Grow Your Relationship with God Through Prayer: Part 3 — A ‘Time With God’ Audio Devotion

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Transcript

Good morning. We’re talking this week on a topic that has had such a massive impact on my own life, my own walk through this world, my journey with God, and that is this growing your relationship with God through prayer.

I can’t think of anything that has had a bigger impact on my relationship with God than my prayer life, and the same is true for you. Whether your relationship with God is not growing at all or whether it’s growing a lot – it is connected to your prayer life.

Your relationship with God, what is a relationship? It’s all about communication.

And here we’re talking this week about how to use your communication with God to grow your relationship with God.

And today I want to say this about growing your relationship with God through prayer. Obey what God is saying to you.

Obey what God is saying to you.

We talked yesterday about listening to God through reading the Bible with a heart open to hear what He’s saying to us, thinking deeply about what we’re reading, and then responding to God. Well, listen to what Jesus said. These are the final words of his sermon on the Mount that’s so well known.

Matthew chapter 5, 6 through 7 are one sermon that we call the Sermon on the Mount, and chapter 7 ends with these words from Jesus starting in verse 24:

Jesus said, Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock.

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And the rain fell, and the floods came, so your life’s not necessarily going to be easy if you obey God. The tough times will still come in your life. The rain fell and the floods came and the winds blew and beat on that house. But it did not fall because it had been founded on the rock.

He goes on to say, and everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house – The 1st man’s building a house and the 2nd man’s building a house, but the 2nd man built his house on the sand.

And the rain fell and the floods came.

Terrible hard times will come into both people’s lives, and the winds blew and beat against that house and it fell, and great was the fall of it.

Well, as we read that passage, you see that Jesus’ teaching here assumes that you have heard Jesus’ words.

Both the wise man and the foolish man heard his words. Everyone who hears these words of mine and does them or does not do them.

Well, on that day there was a crowd there who had physically heard Jesus speaking to them. Today you are going to hear God speaking into your life as you spend prayerful time in His Word, inviting God to speak to you. And those are some of the most beautiful prayer times you can have when you sense what God is saying to you from His word. Prayer and God’s word go together.

But don’t just enjoy the experience of hearing from God as you spend time in His Word. If you want your relationship with God to grow, you need to respond to what he’s saying to you.

You need to follow Jesus and obey God. Remember Jesus’ prayer that we read yesterday.

Father, remove this cup that is the cup of suffering from me, yet not what I will, but what you will.

Well, in Jesus’ story both the wise man and the foolish man hear the words of Jesus. The only difference is that one puts Jesus’ words into practise.

I’m John North.

To go deeper in your faith, visit AFCI.com.au.

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