Transform Your Life in Minutes: The Simple Art of Daily Prayer
Here’s a summary of this week’s sermon:
In our bustling world, where each day demands more from us than the last, finding solace in the chaos can seem an impossible task. Yet, amidst the clamour of obligations and the endless pursuit of more, there exists a simple, transformative practice: daily prayer. This isn't just about religious observance or fulfilling a spiritual checklist; it's about embarking on a journey towards wholeness, one prayer at a time.
Prayer: More Than Words
At its core, prayer is often misconceived as a monologue directed at a deity, a list of requests or thanksgivings recited with hopeful hearts. However, to confine prayer within the walls of petition is to overlook its profound capacity for communion. Communion implies a conversation, a two-way street of speaking and listening, of sharing and receiving. It transforms prayer from a duty into a desire—a desire to know more, to be more aligned with the divine.
Consider the dynamics of any meaningful relationship. Without communication, relationships wither. Silence breeds distance. It is through the daily exchanges, the sharing of mundane moments and profound thoughts alike, that bonds deepen. If such is the case with our earthly relationships, how much more vital is regular communication in our relationship with God?
Daily Prayer: A Habit of Wholeness
The concept of praying daily might seem daunting at first. How does one fit another task into an already overcrowded schedule? Yet, daily prayer need not be an onerous addition to our routines. Like any habit, it begins with small steps. A moment of gratitude here, a silent plea for guidance there. These moments, woven into the fabric of our day, can transform our perspective, our decisions, and ultimately, our lives.
The apostle Paul's exhortation to "pray without ceasing" might appear unattainable, but it serves as a reminder that prayer can permeate every aspect of our lives. It's not confined to moments of quiet solitude; it can be as dynamic and varied as life itself. Prayer can be a silent reflection amidst nature, a heartfelt plea during a moment of frustration, or a quiet thanksgiving for the day's blessings.
The Power of Consistency
Consistency in prayer cultivates a deeper connection with God. It's not about the length of time spent in prayer but the quality of the connection. Each prayer is a step on the path to knowing God more intimately and understanding His will for our lives. Through consistent prayer, we invite God into our daily experiences, allowing His presence to guide and shape our choices.
Imagine starting each day with a moment dedicated to prayer. Before the day's demands sweep you away, a brief pause to seek guidance and offer thanks sets the tone for what lies ahead. Such moments of connection ensure that our actions and decisions are aligned with our spiritual values, leading to a more cohesive and purposeful life.
The Journey to Wholeness
Prayer is not just a spiritual discipline; it's a journey towards wholeness. In the quietude of prayer, we find clarity amid confusion, strength in weakness, and peace in turmoil. It's a process of aligning our will with God's, of shedding the unnecessary to embrace the essential. As we grow in our prayer life, we discover that prayer is not an escape from reality but a deeper engagement with it. It's a means of navigating life's complexities with grace and wisdom.
In our series "Becoming Whole," we explore the transformative power of simple, daily prayer. It's an invitation to experience the profound impact of aligning our lives with God's will. So, let us embark on this journey together, one prayer at a time, and discover the wholeness that awaits us.
Join us at Crowd Church as we delve deeper into the simple art of daily prayer and its role in our quest for spiritual health and wholeness. Your journey to a more fulfilled life begins with a single, simple step: pray, be whole.
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Matt Edmundson: [00:00:00] Welcome to this week's Crowd Church service. We are a digital church on a quest to discover how Jesus helps us live a more meaningful life. We are a community, a space to explore the Christian faith and a place where you can contribute and grow. Our service This will last about an hour, and in a few seconds you'll meet our hosts for our service who will introduce today's talk.
After the talk, we will have a time of worship and reflection, after which we head into Conversation Street where we look at your stories and questions that you've posted in the comments. Now, we want to invite you to connect with us here at Crowd Church and we've got a few ways in which you can do just that.
Firstly, you can engage with Crowd from [00:01:00] any device during our live stream and if you're up for it. Why not invite a few friends over and experience the service together? Church is all about connecting with God and connecting with others. And one of the easiest ways for you to do that is join one of our mid week groups where we meet.
Online together to catch up and discover more about the amazingness of Christ. You can also subscribe to our fairly new podcast called What's The Story, where we deep dive into stories of faith and courage from everyday people. All of these things can be found on our website at www. crowd. church, or you can reach out to us on social media at crowd.
church. If you are new to Crowd or new to the Christian faith and would like to know what your next steps to take are, why not head over to our website, crowd. church, [00:02:00] forward slash. Next, for more details, and now, the moment you've been waiting for is here, our online church service starts right now. Hello, good evening and welcome to Crowd Church.
My name's Matt. Next to me is the beautiful Claire. I've just realised, hang on, I just need to, there we go, get you more in the shot. I must have knocked the camera when I was doing all my, oh no, actually that's not going to work, is it? Sorry about all the tech, you just need to come over this way. There you go.
No, please, that's not great. So there we go. Stop it.
Claire Glare: Well
Matt Edmundson: done, Matt. We made it. We made it, yeah, for whatever reason. Sorry about that, ladies and gentlemen. If you're just joining us, I'll just give us a few more minutes. We're about 15 minutes late starting. Of course, if you're watching this on catch up or you're listening to the audio, it won't make any difference to you at all.
But the live stream, every time it would start, like within five seconds, it would go, yeah, we're not live streaming anymore. It was like stopped. It just [00:03:00] stopped. And the only different thing that we had was we changed the USB hub. And for some reason, when I put the old USB hub back in, It worked. We're now live on.
Now we are. Yeah. So yes, don't quite get that but
Claire Glare: we are here. We're still there. It is. It is
Matt Edmundson: what it is. So welcome for sticking. Yeah, well done for sticking with us, Matt and Nicola . Yeah. Thank you for joining in and if you can watch this and if you can hear us do let us know in the comments. 'cause we actually have no idea.
It's on my computer here, so I'm assuming we're on Facebook and I'm assuming we're on YouTube now, you could even
Claire Glare: phone me if you want, always are
Matt Edmundson: open, phone a friend. So yes, warm welcome to you. Now, if you are new to Crowd Church, we're an online church and normally we get together when things work well and dandy.
And so here we are, we're just carrying on the Becoming Whole series, which we've just started. Freya says we're live. Yay, well done Freya. [00:04:00] Excellent. That is good to know Freya, are you watching us on YouTube? That would be, I'd be really interested to know how you're watching us. If I'm honest with you, but that's just another story.
Cause it's just got a little R on her picture. You can't see this Freya, but a little picture comes up and it says next to your name and it's got a little R. See that there? What do you think it might be? Restream, but I'm, I don't know if I'm restreaming this, I'm I just, I don't know. See,
Claire Glare: it's all just way over my head.
I just come, I knit, again. Matt said today, he was like, are you going to bring your knitting
Matt Edmundson: over? Yeah, why not? Yeah, why not? Just do it. Just bring your knitting, right? But actually, I stopped knitting. Sorry, you do need to come a bit more this way. Do I need to stand up. There we go. That's better. There we go.
You're in the shot now. There we go. You were just a bit off camera. She's cut off your face. Off beam. And let me just sort that out. Oh, there we go. Apparently, we're a professional organisation. No, we're
Claire Glare: not. No, [00:05:00] you are. No, we are. We're professional, we're
Matt Edmundson: serious. I don't know, I don't even know if we'd go that far.
Series about Jesus. Yeah, series about Jesus. About the good Lord. And that's why we're here. Well done for bringing that round, that was a good segue. So we are doing a series on becoming whole. We are in part two of that series, yes, we are going to be carrying on that conversation. Yeah,
Claire Glare: looking forward to hearing what Dan's got
Matt Edmundson: to say.
Yeah, Dan Orange is talking about prayer. Good. Which is going to be good. So we are going to bring Dan's talk on, then Claire and I will be back for Conversation Street after that talk is finished. And hopefully in the meantime, I'll fix all the remaining technical issues. So I'm gonna push this button on my pad and we'll see you in just a few minutes.
Dan Orange: The simple art of daily prayer. Welcome to the second talk in our new series, Becoming Whole. How can we become whole? If you haven't heard the first talk about righteousness then, pop over to crowd. [00:06:00] church and have a listen. It was a great talk and Matt also gives us a brief overview of this new series.
Today, we're looking at prayer in the context of becoming whole, and how can daily prayer transform my life, how can praying change you. What is prayer? Perhaps that's a good place to start. If we look in a dictionary, then most class prayer is a request, a petition, a dress, or thanks to some deity. But one definition adds another element, which I think is key.
A communion with God. Communion to me takes it from a formal request to a conversation. From. An act we feel we must do for some reason, whether out of duty or tradition or circumstance, to something that is a desire to learn more about God and desire to improve our relationship with Him. I'm married and if I didn't talk to my wife, I don't think it would improve our relationship.
In fact, I have first hand knowledge that It does quite [00:07:00] the opposite. If I'm quiet, if I try to avoid a subject, it doesn't bring us closer together. I don't get to know how my wife is feeling. She doesn't get to know what's going on with me. We might both give each other gestures or actions, but it probably don't really help.
Talking does though. I learn about her, she learns about me. Prayer is a big way of learning about God and learning about myself. And using that same analogy, my relationship with my wife is improved by conversations every day. And dare I say, even multiple conversations a day. Consistency brings us together.
Hopefully issues get resolved sooner than later. And if we're in constant communication, it's so much easier to grow together, to learn about each other. Your relationship with God is the same and it can be improved with consistency. Consistency, though, can often be where we get stuck. Do you find the concept of daily prayer daunting?
[00:08:00] How can you incorporate it into your busy life? Perhaps this is all new to you and just the idea of praying on your own for no reason is strange. Does daily chat with God help? In Paul's letters to the Thessalonians, 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, says this, it says, Pray without ceasing. A very small verse, just three words.
Mind you, not as small as the verse before, which says, Rejoice Always. Probably harder to complement than many talks about prayer. Rejoice Always. Wow. But that's another talk. Perhaps we should do that some other time. Back to this verse, Pray Without Ceasing. It seems to me that if Paul wrote these words, and he thought it was possible, and important, perhaps, without ceasing is a long way ahead in our spiritual lives.
But it. It tells us that it's possible and something to work towards and if possible, then it probably takes more forms than [00:09:00] getting on our knees by our bed and spending some time giving God our worries. If we did that 24 7, we wouldn't last long physically and mentally. Perhaps then it's not just formal talks, but informal requests, thanksgiving, thoughts in our daily lives.
It's a conversation with someone that's willing and wanting to hear us. And to talk to us. Prayer doesn't have to be formal. It doesn't have to be reciting the Lord's Prayer or perfect words. That could be a very good place to start. And it's great to hear those words and have those words in our head.
The most important thing is God wants to hear us. He wants to know our heart, our needs, our desires, our petitions. Our praises and thanksgivings, don't worry about what to say, words or no words, be quiet and wait for God. It's a beautiful time and I believe never a wasted time. [00:10:00] This series is all about wholeness and if I spend time with someone I get closer to that person.
If I spend time with God, I get closer to God. And if we're, as we're made by Him, designed by Him, then it makes sense to me that knowing Him is a completion of that creation. The reason for us and God to exist. It's making us whole and prayer is that time with God. Daily prayer is a habit. I pray every day.
This is not a boast. I love God. I want to commune with Him. I want to know Him more, but it's still something I've learned and I'm learning. I want Him in my life and I need Him more in my life. Sometimes it is a fleeting prayer. Sometimes my day is a more conscious knowledge of being in His presence and communing.
Often it's hurried. Often time and tasks take over. However, since preparing this talk, it's been great for me as I can't do a talk about prayer and not pray. That would be hypocritical. [00:11:00] So as a consequence, my prayer life has grown, not in a massive revelation way, but inconsistency. So thanks guys. Me and my wife, ever since we got married, we pray together each night before we sleep.
It's just something we've always done, and if I'm away or one of us goes to bed early, then it's a strange end to the day, it's become a habit, and to be honest, it's an easier one, it's a time to give thanks for the day, often to give him our worries for tomorrow. But when thinking about this talk, if you're, especially if you're in Christian circles, or you've read any books about men and women of God, men and women that pray, they always seem to get up early to pray, daily in the morning, and I've found this hard.
Sometimes I pray in the morning, sometimes I don't. I give myself valid reasons every time, I'm not a morning person, I've got to get up early for work anyway, I went to bed late, I'll pray later in the day. All totally valid, but when praying about this and thinking about it, a thought [00:12:00] came across my mind.
What happens in the morning, every morning? The day starts. Profound, eh? It was to me. Anyway, the day starts, nothing else has happened, and how about if I start my day with God? If I want my day to be influenced by God, if I want to see things happen in my life, wouldn't it be good? If I started it with him, it seems to make sense to me.
I'll leave this with you. Not saying you need to get up at 6am every day, otherwise prayer is not going to work, but for me, really spoke to me and helped me with morning prayer. What, when else can I pray? So prayer does take time. It's an act. It occupies space in our lives. And is your life busy? I should imagine it is.
The 101 things that need to be done, work, kids, shopping, Facebook, studying, TV, food. There's a passage in the Bible where Jesus meets two ladies, Mary and Martha. The Message Translation in Luke 10 puts it like this. Jesus [00:13:00] entered a village. A woman by the name of Martha welcomed him and made him feel quite at home.
She had a sister, Mary, who sat before the master, hanging on every word he said. But Martha was pulled away by all she had to do. in the kitchen. Later she stepped in, interrupting them. Master, don't you care that my sister abandoned the kitchen to me? Tell her to lend me a hand. And the master said, Martha, dear Martha, you're fussing far too much and getting yourself worked up over nothing.
One thing only is essential, and Mary's chosen it. It's the main course and won't be taken from her. Martha was missing out on spending time with Jesus because she thought the cooking was more important. Life is busy, but sometimes we make it busier than it needs to be at that time. Sometimes we need to see what's really important.
Did God just speak to me? Hang on, got to check this email. Got to do this, I need to do this thing. Whoa, stop, wait, [00:14:00] listen. Email can probably wait, other things can probably wait. Times in my life when I've just waited and let there be that little bit of time for God to speak. It's improved my whole day.
It's when God just reveals something to me that maybe I would have missed, or maybe I had to wait much longer to learn. Perhaps there's a time in your day when you're normally on your own, but your routine is to fill it with something else. For me, it's when I'm driving, when I get in the van to drive for work.
Often I have the radio on or an audio book, but sometimes I have to use a bit of self control and turn it off and calm myself and spend time with God. Often not for long, perhaps not the whole journey, but it's allowing God into my day. There's one more point I'd like to make about busyness. Like I said, we can actively make ourselves busy to fill those quiet times.
Sometimes there's a reason behind it. Perhaps you're running from God, you're running because [00:15:00] you know when you come before him and quiet yourself, you'll need to sort something out. Perhaps God is just prompting you to get right with your friend. Perhaps you need to forgive your neighbor and you're delaying that time to spend with him as you know he'll prompt you.
So we get to know God more, he teaches, he guides us and perhaps The thing is prompting you to do is hard, perhaps he's asked you to give something up as it's distracting you, it's ironic, it's working. Or he's asked you to do something for someone and you're not sure you can, or you're not sure that person really deserves it.
But we know from Jonah, running from God doesn't always end well, unless you like fish guts. It's time to check the busyness of your life and see if it's valid. Is it necessary or are you stalling? I've talked a lot about when to pray, but perhaps not much how to pray. Perhaps you've not experienced a mention of prayer like this before and you're asking [00:16:00] isn't prayer just a form of meditation?
If we go back to talking about prayer as a relationship, then it's about talking and listening, about knowing God and knowing ourselves. Meditation can be a good thing. It's a good thing to quiet our minds, to relax. However, sometimes the goal of meditation can be to empty our minds. But if we empty our minds, there becomes a hole, and it's gonna get filled with something.
If we quiet our thoughts, we can allow God to speak. It's great to meditate on Him and His works. Philippians 4 says this, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, Whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue and if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things.
The things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me, these do, and the God of Peace will be with you. Meditate on Him, and the God of Peace [00:17:00] will be with you. Psalm 46 says, Be still, and know that I am God. Often words aren't necessary. God speaks to us in the stillness. But, best way to find out about praying is to try it.
My dad is a real big prayer and I know that if I asked him the secret pair of prayer He would say, Dan, to learn to pray. In fact, he has said that to me. Perhaps that should be my whole talk. Boom, five words. Anyway, if you're not watching this Live, then why don't you just hit pause now, try it out.
Let this be the time to talk to him. You can talk out loud, talk in your mind, or just still, stay still and wait, or it's night before bed, before the things of the day, or the things of tomorrow, can fool your mind, ask God to be there. Like anything, we can't be perfect at something straight off. In fact, until we get to heaven, I doubt we'll be perfect.
We won't [00:18:00] be, but we have the most gracious teacher. What should we pray? Prayer, It's a great time and the best place to be honest. We can't hide from God. He knows our thoughts, He knows our struggles, but He wants to hear them. Have you read of some of King David's Psalms? He knew how to cry out to God.
He knew how to be honest. Here's Psalm 42, again in the Message Translation. He says, Sometimes I ask God, my rock solid God, why did you let me down? Why am I walking around in tears, harassed by enemies? Why are they out for the kill, these tormentors, with their obscenities, taunting day after day? Where is this God of yours?
Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God. Soon I'll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He's God. God is God. He's able to cope with our crying, our confusion, our anger. [00:19:00] He wants that honesty. It doesn't matter about all fancy words. He wants to hear our hearts.
How often, when you pray, do you hold back from God? Hold back your fears and your doubts? Even Jesus, when he was about to be crucified, told God his feelings. He fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. Abba Father, he said, everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me, yet not my will, but what you will.
Perhaps you yourself are going through a tough time at the moment. I can only encourage you to bring it before God. Tell Him your struggles. Share your fears with him. He says my yoke is easy. Perhaps it's time to give him your worries. Take his lighter yoke. I may have said this a few times already, but the great thing about prayer is it's a conversation.
What's the point of praying if we don't think he'll answer? Some might say it's crazy to expect God to answer. You have an imaginary friend, you talk, oh, [00:20:00] to, okay you have an imaginary friend, you, and he talks to you, now, that's crazy if we believe in a God, and we pray to him, what's more crazy, that he actually talks back, or we pray not wanting an answer?
There was a man called Rhys Howells, and he was known as an intercessor. His calling from God was to pray, and pray he did, and he saw amazing answers to prayer. He said the meaning of prayer was answers. We pray to be close to God, we pray to get answers. Sometimes we pray, sometimes answers to questions about Him, sometimes physical answers, provision, healing.
God has made us spirit, soul and body. Our spirit is the key to a spiritual life, a life with the Father. Psalm 42 verse 7 says, Deep calls unto deep. At the noise of your waterfalls, all your waves and billows have gone over me. The Lord will command his loving kindness in the [00:21:00] daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me.
A prayer to the God of my life. Deep calls unto deep. Our spirit calls to God's spirit. Prayer brings the spirit life into our everyday life. Matt talked last week about wholeness and gave this definition. Biblical wholeness then is nothing missing, nothing broken, complete in every part. Through and through, no part wanting or unsound.
What better way to have no part wanting by listening to God and asking Him to reveal those things that are wanting in our lives. Ask Him to fill us, to complete us, to bring us peace. Hopefully this talk has helped you. Some other great talks on prayer here on Crowd, so just go to crowd. church and search prayer and you'll come across them.
Thank you. He
Matt Edmundson: says that. Where's the camera gone? There we go. [00:22:00] Could hear us but couldn't see us, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome back to Crowd.
Claire Glare: Bit like the Lord sometimes, isn't it? Can hear him but can't see him.
Matt Edmundson: Or I can see him and not hear him sometimes as well. It just works both ways, doesn't it? That analogy.
Welcome back. Firstly, can I say thank you to all of you that found us during the talk. The comments are coming. It seems, Claire, I don't know if you picked this up. You were knitting while she was listening to the talk. I'm busy. Yeah, he's sorting stuff out. It seems that we are going, can we blame Claire?
No,
Claire Glare: Matt, we can't. I need all the help I can get. I've not made much progress, frankly, in three weeks. I was going
Matt Edmundson: to say, it looks exactly the same as it did when you asked it. So rude. So rude. Yes, we seem to be streaming twice now. Actually three times. We're on Facebook and twice on YouTube.
I don't know. I just, I don't know. I'm just grateful we're on the air. So it's good to be with you. [00:23:00] So welcome to everyone in the comments. It's been great. It's been great. I love what Matt said. He said, ironic that the subject was prayer and we were all praying you would actually get the live stream working.
Yeah. Claire was, you were the Yeah. You just sat in the J You just started to pray. Okay. And I just started to fiddle. Yeah.
Claire Glare: it. Faith without actions, wasn't it? Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: We need both faith with Yes, we do.
Claire Glare: and to be honest, you weren't doing the fiddling. I was doing the
Matt Edmundson: praying. And to be honest with you, it's a great, it is a great example of it because you were praying, the guys were praying and I'm sitting here going, we must have tried it like six or seven times going, I don't understand it.
We restarted the computer, we did all kinds of stuff. And then it was like. I'm not going to say I saw the, the angels appearing with a sign or I heard voices or any of that sort of thing. It's I just wonder if it's the USB hub. Don't know why I thought that. Cause why would it be? I don't actually know.
And so yeah, so thank you, Lord. Thank you that we're here. Thank you for praying for [00:24:00] everybody that, was praying we'd get online and here we are. So a warm welcome to you. Did you have a beer before the live stream? No, absolutely
Claire Glare: not. So drove here. Yeah, Annie, but we did
Matt Edmundson: watch the end of the match and we did I watched the whole match, but yeah If
Claire Glare: you're new to the live stream, sorry to say if
Matt Edmundson: you are not a Liverpool fan I am And we've just got a spoiler alert.
If you don't want to know the results, just put your fingers in your ears right now. We did win. The Cup Final against Chelsea, and I was shouting and dancing and I was very grateful to the good Lord, and the prayer answered, actually, that's a really interesting point, actually, somebody I remember, I think that
Claire Glare: praying for football team, surely, come on.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it's a really interesting question, isn't it? Because I remember years ago, when I first became a Christian, I I was like 18. Yeah. And I was a long time ago now. A long time ago. Me and Noah mates. And what happened [00:25:00] was I was working in this children's home in North Carolina and there was a guy called Birdie.
Birdie. I'm still in touch with him via Facebook. . It's just, it's such a legend, that guy. And he was a big, and probably still is, I'm guessing, a big Washington Redskins fan, although I don't think they call the Washington Redskins anymore. Yeah. But they. He was a big fan of this American football club, and he would pray before every match.
He would just bow his head and go, Lord, just pray for this team, pray you would help them play, blah, blah, blah. And I'm like, that doesn't make any sense to me. Because why? Why would you pray, why would you think God would hear you? What happens if someone is praying for the other team? Does your prayer cancel out their prayer?
Does their, does God like you more than them? And there's just all these questions in my head. And Birdie just looked at me and he said, I don't know if I'd want to worship a God where I can't pray to him about everything. And I thought there goes that then.
Claire Glare: That's a really good response. Because it is, because you're involving God in every area of your [00:26:00] life.
And it's important. See, it was important for him to, that his team won. Yeah. It's important for you that Liverpool won tonight. It wasn't important for me. I didn't pray about it. That's fine. I didn't even know it was happening. Maybe I would have prayed. I don't know. It is, it's important to pray about everything that, what Dan was saying.
Yeah. I love Dan's talk. It was great, wasn't it? It was, he just talks so, it's with such integrity, isn't it? Yeah, it is. I think you can just see the presence of God in Dan. Yeah. And obviously we've got the privilege of knowing him in the flesh, as it were but he can see that the power of prayer in his
Matt Edmundson: voice, can't you?
Yes, you can. And he's always praying, Dan. He's one of those guys that, I was praying about this, I was praying about that. So he definitely walks the walk, and talks the talk. He's a really great guy. And I loved his talk. I love what his quote from his dad.
Claire Glare: Also another
Matt Edmundson: legend.
Yeah. Dave, Dan's dad. I've known, [00:27:00] you've known him for years. Yeah. And I'm just going to change this light because it's a little bit bright. It's a little bit too dark. There we go. There we go. Sorry, ladies and gentlemen, I'm not. That looks no different to me. It's just not as bright in my eyes now.
But Dan's dad to learn to pray. Yeah. I thought it's very Dave Orange, isn't it really? Yeah.
Claire Glare: It's really profound, isn't it? Actually to learn to do something you have to do it. And, but what Dan was saying as well was that With God, we have the most gracious teacher, don't we? And he was talking about someone who is willing and wanting for us to communicate with us.
And I was like, yeah, that is so true. Whenever. Whenever we just turn our faces, just that, even like 10 degrees, he's yeah. In your face, isn't he? Not in a bad way, but not in a, in a really lovely
Matt Edmundson: way. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. So to learn, to pray is the top tip of the day.
And it's, it is actually really true. It's like you wanna learn to walk. You [00:28:00] gotta walk, you can learn all the theory. Yeah. Going back to another North Carolina. No, this is pre North Carolina. But formative
Claire Glare: times. Formative times. And for me, it was, I was in Bolivia when I was 18, 19 you're learning, you're, and they're, they are, they're what makes you, aren't they?
Yeah, they are.
Matt Edmundson: These events. Tell us your story. I used to fly. What like? Airplanes. Sorry. Not like Peter Pan. I don't know
Claire Glare: where I was going with that. What, like Icarus? Icarus.
Matt Edmundson: Like Superman. No, I used to fly airplanes. I don't think I knew that. Yeah, little chipmunks. I was with the RAF
Claire Glare: cadets.
Sorry, chipmunks. I'm on Alvin and the Chipmunks. Yeah, sorry,
Matt Edmundson: Chipmunks. Different, yeah. Different. What, is that a type of plane? Yeah, a little two seater plane. Oh, cool. And before I've
Claire Glare: liked to go up in a two seater. Oh, that's great fun. I've been in a six seater. I
Matt Edmundson: love that. That's great. Yeah.
That's great. Flew this little two seater. And you got to fly them with retired RAF pilots. [00:29:00] So they would In the States? No, this was pre North Carolina. Sorry. This was a RAF Stay with the program. Yeah, stay with the program. And so I would fly these planes, right? Now, what they did, before they would let you up in the plane, is they gave you a book, there was a lot of stuff you had to read, there was, I could understand the theory, I could understand, low pressure, high pressure, I can understand the speed of the air over the wing, which makes it fly, and all this sort of stuff.
But it wasn't until I actually got in the plane, the theory, all the theory didn't do me any good, until I got in the plane and went, ah, this is how you fly a plane, and then it became a bad experience. So knowledge was helpful, and knowing about prayer, knowing about the different types of prayer of incession, prayer of faith, all these sorts of things that people want to get tied up into, all the theory, all the theology, it's great, but it's not until you actually start praying that it actually makes a difference.
Do you see
Claire Glare: what I mean? But also because you feel the exhilaration, you feel the adventure. You feel the joy, all of those, and the fear, all of
Matt Edmundson: those. Yeah. Just to be clear, because it's in the comments, I did [00:30:00] not know that you flew Chipmunks. Chipmunks is a name for a plane. I didn't actually, not the little creatures.
No flight. No . That's
Claire Glare: tumbleweed
Matt Edmundson: joke. . Yeah. No. The little planes. What was really just to, on that story, the first time I flew on that plane the pilot, the retired pilot, he sat behind you? I sat in front, was I sat behind him. He was, I can't remember which way it was. Anyway, I was in the plane and, he was flying around. He's we're gonna learn to do the loop. The loop. Oh. I'm like, first time I'm flying in a plane. No way. And he's he said, is this your first time? I said yes sir. It's the first time in the plane. He says, oh, we're gonna learn. We will have a little bit of fun.
He said, we'll fly straight, we'll fly left, we'll fly right. And then you're gonna do a loop. The loop. I'm like, come on. So he get in the plane, we're flying around and he does a loop, the loop with me. And he's put your hand on the stick. You've got to pull back on that stick. If you don't pull back on that stick, that's yes, you're in all kinds of trouble.
And so sure enough, we started to do a dive to get the speed and I pulled back on the stick didn't pull back quick enough. So chipmunks are a gravity fed engine, which means if you're upside down, the petrol is not getting to the engine. So what [00:31:00] does it do? Stalls. That's what it does. And so the plane stalls.
A bit like tonight. A bit like the live stream, yeah. Stopped. Just stopped. Oh, no. And yeah, we're falling out of the sky like this. He says, do you want me to take over? I said, no, sir. Just tell me what to do. And what, and did he? Yeah. He's totally calm. He's just like totally, yeah, this is what you gotta do to get out of it.
Cool. So we got out of it and carried on flying. Great fun. Loved it. Anyway. Yeah we've digressed. I've totally digressed. We've done a loop the loop. Bringing it back. Come in. The point of that story is, you've got to pray. Yeah,
Claire Glare: because otherwise you're in deep. And you're stalling. But I love that thing about I've heard, and it is a challenge isn't it, about You know what how big are our prayers?
Yeah, if we can fulfill them, then are they really big enough? Yeah, that's right. And so yeah, go on. I like that little loop the loop there. I think I've pulled it back. You've
Matt Edmundson: totally pulled it back. I love that. Are your prayers big enough? What do you mean [00:32:00] though by big prayers?
Claire Glare: So I think it's things it is, it's things that we couldn't answer, could we, so I can pray, Oh Lord, I pray, give me the opportunity to to talk with this person about you, to, make them some dinner or something like that.
It's pretty straightforward, isn't it? Yeah, you can just do that. We can just do that. We can do it, go and knock on the door. Oh, you're in, hi, here's some dinner. But if we're talking about, praying for our whole street or we're, praying for a whole city or a country that we've never been to and really, but really praying about it and investing in it with our money, maybe as well, cause nothing hits you quite like whether you put your pounds or your dollars or whatever it is, wherever you are.
I think, yeah that, that speaks, doesn't
Matt Edmundson: it? Yeah, I think it's interesting, isn't it? Because there are Something that costs you. Something that costs you. So there are prayers that you can [00:33:00] pray where it is very conversational. God, I would just love it if Liverpool won the Cup tonight, right? Now, it's not going to change my life if they don't.
It's not going to change my life if they do, one bit. Other than that, it's just been great to see it, and I'm stoked for them. And you can pray for the team. And it's okay I can do that. But it's not really going to change my life. So that conversational talk, I do that with God quite a lot.
Just chat away about all kinds of stuff.
Claire Glare: I think that's the because I was thinking about this before Dan even started. And I think that's almost the easy bit. Yeah, I think once you've If you've been a Christian a long time, that is the easy bit where I would say is my challenge currently is the habitual setting aside
Matt Edmundson: time.
I'm praying about something specific, something big. Yeah. And one of the things that I've been doing for the last few years, which has really been helpful, actually, for me, take it or leave it, but I journal a lot. And so I journal my prayers. Yeah. And so the app that I use day one, I think it's called on the phone, [00:34:00] that app will When you go on to it, the next time it say, Oh, this is what you wrote a bit like Facebook.
This is what you put seven years ago kind of thing. Yeah, it brings it. Oh, this is what you wrote a few years ago. And you God, you've totally answered that prayer. Oh, I really like that. Maybe I've, maybe I needed to rethink that a little bit. Do you know what I mean? Or whatever. But it's a really interesting thing that actually when you journal those things down and you go back and look at them, it's super, super powerful because my problem is.
Was quite often I would pray for things and then forgot I'd prayed about them. Yeah. So how do I know God's entered them?
Claire Glare: Yeah. Do you know what I mean? It's only the really big things that you remember. Yeah. Whereas the little things that actually are important and make life easier or more exciting in the day to day.
Yeah. That we forget. Yeah. But that it is like that memorial stone thing. Isn't that in the
Matt Edmundson: Bible? Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna have to explain that then.
Claire Glare: Oh, okay. Sorry. . So in the Old Testament. When God did something fabulous for the people of Israel, [00:35:00] he would often say, and just park a stone here to remind you and sometimes that will be an altar and sometimes it would just be a stone.
Yeah. And it was a way that they could go back physically to that place and say, yeah, this is what God did. And this is why we serve him and love him. Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: This is how I
Claire Glare: really like that idea of. Because for me, the challenge of journals is that I have a lot of things on the go. And so I might have one journal going and then probably my kids will rob it.
And particularly my son, he'll be like, writing, doing colouring in it. And I'm like, that had my things written in it. Yeah. Okay, I've got to start another one now. Whereas actually, but I'm not digital, I'm so 20th century, 19th century. I
Matt Edmundson: do both. I'm not going to lie. I do both. I have a leather bound journal, which is just this lovely journal.
Yeah. And I write in that a couple of times a week maybe. And then I have my digital journal. What I discovered [00:36:00] during COVID. Again, may or may not help you is actually because phones now are so good at, you can dictate to them and they can translate text to speech to text because what I discovered during COVID was I would just go walk around the mystery, which is a park, a local park, and I'd walk around the park with my headphones in or a microphone or my phone just here, and I would dictate to the phone.
So I didn't have to type it. I just as I was praying, as I was thinking, I'll just speak to the phone and it would
Claire Glare: But then does it also have things like, oh, I'd really a chippy tea tonight, in it? Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: But that's important too. It's not really what
Claire Glare: I pray. You weren't doing the, you weren't
Matt Edmundson: doing the No, because I'm, I know because you were consciously praying.
Yeah, and I'm, because I'm speaking it out in a way that I Because if I just talk faster normally, the computer is going to go, but if I speak a bit more deliberately and intentionally, then it clarifies a lot of things in my head. So then I forget I, I don't get all that brain fuzz, where I'm [00:37:00] praying, but then I'm thinking about the chippy tea and I'm thinking about the cat that was sick in the slippers or whatever.
Do you know what I mean? All of that just goes and it's no, God, I'm just focusing on this. It's super helpful. Yeah. Hashtag the same. I've just
Claire Glare: skipped over Matt's comment because he's been super
Matt Edmundson: cheeky. That's unlike Crew. So Nicola said she started praying in the mornings. Where did you put that?
Oh, yeah. Great talk by Dan. I've started the habit of praying every morning before I even get out of bed and it helps a lot. Well done, Nicola.
Claire Glare: Do you do that? Do you pray in the morning? I would say it's more that conversational kind of prayer. Yeah. And, yeah, I chat hand on heart. Not really at the moment.
I was thinking when Dan was talking about the Ninety Five song, Get Up, Get Out. No,
Matt Edmundson: that's a different one. No, Ninety Five is working
Claire Glare: now. But there's a bit about what she does when she stumbles out of bed. Yeah. Yeah. And, and so I was thinking what, what do I do in the morning and you [00:38:00] do have to, there are certain things that you do and they are habits and they are rituals.
And one of mine is my cup of coffee and another is just a little bit of calm before everybody else wakes up. But actually I could really intentionally. Spend time with God at that point, and sometimes I do, and it's lovely, and other times, actually, I just turn on breakfast telly for a bit of news, because I really rarely listen to the news, but that's not a great choice
Matt Edmundson: It's interesting, I think you go through seasons, don't you?
No, I'm sorry, I'm
Claire Glare: struggling with my chair today, sorry.
Matt Edmundson: I think you go through seasons, don't you? Like, When our kids were younger, it was harder to pray in the morning. Yeah, it really was. And I know that the evangelical line is you have a quiet time in the morning. It's just what one of those things that's been drummed into you, since the first day you became a Christian, I don't really.
I dunno. I think it's just different for different people. I never really did the quiet time in the morning thing.
Claire Glare: Oh, I probably do feel a bit [00:39:00] guilty. Which I don't really generally do guilt , I'm not really guilty kind of person, but but I think I would like I know how valuable Yeah.
That time with Yeah. Whether it's in the morning or whenever. Yeah. And I, and and I would like it to be in the morning Yeah. Just for my own. Ordering. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, all I can say is publicly hand, do you know what I mean, hold me accountable.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah. Next time Clare's on, just, how's the knitting, how's the praying going?
That's the two questions you need to ask Clare whenever you see her. But no, I do think, when our kids were your kids ages, it was much harder. Now our kids are much older and they take care of themselves. It's a lot easier of a morning to go right. My morning's quite structured in the way that I approach it, and so But that's so easy to do now.
It was not easy when we had kids. There's no way I was gonna get that.
Claire Glare: You are just, 'cause you're not your own person, are you? No. You are at their beck. I don't mean that their beck and [00:40:00] call in that in a bad way, but they are dependent on you. They're very dependent. Yeah. Yeah. And I, it shocks me still, I think having young kids that I'm not reliable anymore.
I, I, like I can't be. I can't commit to things in the same way that I used to do. And what that is because I have dependence and I guess it's that recognition. Okay. And I'm just speaking it out loud as well as I'm thinking about it, but that I have dependence upon me, but actually who am I
Matt Edmundson: depending upon?
Yeah. Yeah. And it's easy to get caught up in that, isn't it? But yeah. Yeah. So there are definite seasons to the whole thing. Pray, pray big, pray in the morning if you can. Yeah. It's not, it's not a requirement. Pray daily. Pray daily. Definitely. Yeah. If you can keep a journal of your prayers.
I love Dan's comment about what was it he said? I wrote it down. Is it crazy that God talks back or is it crazy to talk to God not wanting him to answer? It was a [00:41:00] great question, wasn't it? I thought that was brilliant. Yeah. I thought that was great actually. Yeah. That actually we do pray and part of the reason why I enjoy the conversational type prayer is because I sense God in that.
Yeah. Do you see what I mean? Yes. I'm not just talking to myself. I feel like God's in it. And I like that conversational aspect of it, I feel that God's there and I can sense him. I've, I can't say that I've prayed, God, tell me what the lottery numbers are.
And he tells me,
Claire Glare: I back in the day, we played there was I was on a discipleship team. Yeah, we played murder in the dark a few times. We lived in a big house as a group of us. And I, if I was the detective, I would pray for a word of knowledge and I was banned from being the detective. And I, but I love that about God, like I really loved it that actually he would join in with our
Matt Edmundson: game, yeah, why not? And why not? Because God does things.
Claire Glare: [00:42:00] Go on. I was just thinking that conversational and I think that listening to God back and hearing him in different ways of it might be. Just, a very deep sense of joy or peace or something like that. But it might be, I don't know, a bus going by with a particular thing on.
I went through a phase of walking through a shopping center, St. John's in town when it was old. And literally every morning I would walk through the shopping center that I was literally just walking through it. for four minutes of a morning. Maybe it was just the timing, but it was hello, but by Lionel Richie, I'm not going to sing.
Matt's told me not to sing. I'm not singing. I
Matt Edmundson: think he
Claire Glare: was talking to me. And I know, but I knew, or I know, I just called to say I love you. And I just knew that at that season, that was God speaking to me. And I, so I love that aspect of God. And then obviously through scripture
Matt Edmundson: as well. Yeah, absolutely.
Through the Bible, through prayer, through, [00:43:00] like you say, that sense of just that, those, that sense, just that peace, that presence, that joy. I remember praying about my exams for my degree. Didn't we all? Lord help us, please. And I remember praying because I, for whatever reason in my head, I wanted to get a 2. 1 in my degree. And I was on track to get a 2. 2. And in my final year at uni, I sat down with one of the tutors and he said, you're on track for a 2. 2. My second year wasn't great uni. And he said, what do you want to get? I said a 2. 1. He said you're gonna have to put in a bit of extra work, especially around law.
I wasn't great with law, which was part of my degree. He said, you're gonna have to do some extra work. I said about that, I'm not going to be able to do that because from 5pm till 10pm every night, Monday through Friday, I'm now doing Bible school because I want to get my Bible school diploma.
So I did that my final year at university. And the tutor was a bit incandescent. I know it's a bit, [00:44:00] overdramatic. He was a bit You what? You want to do what? He said you're going to get a 2 2 because you're not got time to put in the extra work you need to. And I said, I'm sure we can do something.
He said, but honestly, the only way you're going to get a 2 1, and I quote you, this is what he said to me word for word, one of the things I remembered, he said, the only way you're going to get a 2 1, Matt, is if you get one of those miracles you're always talking about. So I was like, seriously, that's the answer.
And he was like, yeah. And I was like, oh, thank you, Jesus. Because that took the pressure off in a lot of ways. So he was like, you what? I said if that's the answer, I said, I'll just pray, excuse me, I'm gonna go have a word with a miracle maker. And I remember that Christmas, I had this two week break over Christmas where I could study and I'm like, Lord, during these, I've got these two weeks, I'm gonna devote these two weeks to study.
I'm gonna study like no one's studied before, but I'm gonna need your help. I'm gonna need you to tell me what to study, how to study etc. Because this is the block that I've got to do this in and it was genuine and I, as sure as I [00:45:00] knew anything, I heard God say, I want you to go to the law library.
When I got in the law library, I'm like, okay, I started, what, is there a book I'm supposed to get? It's I want you to go to this section of the library, I want you to get these past papers from this year and this year. And I went through them and he said, that question, I want you to answer them.
Spend the next two weeks writing answers to those questions. Do you know when I did my exam, what questions came up on it? And so when it came to my exams and revision, I was just like, it's amazing. Cause when it came to answer the exams, I just felt God say to me, just learn those essays. And so here I go into the exams.
I used to do this thing with my exams. I thought it's a bit like murder
Claire Glare: in the dark,
Matt Edmundson: Slightly cheating. Cheating is not quite the right word, but the Lord was helping me. And so I get into the exam and they are. And I'm just like, we did it. Boom. Do you know what I got? I got a 2 2. I got a 2 1.
Well done. I went up to the tutor at the year. Well done, God. Yeah. Thank you, [00:46:00] Jesus. I went up to the tutor at the end of the year and I said to him, still believe in miracles? What did he say? He said, I can't believe you. I said it's not me you're supposed to believe. Yeah. And so I was just so grateful,
Claire Glare: grateful.
Did you tell him that's what had happened?
Matt Edmundson: I can't remember. It's a long time ago. I've definitely told the story a lot. Yeah. I've never heard it. Oh, okay. Maybe I've not told it enough then. The other time I really heard God quite clearly was when I was we were talking about this the other night with Tom and Emma Grant and they came around for dinner.
So Tom Grant's just been on What's The Story. He's a pastor up in Netherton, part of the Eden team up there. Yeah. Great guy, does Wednesday Night at Finnegan's. If you've, if you want to watch something YouTube on a Wednesday night, I think it's like 8, 9pm, just go watch Wednesday Night at Finnegan's. It's hysterical.
Is it?
Claire Glare: Okay. Comedy
Matt Edmundson: Thing. Yeah, Alan Finnegan and Tom Grant do it. So Alan Finnegan, they're both church pastors. He's a stand up comedian as well. Tom's just really funny. And together the Banton, they have guests on and he's built a pub down the bottom of his garden. And so they interview guests. [00:47:00] I've been on it.
So you know, but apart from that, it's all right. Funny. Apart from the one week I was on, it's really funny. And so yeah they came round and I was telling them this story, or Sharon was telling the story that Cause they're like, how did you and Sharon meet? I said Sharon came to the Omega team, which was a year training team our church did back in, a long time ago.
Claire Glare: Did you do the Omega team? That was when I was doing Murder
Matt Edmundson: in the Dark. Oh, okay. So Sharon was on the, and I remember I remember just again, just as clear as day, I was stood there, I was doing some teaching for the new Omegas. And I'm doing this. And I'm talking about faith. It's the first time I've met half of them because, people and Sharon was on that team and had everybody introduce themselves.
So I knew who they were and I was started doing this teaching. I think I was doing teaching on faith probably and didn't think anything of it. Just met everyone. Hey, how you doing? About 10- 15 minutes in the talk, just as sure as I heard God say anything to me. He said, see ya, you're going to go out with her.
And I was like,[00:48:00]
Claire Glare: Okay, what do I do
Matt Edmundson: with that? What am I supposed to do with that right now? And I just stood still for five minutes. Everyone thought I was nuts. Because I just didn't say anything for five minutes as I'm having this debate. And this prayer time with God going, thanks Lord, but I just, I don't know what to do, I don't know her, I don't, and so anyway that's did Sharon flutter her eyes at you?
No, she just didn't have anything to do with me. You should ask Sharon the story. She's really funny. Cause when we were, when I was like, it was like 18 months later, I was like, right now I think it's the time. So I made my moves. Casanova here. Made my moves. Sharon was not impressed. She said she had three categories of people, three categories of men in her life, the ones that she was definitely not going to go out with, the ones where she was like, possible, and me.
I was in a category all of my own. I don't quite know.
Claire Glare: Was that a positive or a negative? Do you not know? Don't know. Oh, [00:49:00]
Matt Edmundson: still not got the answer. We got married, so I figured it was okay in the end.
She still likes me, I think, on the whole. She does. So yeah, prayer that sort of conversational prayer, the big prayers. Yeah. Praying for your exams was a big one for me. Praying for my wife was a massive one. Some of those really big prayers, and I think part of the problem, I don't know if you're like me, Clare, but if I look back over life, when I was a young Christian, I was praying big prayers all the time.
And I think as you go through life, it's easier to stop praying those prayers.
Claire Glare: But, is it? Because you're in business, you've got big prayers still to pray. Oh yeah. Our situation is very interesting,
And it's a great way to it is, but it's a real justice situation and. And it on, and we're just clueless about it. The only hope is God. And and so they are [00:50:00] big, but I think recently God has been challenging me to pray more about that because it's been 12 years going on this situation that me and my husband have got a legal.
Battle thing. And and it is it's just to say
Matt Edmundson: the battle's not between them.
Claire Glare: No, we are in unity upon it. But it's and it's, not, we've not done anything wrong.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, the FBI are investigating,
Claire Glare: Thing. And, but it's just. Actually, you have, and actually, even this morning, it's that birthing prayer, I think I was feeling again, and just, Oh, God, you that something has to break.
Yeah. And I think that prayer of breakthrough, actually, when you're, maybe about your kids as well, when you're praying about people that you love, and still haven't come to faith and, maybe for us with older parents in that season of life that I'm in, who knows when my parents are, I've still got my [00:51:00] parents, but I don't know when that's going to change.
And we are their link to Jesus, aren't we, our family. So they, and they are really important in prayers, aren't they? But I think sometimes we can de, we can make them not big, but that's just that, actually, no, it's not just that, it's really flipping important. Yeah, it is. But then also and we can't, we, it is, it would be a miracle for XYZ to happen.
Yeah. And so I think, but then I think it's speaking faith into those, isn't it? Yeah, it is. And and expectation. That, God's a God who loves us and that he wants to answer and he's able to answer and okay, we're just doing what we can do. Praying those prayers, being in the right place, turning up and trusting.
Yeah,
Matt Edmundson: Super powerful. And especially if you tie this back into the topic of wholeness, which is this whole season, becoming whole. [00:52:00] Prayer is one of those things where actually I don't understand how you can become whole without prayer.
Claire Glare: And I was thinking about this and my job I see a lot of people with really bad mental health, physical poor ill health, just their whole lives are wrecked and I often think, I know that actually Lots of scientific study has gone into the power of prayer.
And that is actually the studies are Christian prayer, mostly because it's been funded by Western churches. And so it's not got that bias, but it is it's that history. And I think it's really it changes you, it makes you more resilient. It makes your, you more whole. Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it does, totally.
Nicola said she started praying in the mornings because life was tough. And I think sometimes we start praying when life's tough. And I think, God helps us out of things. God helps us quite often through things, [00:53:00] sometimes. Sometimes He doesn't deliver us out of things. He delivers us through things, more often than not is my experience.
And He's gracious in so many ways with that. And that, but that all comes to prayer, doesn't it? And it's like Understanding if I'm fearful, God, going to God in praying and God what is it? Why am I fearful? What's making me fearful? Help me get to the bottom of this, and digging through a lot of these things with God, I think is just.
It's away the future really. I'm aware of time.
Claire Glare: I'm not, I've I have no clue. It's 10 past
Matt Edmundson: seven, eight o'clock. How do you know the time? Because it's in the top corner of the screen. Hidden from where I am. But yes, we have, we run over. We started late, didn't we? We started very late.
So I think we're probably on about time. So thank you for bearing with us, everybody. Next week we are talking about,
Claire Glare: I
Matt Edmundson: have no idea. I'm not you, Jack, I told you earlier. Dave Conns doing it. Fasting. Yes. Yes.
Claire Glare: Remembered.
Matt Edmundson: Claire's panicking. So [00:54:00] yeah, I've got Dave Conn talking about fasting and what's fasting got to do with being whole.
It's Matt, you're talking about becoming whole. You started off with prayer and fasting. And
Claire Glare: you don't shrink when you fast either. I think, from my own experience in the past.
Matt Edmundson: Yeah, it says. You become a different kind of whole, maybe, I don't know promote What's The Story, Yes, and midweek Zoom.
, let me tell you about What's The Story podcast. If you haven't done so already, make sure you subscribe to What's The Story which is a podcast we put out where we talk to people about their stories, about how they became a Christian, what challenges they've had to face in life and all that kind of stuff.
Just done one with Kristen who's just published a new book and you talk about coming from a broken family. Oh Lord, her story is heartbreaking in many ways, but God's done some amazing stuff in her. So the author of Legacy Changer. So do check that out. That's now available on What's The Story.
And there are other ones as well. Loads of stories on there. Got lots of stories coming up as well, which is great. So do check that out. What's The Story podcast. Make sure you subscribe to the live stream. Do come join us live if you're watching on catch up. Or you're [00:55:00] listening to the podcast, it always great to see you.
Always great to have the comments and the banter in the podcast in the
Claire Glare: stream. Yeah.
Matt Edmundson: Chat. I start in the chat. Yeah, in the chat. It's always nice to have your comments in the chat. Just come and make fun of Matt Crew because he's normally making fun of me. Come and make fun of him because frankly, why not?
It's a sport. We do banter as well, by the way. So yeah, next week, Dave talking about fasting. Check out what's the story. And if you'd like to join our midweek community groups, we'd love to see you in them. We've normally Wednesdays but obviously it can fit around different people.
So we can set up different groups if people are interested, but do reach out to us at Crowd Church. Put a little website link on the web, on the screen there. Oh,
Claire Glare: I like that little touch of a button. Yeah. Got a little thing that he touched.
Matt Edmundson: And it did that. Yeah, that's cool. Amazing. Yeah. Reach out to us at www. crowd. church. Or on social media at Crowd Church. And we would love to send you those details. It'd be great to see you in the community groups as well. We're going to be talking a lot more about community as we go through this whole series of Becoming Whole For Reasons, which will be. Hopefully medium, the [00:56:00] obvious.
So we're going to be getting into that whole topic a lot more soon as well. So yeah, do stick with us. Thanks again for sticking with us during the technical issues and whichever live stream you are watching tonight. Thank you for being with us. All the comments, I think most of the comments seem to.
If you have actually put in comments and we've not seen them or responded to them. It may well be they've not come through to our system because it's just a live stream somewhere that the system doesn't know about. You're out in the ether somewhere. Yeah, it's my fault though. So hopefully next week, we'll get it together.
I'll get a USB hub that actually works and doesn't crash the live stream because frankly, that's quite disappointing as well. Cost 50 quid that USB hub. That thing. Yeah.
Take issues, man. So yeah, thanks for sticking with us. Really appreciate it. Have a blessed week. Anything else you want to say before we sign off?
Claire Glare: All good. All good. I think we
Matt Edmundson: should just pray. Oh yeah, let's do that. Shall we pray?
Claire Glare: Talk about prayer. Shall we pray? God, we love you. We thank you for our time.
We yeah, we [00:57:00] pray that as we reach out to you and turn our faces towards you, we would see your beautiful face and we would hear your voice saying, I love you. And this is the way walking it. Yeah. Yeah. Amen.
Matt Edmundson: Amen. Well done for that. It's all right. I can't believe we just did this whole conversation about prayer.
I didn't even think about praying. It's all right.
Claire Glare: I did think about it earlier. There we go. I'm supposed.
Matt Edmundson: And on that bombshell, have a great week, God bless you I'm going to press, what button am I pressing? That one. I'm going to press this button. We'll see you next week. Bye for now. Thank you so much for joining us here on Crowd Church.
Now, if you are watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button as well as that little tiny bell notification to get notified. The next time we are live. And of course, if you are listening to the [00:58:00] podcast the Livestream podcast, make sure you also hit the follow button now by smashing the like button on YouTube or writing a review on your podcast platform.
It helps us reach more people with the message that Jesus really does help us live a more meaningful. and Purposeful Life. So if you haven't done so already, be sure to check out our website www. crowd. church where you can learn more about us as a church, more about the Christian faith, and also how to connect into our church community.
It has been Awesome to connect with you and you are awesome. It's just a burden you have to bear and hopefully we'll see you next time. That's it from us. God bless you. Bye for now.