Luke chapter 18, verses 1 through 8. Prayer to strengthen the heart. Okay, now as we're looking at this passage, good observations and also good purpose statements. Keep looking for, in your quiet times, try to start making this a thing you do. Look at the paragraph, try to pull out the meaning of the paragraph by what it's saying, only literary context. Lily. No. It's all the, now, when you get into epistles, it's a little more difficult. It's a lot more difficult, as a matter of fact, because he's usually paragraphs, because they're the smallest unit of thought, sometimes they're hanging ideas on an outline. And sometimes you have to know where the outline is. So you couldn't arbitrarily just flip to go, shh, Ephesians chapter 4, bam, he's in the middle of an argument. I had a question from a student who wanted me to answer a question on like 2 Peter, and there's this one passage, I mean one verse, and I'm like. I literally don't have enough time because I have to talk about the passage before the passage, within context, the passage after it. What does he mean by not just a statement, but within that paragraph? Then what does he mean in the context? Because it was one of those hard scratch your head verses, and we really needed to see if we can go to the context. But she's asked me right after Sunday school and I'm like, so then I'm always left wondering, Did I really answer that question? Did I get what she was asking? That's one of the biggest things, because sometimes you just, just like when you're reading the Bible, you're like, oh, it means this. I can go like, oh, they're asking this, and then you realize, I'm like, I gave them an answer, but look on their face. I don't think that's what they were asking, so it's kind of hard to discern. Okay, so what is the meaning of this passage? Always pray and not lose heart, so Luke tells us right away. So let's delve into the parable a little bit with keeping always in mind what the meaning of the passage is, that he said this to the effect for them to pray and not lose heart, okay? So why the analogy? Why using this analogy of a judge and a woman trying to seek righteousness? What do we think? that we are in a position quite a bit lower than he is, and that we're asking him to help us because he can't. Okay, good. Any other answers? Thomas? It's a common thing that happens. Okay, yeah. It definitely is, because what do you do? In a theocracy, what are you always doing? Yeah. And if you mess up, let's say like today, I mess up and I don't pay my taxes, is Pastor Steve going to get mad at me? If he finds out, he'd be like, come on, man, you know, integrity, all that stuff. But I'm not really accountable to him for that, right? It's the IRS dude that I'm going to get in trouble with, right? In a theocracy, remember, your rabbi, you go to him for everything. So, very good. The judge could be just the local rabbi, could be the appointed little, It's all linked together. So if you forgot, if you were originally unclean and you needed to be made clean, or you had a weird sore that you'd need to show them to be made clean, you went to your rabbi for everything. Questions of law, questions of closeness to God, questions of faith, all of those things. So very good, it's very applicable. Because righteousness is not just standing in the law. Like we can be righteous today by following all the traffic laws, right? We're righteous in the eyes of whatever, State of Idaho, okay? And it's kind of interesting, a police officer may still pull you over, but nonetheless, because you might have violated something else. And there's other reasons, Doug can tell you why. But nonetheless, so. Yeah, there you go. Do it to say hi, exactly. Okay, very good, Thomas. Other comments? Why would they use, why is Jesus using this analogy? Okay. Okay. All right, Trevor. Do you see how powerful a word story is? I mean, you see how everybody's kind of getting these pictures, like Trevor's like, okay, this reminds me of this. Taylor's like, okay, this. Word pictures are very powerful to us, aren't they? And Jesus uses them a lot. So that's why sometimes when we're approaching it, we have to be very careful because it's such a powerful illustration. I think I told you this one time, I was talking about pastors and people in ministry who fail in ministry or fall away in ministry. and they're not following God's will. And I was going through this passage and it was talking about Aaron and... Huh? Yeah, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam. I'm like, what's your name? And it's at the point where they were arguing, saying, hey, aren't we like Moses? Don't we go before the throne? And then God shows up and say, why are you talking smack about Moses? And then he turns Miriam leprous. At that point, he says, why did you not fear to talk about? And I was using that passage to show that church leaders are not infallible. But my illustrations were how not to be a Sith Lord. So, every Star Wars fan in the room, do you think they're hearing anything I'm saying about the passage? Nope. I even had this really cool picture, this graphic of Anakin Skywalker just after he fell to the dark side and his eyes are all that weird, funky, you know, that whole, I'm an evil guy now, right? So, you're looking at this and it's such a powerful illustration that whatever meaning I was trying to give dies. Sometimes the word pictures are very powerful, but we're not sitting there listening to Jesus hanging on every word, we're reading it. So, everything else sometimes falls away and we grab on to just those little words and then we're off and doing, yeah, not necessarily La La Land, but yes, it can be. We're grabbing associations, we got to make sure that we're staying grounded because that's, where we can really go astray in the parable and make it say what we want it to say. And how easy is that? Jesus wept, man. Why aren't you crying? You know what I mean? Why are you happy, Trevor? Jesus wept, man. There we go. Okay. Good answer. Good answer. Okay, beautiful, so why else do we think that Luke, or actually Jesus in this case, Luke is telling us Jesus uses this analogy. Now the analogy to explain, remember within the capsulation, to pray and not lose heart, why is he using this as a woman seeking righteousness? Let's explore this a little more. No, wait, time out. Is he the one to go for righteousness? By authority, is he supposed to be doling out righteousness? Yes, so she's going to the right place. He's not doing his job. Okay, just clarifying point. Continue. Yes. Okay. Okay, so persistence, persistence and she got what she needed. What happened if he never did or let's walk with her a little bit, okay? It's been a week, you told the guy. It's been two weeks, you told him again. You waited three weeks this time and maybe he's just a busy guy and you tell him again. What are you feeling? Yeah, neglect, keep it going. Rejection, neglect, he's ignoring you. Despair? Irritation? The longer it waits, it's kind of growing a little bit, right? You think this is going to be meted out? Do you think he's going to perform justice after a while? So what do you do? What's your reaction? Yeah, persistence. Okay, now I've got to show up at his house, not every week anymore. I'm going to go every other day, maybe every three days, and then kick it down to every other day. The next thing you know, she's out there every single day. Is she frustrated? Does she really want this done? Is it a righteous thing that he's supposed to be doing? That's the indication, right? That's what we get from the text, that this is a thing that she's seeking righteousness. She's not just trying to gain favor unnecessarily, not trying to bribe him for doing something. She's asking the dude to, one, do her job and to fulfill righteousness on her part. She's been wronged in some way. So she's been wronged in some way that she's seeking righteousness. Is she continually being wronged? She is by the judge himself, right? And this is building frustration. What is it also making her do? Keeping in mind, what is this parable supposed to be about? Okay, so if you keep seeking justice and it doesn't happen, what will she begin to do? Start to lose heart. We're now understanding now, right? Without Luke's guidance here, we would be kind of lost. Sometimes we are lost in parables because we look, we're looking, wait, what do you mean where the vultures are? There's, you know what I mean? Where the vultures gather. Remember a couple weeks ago we got that passage, we're like, wait, what? What is he talking about there? A deep cultural thing that we're like, all right, we need to whip out the commentary for this one, right? Okay, so she's going frustrated. She's continually going to the judge. She's seeking righteousness. She's determined. Now, let's do a correlation. So we can't necessarily use this as an analogy, right? We can't use the judge as an analogy for God, can we? Is God a righteous judge? Is he God-fearing in that sense? He has God's character. This other judge doesn't have God's character. And Jesus is using this analogy. So if we were going to use an allegory, we could not use the judge as God, could we? No. We could probably use the woman for any one of us that needs righteousness, right? Seeking righteousness. But see, this is why allegory can get us into trouble. is useful if it's within a context of meaning, okay? Allegory is word picture, okay? This represents this, this represents that in a story, okay? Representation. So we see the frustration. We see she's losing heart, or she could lose heart, but she continually comes, and in verse six it says, and the Lord said to her, hear what the unrighteous judge says, verse 7, and will not God give justice to His elect? Meaning, if this unrighteous judge finally relents and does the right thing only because she persists, and then he finally does what his job is supposed to do, let's look at the super-righteous God exuding God's character, love, mercy, and grace, whenever us, the elect, whenever those who believe in Him, seeking An audience before the throne, will He hear us? Will He answer us? If the unrighteous one will eventually, just because He's annoyed, will not God who loves us do so when we ask? Does that make sense? Is God faithful? Okay, so Jesus is saying, look, if the unrighteous won't hear, even though she gets She can lose heart. She doesn't. She continually comes. She's not going to lose heart in this. This is going to happen. I'm going to remind him. It's going to happen. And then verse 7, God will not give justice to his elect, meaning he will give justice to his elect, to those who cry out to him day and night. Will he delay long term over them? And the answer to that question is implied. No, he won't give delay. Am I right on that? Everybody agree with that? He will not give long. And then he says in verse 8, he kind of dovetails it. He sews it up into the passage above and says, I tell you, He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth? Now, a couple of questions we can gather from this. He says it's about not losing heart, prayer and not losing heart. And we do the analogy of the woman who could be frustrated and that the Christian is supposed to pray to God and God will answer speedily. What happens when God does not answer our prayers? How do you feel when you pray for something and God does not answer it? Okay. Okay, nice. Good answer. But not an answer you probably would feel like if you needed something really big and you didn't get it. Yeah, you would. I know really good Calvinists who feel cheated whenever God doesn't come through for them. And it has to do with our mindset. We talked about this in Sunday school, okay? It has to do with our mindset and our expectations of what God is going to do and what we expect him to do. So can you be discouraged by praying for things that don't come about? Do you know anybody who has been discouraged by praying and not having them answered? Do you know anybody personally? Okay, yourself. Exactly. Don't we all kind of have that? And James tells us, okay, if you don't have God doesn't answer your prayers because you're asking, and like what Aspen alluded to, you're not asking for the right motivation. Some people are seeking, like, I want a Ferrari. God, where's my Ferrari? I really wanted the Ferrari, and I ask, and, huh? Cherry red Ferrari, exactly. Dual exhaust, and the whole nine yards, right? Yeah, okay, or a Lamborghini. I prayed for it. God, you said, whatever we ask for in your name, you will surely give it. What's the deal with that? The connotation at the end of this passage is saying, Jesus is saying, look, when He comes back, will He find faith on the earth? When we pray and God answers, it increases our faith. It gives us a heartening, strengthening of heart. It strengthens our faith. How often should we have to start asking ourselves, are we praying with the right motivation? Are we even praying? And when we pray, are we getting an answer? What does prayer in and of itself speak of? Conversation with God. Now, is that something that we have? Do we have communion with God? What enables that? Okay, elaborate. You're right, but elaborate. Okay, very good. And it's paid for by his? Perfect sacrifice in blood. Yeah, exactly. So his blood paid for you. And that's really an analogy because it actually took a death. Right? The penalty for sin is death, and he took that. He died in your place. And he was so righteous that his death was good enough to pay for everybody. Isn't that awesome? Because if Jesus was not a very righteous guy, we've done this analogy before, but we'll do it again. Say you like Caden, done some bad stuff, but we like Caden, and we want Caden to go to heaven. And Lily goes, well, I'll die for Caden. Okay, cool. Now Caden gets to go to heaven and Lily's noble and she dies. But Lily also has a problem. She's got something wrong with her and she doesn't meet the standard either. So her death isn't enough to cover Caden's death. So Aspen's right on it and said, if Lily ain't going, I'm going to die in her place. And then again, we have this same problem. You've died for Lily, but who's going to die for you? And we say we go, everybody's very magnanimous, very humble, very, Good and God-natured in this room, and everybody dies for everybody, and then I'm the last one, right? And boom. And then now everybody is still dead. Notice the problem? With Jesus dying, it was enough that he could just simply say, Caden, I'm gonna die for you. And then, cool. I got lots more room here. Okay, what about you, Brett? What about you, Trevor? On down the road, asking, who else? I still got room. I can still cover that. I still got room. It's like Aspen dying for Lily and being cool, okay, we're good. But see, that Aspen sacrifice was so good that God's like, okay, just get up, you're not dead anymore. It was so good, it was so awesome, boom, you're not dead anymore. And that's what happened with Jesus. Now we know that Jesus is God, and that's the only way he could pull it off, because he's perfect. He's the perfect human. He has perfection, which is righteousness. He has God's righteousness. So whenever He died on the cross, He died on the cross for the sins of the world, every sin that was committed, every sin that was committed at the time, and every sin that will be committed. He died, and He can take that penalty. And He opens a way for those who accept Him to enter in. Now, if every single person stood up and said, yep, I'm on board, it's enough to cover that. But is everybody saved? How do we know that? Exactly, Matthew 25, 41. Yeah, hell was created for the devil and his angels. There's a lot of analogies. The separation of the goats, right? The sheep and the goats, thank you. Okay, at the end, we just have to read the end of the book to know that people have to jump in the lake of fire, which is the second death, because their name was not written in the Book of Lament. We know that people, not everybody, will be saved. But is Jesus' death worthy enough to take everybody? Yes, absolutely. That's said over and over and over and over again, okay? That's part of the John 3.16 cool thing, whoever believes in Him will not perish but have everlasting life. That's our hope. But what happens if we have a relationship with God and we're doing our Christian thing and we're walking and we're doing our thing and we're walking and we're doing our thing and something happens and we trip? What happens to our faith sometimes when we trip in it? We get discouraged, don't we? And sometimes it's not even tripping in our faith, is it? Sometimes somebody blindsides us in some area that we weren't even expecting. Sometimes we have a tragedy happen in our lives. Sometimes you're expecting your sports team to win. Just kidding, that was for you. And they didn't happen, or you're always rooting for a sports team that never wins, right? Something that rocks your world a little bit. And then you wonder, where was God? Now, I know each and every one of us will stand up and give a Sunday school answer, but we just need to trust, and God has a reason, and there's a plan, and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But I'm telling you, as being a person who's experienced tragedy in your life, you're not thinking that when you're in the cauldron. When you're in the heat of the battle, you're not thinking, God's going to work it out and have a plan. You're bawling your eyes out, you're thinking deep down, you're probably not coming up and saying it because you're afraid to say it in front of God, but He's a big God and He's got big shoulders. He can take it if you say, well, why? Why? Does not 1 Peter say that you're called to suffer? So sometimes you're suffering and Peter, if you read 1 Peter, he gives, The assumption that the only reason why you're going to suffer is because for His name, that, oh, we don't like Jesus, you're one of those Jesus people, we don't like you, you're done. He does not give any allotment for, well, you know, I'm indulging in sin, I'm backslidden, all those cool nice things that we have today. He doesn't give allotment for that. It's like, you're going to suffer for righteousness sake. And why suffer for doing wrong? suffer for doing righteousness, right? All these little things dishearten us. All these little things shake us. All these little tiny things, and it could be little trivial things, right? You get married, you have kids, and then all of a sudden the kids get sick, and the dad gets laid off, and things are happening, and there's financial stresses, and all these things happening, and you're like, okay, and natural people are like, well, just depend on God. Yeah, but how do you do that? How do you depend on God? We don't talk about the how so much, do we? We talk about the why, we talk about what you should do, but we don't talk about the how. So how in the midst of everything that's going on in your life, topsy-turvy, you say like, Caden, how was your week? And he goes, I don't even know where to begin. It's been crazy. How does Caden make sense of this? How does he keep from being disheartened? Lily? Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Good. Go ahead, Trevor. So we're back to the how. We started going down some avenues of how, but we're still left with the how. Right? We can look to the stuff that he's done before us. We can look to our friends. But I'm telling you, one of the key things of depression, am I not right, Natalie, is withdrawal, is to be alone. You're focusing in on yourself. You're pulling away. So you're not learning from your friends. You're not looking at the Bible. You're withdrawing now, and everything's coming in. And you're like, you're almost like, if you ever been like in a room with really loud music that you don't like, If it's really mountain music you like, you're like, woo, right? But if it's not, you're like, oh, shut that off, and you kind of shrink down a little bit, and you're kind of like, oh, and you're like being barraged, right? And sometimes that's what our problems can be like. And sometimes it can even be a chemical problem in our brain. Right? Where we need to get some medication, we need to do some stuff, and it's not our fault. Right? Okay? But other things, life's problems can challenge us to where we start to withdraw. We start to not want to do the things that we have enjoyment. We start to withdraw in ourselves. We start to get tired. We need more sleep. We have all these stressors. Right? What can we do? For one, to prevent ourselves from getting in that situation. I'm not talking if you have like a physiological problem. That means something with your brain, a hormone imbalance or something like that you need to see a doctor about. But I'm talking about stressors, the things that are driving us to kind of shrink back and do these, and to lose heart. What are some things that we can do that's preventative? And what are some things that we can do that's also remedial, actually help push those things back to where we start to be encouraged again? What are things that we can do? Okay. Okay. Okay. Very analytical, but good. What will you do? Yeah. Right. We have to work at it. Whatever you're doing for the preventative will also help you in the remedial, will also help you in the thick of it. What is that one thing do you think that I might be driving at maybe based on maybe a purpose statement in this passage that might be able to help? Maybe prayer. Why would prayer help you? Right. Exactly. Okay, so we have prayer. Yes, there we go. God's love triangle. Very good. So we have that prayer does work. Now, is prayer an instant relief vowel? No. Prayer is one of those things that if you haven't prayed in a year, and all of a sudden, Bigfoot's in your campsite and knocking down trees, and you're like, for one, you have to ask yourself, do I believe in Bigfoot? Number two, and then you're like, oh no, what am I going to do? I'm going to die. Then you start praying to God, and you start going through all these little recitation things. It's not going to be a get out of jail card for you. You know what I'm talking about? Jesus is talking about, hey, when the Son of Man comes back, is He going to find anybody with faith? So He's talking about a correlation between those who are praying and the strengthening and increasing of faith. If you are praying to God on a daily basis, if you are asking Him about problems, if you have an anger problem and you ask God, I'm losing it here, God, what do I need to do? And God can help you take a step back and help you, but he's not gonna just insta-zap you. How do I know that? I'm 45 years old, and life experience starts to tell you these things. And whenever you think that he's gonna insta-zap you and he doesn't, Michaela, your heart falls, and you say, where was God? And then you start making excuses for God, and you say, well, He obviously has a plan, and everything happens for a reason, and if I click two times, three times, is it three times? There's no place like home. You know, God's gonna deliver and take everything away. God does not always work that way. Sometimes He does deliver, but sometimes, remember what we've learned before in Luke, He, you are there, you are an ambassador for him. Sometimes you are his representative. And you are the people he is sending in, like the fireman. Who you gonna call in a burning building? I'm gonna call the fire department and have them come and storm the building and just put out the fire and stuff like that. Sometimes you're the fireman. So when God's, you're trying to bail on, God, I need help, and he's all, I need you to stop. I need you to think. I need you to revert back to all this stuff that we've been reading, because this has been training ground, and I'm sending you into this fire. I need you to think. There are people who are trapped. They need your help. You need to be on game. And this is where we start to progress and build our faith and grow in spiritual maturity and start to mentor others. There's a time when we need to be mentored, but there's another time when we need to step up and mentor other people. If all of our faith, if we are just, and we're always fainting all the time, remember that passage in Jeremiah that I had you guys, does anybody remember that passage in Jeremiah? I always forget it, I think it's 12. If you cannot keep up with the footmen, How are you gonna keep up with the chariots? God is like, dude, I am not here to give you your daily medication, your daily Prozac to get you through life. I am here to strengthen you, to give you hope, to encourage you, to make you stand so people can say, wow, that's how God works. I am here to empower you and strengthen you. Yes. Can he? Yes, will he? Yes, you need to discern when those times are. When is a time that I need to stand up and I need to, God's telling me, I need to be the strong one here. I need to do the right thing here. I need to be lifting up those who are making fun of me in prayer instead of cowering and thinking, oh no, what am I gonna do? There are many people who have gone before us. In Hebrews 11, we have the hall of faith. And then it says in 12, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, and then he goes on to tell us all the application verses. All those who went before us in the halls of faith did not have it easy. All those who went before us in the halls of faith had to depend on God, they messed up, they did the wrong things, they dusted themselves off, and they even went to their death sometimes. What is Jesus saying here? If we are in prayer to the Father, That's part of living in Christ. That's part of walking with Him. That's part of remaining, abiding in Him, is getting our sustenance from Him daily, hourly, secondly. Remember, Paul says, pray without ceasing. He is our lifeline. If we are not praying to Him, if we're doing this once a day thing, if we're doing this once a week thing, if we're doing this whenever we need something, ring the bell, I need the genie. Oh, I need an A on the test, Lord. And then it doesn't work out. God's like, well, we don't really have a relationship. So, you know, maybe at this point, I'm just kind of trying to teach you a lesson here. Maybe you should talk to me more. I want you to talk to me. You guys get the point of this passage? Prayer is super key. Prayer strengthens our heart. We need to be in prayer. Not just giving him a list of things. That's important. We need to be telling him what to do. Huh, what to do? We need to be making our petitions before him, but we also need to be praying for each other. We also need to be seeking prayer. Hey, can you pray for me about this? I'm having a tough time and not be so proud of I got this. I can handle this. Prayer is a big deal. praying, just seeking the Lord's will. Lord, what should I do in this? You know, I know I can do a lot of things, God, and I know you're probably leaving this up to me, but I want to walk in your ways. I want to do this your way. That's what Solomon did. You know what, God? I'm not going to pray for gold. I'm not going to pray for riches. I'm not going to pray for power. I'm going to pray, give me wisdom. I want the wisdom to lead your people. And God is like, whoa, mind blow, if God can get a mind blow. Right? Wow. You know what I'm going to give you, Solomon, because you asked for the right thing. You asked for the wisdom to lead my people. I'm going to give you riches. I'm going to give you fame. I'm going to give you everything your hearts desire because you asked for the wisdom. And the dude was thinking wise. He was wiser than anybody who's ever lived and anybody who ever will live. How do I know that? Because Jesus said so. Okay? Jesus gave props to Solomon. Seek God's will. Ask him. Talk to him. That's the how. That's the how. It's basic. It's simple. But it's difficult as all get out. Because when the rubber meets the road, we don't want to pray. Oh, we were lucky. Oh, I'm glad that worked out. You know these little phrases? And I'm not saying you can't say you're not lucky. It's just a phrase, okay? So we know there's no such thing as luck, okay? But are you relying upon him? Not just to bail you out, but are you relying upon him? Are you asking him, hey, am I making good choices today, Lord? Won't you help me out here? I want to know if the choices I'm making are choices you'd want me to make. Or am I doing my own choices? I want to act out of your character and your nature. Help me with that. And he's going to say, well, remember my servant David. And this is where all those times have actually... Remember, what is my thing? Discipleships, I'm always going to say. Right? Read the Bible. So that's what he does with me. And he may do different stuff with you, but he always brings it back. He's always like, oh, wow. Oh, remember, David did this. And remember, I'm always using some weird illustration from the Bible whenever I'm teaching you guys. And it's not in my notes. Because I've read this stuff, and God uses and throws it up just like this. And remember this. And remember that. And remember, what's up with Jephthah? OK? You know, you get all these things. He's like, Bible illustration. And God talks to me like, remember this? Remember that? Okay, I got you, I got it, God, because I'm communicating with him. And guys, I've shared already, I've had some pretty major blows in my life, that without God and my connection to him, am I relying upon him? I wouldn't be here teaching you today. I'd be some bitter atheist. Saying God doesn't exist and God doesn't answer prayers. Because when we rely upon God for the wrong reasons and pray to him thinking that we're going to get X, Y, Z and not even being aligned with his character, not have a relationship with him, not asking him to grow us and stretch us in areas, we're wondering, why didn't he show up? And then we start making platitudes. Everything happens for a reason and God must have had a plan and we're trying to convince ourselves. We don't need to convince ourselves if we have a relationship with him. And he starts to show us, and he starts to grow us. And he goes, you know Natalie, I really was hoping you would step up in there. You had an opportunity there to really just shine. Not by like whipping out a Bible verse or something, but just character and integrity and showing my character and nature and showing off what it means to be true light. Prayer, it strengthens your heart. And when the Son of Man comes back, will he find faith on the earth? Not really. He's gonna take all of his elect, right? So he's gonna look out and go like... Because remember, one of the signs is giving this away, 2 Thessalonians. There's a great falling away that comes first. The love of God will grow cold. Don't let that happen to you. It doesn't have to. What should you be doing? When should you be doing it? Do that all the time. And how can you do that? He can hear your thoughts. Just say it. All right? Give that a try this week, guys. Give that a try this week. Work on your relationship with God. Work on your prayer time with God. Work on the one-on-one, the talking to Him. Not the, oh, I need this and the test and the blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just work on talking with Him. How do you want me to be? What should I be doing here? You're just stinking awesome, God. You're so cool. And just spend some time with him and build that relationship. Let's pray. Father, we thank you so much for this day. We thank you for this time together. We thank you for just these tools that Jesus tells us. Help us to enact them this week. Help us to be seeking you and your faith. How we can be growing in you. Just by relying upon you, by talking to you, help us to be going to you and asking you what we should be doing in our lives with you, and should we be reading the Bible, what chapter should we be reading, and just all the stuff, Lord. I ask and pray that we rely upon you this week through prayer, that you illumine our hearts and minds, that you strengthen us, that we would just be salt and light. In the name of Jesus, amen.