How To Keep The Fire Of Prayer Lit

I want to just keep worshiping, but I know I want to touch briefly on this very, very important topic of how to keep the fire of prayer lit. How to keep the fire of prayer lit. Anybody need help in that area? And it turned into a topical sermon, but I do want to go through Psalms 97 and 98 because that's where we were going to be.

And it's really going to stir the heart for prayer as we conclude in worship and we think about these points. But let's go ahead and put those up there. Psalm 97.

Make sure to put your phones off. That's a good reminder for us. But think about this.

Now, what we're doing, whether you realize it or not, at least when I pray and I go into my time of prayer in the morning, a part of prayer is meditating on the Word of God. It's not just thinking of my to-do list for God or my request list. It's actually meditating on the Word of God.

And that meditation is what fuels the desire. It's really hard to want to go in prayer after watching Amazon Prime or YouTube because we're not feeding on the right things. And so we have no hunger for the things of God because we're not feeding on the things of God.

We're usually hungry for the things we feed on. How many of you have ever switched your diet and you're not hungry for the things you used to be hungry for? You get off junk food for a while. It takes a while.

But you don't want to, I mean, soda, it's too syrupy. It's too thick. And you change.

And the same thing happens spiritually. And the Psalms are a wonderful example of that. So I want you to think of tonight what we're doing as we talk about prayer.

Let these words meditate. Meditate on these words. Think about these words.

And internalize them. And watch what it does to your prayer life. The Lord reigns.

Let the earth rejoice. Let the multitude of isles be glad. Isles are small islands.

The Lord reigns. The clouds and darkness surround Him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.

That's awesome. A fire goes before Him and burns up His enemies round about. His lightnings light the world.

The earth sees and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of the Lord. At the presence of the Lord, the whole earth, the heavens declare the righteousness and all the peoples see His glory.

Can you imagine having some maybe light worship on in the morning and just kind of like clouds and darkness surround Him? The earth is His throne. And just the awesomeness of God, it drives you to go deeper. So let's continue, I believe verse seven.

Let all be put to shame who serve carved images, who boast of idols. Worship Him, all you gods. Zion hears and is glad.

And the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgments, O Lord. For you, Lord, are most high above all the earth. You are exalted far above all the other gods.

I don't know what you're going through, but that can change your mind about how discouragement can set in and dead dreams like Mattie prayed. You who love the Lord, you hate evil. He preserves the souls of His saints.

He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked. See, you don't even need commentary on some of this. What am I gonna, just read it and let the Word of God cut because it's sharper than any double-edged sword.

It actually pierces, and sometimes we can disrupt the flow of God's Word by adding a lot of our own thoughts in there. Light is sown for the righteousness and gladness for the upright in heart. Rejoice in the Lord.

Rejoice, that's telling us you're righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of His holy name, focusing on the holiness of God. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song. Sing to the Lord.

And you hear worship leaders sometimes say that. Sing a new song to the Lord. And you're like, well, what are you talking about? Well, it actually comes from the Psalms.

You don't have to come up with some lyrics that they're gonna post on Spotify. It's that the Lord's doing something new in my heart. He's breaking me, and it doesn't have to be this long line of lyrics.

It can be a call of a song of repentance, newness, a refreshing, a reviving, a restoration. God's doing something new in your heart. Have you ever been refreshed by the Lord? Isn't it beautiful? It's wonderful.

Maybe some of you need that tonight, and that's why you're here. But it begins with a prayer. It begins with that new song saying, Lord, I'm disgruntled.

I'm discouraged. I've been beat up. And many of you know, we just released the new book I wrote in Morganda chapter with the title, I Almost Quit.

And a lot of people are worried. I'm like, don't worry, don't worry. I wasn't gonna resign.

I mean, it was like, I know God called me. I know where he put me. You just gotta see it through.

But you go through very challenging situations, very dark discouragement and depression, and everything seems to not be going your way. Have you ever had those days? I mean, they can be little things, and they turn into big things, and health issues, and so that new song of the Lord is like, Lord, I'm repositioning my heart, and I've learned that as I go through the fires, that's when the dross is removed. As you can get through week by week, and you say, it had not been for the Lord on my side.

I don't know about you, but I would not have made it. He kept my head above the water. I walked through the fire, but yet the flame didn't quite burn me and take me out.

And I don't like it any more than you do, but you have to walk with that intimacy with the Lord, and sometimes intimacy is a process, and you're holding onto the arms of a loving father. You're walking through the challenges and the situations, and as I said, a Sunday, that sometimes when you pray to move that mountain, it doesn't move. Maybe it's there for you to climb.

And I wish I could get credit, but I was listening to a worship set by Jason Upton, and he said that. I think I mentioned that Sunday. I said, I've got to borrow.

That is so true. That helped me a lot that week. Have you ever thought about that, right? The mountains, move this mountain, move this mountain.

No, you need to climb it. You need to go up it. Oh, sing to the Lord a new song.

And I love when they put the O's in there, because you know he's trying to get something across there. I don't think he just said, let's write O-H. It actually doesn't mean that in the Hebrew.

It's a heart cry. It's a, oh, it's what we would say, oh, but they would say they'd have some other word for it. It's like, it's trying to, and I know the writers, sometimes I can feel their heart.

They're like trying to stir the audience. And it's hard. You guys are a blessing here, but I preach in some atmospheres.

It's tough. It's tough. Next week, I'll be preaching in Ohio.

There's 250 pastors coming to breakfast, and that can be a tough audience sometimes, right? Guys older than me, they've been in seminary, and they're kind of, it's that you want to, you want the crowd to just be, to come alive with excitement about the word of God. And so he's saying that, oh, sing a new song to the Lord. In other words, get up out of that chair if you need to.

Get off of that, get out of that pitter, what is that party? Pitter, yeah, you know, that thing. Get out of that, and get away from discouragement. Shouldn't you come into the house of the Lord with thanksgiving in your heart? And I know it's tough.

I go through challenges just like you, but we've got to lay that down before we even get here. And then we're able to sing a new song. The reason sometimes it looks like we have handcuffs on during worship is because our heart is still handcuffed.

Family issues can be challenging. Offense, hurt, belittlement, slander, financial issues. Have you ever had, can the day get any worse? My goodness, it's hard to tell now, but my right knee went out and I've been wearing a brace.

And then yesterday I was doing something and then my left knee decided to pop. And it's like, I heard the noise and it pops when I walk. I'm like, really, really? I've got to fly out with my family next week and we're going to the Creation Museum and Noah's Ark encounter.

And it's like, this is just, and other stuff I won't tell you what happened. It's just a very difficult day, very challenging. And you wonder, but again, compared to other things, it's minimal and we have to have a spirit of thankfulness and be thankful.

And there's so many things, people going through cancer stage four and their sons or daughters have walked away or they just, there's a vision. And so I try to put all that perspective, but sometimes it gets challenging. It gets difficult.

And you have to create that new song. It won't come naturally. It has to come supernaturally.

And I pray with people all the time. And guys, this is how breakthrough starts. Okay, I'm going to tell you a secret.

For 15 years now, we've had thousands of people and praying with them and their pastor, I got to let this bitterness go. I've got to let this, I mean, you fill in the blank. We could sit here for 10 minutes and go over everything that is in our hearts.

And I don't know what to do. And I encourage them, you know what? You just did the, you took the first step. That's the first step.

You admit it. You repent, you own it. Lord, I need to work on this.

And somehow that repentance brings joy. It brings a renewed focus. Because when you have a little bit of hope, and that you have a little bit of hope, you can get through the day.

Job talks about even a tree stump at the scent of water, it just smells it will grow again. How much more a believer to come and say, Lord, give me that new song. And it's okay to say, God, I don't feel it.

I'm in, I'm having a tough situation. I'm in a tough situation and I'm going through difficulty and somehow discouragement has crept in and disappointment has overtaken my life. And again, I don't want to go back to this, but the dead dreams, Matty, that was a great one.

That was a great thing because we're hearing more and more that people, their expectations. Expectations and we can get knocked off track so easily. Create a new song in my heart, oh Lord.

Oh, oh, it's a plea. And what I like about, oh, is sometimes I say that, if I could just be honest with you in the morning and I don't really feel it. Sometimes I wake up and I'm so excited.

I put on worship and it, but other times it's like, oh God, give me back to that place of brokenness. Oh God, give me that. Give me back to that place when I could just, when amazing grace, how sweet the sound, my tears would just start to flow and I couldn't stop worshiping.

And I came out of there a better husband, a better father. I was gentle, I was broken. I was humble and the tears just flowed.

Oh God, if I could just get back to that point. And it's okay to cry out that. Like Isaiah said, oh God, would you rend the heavens? Would you rip open the heavens? And sometimes I want to say that, look, come down and give California spanking.

Oh Lord, we need a spiritual spanking to revive your people. God, revive us. Oh God, give us a new song.

Why? Because he has said marvelous things. I mean, if we get away from our, what'd you guys call it? A pity party, yeah. And when you get away from that, you can say God has really done some amazing things, hasn't he? And that's one of the things that pulled me back from discouragement.

I'm like, what a wonderful church. What a wonderful, the kids and my marriage and there's been challenges and what God has given us and what he's brought us through. And if it wasn't for the grace of God, there go I looking at the homeless guy laying down with his tequila bottle.

Come on, let's be honest. If it wasn't for God's grace, he's done marvelous things. So you have to take your thoughts captive and get away from those things that pull you away from worship and prayer.

Because a secret to prayer is what you feed on throughout the day and in the evening is going to build, it's gonna saturate your heart. Whether it's the negativity or the bitterness or holding an offense, anybody holding an offense in here? Tonight, I would let that go. Call the person, ask for forgiveness, restore the relationship because it will eat you up.

It will eat you up completely. We think, oh, hold it against them. Well, they're enjoying life.

You're the one suffering. You might as well just let that go for He's done marvelous things. His right hand and His holy arm have gained Him the victory.

The Lord has made known His salvation, His righteousness. He has revealed in the sight of all the nations. Verse three, He has remembered His mercies and His faithfulness to the house of Israel.

All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully. Wow, this guy's not letting up.

This is kind of, I have to chuckle. And sometimes, again, I pray this evening as I do it on Sunday morning. God, I don't want me to come out because I can tell people off in my sermon if I want to, right? The flesh comes out.

And I don't want that. But this point of worship is so interesting because some people don't like to get joyful in worship. Just kind of like, why are you guys so excited? Why are you raising your hands? Why are they coming to the altar? Why did they spend 10 minutes on that song? We got to do marvelous again because I could have just kept... I don't think the Holy Spirit's going, you know what, that's enough.

I'm getting brainwashed now. I mean, it's like, because they just cry, holy, holy, holy. I, you're, that might not come across right.

So, but the angels cry, holy, holy, holy is our God. I was going to say the worship isn't the problem, your heart is. Because there is emotional engagement.

There is worship holy. And the Holy Spirit, the Bible actually says, cries Abba Father. There's a desire for more of worship and more of worship and more of worship.

Now I'm not talking about worship for the sake of emotionalism and getting weird and whatever they do in the new age movement. I mean, come on. I mean, I've been doing it for 25 years.

It hasn't really led me astray into some weird spot. It's actually drawn me closer to God. Make a joyful shout into the Lord.

And I'm like many of you probably, I'm kind of conservative. I'm not a dancer. I'm not a twirler.

I'm not a, you know, I'm conservative. But there's something exciting when you read that. I don't know, it was just me, that first song, if you weren't here, it was just wonderful.

Counselor, Prince of Peace, Mighty God Everlasting. And you just get excited about who God is. Shouldn't you get excited about who God is? Yes.

Absolutely. Shout joyfully to the Lord. All the earth break forth in song.

Rejoice and sing praises. Sing to the Lord with the harp, with the harp and the sound of a psalm. And so they would have these musical instruments that were very engaging.

With trumpets, wow, that's gonna be a loud worship service. I don't know about that. Boy, you gotta turn down those drums.

With trumpets and the sound of a horn. It was at the, you know, the trumpet was the shout they got. The horns were blowing this noise.

And there's a shoutful, joyful sound before the Lord, the King. Then verse seven, let the sea roar in all its fullness, the world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands.

Let the hills be joyful together before the Lord, for He is coming to judge the earth with righteousness. He shall judge the world and the peoples with equity. Equity there means He's gonna judge them rightly and equally in all manner.

And I just wanted to let that, just isn't that powerful? I mean, when I read it this week, it's just like, yes, Lord. I'm like, I wanna get up and just, yes, Lord, win this battle. Who is China? Who is Russia? What are we concerned about? And I talked to people a lot.

People that are the most fearful are often the ones, well, not often. My mom said, never say always, but I'd say always in this case. They're always listening to the negative news or what's going on.

I hate this area. I gotta get out of here. They say, do you follow like AV scanner and the police scanners? And you might wanna disconnect those and put on the Psalms, let the Psalm, because I hear of all this stuff too, and I've lived here 55 years, and I don't see it much.

I hear it, and it's out there. Don't get me wrong. As a guy with four daughters, I'm, you know, get a little worried.

And a son. But if I've got AV scanner on all the time, oh, crime at target, crime there. Gunmen running around over there.

Oh my goodness, oh my goodness, oh my goodness. Do you see how that plays a role in your fear? And fear and faith can't coexist. So I would, if something is causing you a lot of fear, you don't need to know all this stuff.

The internet has some blessings, but also some curses too. Well, I wasn't supposed to know about mass shootings in Philadelphia, and this is happening in Chicago, and this is happening in New York, and this is happening in Florida. Now I got an AV scanner telling me that on Beach Street and Sierra Highway, there's a guy running nude with a gun.

And that's all we're feeding. Oh Lord, I hate it. I gotta get out of here, I'm so fearful.

You're gonna really stifle a powerful work of God's Spirit in your heart. And so I wanna just talk about a few ways to keep the fire of prayer lit, or maybe you need to light it tonight for the first time, or relight it. Number one, enter into the prayer closet with the right heart.

And I'm assuming this, you've gotta have a quiet place, a quiet heart, a quiet hour. David McIntyre talked about that in his book in prayer. You gotta find that place, and then you come with the right heart.

Enter into His gates with grumbling and complaining. Who's done that before in prayer? I have, Lord. This, man, yesterday sucked.

I hope it doesn't happen again today. I'm not really happy with this. And you look at your phone when you probably shouldn't have, and there's text messages that tick you off.

And you don't enter into His presence, His gates with thanksgiving. But get that heart right, a thankful offering, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful and say to Him, bless and affectionately praise His holy name.

So you have to come in with the right heart, whether it's into church. And I can tell a lot of people don't come to church with the right heart. Truth bomb.

Maybe some of you. I don't know. I've been there.

It's hard sometimes, but you've gotta change that heart. And see, the Bible doesn't give us a lot of wiggle room. It says, take your thoughts captive.

Do you ever notice this? It never says, take your thoughts captive if you can. I mean, it might be a tough week, and if you can't do it, then maybe next week. It never.

It's like, right now, do it. That's why you can't say the devil made me do it. The devil's after my marriage.

No, you're just rude. And a jerk. The devil's after my finances.

No, you just have no budget. Which I keep giving examples if you want. No temptation is overtaking you.

But God will provide that way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Number two, so important, go to bed hungry. Hungry for more of God.

Philippians 4, the amplified version. Finally, believers, whatever is true. Now, I want you to fill in the blank.

How are you doing in this area? With what we watch, what we listen to, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is worthy of respect, whatever is right and confirmed by God's word, whatever is pure and wholesome, well, there goes Netflix. There goes Amazon Prime. There goes, maybe you'll find a few things.

And I know we're gonna watch things from time to time, but if you're saturating your mind on that and you expect to wake up wanting more of God, it's gonna be challenging. I mean, I have a confession. Sometimes I've got hooked on that thing, it's called the 48 hours, you know, those murder mysteries.

I'm like, these people are so stupid. And I go, they killed and they did this. Like, that's not probably a good idea, to go to watch that and then wake up wondering why I'm having bad dreams and scared.

And the door's locked at 1.30 in the morning. Is there anything worthy of praise? Think continually on these things. Center your mind on them and then plant them in your heart.

Guys, the Christian walk is not easy. It's not effortless. You've gotta dig your heels in and go to war.

It involves choices. It involves decisions. It involves discipline, a word we don't want to hear too much about.

This is why many are dry and deficient as well as bored and barren. They are going to bed with the wrong thing so they're not waking up hungry for God. And I try to tell, I'm gonna talk to Ignite, I think in the future, and it's hard.

You see this with teenagers. I was like this as well. But why are they so bored in church? Oh, the Bible's so boring.

If the Bible was a one-minute video on TikTok, it wouldn't be boring. If it was Minecraft and Roblox and the new version of Grand Theft Auto is coming out. Boy, that's wonderful, isn't it? You wonder if kids are, what's wrong with kids? Well, hello.

A kid, a little boy, eight, nine, can have sex with a prostitute, et cetera, put her on fire and take back his money. Hello? Problem here. Grand Theft Auto.

School shootings are alarming, an increase. And I won't get on to, pretty much every shooter is on medication, but also they're watching very violent things. Our mind is where the battle is won and lost.

That's where the difference is made. And that's why many people, if your prayer life is dry and you're kind of bored with the things of God and you're spiritually barren, look at your spiritual appetite. Look at actually what you're consuming spiritually.

I guarantee if you say, you know what, Lord, tomorrow I'm actually gonna turn my phone off as much as I can. I'm not gonna watch any media and I'm gonna put on worship and I'm gonna read your word. I've even been driving and put on YouTube where you can read the whole Psalm one, two, three, four.

It'll just read the Psalms to you as you're driving. And my attitude changes. There's joy there.

Blessed is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord and in it he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree that's planted by the living waters and he will bear its fruit in season and everything he does will prosper. That's pretty encouraging.

And so this is so important, guys. Decide tonight. Now I might watch it 48 hours again in the future, I don't know.

But it's gotta be word and worship and going to bed hungry for more of God. And then number three, I've talked about this a lot, but it fits in perfectly. Prayer must be a priority.

There's no way around it. Early will I seek thee. Early will I seek thee, Psalm 63.

Somebody by the name of Jesus sought God pretty early, pretty often, in the early morning hours. If prayer's not a priority, forget about it. It has to be the most important weapon in your arsenal.

That's why it's difficult, that's why you don't wanna do it. That's why you have to put it on the calendar. It is so important, I'll put it before a workout.

Men, I'll put it before my day. It has to, Lord, I have to spend this time with you. It's on the calendar just like any other appointment.

Why don't we put God on the calendar? He's the priority. Ian Bound said, the men and women who do the most for God have been early on their knees. He who fritters away the early morning in other pursuits will make poor headway seeking God the rest of the day.

And then number four, this is critical, to reignite that prayer life, to keep the fire of prayer lit in your heart. Prayer must be a passion. So number three, prayer must be a priority.

That's a discipline. When prayer's a priority, it becomes a discipline in your life. You lead your, you make certain choices.

And that's one reason why I've sought over the years to try to get to bed a little bit earlier than most people, because I need that morning fire. I don't know about you. I hate getting up and now you're like, oh, you lose it.

You know, you get up too late. Don't you hate that feeling? You're behind the day. Getting ahead of the day and allowing, so that's a discipline.

Prayer as a priority is a discipline, but prayer being a passion has to do with the heart. Psalm 63, oh God, you are my God. With deepest longing, I will seek you.

My soul, my life, my very self thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you and sighs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. And what's ironic, the irony is I can read that and not feel it.

I mean, I hope you don't think I walk around just passionate and full of the Spirit all the time. I don't, I'm just like everyone else. But you know you can take that thought captive and you can say, oh God, you are my God with deepest longings.

I don't feel it right now, but my feelings don't have to determine my inner soul, my inner health. Just because I don't feel like doing it doesn't mean I don't yearn for it. I'm assuming most of you yearn for more of God even though you don't feel like doing it.

I'm just guessing. That's why you're here. There's a yearning, there's a desire for more of God with deepest longings, I will seek you.

My soul, my life, my very self thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you. Oh, can you, Lord, and I feel it right now, my Lord, my soul longs for you like I'm in a dry and thirsty land.

Have you ever been in the desert and there's just no water and you have to find that water. You have to find that source of life. And you can pray, Lord, give me that desire.

Give me that passion. Watch out because when the fire of the Spirit falls, there's a hunger and a thirst that no one can satisfy except Christ and Christ alone. He who believes on me, as the scriptures say, out of his belly is going to flow rivers of living water.

Thank you, Lord. Thank you, God. Prayer is more about fervency than form.

Prayer is more about fervency than form. Man, I put the last half up there for you. You can form a house as footings, but it's useless without the concrete.

How many of you know what forms are? Well, those are boards you see out on a construction site and the boards are not there long-term. They're just there to hold the concrete in place. And I used to dig a lot of house footings, block wall footings, all kinds of footings.

Dig the trench, they would set the form boards. You'd have the, and like our prayer life, we can have the form, but that doesn't get us anywhere. Form is going through the motions.

Form is, teach us to pray, Jesus. Okay, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, my King. Okay, and you're going through the motions.

You got your prayer list? Anybody got a prayer list? That's good. Like you kind of go through, make sure you're not falling asleep. Okay, I got my five minutes in, that was tough.

I'm going through the form. And again, I'm preaching to myself because I can go through form really easily, but prayer is never form, it's fervency. It's fire.

It's the concrete, not the form, because the religious leaders had the form. Bible says they have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. Prayer has to be about fervency.

What is fervency? It's fire. It's like, oh, that's hot. I'm getting, I'm fervent.

I'm going to do something. I'm excited to do it. And so to get it, to reignite that prayer life, you've got to tell yourself, I'm excited to pray.

I'm excited to pray tonight, or maybe you're a morning person like myself. Look forward to that. God, wake me up hungry for more of you.

And He will. I've had it where I just, I get up and I can't wait for that clock to be a certain time to get up and begin seeking God like never before. Number five, prayer must be grounded in the truth in order to be lit.

Many of you are familiar with John 4. Amplify, I'm using the amplified version of the Bible today to amplify what I'm saying. But a time is coming and is already here when true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit, from the heart, the inner self, and in truth. You've got to have the truth.

You have to be grounded in the truth. I say this because I run into people all the time and they say they pray a lot, but they're into the new age. Or they're praying and they pray to Jesus, yes, but they also pray to Buddha or Muhammad.

They don't really, they question the truth of God's Word. True worship is founded and grounded and built on the truth of God's Word. And God is actually, I love this, the Father is looking for people who are worshiping Him.

Did you know that the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are loyal to Him? And you've heard me say this before, I think if you've been here a while, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro, looking for those whose hearts are loyal to them, but who else goes to and fro? As a roaring lion. So I got two people looking for me. God's looking for those whose hearts are loyal to Him, who's fervent, who are loyal, and that person is in the care of God.

But the enemy walks around, prowling around, and the prowling is a, he's sneaky, that's a good word. Have you ever watched National Geographic's and Lions? I mean, they are, I mean, they're like, they're down, and they're just, they're getting ready to pounce on that, whatever it is, those little antelopes, and they're just eating away, and they have no clue. And they just pounce on the sand.

And that's what the picture is, it's this enemy goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. And he always devours the person who's too busy to pray. When they no longer have a prayer life, because what happens, when we don't pray, we begin to compromise.

Because prayer, when Paul said, pray without ceasing, it's not that you don't go to work, or you don't, you do all that, but your heart is a heart of prayer. You're watching out for that tiger behind the rock, because you know the enemy is looking to strike at opportune times. So God is looking, and so is the enemy.

And so who finds you? Who finds me? The one who's fervent in prayer, the one, moms who are guarding their family, dads who are guarding their family in prayer. And not being perfect, I know you've got busy days, sometimes you've got to work a lot, but there should be a passion to do that. Six, meditation must saturate the heart.

And that's why I said, it's what we are doing tonight, looking at the Psalms. That's why I wanted to open with those Psalms. That's what meditation is.

And can you imagine going over those Psalms again, and you get out your highlighter, and you go, I'm gonna go back to that again. The Lord is clothed in darkness, and He's coming to judge again, and how awesome is God? And you just reflect on that, and that changes. You know, you might get up off of the couch or the table a little bit bolder, won't you? You might be a little bit more confident in the day, because you've spent your time seeking God.

Meditation must saturate the heart. Read the Word of God like you're cooking a stew, not pushing a button on a microwave. How many cooks are out there? You know the difference? Oh, and I'll take a stew dinner any day, over a TV dinner in foil, where you push three minutes.

Tastes like garbage. But what does a stew do? It's that low heat, just that, and that's what the Christian, if I could, Lord, you know what? I'm gonna get up a little earlier. I'm gonna move some things off.

I guess I don't need to look what's going on on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter today. I think I'll be okay. I'm gonna take this time.

I'm gonna saturate. I'm gonna slow cook in your Word, and I'm gonna pray, and if you don't feel like it, you don't know what to do, ask God. Lord, show me.

Show me, God. Show me, read a good devotional after you read the Word. And what I love to do sometimes is I'll grab, you can get a good, a study Bible is really good, but also even looking up words.

Like, what does that word mean in the Greek? Oh, wow, and it brings on the nuances and what that means, and you're studying, you're learning. What does that back in the old, what does that mean in the Psalms? I mean, what does that mean in the Hebrew language? And you get just a rich history, and you're saturating your mind on it. Because if you're not saturating your mind on the Word of God, you are saturating it on other things.

There's no really, have you ever found that middle ground? Where yeah, I can kind of serve God, but then I also serve this Master. One or the other prevails. And I'm gonna talk more about that actually on Sunday.

And then final point, go low, go low. Psalm 95 that we read earlier a couple of months ago. Worship at His footstool.

Worship at His footstool. Choose altar over altitude. It's funny, the Bible never says that we are high somehow, high up looking down and worshiping God.

It always talks about being low and worshiping God. Falling down on your face and worshiping God. On your knees, worshiping God.

Arms up, stretch, worshiping God. Or in the chair, it's a low position. Go low, worship at His footstool.

Psalm 95, five says that. Worship at His footstool. Take the altar over altitude any day.

And I wanna mention this from Sunday. I left off on Sunday on this point. Remember Isaiah I talked about? God told him to go tell the king that He was gonna heal him and Isaiah interceded to somewhat.

What about if Isaiah didn't listen to God? What about if he was too busy, too tired or too in a hurry? And I often wonder how many times we miss things or how come our kids are going through more challenges than they should or dealing with more demonic darkness than they should because we're too busy, we're too tired, we're in a hurry. Listen, you've gotta slow down. You've gotta slow down.

That's why when they try to light a fire, what do they do sometimes? They cover it. If there's wind blowing, you ever try lighting a fire in the back of a car going 55 miles an hour or truck? No, you can't. You gotta slow down and light that fire.

Let that fire begin to start and you can throw more things on that. If we're too busy to pursue God, we're too busy. I've told a lot of guys this over the years.

There's seasons in life. There's hard seasons. I've had to work seven days a week before.

I know there's, you've gotta do what you gotta do sometimes. But if your busyness is consistently taking you away from the Lord, something's gotta change. You gotta pray, Lord, do something.

Do something. I can't because if we're too busy for God, we're too busy. And if that continues consistently, it will not only put out the fire of prayer, it will draw you away from God.

But you say, Lord, I want that. I need that. How many of us know that change begins with confession? Change always begins with confession, not excuses.

So we have to pray, Lord, Lord, reignite that fire in my heart. Reignite that passion in my heart.