What Is Prayer, Really? | Pastor Derick Amsler

That we don't see the world as it is. We see the world as we are. And so my inner world shapes what I see, and what I see shapes my belief, and how I believe shapes my behavior. In other words, if we could just figure out how to change not just our eyesight, but our insight, it would change everything in hindsight. Ha.

You like that? I did. And the question then on the floor is, how does God transform what is happening in me so that I can see differently, so I can believe from a new paradigm, so that I can live in a transformed state of being? In other words, I don't want to always be who I've always been. But in order for me to change, the Bible says that it needs to begin with the renewing of.

Of our mind. Tell the person next to you, change your mind. Come on, let them know. Change your mind. You're hanging on to some unhealthy mental habits.

Change your mind. The number one way that God changes us is from the inside out. And the number one way he changes our insides and reshapes us and refashions us into the image and the likeness of the Son is through. Through what Addison was talking about, through prayer. And so the short answer is, how does God change our life through prayer?

The longer answer to a better question is than what is prayer really? What is prayer really? Addison spent some time talking about the need to put prayer at the beginning of your day. But I want to talk about what are we actually doing when we give God the first part of our day? Because I want to gently challenge this simple definition that I've been hearing for well over a decade now, talking to people about prayer and Bible reading and how both tend to be boring to so many people.

And that is. I think that we've gotten prayer wrong. I think that we got it wrong. And so I want to challenge the simple definition that most of us live with and that we've been taught our entire life. That prayer is talking to God, that prayer is talking to God.

What if we've reduced something down that has the potency and the potential and the power to revolutionize our life? But we're not. We're not. We're not activating the tool appropriately or all that it can be in our life because we reduced it down to a bad definition.

Prayer is not just talking to God. You say, well, where do you get that? Let's look at it. In Genesis, chapter one, the Bible says, and let's put it up on the screen for me, he said, And God said, Let there be light. And everything it took to create light came into being.

God spoke. And everything that needed to be done to occupy the space that he declared happened. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. God called, he said, he's conversating.

God said, let there be light. And there was light. And so God called the light day in the darkness, he called night. God said, Everybody say, said. God said, let us make man in our image after are likeness.

God is not talking to himself. He's talking to somebody. So God the Father here is having a conversation with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. God is in the middle of having a conversation and creation responds to his dialogue. God is having a conversation with the other members of the Trinity.

Prayer is not us talking to God. Prayer is us occupying the same space in which God is already occupying in his conversation. In other words, prayer doesn't begin when we start talking. Prayer begins when we recognize God is already talking. We're just getting in on the conversation.

Ah, it's like this. There's. There's God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. They're over here and they're talking and they're conversing. All the Bible says that the planes of God are not far from anyone.

They are all around us. We are saturated. We are baptized in the planes and the purposes of God. The reason why we don't always hear it or see or feel it or understand or know about it isn't because he is mute or he is distant. It's because we're not paying attention.

So Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they're having a conversation. Prayer doesn't start when I'm over here and I invite them into my words. Prayer begins when I recognize they're already having a conversation and I get into their airspace. Hey, guys, what you talking about?

Once I get in to their conversation, prayer has continued, not begun. It has continued. In other words, if you take notes, write this down. Prayer simply joins a conversation already in progress.

Prayer is us joining the conversation of God already in progress. The most famous prayer in all of Israel and Israel's history begins with the word here. Tell the person next to you, listen up. Come on, listen up. Listen up, listen up.

You need this. The most famous prayer in Israel begins with the word here. And it comes from this phrase, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. So remember, God said, let us create man in our image. And now here they're saying, listen, the Lord our God.

So in the same manner in which God is Having a conversation within a relational construction. We too are having a conversation with God in prayer, in a relational construct. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Notice here it begins with hear first, not speak first. And so the Hebrew word shema for.

For. Here it doesn't mean. It doesn't mean ear. Here, it doesn't mean listen to what I'm saying. It's a word that literally means listen in a way that it will change your life.

So, for example, if I came up, or if you were eavesdropping on a conversation I was having with somebody and all you heard was me throwing out numbers 14, 72, 46, 39, 84, 2, you're probably not thinking anything about it. But then if you heard the context, hey, I got an insider skip on here. Somebody just gave me the winning lottery ticket for what's coming up. You are listening in a way that will change your life. Honey, start the car like they're already going, right?

You're listening. You heard me the first time. You heard me the second time. The second. You heard me the second time.

That's the Hebrew word shema. You are listening in a way that what is about to be said, said what I'm about to hear, the conversation that's already taken place. This is going to change my life. Prayer at its best is when we walk in not with an agenda, not with a script, not with, buddy, I got something to say right now, it walks in with a shema ear. I'm about to hear something that's going to change my life.

So before I start telling God to listen up to what I'm about to say, let me give him a moment to clear his throat and share, share with me what's on his mind and what's on his heart. Because once I properly intersect that vein of a conversation, now my heart is tenderized for prayer.

Prayer at its best is a posture that understands there's been a conversation of the heavens already taking place. Before I interrupt them, let me find out what's currently being said. In other words, it just gives God room to move. First, prayer is not us saying, God, we're here to manage you. So here's my agenda.

Prayer is God. I'm here to listen to be shaped by you and your agenda. Why does prayer then feel so awkward for so many people? I think it's because we start prayer backwards. We begin with our words, and if there's time, we'll listen for his.

Or we begin with our script, our needs. We're here to Speak where Biblically, people didn't rush into prayer to speak, they rushed into prayer to listen. It's not God. Here's what I want to talk to you about. Prayer at its best is God, I am here.

Period. This is why Scripture, whenever Scripture talks about consistent prayer, prayer that moves the heart of God and prayer that shakes heaven and prayer that regenerates legacy and prayer that breaks generational curses and prayers that just gets God's ear. Whenever the Bible talks about prayer like that, it never talks about passionate prayer or volume prayer. It never talks like intercession. You just in there, you're just going after God and God.

I pray whenever the Bible talks about prayer that shifts the atmosphere of heaven in the heart of God. Watch this. It always uses whisper language.

Whisper language. It would look like this. Be still and know that I am God.

In the night watch. I listen for the sound of his footsteps as a watchman waits for the morning. So my soul quietly observes the landscape of my life. And I wait to see his silhouette on the horizon before a word is on my tongue. O Lord, I am here to listen and obey David.

Early in the morning I seek. You see, prayer is not competing with the noise of life. Life gets loud. My prayers. Prayer is not in a arm wrestling match with the noise of your life.

Prayer interrupts the noise of life with something we absolutely despise. Silence.

Admit it, you hate it too. It's mad awkward, right?

Silence.

And yet some of God's most magnificent works of art happen in the space where noise finds a hush and silence finds its volume.

We tend to think in our culture that silence means weakness. I'll never forget the first time I was silenced by a bully at school. I felt weak and powerless, right? We were at the playground. Camden Station elementary school in Crestwood, Kentucky, 40014.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was in the third grade. This big bully. His name was Raymond, Raymond Flournoy. If you're watching, I don't even pray for you, bro.

And Raymond, God's still working on my heart, but bro, I'm bitter. And Raymond Flournoy. And like, dude was. Dude was. Dude was 3 times my size in the 3rd grade.

Had a full grown beard. And she was mean, y'. All. She was mean. She.

Anyway, I'm just kidding. It wasn't a she. But we were on the playground and. And someone threw me a Nerf football. And I missed it.

And I missed it. Like, buy a mic. Yeah, right. And are you Raymond? Are you?

Is that you? And missed it. All the kids made fun of me. And it wasn't just that I missed it. It's what Raymond said.

Raymond went on this verbal onslaught of. Just verbal. He just dumping on me and he just. And I had nothing to say. And so I was like, you, will you wait till tomorrow?

And because I knew tomorrow was Saturday. So I had all weekend to figure it out. Had all weekend to figure it out. And Monday came around and I forgot about it. And he just, he just called me a name and I had no comeback.

And everybody's like, oh, Derek, he got you, you know, burn. You know, you got burned. And. And then so that night I said, you know, two times in a row is not gonna happen for a third. I stayed up all night.

My mom told me to go to bed. No, I was in there with a holy journal writing down every come back I could come up with. And so on Monday morning or Tuesday morning, we're at. We're at. This is way too long of a story for the point I'm making.

But now I'm in it. Now I'm in it. It's dumb. Raymond comes after me and he says the same thing. He always told me to put me down in front of, in front of our class.

But this time I was prepared for him. I wasn't going to let silence. When I looked at him and I said, raymond, you brain affected, disconnected, booger picking piece of chicken on a stick with hot guacamole sauce.

And nobody cared. It was. Nobody gave a rip. Oh, ridiculous. We think in our culture that silence means you've been had, that silence means a weakness.

Somebody asked a question, somebody probed a thought or an idea, and because you are so weak minded, you didn't have an answer or you didn't have anything to say. When in fact, in the kingdom of heaven, silence is not weakness. Silence is strength. Because it is in the silence, you let God confront what needs to be confronted. You let God confront your enemies.

You let God's will be done, your will be submitted over to him. All through creat. Listen to this. God uses silence to make something, to shape something, to form something. Are you ready?

Watch this. In communication, silence is called a pregnant pause.

It's a moment that intentionally builds anticipation. In a heartbeat. Silence is what reminds us that life is fragile.

In nature, silence is called stillness or a moment of peace. In music, silence is called a rest, intentional space that shapes and contrasts the melody. In storytelling, silence is called white space. Space. It allows the reader to absorb what is left unsaid or For a meaning to settle into their spirit.

In neurobiology, silence is called restorative. In psychology is called introspective. In spiritual practices, it's called prayer. If I read this quote a while back, and it's just. It's just one of those quotes that could go so many different direction.

It just kind of settles in the back of your mind. It says, if you can fit it on a spoon, don't call it the ocean. Even if what the spoon is holding is from the ocean. But if you can fit it on a spoon, don't call that the ocean. Likewise, if your prayer time is taken up with words, it may be of prayer, but it's not the oceanic depth of prayer.

If you can fit it on a spoon, don't call it the ocean. If your prayer time is only you talking, it may be something, but don't call it prayer. To the biblical narrative, prayer needs the pregnant pause, the stillness, the peace, the rest, the white space, the restorative, the introspective. It needs the prayer living space for God to speak. How do we do it?

Let's keep it practical, simple, and livable. Number one, start prayer without words this week. Tomorrow morning, you're going to wake up, you're going to go into your time of prayer, and prayer has already begun in the counsel of the Godhead. You're just going to intersect that conversation, not interrupt. You're going to be aware.

God is already talking. Let me eavesdrop for a little bit. Prayer begins without words. God, you are here. Here am I.

What do you have to say? Number two, here's what we're going to do to get the most out of prayer this week. Prayer that we're going to pray. One honest sentence. This is now going to give us time to listen, and now it's going to give God an opportunity to hear what is most weighty on our heart.

One honest sentence. It may sound like this. It's not long, it's not polished, it's not well thought out. It's just true. God honors truth more than he does robust theology that you don't have time to pray.

God honors truth. Hey, God, I'm distracted right now. God can work with that. God, I'm just tired.

God, I'm overwhelmed. God, I'm scared.

God, I feel betrayed and I feel hurt.

God, I'm nervous. God works with honesty. You know that commandment, thou shall not lie, that works in prayer, too. Let me give you one more. The band's coming back.

We're going to start our prayers without words. We're going to pray one honest sentence, and then we're going to end our prayers not by saying Amen, but by paying attention. But by paying attention. The ancient Jews did not ask, did I pray today? They didn't ask their kids, did you pray today?

They asked, where did I notice God today? For in the noticing of the activity of God, there was an act of worship, which then became an act of praise and prayer. And so prayer isn't an event that we sit down to do. Prayer is a posture throughout the day. They didn't pray to feel God being close to them.

They pray to remind their mind, he always is.

He's always here. And he uses the language of a whisper to draw us close to him. Because when he whispers, we have to get close. And when we get close, our anticipation and our faith arises. And when we're leaning in and we're making eye contact and we're absorbed with the presence of the individual who's whispering.

Even if there's silence, there's still a pregnant pause on the inside. What will he say next?

And then we can echo the words of scripture. Speak, Lord, I'm still listening. How long do I do that before I go to work? Go to work, but don't say Amen. Just keep paying attention.

He may speak to you in a worship song on your way to work. He may speak to you when you're walking into work. He may speak to you in between classes at your locker room. Somebody made something. Or he may jog something, lifting back into the forefront of your memory that you've not thought about for years.

He may bring a person to your mind. He may use a text message. He may use a YouTube video of an old sermon somewhere. But somewhere he will answer and respond to his people. Lord, your servant is here.

Your servant is listening. Speak. Pause. Give it a couple minutes. Don't rush him.

He may just want to sit with you for a little bit.

Okay, Lord, I'm gonna go to work, but I'm gonna keep my eye on you.

That is prayer that God inhabits. And he responds, my prayer life is boring. Start listening. He'll start talking.