This is Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope. If you’re new, we’re so glad you found us. And if you’re a daily, daily hoper, welcome back.
Today, we’re going to continue with our series called 40 Days of Prayer. Such a great series because Rick is going to help you cultivate a powerful prayer life, so you can experience breakthroughs. Breakthroughs in your relationships, breakthroughs in finances, health, and really every area of your life.
So don’t miss a day of this life-changing series. And now let’s join Pastor Rick for the final part of a message called How to Pray Throughout Your Day.
Now you come, you should go back to work. Mid-afternoon, that’s when you want to take a nap. And you’re starting to get a little sluggish there.
You’re not real bright. But by mid-afternoon, I don’t know about you, you know, I’m in the people business. And so I’m dealing with people all the time, and I don’t know if you notice this, some of them are kind of goofy.
Some of them are frustrating. Some people, don’t look at them, some people are disappointing. Some people hurt you intentionally, and some unintentionally.
And I don’t know about you, by the time I get to mid-afternoon, I’ve got a stack of bad attitudes. Because of the people that I’ve had to listen to or deal with. And so in the afternoon, I got some attitudes and some actions, and I’ve got some sins that have piled up by mid-afternoon.
And so, the fifth thing I do, write this down, I ask for forgiveness in the afternoon. I ask for forgiveness in the afternoon. And when I take a little prayer break in the afternoon, and I don’t even tell people that I’m doing this.
sometimes I just get up from a meeting, go to the bathroom, and while I’m going to the bathroom, I talk to God. And in that point, in the afternoon, I just say, Lord, is there anything in my life I need to clean out? Is there any sin?
Search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts. See if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.
God, is there something here that I need to just admit to you? I need to confess? I don’t want to carry the garbage into the rest of the day.
Now, it doesn’t take a long time. It’s just like taking out the garbage. Taking out the garbage doesn’t take a long time, but it keeps your house from stinking.
And if you don’t take out the garbage in your soul every day, your soul starts stinking. Don’t let sin stockpile in your life. In the first place, you can start carrying guilt, and that’s dumb.
But now we come to the fifth statement in the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6 verse 12. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. This is the kind of prayer.
I told you there are different kinds of prayer. We’ve had Thanksgiving or adoration, and we’ve had petition, okay? And we’ve had dedication.
Now we’ve got confession. And confession, what do I do? I just own up to my own wrong reactions.
I admit my sins. And while I’m at it, I forgive everybody else who’s sinned against me. Because I certainly don’t want to hold on to grudges.
They hurt you more than they hurt anybody else. You don’t want to be carried around by resentment. Now listen, read your pastor’s lips right now.
There is never any reason for you to walk around feeling guilty if you know the Lord. Some people actually think they’re more spiritual by feeling guilty. I remember one time years ago, this lady who she come to Saddleback, and after every service, I’d be out on the patio, and she said, You know, Pastor Rick, today God just spoke to me.
And it was always something bad. Like, you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong, you’re doing this wrong, you’re doing that wrong. And she did this for like months.
And finally one day, I said, Mem, does God ever say anything nice to you? Because my God isn’t always, you know, causing me to be focused on that stuff. He knows I’m going to see it.
But if you do this on a regular basis in the afternoon, you just kind of take out the garbage. That’s forgive us our sins as we forgive those sins against us. Doctors say most people could leave the hospital today except for guilt and resentment.
Guilt over things I’ve done to hurt others. resentment over what other people have done to hurt me. And as a result, we regret the past, and we worry about the future, and we waste today, and we crucify ourselves on the cross of guilt and resentment.
You’re not more spiritual feeling guilty. jesus died on the cross, so you don’t have to carry guilt. And so every day, you need to take out the garbage.
It might be a good idea to do it in the afternoon. Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us. Here’s what I do, write this down.
I admit my sins, and I forgive others who frustrated me. There is no rational reason for carrying around guilt. Just confess it.
Should I ever feel guilty? Yeah, for about three seconds. That’s about how long it takes to admit it and ask forgiveness.
And then it’s cleaned up. Psalm 32 verse five, a great, great verse. I confess my sins to you, and I didn’t try to hide them.
Then you forgave me, and now all of my guilt is gone. I remember driving down the street one day and I saw a sign on a service station, gas station, and it was talking about a certain kind of oil, and it said, a clean engine has more power. That’s true of people too.
When you let sin stockpile in your life, and you have stuff there that you haven’t confessed to God, it just clogs up the system. You’re not running on all your cylinders. A clean engine has more power.
A clean soul has more resilience, and you need resilience in today’s world. So, in the afternoon time, that break where it’s 3 o’clock or whatever it is in the afternoon, you just take a little time and say, let’s do some house cleaning. God, is there any sin, any attitude, any action?
I just need to admit, I’ll admit it to you. Now, you’re closing up your work, and you’re heading home. And you get in your car, and you start to head home.
By the way, did you know, studies have shown this, 90% of all arguments in the world happen one hour before dinner. Two, three words, low blood sugar. Cranky, cranky, cranky.
And you’re tired, and you’re hungry, and you got a low blood sugar, and you come home, and everybody takes it out on each other. The husband yells at the wife, and the wife yells at the kids, and the kid kicks the dog. The dog chases the cat.
The cat bites the head off the Barbie doll. And there’s a chain reaction going on. You need to just be aware that at the end of the day when you go home, that’s a prime time for you to get an argument.
And knowing it is wise to ask for help. And so now we come to the sixth prayer time, and that’s when you get home, and you just take a minute. You know, and I’ll tell you what I used to do.
When my kids were growing up, you know, I listened to people’s problems all day. I want to talk to people, and I carry them. And when I come home, I would pause at the door to our house, and I was going to go, I’m not taking these problems in the house and dumping them on my wife and kids.
I’m just not going to do it. And so what I did is I found an old milk can at some antique store, and I painted it blue, and I stuck it out there in front of the front door, and I called it my worry and problem can. And every day, when I’d come home, I would walk up and I’d go, Lord, you know all those problems?
Half of them aren’t solved yet, but I’m not taking them inside. I’m going to dump them in this can right here, and tomorrow morning when I walk out, they’ll still be there. But I’m not going to load them on my wife, and I’m not going to load them on my kids, because I don’t want to do that.
The sixth thing you pray in this time of day, late afternoon, is you ask God to help me make wise decisions. Whether you’ve got kids at home or not anymore, or you’re living with some friends, you need to ask God to help you make wise decisions, and by the way, to protect you from making dumb decisions too. And this is the sixth phrase of the Lord’s Prayer.
And it goes like this. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. Now, I don’t know about you.
You’re probably different. But I don’t know about you. My worst temptations actually come in the evening.
And they come from two very demonic sources. The television and the refrigerator.
There are the devil.
You know, I can stay on a diet till at least 6 p.m. But between 6 p.m. and midnight, oh, brother, when you’re tired, your resources are low. You’re gonna get in arguments, you’re gonna say things, you’re gonna hurt people unintentionally. And it’s a good thing to pray before you go walk back in the home.
Lord, lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil. Some of you, the television is a big temptation. And I’m talking about you’re watching stuff you shouldn’t be watching.
Or maybe it’s your computer, and you’re watching some stuff on the computer you shouldn’t be watching. Before you get home, Lord, lead me not into temptation. God has given us great promise.
Let’s look up here on the screen, 1 Corinthians 10, 13. Remember that the temptations that come into your life are no different from what other people experience. Now, this is a good thing.
It says we all go through the same common temptations. Okay? You think you’re special, you’re not when it comes to temptation.
You have the exact same temptations everybody else does. You have the same temptations they’ve had for thousands of years, and jesus had them in the same way, the same root temptation. Now, the good news is if there are common temptations, it means there are common solutions.
And it says this. Remember, the temptations come in your life, they’re no different from what others experience. We’re all in the same boat.
So don’t act so higher and mighty and holy, holy. We all have the same temptations. And God is faithful.
He will keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it. And when you’re tempted, this is a great promise, you might memorize this. When you’re tempted, he’ll show you a way out so that you will not give into it.
Anybody who says, I can’t help myself was lying because God’s promised I’ll always make a way out. But you gotta choose it. You gotta choose it.
But say, it was overpowering, I couldn’t help myself. yes, you could. God says, I’ll always make a way out for you.
Now, you need to understand two very important things about temptation. It’s not a sin to be tempted. jesus was tempted.
It’s a sin to give into temptation. In fact, a lot of people, when they get tempted, they go, ooh, I shouldn’t even be tempted. Like, where did that thought come from?
I’ll tell you where it came from. It came from the evil one. It came from the devil.
You can’t, Martin Luther said, you can’t keep the birds from flying over your head, but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair. So, you can’t control every idea that’s put into your mind. Some of it comes from stuff you saw at a movie theater 20 years ago, and Satan pulls it back out.
That’s why you want to watch what you put in your mind. Everybody’s worried about air pollution and water pollution. Are you worried about mind pollution?
Some people are so open-minded, their brains fall out. And they just allow anything, a tractor pull through their brain with all kinds of garbage. You should worry about mind pollution more than you worry about water pollution, because your brain affects your character.
But I’m saying, God says, I’ll give you a way out. By the way, if you’re watching stuff that’s no good for you on the internet, you might want to memorize this verse up here on the screen. Psalm 1013.
I will refuse to look at anything vile and vulgar. Nowadays, that might mean the news.
So you have to worry. Worry about that. So ask God to help me wake up my decision.
Finally, we come to the end of the day. Now you’re getting ready for Betty Bye, you’re putting on your PJs. And here’s the last thing you pray.
You prayed when you get up. Here’s the last phrase in the Lord’s Prayer. I end my day with an encouraging truth.
Write that down. I end my day. This is called a benediction.
A good word. You end your day with a good word. It’s good to read scripture, promises, read some promises from God.
I end my day with an encouraging truth. And the Lord’s Prayer ends with one of the most encouraging truths around. And it goes like this.
Matthew 6 13. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.
Now, let me tell you what that means. If you’ll think of that verse and you’ll remember what it means, you can sleep a whole lot better. Because what that verse says is three incredibly encouraging truths.
Number one, God is in control. God is in control. The politicians aren’t.
Other nations aren’t. Your boss isn’t. God is ultimately in control.
And the Bible says the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord, and he can turn it with or so ever he wishes. It’s just enough people pray. That’s why the world changes when God’s people pray.
He’s waiting on us. sometimes we say, God, we’re waiting on you to do something. God’s saying, I’m waiting on you to pray.
This is a partnership. But when I pray, yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen. Good night, Lord.
I’m saying, God, number one, you’re in control. Second, this is not the end of the story. And third, God and his family win in the end.
I’ve read the last chapter of the book. God wins. God wins.
And so that’s when you’re looking, if you go to bed and the last thing you watch is either news or late night TV talking about the news, you’re gonna go to depressed. Cory Ten Boom said it, if you look at the world, you’ll be distressed. If you look within, you’ll be depressed.
If you look at Christ, you’ll be at rest. It all depends on who you’re looking at. Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
God, you’re in control. This is not the end of the story. And we win in the end.
Good night, Lord. I’ll see you in the morning. And when I wake up, it’s gonna be get up with gratitude.
And then bless your name at breakfast. So I’m in the positive, and I’m gonna start positive. You’ll sleep a whole lot better.
Now, I want to encourage you to not just listen to this, but to actually try this format of using the Lord’s Prayer to mark out six, seven times during the day. I’m not talking about 20 minutes a day. I’m just talking about a minute here, a minute here, five minutes here, whatever.
What you’ve got time for. God just wants to, he just wants to hear from you. Now, I know what you’re thinking.
Rick, you don’t know how busy I am. You’re busier than me. I would love to compare schedules.
Martin Luther once said, I have so much to do today, I must pray three hours. Because I can’t get it all done if I don’t go pray. When you pray, God helps you.
Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these other things will be added into you. God can do more in a few minutes less if you use some of that in prayer. And if you say, with your excuse, I don’t have the time to pause and pray, then you’re too busy.
And you can explain that to God when you get to heaven one day, why you were too busy to talk to him. Let me give you a promise. You need to write this down, Proverbs 10, 27, on the screen.
I love it in the living Bible. Well, the living Bible says, reverence for God adds hours to each day. Hello.
Do you need more time? Reverence for God adds hours to each day. It’s kind of like tithing.
God can make 90% of my money go further than 100%. And God can make my time go further when I give part of it to him in prayer. Reverence for God adds hours to each day.
Proverbs 10, 27, Living Bible. The Lord’s Prayer is not just a ritual that people pray. It is a pattern for living.
It is a model for how to manage your day. And if you do this, you’ll have more energy, you’ll have more peace, you’ll be closer to God, you’ll have more power in your life, you’ll have more confidence. If you’ll do it, jesus says this is the way you ought to pray.
Pray throughout your day. 150 years ago, a young Boston woman married a printer, and they got married and had three kids, but the Civil War ended their happiness because Mary’s husband got conscripted in the Civil War in the Northern Army, and he died in the Battle of Antietam. And then, after her husband died, her 12-year-old son drowned.
And then, her only daughter died. It was one calamity after another. And in her grief, Mary Ann Kidder began to turn to writing hymns.
And if you’ve been in a traditional church, you’ve sung Mary Ann Kidder hymns, because she wrote hundreds and hundreds of them. It would be very well known. Helped millions of people.
In fact, she wrote, I think, 181 hymns. There’s one that she wrote that I remember as a little kid hearing my parents sing, and it was called Did You Think to Pray? And we’ll end with this.
When you left your room this morning, did you think to pray? In the name of Christ our Savior, did you ask for loving favor as a shield today? When you met with great temptation, did you think to pray?
By his dying love and merit, did you claim the Holy Spirit as your guidance day? When your heart was filled with anger, did you think to pray? Did you plead for grace, my brother, that you might forgive another who had crossed your way?
When strong trials came upon you, did you think to pray? As your heart was filled with sorrow, did the love of Christ you borrow at the gates today? And the refrain goes like this, Oh, how praying rests the weary.
Prayer will change your night today. So when life seems dark and dreary, don’t forget to pray. Let’s bow our heads.
What I’ve just taught you will change your life if you actually practice it. You’ll grow closer to Christ. You’ll have more energy.
You’ll make better decisions. You’ll have less stress. You get better ideas at work.
You’ll be more productive. You’ll be healthier. That could go on and on and on.
The Lord’s Prayer covers every major need in your life. And if you use it as a model for a daily schedule of checking in with God, God, I’m checking in with you. It’s mid-morning.
God, I’m checking in with you. It’s noon. God, I’m checking in with you.
It’s the afternoon. Remember, I told you there are two ways to pray throughout your day. One is conversationally, where you just talk to him all the time, and that’s a good thing.
But it’s also a good thing to set aside specific times and say, these are gonna be the times that I check in with you every day. Our Father, who art in heaven, your good God, and I’m going to be grateful for everything you’ve done. How would be your name?
Your name, Lord, tells me all the things you’ve promised to do in my life. Why don’t you pray it right now? Say, Our Father in heaven, just say it in your mind.
Say, God, you’re a good, good God. I want to be grateful. I want to start each day with gratitude, the healthiest emotion.
I don’t want to start it with news. I don’t want to start it with bad news. I want to start it with the goodness of God.
And then say, Lord, I want to bless your name at breakfast. I want to learn these names of God so that I can know what you’ve promised to do in my life. That you’re my healer.
You’re always present. You will give me power. You’re my forgiver.
All of the things that you’ve promised by your names. And I want to bless your name.
Your kingdom come, Lord, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I wanna seek first your kingdom. God, I want your plans and purposes for the world and for my life to be number one.
I don’t wanna be in cross purposes with you. I wanna seek first your purpose, believing that everything else I need, you’re gonna take care of. And Lord, every day I wanna say, give me this day our daily bread.
Just enough to get me through today. Give me strength for today. Give me wisdom for today.
Give me the finances I need for today. And I wanna make a list at lunchtime. As I eat my sandwich, you would give me more than that but inner food, soul food.
And Lord, I wanna ask you to forgive me of all my sins as I forgive those who have sinned against me. Remove guilt and shame and resentment and bitterness from my life. I can’t waste energy on those energy drainers.
And Lord, there’s some things in my life that you know I’m tempted by. And I’m not very good at handling them on my own. And I’m asking you to lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
And I wanna ask you to help me make wise decisions, and not impulsive ones, and not dumb decisions.
Deliver us from evil. For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Lord, when I’m down, when I’m depressed, when I feel overwhelmed, when I feel discouraged, help me remember that you’re in charge, you’re in control, you’re still on the throne.
But this is not the end of the story. There was more to life than here and now. And that ultimately, we win.
When the world outside looks darker and darker and dimmer and dimmer, help me to realize that you hold the keys to the future. And then because I’m on your side and I’m in your family, ultimately, it’ll all work out. If you’ve never opened your life to jesus Christ, say, jesus Christ, come into my life right now.
I want to get to know you. I humbly ask this in your name.
Hey, if you’ve just prayed along with Rick to accept jesus in your life, Rick would love to hear from you. Just email Rick at pastorrick.com. We’ll send you free tools to help start your relationship with jesus.
And now here’s Rick to tell you how you can partner with Daily Hope to take the Word of God to the world.
There are nearly 8 billion people on this planet, and God wants us to reach every one of them with the Gospel. jesus said, Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I’ve commanded you. And surely I’m with you always to the very end of the age.
That’s called the Great Commission. It often seems like mission impossible, but if we’ll work together to fulfill the Great Commission, God will turn it into the Great Completion. You know, the Bible says that in heaven, an enormous crowd of people from every race, every tribe, every nation, and every language will one day stand before jesus Christ to worship him.
That’s in Revelation 7, verse 9. And that’s why I’m asking you, friends, to partner with Daily Hope by becoming a partner in hope. What is a partner in hope?
Well, right now, we’re able to take the good news of jesus into almost every country of the world, including regions where it’s difficult or dangerous to share the gospel. But thanks to your prayers and your financial support, we reach millions of people around the world every month through radio, the internet, podcasting, TV, and we’re translating Daily Hope into 25 languages that enable us to reach over 80% of the world’s population. That’s because of your faithfulness.
And yet, there are still billions of people that need to hear about the hope we find in jesus. So please, pray about becoming a partner of hope today. Partners in hope provide vital monthly support that will help us reach millions more people around the world, including these regions we’re going to that have no bibles, no believers, and no bodies of Christ.
If God puts it on your heart, then please join us. Become a partner of hope today. With your first monthly donation, we’ll send you a special gift to welcome you to the partner in hope family.
Now there’s nothing more important that we can do together than to make sure people all around the world hear the good news of jesus Christ and have a chance to grow in God’s Word. Join us today as a partner in hope.
It’s easy to become a partner in hope with convenient automated monthly giving. You just go to pastorrick.com or text the word hope to 70309. And when you do, we’ll send you a special welcome gift to say thanks.
Again, that’s pastorrick.com or text the word hope to 70309. And we can’t tell you how much we appreciate your support. Thank you.
We hope you’ll join us next time as we look into God’s Word for our daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick’s Daily Hope and your generous financial support.
