm 4611 to speak still and know God. Matthew 11 Jesus invites us to rest in him.

I wanted I wanted to remind myself that prayer is a two-way conversation that God invites us to tell him what's on our hearts, but he also wants us to be still and to listen to his voice as well. So the rest prayer format is what I developed to help me and other listeners on the podcasting readers of this book to build an intentional time in her prayer to truly rest and be still with God so that our stands for recite God's goodness, it's time for us to remember who God is and what he's done and that I love praying Scripture I love looking at a very sensing what is shown me about God and how can I recite his goodness in this passage, and sometimes it's just one or two things but it really helps me to frame my mind on praise and worship began talking to the God of the universe knows and loves us personally to the RN rest that he is express your neediness and this is the part where height is to be honest with him to confess our sins to be honest about the hard emotions that were facing anger, bitterness, judgment, worry, fear, depression so many hard emotions that we feel like good Christians shouldn't really struggle yet we do so we have the opportunity to express our needs to God, to be honest with him to tell him what's on your heart and ask him boldly for those things that we need. Jesus says if you who are earthly parents, your son asks for bread, you're not going to give them a sneak, you love your kids how much more your heavenly father. When you ask him how much will he give you good things and even his spirit, he will pour out you until we recite God's goodness.

Then we express our neediness and then assess the time when we seek God stillness and this is what has changed so much for me after I praise God and worship him bring my needs. To him, take some time to be still to become aware of God's presence around me and with me through his spirit that he has placed in our heart. God is with so just to be with him might not be more than 20 or 30 seconds of quiet stillness and that time this distracting thoughts might pop up and I used to panic and now I don't I bring them to God in prayer and night and come back to a place of stillness, just being loved by the God who made beautiful gift and the team rest which is trust God's faith and I noticed this pattern in the Psalms that so much of the Psalms has praise and worship the beginning time of psalmist David and others being honest with God about what they're struggling with the Cella department sounds greater positing and pondering being silent about what he just prayed in silly songs. And with this declaration of trust God in whose name I trust that he is worthy of praise he's going to do these things that we remind our own hearts and souls of the good news of the gospel and we can go back into my day in the spirit of prayer, trusting that those things we entrusted in this things. We rested in God's care will take care of them and he'll take care of us to. Thanks for joining us today for Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman, author of the New York Times bestseller "The 5 Love Languages" aspirated to choose our guest in our featured resources. Her book prayers of rest. Daily prompts to slow down and hear God's voice. You can find out more at 5lovelanguages.com fructose about your experience. Included with this realist model of prayer. Well, we are about two weeks into the lock down in March 2020 and like much of the world just not knowing what would come next. What tomorrow would hold and also as much as I love my husband and children.

We had been locked up together for two weeks straight that was more than this introverted heart could handle it just felt like I had not had a moment of quiet myself and just down on top of old anxiety and unrest in our lives and our world being offended by night, and I remember being the kitchen sink into my my heart started racing and made my palms got sweaty and I got really clean me and I started shaking and I remembered just being so frightened by what was happening to my body beside never experienced anything like that and later I googled it. Dr. Google told me it was a panic attack like okay I never had a panic attack had affected me so physically they really think it was the culmination of everything just being pushed together, but there are the kitchen sink. I the kids were playing in the living room and I think they were arguing over whose toilets, to whose turn it was to play with it. There he was in the midst of just being shaky and feeling like the world is spinning around me and I went to my laundry room and shut the door because I was the only place in the house that I could have a moment I slumped against the wall to the floor and just started sobbing and I remember over and over again think I can't do this anymore. I can't do this anymore. I don't I don't know how to get through an endless days of children wanting to know what's for breakfast and lunch and snack and dinner in the laundry and then use an unknown and not seeing my family and this global pandemic in the division between friends and family and the politics just everything felt like the walls were closing and the only thing I can say is I can't do this anymore in the future felt so dark and bleak and I remember thinking I should be praying right now, but I have no words I don't even know what to say. I just know I can't and after a few minutes of just wrap it down spiral. The words that came to mind some 46 God is our refuge and strength ever present help in time of trouble in my heart responded. I can do this and again God is our refuge and strength, and for minutes on end. It felt like a back-and-forth my heart I can't do this anymore. The voice of God is spirit, bringing words to mind that I had memorized long ago reminding me. God is our refuge and strength. He is very present help right there on the laundry room floor. When everything felt so bleak and finally my my heart rate settled down and in my body just kind of settled space and in my breathing returned to normal and I remember thinking this unique moment in history, at least in our lives. I sensed God's invitation, saying, come to me. Let me be your refuge find her hiding place in me because you have literally nowhere to go.

All of his excuses of being too busy to pray they were all taken away in an instant and suddenly so many of us had more time on her hands and when you do on that day I made a commitment to wake up before the children and pray and I invited my friends on Instagram. I said I don't know if any of you feel this way but I feel like I need to set aside time to pray and submit wake up every morning at 7 AM and go live on Instagram, and working to pray for half hour and we used the rest prayer for Matt to pray through Scripture and the next morning I woke up and my heart was being a little bit like I don't know. I don't know for myself and my finger hovered over the go live button but no one else shows up. I and accountability is good for me and so I hit the live dozens of women from around the world joined in to pray first day and then the next day and the next day and for eight weeks straight we gathered to pray every morning and to start our days by resting in God's presence and it wasn't just my experience, it was so many of these people in different countries around the world saying this is our lifeline gathering together to pray in the morning and seeking God's face first thing helps settle our hearts in the assurance that God is trustworthy. He is our refuge matter what the news headline shows no matter what the numbers are pandemic or the politics we can rest and archived was such a beautiful way to experience that upheaval depend with her feet solidly planted on the solid rock and then after those eight weeks of life. Prayer calls we transition to a weekly podcast so that people can join from around the world any time of day people gathering together to rest in his presence. For now, and that then became the present rest back. I'm just such an incredible experience of seeing how God took a moment weakness and vulnerability on that laundry floor and say I can't do this and him inviting us to find rest in his presence because when we are weak.

That's when he is out there who would like to drawing and cursed sure you can go to prayers of rest.com and that's for you can find links to listen to the podcast where you listen to podcasts or even listen to it online prayers of rest.com you can also get a free prayer bookmark outlines feet are EST so that you can print it off stick it in your Bible and rest in God's presence routers we come to a conclusion of our time together new leaders through one of the prayers in the book so that we can see the type of prayer that would been talking about absolutely.

This prayer is called rest for your soul comes from Matthew 11 2830 and Jesus says come to me all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. So let's begin by reciting God's goodness. Thank you Jesus for your invitation to come to you. Even when I'm tired and have nothing to offer you a gentle you are humble and you promise not just comfort, assurance, rest for my soul. Thinking tease so we move now to express our neediness. God I need you so often. I rushed through my life, collapsing at the end of the day. Exhausted.

You know how tired I am. Help me to slow down and acknowledge the weight of my burdens worn out and weary.

I know I can't do this on my own need you to let seek stillness. Take a few moments to become aware of God's loving presence surrounding you this very moment just be still with him can take as much time as you want to seek stillness portion and then we moved to trust precious Jesus, you do not turn away anyone who comes to you.

So I bring my heavy burdens and laid them at your feet. I trade only big expectations. You are simple expectation to love you and to let others what a light load because you left me first so I trust you and I love you and for further prayer and study their passages at the bottom of the prayer have more time not you can read, pray and study is just such a beautiful way to continue that prayer. These prayers from the book can take as little as two or three minutes. I love for them to be springboard prayers where you read the words you continue to put your own words.

Prayer just spend time even writing in the margins your heart to God is the one who invites us to find rest in him.

Such a privilege believe that this book is going to help people not just women and women phone prayer to be more whole going shopping with points for taking time to thank you so much for Chapman and my joy to be with you. What an encouragement for everyone was focused on if you like information about her featured resource books for toddlers prayers daily prompts to slow down books.also, find out more website prayers next week will our thanks to our action team with Todd. Building Relationships with Dr. Gary Chapman's production radio in association with publishers. Thanks for