but we've been going over the why of prayer. We'll be starting in Jeremiah chapter number 29. Jeremiah 29. We'll be in Jeremiah and Isaiah for a little while and we'll kind of go to a few different passages and not a lengthy outline tonight, mainly just a lot of tonight. We'll be going through some verses. This was a point I originally just had three under this question of why is prayer important. I originally just had three. It makes us more like Christ, reveals or shows us the heart of God. And then last week we looked at the answer of it reveals the wisdom of God. So we looked at that. And just keeping a note as we answered way back when we started the why of prayers, one thing to take note and to remember each week that we look at this why or think of this question, why should we pray or why is prayer important is that God in his word, he never says, if you pray. And we see all the commandments that are connected to prayer always are when you pray. Which tells me that's something that should just be normal in our Christian life, almost something that God expects. or assumes of us. That is our Christian life. The Christian life, yes, includes going to church, and that's good. It includes the Great Commission. That is important. That's the Great Commission that was given to us, given to each one of us, given to the church, to go out and spread the gospel, preach the gospel. But the Christian life is a race. It's a fight, but it's also a race. And it's a walk with God. As I mentioned that verse already in our time of prayer where Peter said, but grow in grace in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We're to grow in grace each and every day. We cannot grow unless we're walking with God. As a Christian, we are to be more like Christ. That's what Christian is, a follower of Christ, a little Christ. We are to be copies of Christ. That's a Christian. But we cannot copy someone we do not know. We can't be like someone we do not know. And we cannot know someone unless we have a relationship with them, unless we're communing with them, we're talking with them. We can't know the person... You know, you think back before you're married, we can't know the person that we're thinking about marrying unless we spend time with them and talk with them. They talk to us, we talk to them, and we've talked about that in prayer the last few weeks, how it's a two-way conversation. Prayer is important on my end, it's important on God's end, and God speaks to us in many ways. We speak to God in one way. And that is prayer. And then God will reveal Himself, reveal His heart, reveal how we can be like Him, reveal His will and His wisdom to us through prayer, through reading His Word. and even through preaching, and even through brothers and sisters in Christ. But prayer is important, and it must be important. So I added this number four as the Lord laid on my heart, but it is how we receive the strength we need. And you'll see as we go through these verses, this first passage here, this first verse in Jeremiah 29 doesn't necessarily speak of strength, but that strength that we're looking at, the strength that we need can be the strength that we need in hard times, when trials come into our life, When we go through hard things, battles in our life, and just the ebb and flow of life, we need God's strength for those hard times. We go through health needs or health problems, different situations arise that are hard, we need God's strength. But we need God's strength on a daily basis as well. as we just go through life. As I mentioned, the Christian life is a battle. I need God's strength to fight that battle, to put on the armor of God and to face that battle, to fight it. I need God's strength to die to self, to not walk in the flesh, but to walk in the Spirit. to kill the flesh each and every day, to say, hey, Jacob Christian is going to be put aside, the flesh is going to be crucified. that I may live in the Spirit. And we need God's strength to do that. So, Jeremiah 29. And verse 11, that's the first verse that we'll read. All I have for points that will go up on the screen is just the verses, so make it easy for you to write those down or get those if I move too fast for you. But Jeremiah 29.11 is our first one. It says, For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, this is God speaking, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you an expected end. I know the thoughts that I think toward you." When we doubt God's presence or goodness, this verse can be an encouragement as we go, you know, whether we're going through something and, you know, And before I get too far, I'll put this verse into context where Israel is, because Jeremiah was a prophet to Israel. And just to put this into context, why is God saying this through the prophet Jeremiah to Israel? Well, the Israelites had been taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. That's where they are right now. Amid their hardship, they began listening to the voices of false prophets. There had been false prophets that had come into their midst and had told them, and assured the Israelites that they would have lives of prosperity and that their time in exile would not last long. And we know that verse, they said, there's peace when there is no peace. They were false prophets that came, hey, this exile is not going to be long. We're going to be back home before you know it. They started talking about prosperity and all these things and tell them, hey, there's peace. There's nothing wrong. We don't need to be worried. But those are false prophets. Knowing the false prophets' voices were loud and persuasive, and some of the people started following those false prophets, God encourages His people through Jeremiah to stay faithful to Him, to stay faithful to His Word, His promises, for He had great plans for their life. And He tells them that, hey, I know the thoughts that I think towards you. thoughts of peace, not of evil, to give you an expected end. Still, he goes on to say that they must remain in this condition of exile for another 70 years, meaning that not every Israelite would live to see the fulfillment of God's promises in their life on earth. You think that 70 years, people weren't living, at this time, people weren't living as long as they did before the flood. So 70 years, many of them are going to pass away. They're going to die in exile. And that's what God goes on and tells them. And He says, for I know the thoughts that I think of you. He says that they're of peace, not of evil. I don't have any thoughts of evil towards you. I love you. I'm bringing peace to give you and expect it. And He said, then shall ye call upon Me, in verse number 12, and ye shall go and pray unto Me. And I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek Me and find Me, and ye shall search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity. and I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places whither I have driven you, saith the Lord, and I will bring you again into this place whence I caused you to be carried away captive. He says, you just have to trust me. He says, I know my thoughts. And it's easy to be in that same spot where, hey, you start listening to other people say, oh, it's doom and gloom, or you start listening to the devil as he puts that, he uses his devices, puts his seed of, he lies to you and says, hey, Hey, give up. God's not with you anymore. I have a way out. I have an easy way out of this situation. You're worried about what's going to happen in your life. You're worried about what's going on, what's the next step. You're worried about this trial that you're in. Hey, God's not doing you good right now. I'll do you good. He's a liar, and he's the father of lies. But we're weak, just as weak as the Israelites, and we fall for them just like the Israelites did. They fell for some of those lies, and God had to come to them. He says, I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Verse number 10 is when he tells them they'd be there for 70 years. For thus saith the Lord, that after 70 years be accomplished at Babylon, I will visit you and perform my good word towards you in causing you to return to this place. He said, hey, I'm going to be with you. You need to be patient. You need to wait. I know the thoughts that I have for you. They're of peace. They're not of evil. I have a plan here for you. When we think of God's plans in our lives, God's plans rarely turn out how we envision them to turn out, or how we would plan. And it doesn't mean we're wrong for having a different plan of how things are going to work out, or how we would envision them to work out. As we look at the next step, we know God says, take no thought of tomorrow. Tomorrow's in God's hands. We need to live today. We need to live for the future in a sense as well. But God said, hey, I'm in control of tomorrow. Don't worry. Don't fret. Just do My will. Do what I've told you to do. Follow My word. Walk in My way. But God's plans rarely turn out as we know that God's ways are above our ways. Our understanding does not match His understanding. We're not always going to understand the plan. We have to trust the plan and trust the process that God puts us through. They say that, I'll use a sports illustration, when a team goes through, You know, their players start getting older. They're not seeing success anymore. They call it a rebuild. They say, well, we need to rebuild our team to get back to the success. Well, when a team, when a sports team, whether that's baseball or football or basketball, when they start to rebuild, they're going from, usually a rebuild comes after some success. Hey, you're at the high, maybe you won a championship a few years ago, maybe you had some success, made it to the playoffs, all these things, won a lot of games, but hey, we're not seeing it anymore. Sometimes the rebuild, you fire the coach and hey, we're going to start fresh, but you start a rebuild and you start getting rid of the players that are good and that you've seen success with. Maybe some of them aren't old, but you're getting rid of them so you can bring in new players and younger players. A term that's used often with these rebuilding sports programs is trust the process. And they have to tell the team that, they have to tell the fans that, because as fans we want to, you know when you watch the I watch the Packers to see them lose, but people here in Wisconsin watch the Packers. You want to see them win. I want to see the Bears win. And that's why we turn it on. We don't want to go and be like, oh, hey, they're rebuilding. They're probably going to lose today. I'm going to have fun watching them lose. No, we turn it on even when we think, oh, they're playing a really good team. There's not a big chance that they'd win. We still go and we cheer them, hey, win that game. People fill the stadiums even when the team is bad. in that rebuild, but they often have to tell the fans, they have to tell the team, hey trust the process. Because you might have to, it might not make sense to you, we might get worse. And sometimes you have to get, sometimes with those sports teams they get really bad, they hit rock bottom before they come back up. So you have to trust the process. The same in our life. We have to trust the process. We have to trust God's process that He's laid out. His plan that He's laid out in His Word. And we have to trust His promises. Just like the owners and the managers of those sports teams tell the players, hey, we're going to be good in a year. We're going to be good in two years. Trust the process. Hang in there. Just keep playing your heart out. Take those young players and teach them, you older players with experience. That's what we have to do. God's saying, hey, I know the thoughts that I have towards you. They're of peace. They're good. They're not evil. Trust Me. Trust My Word. Trust My way. My promises are true. And maybe if we really did that, maybe we'd find out that we wouldn't need to go through the trial so long, like the Israelites had to for 70 years. Maybe God would say, hey, they're trusting Me. They're waiting on Me. They're looking towards Me. they'll get that promise sooner. And with that promise, as God says, hey, I know the thoughts that I have towards you, we don't need to waste any more energy on worrying or fretting about every moment, or worrying or fretting about the future. You know, Gail, as I was writing this, I thought of you and Pat. The future for Pat is in God's hands. Gail doesn't need to sit at home. And I know, I can understand, as a husband, you look at your wife as she's not doing well, especially someone you've been with for decades, many years. Our natural response to it is to worry and fret. Well, what's going to happen? Because you love that person. What's the end going to be for Pat? What's the process that she's going to go through? And we pray and trust God that she won't go through a lot of pain and discomfort, and that God would take care of her, give her relief from pain, and that when the day that God has appointed for Pat to go home and be with Him, that it would be that she'd be able to go peacefully. to be with her father, and that's what we pray for. But in that, using Pat and Gail as an illustration, Gail has to trust God. Trust the process, the position that God has him and Pat in, and how he wants them to grow through this. The way Pat is today is not a shock and a surprise to God. God's not frantically running around like, oh, how did Pat get sick? Or how did this happen? What am I going to do? No, He's right there. And sometimes some of those things are brought in to our life, or the Spurgeons, their family, to teach us to trust Him more. And He's there saying, hey, I know the thoughts I have of you. They're of peace, not of evil. Gail and the rest of the Spurgeons could read that verse and say, hey, I know the thoughts that I think towards your mother, your wife, your grandmother. They're of peace, not of evil. I don't put Pat through this because my thoughts towards Pat or your family are evil. They're of peace. And we go through things, and God's thoughts are of peace. They say, hey, I know my thoughts. He says, trust Me. Follow me. Rely on me. Depend on me. He said, I'm there. My ways are far above your ways. You may not always understand. And sometimes we have to pray. And sometimes God is waiting for us to pray, Lord, give me understanding. Show me why you have me in this. And it's not going to take just one time praying that. We looked several weeks ago at Daniel. Fasted and prayed for three weeks for God to touch him. Sometimes it will take time. Lord, what do you want me to see? Reveal what you want me to learn and see. Give me understanding, give me wisdom as I go through this. And you think of Job, an example from the Bible and what he went through. far above what any of us ever have or probably ever will go through. Losing all of his children, almost losing his wife, all of his riches. And he had to trust the process. He had to trust what God was putting him through. And we have that famous verse that says, He said, when I'm tried, I shall come forth as gold. He trusted the process. He knew God's plan for his life. He knew the thoughts that God had towards him. Job said, Lord, I know your thoughts to me are of good, they're of peace, they're not of evil. I'm going to trust you. If you want to take all my children, then I trust you. If you want to take all my riches, I trust you. If you want to take my wife, I trust you. If you want to take my own life, I will trust you. My friends, he lost everything. but he stayed faithful to God, he trusted God, he gleaned of the Lord's understanding and wisdom. And what happened as he went through that process, trusted that process that God had him in? Well, you skip to the end of Job, the book of Job, and God blessed him immensely. He had more blessings. He was richer than he was before the trial. He stayed faithful to God and trusted God. He didn't sit there. He didn't go hide in a hole. He didn't find a cave to hide in and cut himself off from everyone and go, woe is me, I might as well just stay in this hole, stay in this cave and just lay here and die. Everybody's forsaken me. His wife told him to say, hey, curse God and die. It's done, Job. God's done with you. He's cast you off. Just curse God and die. He could have just cursed God and went and found some hole and just lived out the rest of his life, just died there. But he trusted God. He said, no, no, I'm not going to curse God. I'm not going to just go out and die. I'm going to trust the process. And just like the example I gave with the sports teams, with Job, It got hard, and he had to trust God, and he had to put his hope in God, and he had to remember that God's thoughts toward him were of peace and of good, they weren't of evil. And at the end, he came forth as gold. He was a better person. And Job, we know from the book of Job, he was a righteous man, he was a good man, and God still allowed those trials to come in. Satan said, hey, Job's going to fail you, God. He's not going to trust you. So God said, hey, put him to the test. Here we go. And he was strengthened. He grew. and he was blessed far and above how he had been blessed before. If you go back, just a book back to Isaiah chapter 26, we'll go to our next passage here, and we'll be in Isaiah for the next three verses. Isaiah chapter number 26, and we'll look at verse number 3. To start off here and then we'll jump to Isaiah 40 and 41, but Isaiah 26 and verse number 3. I want to read that and we'll talk about this verse a little. Well, let's start in verse 1 and we'll go down. It says, In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city. Salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks. Open ye the gates that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou will keep him in perfect peace. Who's the man that God will keep in perfect peace? Whose mind is stayed on Thee. Why? Because He trusteth in thee. And then what does the next verse say? Trust ye in the Lord forever. For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. For He bringeth down them that dwell on high. The lofty city He layeth it low. He layeth it low even to the ground. He bringeth it even to the dust. And He goes on as that song was sung. But that will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed on Thee, because he trusts us in Thee." Verse 4, "...trust ye in the Lord forever, for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." That phrase there, those two words, perfect peace. That sounds wonderful, doesn't it? He will keep us in perfect peace when our mind is stayed on Him. When our mind is focused and we're trusting in Him. See that? Our mind is stayed on Him and we trust in Him. And that's where everlasting strength is in. It's in Jehovah. And we find it when our mind is stayed on Him. And when we trust in Him, and those two words, perfect peace, to give them even more meaning in Hebrew, the word, the two words that are used there in Hebrew, and it's going to be a familiar word, we've heard it before, but those two words, we have them in English as perfect peace, and in the Hebrew, that they're translated from, it's shalom, shalom. Well, the word shalom is peace. So if we were to literally translate those two words, it's peace, peace. It's a perfect peace. This is that peace which passes all understanding. You know, we talk of peace, and when we say peace, the first thing that we think of is, oh, there's no war. A time of peace in a nation. We can think of, oh, we want some peace and quiet at home. That's my wife and I's number one thing that we want every day, peace and quiet at home. And when we get the kids in bed, we're able to sit down and there's peace. No, we have peace with the kids as well, but sometimes it's, you know, and we're looking forward to that tonight as we drove five hours today and had some late nights and some long days. drove five hours and we're ready for some peace. You know, so we have our definition. We can think, hey, what brings us peace? You know, for me, I know very peace. If I were to put peace into a location, it's up in Lando Lakes at my cottage, sitting on a boat, on a boat, on the lake. All that's there, and I love it in the morning. I love going out fishing early in the morning there. You got the couple feet of fog on top of the lake. All that's out there with me are the deer rustling through the trees and the leaves and the loons out on the lake. But it's quiet. It's peace. And oftentimes in those mornings, if I go out and it's not stormy, you'll look at that water on our lake, Boygan Lake, and it's like glass. It's like a mirror. There's not a ripple in the water. It's peace. And you see just the beauty of God's creation there with the pine trees that surround our lake, and it's just peaceful. I could sit there all day The boat doesn't even move. You get out to the center and there's not a wave or a wind or a breeze to move the boat. It's just peace. But you know what? It's not perfect peace. God gives perfect peace. Only in God can we find that perfect peace. For thou wilt keep him in perfect peace. Shalom, shalom. Peace, peace, perfect peace. When our mind is focused on God and following His way, all of the things around us just vanish away. That's what we try to do when we go to those locations. When I go out on the boat, hey, that brings peace. I'm able to shut the whole world off. It used to be, before, that we wouldn't get any phone signal out there. And that was great, and you'd be able to have peace, no phone signal. Well, now it's, you know, then it changed. We don't have phone signal in Lando Lakes, but out at the cabin, we have perfect phone signal. But, you have perfect peace. You just, all your worries, all your cares are just, they're gone. You sit out on the boat, and there's just peace. and you're able to spend time with God. And that's how our time every morning ought to be. When we spend time with God, when we set some time aside to focus on God and spend time with God, it ought to be a time of peace. Shalom, shalom. Perfect peace. When our mind has stayed on Him and we trust in Him. And then he says, you trust in God. That's where the everlasting strength comes from us, from Jehovah. Then Isaiah chapter number 40, we'll go quickly. I have a few more verses and passages and I do want to get through these and try to get through these quickly here, these next few. But Isaiah chapter number 40 and verse number 31. Isaiah 40 and verse 31, it says, but, and it was a well-known verse. We'll start in verse number, let's do, Verse 29, He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increases strength. Even the youths, those with energy, those with strength, shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail. But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. That word, I want to focus on that word renew there in verse number 31. Renew. Another translation or definition of the Hebrew word that's used there for renew and a definition of this English word renew is we can give it a definition of exchange. Exchange. We'll renew our strength. We'll exchange our strength. Well, what is our strength? It's nothing. It's nothing. When we compare our strength, the God's strength, that everlasting strength that's found in Jehovah, it's nothing. It's not even comparable. We can't even talk about it in the same sentence. It says you'll renew your strength. Those who look to the infinite, omniscient, omnipotent Creator for their supply of order, intelligence, and power, will exchange their weakness and their foolishness for His strength and His wisdom. When we wait on God, we look to God, we trust in God, we're able to take our weakness and our foolishness and exchange it, renew it for God's strength. in God's wisdom. That's a great thought. And then Isaiah 1 chapter over Isaiah 41 and verse 10. It says, Fear thou not, for I am with thee. That's the verse that I give to my kids when they say, oh, we're scared, storm going on, or they're having a bad dream. Don't I tell you guys that verse? I make them say it. Fear not, fear thou not, for I am with thee. Right, Daniel? Fear not, for I am with thee." When they cry and they say, I'm scared, I go in there and I pray with them, and then I tell them, hey, what does God say? And it was one of the verses that our kids learned with the alphabet, it's the F verse. Fear not, for I am with thee. They memorize that. There's nothing to fear, God is with us. We have to trust Him. In Philippians 4.13, written down there, it's in the notes, I can do all things through Christ, so strengthen me. We need that strength. Going back to the strength, we need the strength to get through those times of fear, but we also need God's strength to walk the walk, to run the race that is set before us, so that we can get to that finish line, and that finish line is different for each one of us. I talked to the kids that I was down there at Bible Baptist. I got to go in and give the morning devotion to the school that I taught for seven years to those kids, and we looked at 2 Timothy 2.15. where it says, study to show thyself approved, I think that's the reference, but study to show thyself approved unto God. And in school, you study, you study for your tests, you want to be approved to the teacher. We do things good to be approved of our parents. We clean our room well. If we have a job, we want to be approved of our employer. But that verse says, study to show thyself approved of God. We do all those things. We obey our parents. We do well. We get approval of them. We get approval of our employers. We get approval of whatever you fill the blank in there, those people above us. Ultimately, we're getting approval of God. Study to show thyself approved of God. We're all running a race. My finish line is going to be different than Gail. get to His finish line before me. I might get to my finish line before Gail. We don't know. It's appointed on a man once to die, and then the judgment. God has a day appointed for each one of us. But I am to run, and I am to run, and I am to run until I get to that finish line and I stand before my Heavenly Father. And Lord willing, I would be approved of Him, and He'd be able to look and say, well done, now good and faithful servant. But to run that race, I need strength. Runners need strength. Endurance. I need strength, and that strength comes from God. And then lastly, very quickly here, I know it's time to end already, but I want to look at this last one real quickly. 2 Corinthians chapter number 12. I'll be really quick on this. I'm going to try to be respectful of your time. 2 Corinthians 12, verses 9-10. Says, and he saith unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect. There's that word perfect again, like the perfect peace. But my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities and reproaches and necessities and persecutions and distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I strong, because we're able to renew our strength, as Isaiah told us. Exchange it. We can take our weakness, our foolishness, and exchange it, renew it, for God's strength and God's wisdom. For when I am weak, then am I strong. Why? Because verse number nine, God's grace is sufficient for me. His strength is made perfect in weakness. Whose weakness? My weakness. We need to learn to thank God rather than complain about our infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses. That's a hard thing. I'm to thank God for the hard things that come to my life. You know, thinking again of Gail. So Gail's supposed to thank God for what Pat goes through each and every day. That's what this verse says. And he says, therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. When we're weak and we see ourselves as weak, when God puts things in our life to humble us, when we allow Him to humble us, then comes His perfect, then is His strength made perfect. Then comes His perfect peace. Shalom, shalom. God's strength is not measured in ordinary human terms like riches, physical prowess, or beauty, or intellect. But God's strength is measured rather, or is rather made perfect in weakness. And it is not until, well we are weak, but it is not until we see our weakness and we put it in ourselves and our weakness, our trial, what we go through in its proper place, then His sufficient grace, the grace that is sufficient for me, can come, and His strength is made perfect in my weakness. Then comes His perfect strength, His perfect peace. The peace that passes all understanding. But it's the strength, it's how prayer, why is prayer important? It is how we get the strength we need.