The Rusty George Podcast

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Following Jesus isn't always easy, but doesn't have to be complicated. Join us each week as we work to make faith simple. This is Simple Faith.

Hey, welcome to Simple Faith. I am your host, Rusty George. Today on the podcast, we're gonna jump into five simple prayers you can pray this summer. All of us wanna pray and be better at prayer. We just don't always know what to say, so we typically ask God to bless this food to our body and. Uh, give us a safe trip here or there and help us to have a good day.

But what if we could ask for something so much more? I mean, you get an audience with the creator of the universe, and I do this all the time. I waste my time on God. Gimme a good day. Well, I wanna give us some better prayers to pray about than just that. I wanna thank our friends at Saga Counseling for sponsoring the podcast.

The people at Saga are incredible. I've sent countless people to them for counseling help, and these people are always satisfied customers, they just love their experience in the counselor they get paired up with. You can go to saga counseling.com. That's S A G A counseling.com. You know, I think all of us would love to have a better prayer life.

We'd love to be able to know we're talking to God. We'd love to know that God is listening and that God has answered us. In fact, in my book After Amen, I talk about things we should do after we hang up the phone, after we say Amen. The things that God is waiting for us to do as my friend Mark Patterson likes to say, sometimes God's waiting to do the Super until we do the natural.

You might pick up after Amen, either on Audible or uh, you can buy a copy through my website, pastor Rusty George.com. But that doesn't change the fact that sometimes we don't know what to pray when we pray. First Thessalonians five 16 through 18 says, rejoice always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances.

For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you, I often have people ask me, what's God's will for my life? Should I marry this person? Should I divorce this person? Should I go to college here? Should I take this job? Should I leave this career field and try something else? Should I go into the ministry?

Am I a better Christian if I'm in the ministry? Will God love me more? If I'm a pastor, what's God's will for my life? Well, It's pretty simple right here in First Thessalonians, the will of God in Christ Jesus. For you is this, rejoice Always. Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I know that Rusty, but I really need to know, should I move across the country? Should I take this job? Should we get a second house? Rejoice, always pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. Now, that's God's general will for every single one of us does. He has something to say about the specific will in various areas of your life, of course.

But the general will for you and for me, and everyone who follows Jesus is this rejoice Always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances. Okay, I get the rejoice always. Let's be happy. Let's celebrate. Take the high road, see the positive, and I get to give thanks in all circumstances. It's better to give thanks than it is to be mean or critical.

But how do I pray without ceasing? Well, I think it's more of a spirit of prayer. It's that your first inclination and reaction is to pray rather than to pout or to be critical, or to be bitter, but to take everything before the father. Obviously you gotta have conversations with people, you gotta get work done, you gotta drive and you gotta, uh, have conversations with your kids and tell 'em what to do and help 'em with their homework.

And you're not always praying during that. But I think it's more of that spirit of prayer is that everything that's going on in my life, I lift up to God and I pray without ceasing. So how do we get in the rhythm of that? I have found, For seasons of my life, if I will take one simple prayer and just pray it over and over again throughout the day, I build some momentum on this praying without ceasing.

So I wanna give you five prayers that you can pray starting right now. Maybe one a day, maybe one a week, and let it kind of drill down into your mentality to where it becomes common for you to utter these prayers, and you don't just rest on the ones that you always have. So here's one that I have used a lot.

And it's simply this, Lord, less of me, more of you. This is a prayer I was taught a long time ago by a great book by Thomas Kelly called The Testament to devotion. Less of Me, more of you. And this comes right out of the speakings of John the Baptist. He must become greater. I must become less, or I must decrease.

He must increase. This is such a great, great verse because it reminds me that everybody's better off if they get more of Jesus and less of me. In fact, a lot of times before I go out to speak on stage, I'll often say this backstage over and over again, Lord, less of me, more of you, less of me. More of you.

That's a great little prayer to begin the reciting, to teach your kids on the way to school. Less of me. More of you. Here's a second one. Hey, let me interrupt this podcast for just a second to remind you, if you're not taking care of your mental health, nobody is. Step up and go check out saga center.org to find out more.

All right, back to our show. Here's a second one, Lord. I notice and I say, thank you. Now what's that mean? Well, our God is an incredible, exquisite creator. He didn't just make a planet that's sustainable. He made one That's beautiful. There are things that we see from sunsets, sunrises, giraffes, necks to trees, palm trees, flowers, dogs, cats, whatever kind of thing gets you excited about the the creation of God.

The reality is God had an unlimited imagination. It's pretty incredible, isn't it? And I think as any creator or artist, they just like it when we notice and God says, I want you to give thanks in that moment. So what if you just took a moment and when you notice something beautiful, say, God, I see that and thank you.

I see that sunrise and rather than me just thinking about how much I'm dreading the day. Thank you. The sun coming. The sun coming up. Didn't have to be beautiful, but it is. God. I see the mountain range. Not everybody gets to see that. It's beautiful. Thank you. God, I see the open prairie. Not everybody gets to see that, but thank you, God.

I see the laughter in my kids' eyes. Thank you, God. I see the way that my hand works. I mean, this is an incredible device that scientists are trying to figure out how to Perfect. Thank you that it worked so well for me. God. I notice the way that you created this world in a way that draws wonder and awe in your direction.

I notice it and I say, thank you. Here's the third one, Lord, who can I help? I love this phrase, became very popular during a TV show called New Amsterdam, where the doctor who was running the hospital basically just walked into every situation and said, how can I help? What's a great way to process leadership?

I love that idea. But to look at God and say, who can I help? God, would you put someone in my path today that I could be a vision of you? I could be your hands and feet that I could make them notice and say thank you to you? As Jesus said, blessed are you when you do good works and it causes other people to praise God.

Well, that's what I want my day to be about. Lord, may I walk through the day looking through your eyes. And seeing people that I can help, I'll be a much more kind person. I'll be much more likely to stop and talk to somebody as opposed to just run past them. Lord, who can I help today? Here's a fourth one, Lord, may I see as you see.

So I'll do as you say. Now I got this one from Andy Stanley. I don't think he'd mind me sharing it with you. I love this because the more likely we are to see as he sees, the more likely we are to do as he says, when we see things from his perspective, when we see how he views the world and humanity, and people who are lost and hurting, when we see other people as his creatures in creation.

We'd be more likely to be loving, more likely to be serving, more likely to be giving, and to be generous. Lord, help me to see as you see, so I'll do as you say. And finally, Lord, help others to see you in me. May I live a life to where they would say, you know what? I like Jesus and I like that guy who likes Jesus.

So many people say, I like Jesus. I just don't like his friends. Well, may we be the kind of friends that point people to Jesus. So many people are leaving their faith because of Christians and the way that they've behaved and acted. May I live today in such a way that other people would see Jesus in me and they'd want more of Jesus, not just me, Lord, help others to see you in me.

Well, that's our five. Less of me. More of you notice and say Thank you. Who can I help? May I see as you see? So I'll do as you say and help others to see you. In me. I think that's gonna give us a lot more to say rather than, God thank you for this day. Thank you for this food. Help us to sleep good tonight.

Next week I'll be back with brand new content with a conversation I've been waiting to share for a while. This is gonna be very, very helpful for all of our pastors, and this is gonna be on kind of the leading simple platform, but you'll still get it if you're subscribed here. And that's my conversation with legendary pastors, gene, apple, and Mike, bro, as they talk about how do you put together a preaching calendar?

For those of you not on a church staff, you may wonder how we come up with the topics we come up with. What's the reason for when we teach these particular issues, when we choose a various book or passage to preach on, and how far in advance do we plan this stuff out? Well, the answers might surprise you and the wisdom we get from these guys with probably 65 to 70 years combined experience, uh, it's gonna be pretty fascinating.

Plus they're great guys and we have a lot of fun in the conversation. So, Gene Appel and Mike Breaux help us. Put together a teaching calendar. Make sure you join us next week for that. Please tell your friends about this and share it with them. And as always, keep it simple.