Everyday Faith

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Simply go to Geico.com or contact your local agent today. This is Chris Hughes with the Christian Perspective Podcast with Chris Hughes, where we encourage our listeners to engage the culture with Jesus Christ. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

So enjoy it, share it. But most of all, thank you for listening to the Truth Podcast Network. So today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about everyday faith. And what does that mean? I mean, we want to talk about the importance of believing that God is with you, really with you every day, and the difference that can make in your life, James.

Yes. And that's where we need to be all the time, where he really wants us to be. But it takes time for us, I think, to cultivate this and to learn it, to live into it. And this is about, and this is the funny thing, because even though it takes time to learn it, it's really about the most simple kind of prayer there is. Jesus promised that he's with us always, and this is the kind of prayer that boils down to that one solitary fact and just revels in it.

You know, the more we simply believe and trust that he is with us and talk to him that way and live with him that way, the more of his peace we're going to receive every day. Oh, that's so true. I mean, otherwise we're just running off in so many directions.

Yeah, that's just it. I mean, that's why I said we need to boil life down to this. Think of the old American hymn, Simple Gifts. Tis a gift to be simple, tis a gift to be free, tis a gift to come down where you ought to be. This is really about childlike faith in Jesus.

It's just simple and affectionate. And if we learn to pray this way, we'll find ourselves talking to God, not just about anything and everything, but even when you're not talking, you'll find you're keeping him close. And it's a beautiful way to be because, as David wrote in Psalm 16, you fill me with joy in your presence. There's just that awareness, you know, that he's right there. And the more our hearts are stayed on him, the better it is. The more we learn to do this also, I think the less contrived it becomes and the more our faith just increases from being with him. I was thinking about something you told me you had heard from a friend the other day. You had said, God isn't disappointed in you because you don't pray more.

He's disappointed for you. I thought that's so good because there are things that we will see, things that God wants to show us that we'll otherwise miss because we're too caught up in other stuff. Oh, I love that quote. But, James, what are some of the things we might do or ways we might pray so that we can really just go there more?

I love that. He's right there. Let me talk to him. Well, I think the first is that we should just ask. Ask God to help us with this. Tell him we want to learn to be with him. And then I think another prayer that really helps is simply, I love you. Tell him we love him several times throughout the day. Write it down.

Put it on a post-it note where you can see it and be reminded of it and start getting into that habit. Or another prayer you could put right beside that is just, thank you. I love you.

Thank you. And keep going back there. All of this sums up what God's word tells us in 1 Thessalonians 5, 16-18. Rejoice always. Pray continually.

Give thanks in all circumstances. For this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. So this isn't something that's too hard for us to do. God wouldn't do that to us.

This is something that he wants for us, but we make it too hard. And, Robbie, this is something I think you've learned to do so beautifully, really, and so naturally. And you told me a story about that after last week's broadcast. And I'd love for you to share that with our listeners. It was about when you were taking a walk and talking with God about a flower that you sometimes see.

Go ahead and tell us about that, would you? Oh, I'd love to. So I often take walks during the day, because I love to spend time with God in the woods, in the Bethabara Park here in the Winston-Salem area. And in that park, there's often these little flowers.

They've got a big wide leaf on them, and they shoot up a little purple flower that's called an elephant's foot flower. Well, on Thursdays, I speak in Mocksville at a retirement home. And so I'd gone over to Mocksville, and I was walking in Rich Park. And in that park in Mocksville, I thought, wow, this is just like Bethabara Park. They're bound to have elephant's foot flowers.

I said, Lord, I was just praying as I walked. You know, show me. I want to see some elephant's foot flowers. Like, show me where they are.

Help me to see them. And so, you know, as we come around every bend in a garden, I like to look for what God wants me to see. And so as I'm heading out of the park, you know, after an hour walk in the park, I thought, man, that's disappointing.

I didn't see any. And as I was looking across the field, I see this beautiful little bridge that was going across a little brook right there. And I said, oh, that's intriguing. I'd like to go across that bridge. So I go over, and I start to cross the bridge. And as I go to cross the bridge, I see a big bright yellow butterfly. And I'm like, God, that is cool. I love that butterfly.

It's so neat. And it just looked like he was having the best time. So I watched the butterfly for a minute as I was coming down on the side of the bridge. And guess what he landed on was this bright purple flower. And I looked down and I saw that it was just not one elephant's foot, you know, flower.

They were, you know, maybe 150, 200. They were spread out all over it. I just knew Jesus was winking at me going, oh, I got plenty of elephant's feet for you. You know, he had to lead me there through the, you know, the butterfly. But that's part of the reason why I really enjoy those walks is just that intimacy. Yeah, yeah, I love that, Ravi, because it shows you, again, the things we miss when we don't go there, you know. And again, I think some might be a little uncomfortable with this because it just seems so simple and childlike.

But that's what we're called to. And it makes you wonder, what might I see? Where might I realize that God really is with me like he was with you in that moment that I'd miss if I didn't let him in, if I didn't walk with him, if I didn't pray and just talk to him and just be with him? There's nothing better than that realization when it comes. Oh, there really isn't, James. Would you wrap it up with a prayer, you know, along these lines?

Yeah, let's do it. Father, help us in this. We want to become more simple, more childlike, just to live in your presence and love you for it because that's where our joy is. That's where you are. And we want to be there in Jesus name. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.