Rush Hour

Trading Noise For Presence: Practicing Prayer, Fasting, And Solitude

• RushChurch • Season 1 • Episode 5

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We unpack prayer as honest conversation—sometimes clumsy, sometimes raw, always real—and wrestle with the question: why pray if God already knows? Because prayer reshapes motives and aligns hearts. We talk about public vs private prayer, kid prayers that say the quiet part out loud, and the many ways God answers: yes, no, and wait. The goal isn’t polished performance; it’s presence.

Then we move into fasting and solitude with practical guidance. Fasting isn’t a spectacle; it’s a way to remember dependence and tame comfort. Start small, plan ahead, keep it quiet, and trade a meal for Scripture and prayer. Solitude completes the triad: step away, slow down, and learn to listen when your mind won’t stop talking. Try a short centering phrase, a starry night walk, or a few minutes by the water. These practices aren’t about earning anything; they’re about making space for God to meet you in ordinary life—between the derby smoke and the cranberry sauce.

If you loved this conversation, follow the show, share it with a friend who needs a nudge toward quiet, and leave a review with one takeaway you’ll try this week. Your words help others find their way to prayer, fasting, and a little more stillness.

www.rushchurch.com


SPEAKER_03:

Welcome to Rush Hour. We're here once again, myself and Britney and Ashley. And we're gonna have some conversations. We're gonna sit around and talk about our weekend, some things that are going on at Rush Church, some things that are coming up at Rush Church, and then we'll get into just a little bit of discussion on some spiritual things, some Bible things once again. So how was your guys' weekend? Good to see you. Great. Britney, I feel like I haven't seen you in I know I've been gone. A week. Ashley, I see you every day. So did you guys do anything fun?

SPEAKER_01:

Do I get to start? Yeah. Okay. Let's just jump right in.

SPEAKER_03:

Please do.

SPEAKER_01:

I've been gone since Thursday. Where'd you go? I went to the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_03:

Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_01:

For a demolition derby.

SPEAKER_03:

Did you participate in this derby?

SPEAKER_01:

No. We work for a company, Levi and I do, that hosts a derby twice a year right now. And it's a lot of fun. Nice. It's a lot of wrecks, a lot of metal, a lot of loud noises.

SPEAKER_03:

That's all I know about derbies. There's loud noises in wrecks.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. But it was a lot of fun. It's pretty wild. You'd have to watch it to maybe I will one day.

SPEAKER_03:

Maybe I'll be with you next time.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. That's a lot of PA.

SPEAKER_03:

A lot of middle and nowhere, Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, probably like 7,000 people were at the show. Wow. Wow. Over 500 cars.

SPEAKER_03:

Wow. This was like a big deal.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's not your little fare thing.

SPEAKER_03:

Did you have enough snacks? Yes. I know you were worried about feeding your family snacks. I did.

SPEAKER_01:

I did. They did really good.

SPEAKER_03:

Enough to feed Axel.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. A lot of snacks were had. Nice. But we did have something really cool. We have a church service that we host there on Sundays, and four people got baptized. So that was cool.

SPEAKER_03:

That was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

You don't expect that. No. Go to a derby and come home baptized, but God can show up even in the middle of nowhere, Pennsylvania. That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

Even at a motorsport event. That's pretty cool. That was pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03:

So that was your whole weekend. That was your whole Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

We just got home last night and we got home at like 3 30, 4 o'clock, fed my family pizza, went to basketball, went to bed.

SPEAKER_03:

So gotcha. Sweet. Pretty cool. My weekend was we went to Tailgate party at Ben Logan Friday night. We gave out hot chocolate. Gave out good coffee this time. Wasn't bad. Um we gave out well, we we're actually pretty simple. We went through all of our hot chocolate and coffee and got to talk to a lot of people, and even opposing team came over and got to meet some of those guys.

SPEAKER_00:

We handed out bracelets, our new rush church bracelets, too.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, we have our new rush church bracelets. They're pretty simple. They're just black with white letters. It says Rush Church, but those can be little conversation starters, I think. Give them help. Eden did a good job. She was like, bracelet, take a bracelet for you. You need a bracelet. She was really excited. She helped. Timmy did not help. He was too busy getting hurt on the hill playing football. So yeah. But the tailgate went well. We're done for the year with tailgates. Thought they were pretty successful. We'll probably be back out there next year for the Ben Logan Tailgates. And then Saturday, we had a big day at Rush Church. We had the Rush Run 5K. We had about 40 runners running that race. All the money that we wrote raised for that goes to the student ministry for some events and some trips and stuff that we want to do. So thanks for all that came out to support that event. If you ran, if you gave or supported anyway, we really appreciate that and supporting our students. And then after that, we had a little bit of a festival, a fall festival, if you will. Ashley, you were there, weren't you?

SPEAKER_00:

I was there.

unknown:

Yes.

SPEAKER_00:

I was there.

SPEAKER_03:

Tell us a little bit about the fall fest and how it went.

SPEAKER_00:

The fall festival was a great success this year. It was wonderful to see all a lot of new families and new faces that I saw out this year. We had a hot dog roast and we had apple cider and hot chocolate going down by the fire, and we had a bunch of carnival games with candy, so much candy.

SPEAKER_03:

We loaded those kids up with it. We did.

SPEAKER_00:

We loaded those kids up with good candy. We had our obstacle course out there.

SPEAKER_03:

And she won.

SPEAKER_00:

Of course.

SPEAKER_03:

Um I also tried to cheat halfway through.

SPEAKER_02:

Oh, you try to push her?

SPEAKER_03:

I tried to get in front of her and she like stiff on me and ripped my hat off, and I laid there and she beat me. That's what you get for cheating. Don't cheat. But she always beats me in everything. We don't I don't play games with her anymore because one time I lost like 10 games in a row of bananagrams to her. So it's rough.

SPEAKER_00:

That's hilarious.

SPEAKER_03:

But yeah, we we were on the optional course. It's a fun time.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Mr. Joe and Miss Becky brought out their train. That was a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_03:

I did not drive the train this year, but Joe did a good job driving the train.

SPEAKER_00:

He did. Saw a lot of happy faces on that. And then something that went over really well was probably our cakewalk. So the cakewalk would happen probably every 20-25 minutes.

SPEAKER_03:

It got to be a big deal.

SPEAKER_00:

It did. It did. I would get on the microphone and be like, cakewalk in five minutes, and you just see them running from all over. I think we went through about 50 cakes.

SPEAKER_03:

Good grief.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

My kids got like six of those cakes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Timmy won three times in a row. I think. I'm like, yeah, out of there, right now. Let somebody else get a cake. Like it's just luck of the draw, too. It's not like he was randomly draw a number and he's like, okay. And I'm like, get it. But I thought Fall Fest was great. I like the fire. Down hanging out by the fire on a cool fall day, some apple cider and all the games and cakewalking and just meeting new people. I enjoyed having conversations with people who gave a good opportunity to meet some new people and even check out our church the next day. So that was pretty cool. I enjoyed all that. Anything coming up we should talk about at Rush Church.

SPEAKER_00:

Thanksgiving. Right. Thanksgiving is next.

SPEAKER_03:

Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

We do a huge dinner.

SPEAKER_00:

We do. We do a full Thanksgiving dinner.

SPEAKER_03:

Now, can you just show up if you want to come to the dinner that day?

SPEAKER_00:

You cannot.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh, sad day. What do you have to do?

SPEAKER_00:

However, you can get tickets at our church starting this Sunday. So we have two seatings, five o'clock and seven o'clock. You can decide which one you want to go, get free tickets at the Welcome Center and come join us for dinner that night.

SPEAKER_03:

Free tickets at the Welcome Center.

SPEAKER_01:

That's a really good dinner.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's what's your old favorite Thanksgiving food? Do you have one?

SPEAKER_01:

I I didn't think that I used to, but now with the cranberry sauce that we have at the church. At the church, that with the turkey together, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is so good.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm I'm the same way. I didn't use I love turkey, but I didn't used to like cranberry sauce. And then when I started eating it together, I'm like, I could eat this all year round. Yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Only weird people eat cranberry sauce. It's so good. It's a huge deal. At Rush Street, people go crazy for the cranberry sauce. It's on the table, and people just like that's what they're there for. Yeah, it's the cranberry sauce.

SPEAKER_00:

So and if there's a left, you get to take it home.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, he can have it. Oh, the leftovers are nice. So your all's favorite part of Thanksgiving is cranberry sauce and turkey.

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, I enjoy it. I would have to say my favorite side dish for Thanksgiving is green bean casserole for sure.

SPEAKER_03:

Green bean casserole.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, I don't think I like that one.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, I like sweet potato casserole.

SPEAKER_00:

Oh, that's a good one too.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't like sweet potatoes.

SPEAKER_01:

What do you like? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

For Thanksgiving.

SPEAKER_00:

Gravy crazy. For gravy. Use those ones that just pour the gravy in the whole.

SPEAKER_03:

I will. I'll put it. I'll make turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy. Even if the mac and cheese, I'll put gravy on the mac and cheese. It's good. Gravy is it's what we're there for.

SPEAKER_01:

No, the sweet potato casserole is one of these things. It's filled with sugar and butter and marshmallows.

SPEAKER_03:

It's almost like a pie. Like any kind of pie.

SPEAKER_00:

Do you put the gravy on the pie too?

SPEAKER_03:

No. That would be ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01:

Are you lying? I feel like you're lying.

SPEAKER_03:

What do you think on your pies? It's gravy. I don't put whipped cream on my pie. It's just gravy. But like any type of pecan pie, pumpkin pie, all the pies. Like one of these Thanksgivings, I just want to wake up and eat nothing but pie the entire day to see just enjoy myself.

SPEAKER_01:

Just to see how long you can stay awake.

SPEAKER_03:

Just watch football eating. No football for you. But yeah, I Thanksgiving. It's Erica's favorite holiday. She loves Thanksgiving. It's all about being with family, being with people you like, hopefully, and you love.

SPEAKER_00:

I always love watching her tree grow every year. She does that Thankful Tree.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, or at our house, we do do a Thankful Tree. And so she puts it up on the wall. It's like just paper, but it looks like a big tree, and then she cuts out all these leaves. Takes her forever, but she does it every year. And then each day we all tell something we're thankful for, and it goes on a leaf, and then we fill the tree up on our wall in our living room. So it's like a thankful tree. So that's pretty cool. But I was just curious about what y'all's favorite part of Thanksgiving was. But yeah. Come to our Thanksgiving dinner. That is the Sunday before Thanksgiving, that evening, five and seven. Get your tickets for free. Don't pay for your tickets. Anybody tells you you have to pay for them. They're lying. No one's gonna scam you at our church.

SPEAKER_01:

Make aware of the scammers that are selling the things.

SPEAKER_03:

Give me$10 per ticket. I'm just kidding. I wouldn't do that. But we hope you can make our Thanksgiving. Speaking of Thanksgiving, student ministry has Friendsgiving coming up on the 16th of November. And that is something that we did last year. It went really well. We invite youth groups from around the county to come to Rush Church for Friendsgiving. And we have lots of food, lots of games, we hang out with each other and fellowship and just come together. Uh, and then we have some worship time together. And it's just a cool event. So if you are listening to this and you don't go to Rush Church, invite some other churches to come join us for Friendsgiving that night for youth groups all over Logan County. So this coming Saturday on the 1st of November, I'm having a volunteer training also for youth ministry. Anybody that works with teenagers can come to this. It's free. We have breakfast and we're just gonna talk about issues that teenagers deal with and how we can help them best. So it's one of my events that I like to do. Uh equipping people on how to talk with teenagers, how to minister to them, how to relate with them.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm gonna go to it and just use it in my own life.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. I mean, even if you're a parent and want to come to it of a teenager, then it'd probably be beneficial. So but those are kind of the things that have been going on, things that are coming up at Rush Church. So today, what do you guys want to talk about today? What's on the agenda?

SPEAKER_01:

Today we're talking about prayer and fasting and solitude.

SPEAKER_03:

Prayer and fasting and solitude.

SPEAKER_01:

All of our biblical disciplines.

SPEAKER_03:

So let's start by just talking about what we think when we hear these words. So when you think of prayer, what comes to your mind first? Ashley, what do you think of when you think of prayer?

SPEAKER_00:

Uh that's just my conversation time with God.

SPEAKER_03:

Conversation time with God?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, my relationship, my uh openness. It's not always positive. I mean, you know, because I'm telling God everything, so he already knows everything.

SPEAKER_03:

I know that, but when you say prayer with God, it's conversation, it's communication. And sometimes you can communicate all kinds of emotions and all kinds of feelings, all kinds of thoughts. And so I think a prayer is like talking to God, but it's not always a positive yeah. Like you see examples of prayer in the Bible of frustration, people that get angry at God or they're confused, and so it I would say it's honest in its real conversation with the God that we follow. That's what I think about when I think about prayer. What about fasting? Fasting is something that we know exists. Like, we're now like fast, that's like a that's a Bible word. But like what do we think of when we think of fasting?

SPEAKER_01:

Denying ourselves. Yes, abstaining from something.

SPEAKER_03:

Usually when we think of fast, it's like giving up food for a while. You can even do it for health reasons or or sometimes you have to fast before you go get blood work done at the doctor, or you have to fast before a certain procedure or something like that. Biblically, biblical fasting is denying yourself of something that you can sh remember that you're reliant on God. I think fasting is a thing that we get to do to help us become more dependent on Him in our lives, which is something I think a lot of Christians just struggle with, the idea of fasting in general. So we're gonna talk a little bit about it today, I guess. What about solitude? Prayer, fasting, and solitude. Why did whatever?

SPEAKER_01:

Solitude's something I'm not good at.

SPEAKER_00:

I have.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm doing better. I'm doing better, but I'm working on it.

SPEAKER_03:

Why do we bring up solitude?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, Jesus went in the wilderness and had solitude with God.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, Jesus did it a lot in several different places. He'd always withdraw himself from the crowds and it said, well, he slipped away and went up on the mountain for a night by himself, or he took time and rested different ways. And so we if he's supposed to be our example, then these things that we're talking about, prayer and fasting and solitude, we should be following his example in all of those areas. And so, how let's talk about our prayer life, I guess, and our fasting life. What how do you guys what are what is your prayer life like my prayer life is pretty constant, I think.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like I'm always in in my mind, I'm always praying and always talking. I mean, sometimes I'm like, sorry, like my my conversation with God in my private prayer prayer life is so much different than public, you know, open, out loud prayers. I'm so bad at that. I'm just bad at it. But when it's just me and him and it's inside, or when I'm speaking not out loud or in public, I'm like, oh, this is why can't I say that in public? That's just something I need to work on.

SPEAKER_03:

But I don't know. Maybe it's uh what Jesus told us to do. It says when you pray and go to a room by yourself and have honest and real conversations with God. So does that mean public prayer is bad? Does that mean we shouldn't be praying in public or on stage or when we're with other people?

SPEAKER_00:

No, but it's not for our glory. We we're not supposed to uplift ourselves, you know, or show how look at how good I can pray. You know, that's not what it's about.

SPEAKER_03:

She said it's not about the words, it's not about saying the right.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm trying to remind myself of that, but still I have a funny story. Please tell us. Wait. Okay. Yeah, I guess you can tell it. Go ahead. Okay, so my family is like, hey, will you pray before dinner? You know, it's like a big family gathering, like, I don't know what it was, Thanksgiving, Christmas, something like that. Will you pray for it for our food? And I'm like, yeah, definitely. So I just kind of try to take it seriously because you know, maybe not everybody prays a lot that's there. So I want to be like, okay, God, give me good words. An example to the people that are there of like okay, God's being serious.

SPEAKER_03:

It's like we're talking to God.

SPEAKER_01:

So I'm like, get ready to pray. What did you do? I take a deep breath, you know. Oh, I'm like talking and I start praying. It's going well. And then I wanted to say something like inspirational or nice. Like we had all just lost a family member not too long before. So I was like, so I paused in the prayer. And family members were like, amen. Wow, that wasn't very good, was it? You're not, you need to practice more at that because I had paused in the prayer. They thought I was just they thought you were done. Yeah. Just taking a breath. It was so embarrassing. That's embarrassing. Yeah. And then it's like, what what do I do after that?

SPEAKER_03:

Like, try to convince them. But then did you ever like was it hard for you to pray out loud again? Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

I was like, oh, this is terrifying.

SPEAKER_03:

My dad didn't pray out loud at church for a long time because when he did, he got embarrassed the one time and he's like, I'm not doing that again. Yeah. So they kind of it can be a little difficult to because when you talk out loud, I mean you st you're talking and sometimes you just mess up your words, or you you're trying to think about what to say, and you don't really think about what to say. Yeah, because you're too worried. But so yeah, that's a good story about prayer.

SPEAKER_00:

I have a funny story about prayer too.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm sure we all have the story about prayer.

SPEAKER_00:

So we've done this twice in our family. So whenever like a niece or you know, brings home a boyfriend or something. My niece brought home her boyfriend, Haley, when she brought home Brock for big family gatherings, we would pray over our food together for normal. I mean, there's it was like 30 people in the room. But then we would all stand up, we would face north, and we would sing the doxology after prayer. And so watch their faces be like, what are they doing? What's just it was so funny. It was so funny.

SPEAKER_03:

That would be if you weren't used to that, all of a sudden you're just like, then what are they doing?

SPEAKER_00:

It's not something we really do, but it's just just to prank them. I will say though, uh, family our family reunions, we after prayer, we all do sing the doxology.

SPEAKER_03:

I haven't heard the doxology in a long time.

SPEAKER_00:

Traditional thing, I guess.

SPEAKER_03:

I used to sing it in a little church I grew up in every once in a while. It's kind of a cool thing. But yeah. So prayer. We all have our funny stories about I like listening to kids pray. You listen to kids pray. Oh, the kids are the best. They're just they'll they'll pray and they'll just talk. I just remember like Timmy always used to like to pray before dinner, and he'd pray about the weirdest things.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

He'd be like, and God, please help me beat Bowser in the level on Mario Game. Yes. And I was like, there you go. No, leave your request at his feet and see what happens.

SPEAKER_01:

I can remember, I can't remember which kid it was, but they were young, like maybe four, and they're like, Tell Santa we said hi. Like I'm like, oh, that's so cute.

SPEAKER_03:

Adorable. There's little kids. So yep. Um, anything else? What think what how's you about your prayer life actually when you think about reading a prayer?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I'm praying constantly in my mind just because it's conversation to me. Like, to me, it's not like so such a ritual. I have to sit down and you know, so a lot of it is in my mind throughout the day period. But I will say that my most like not forceful prayers, but my my my this is I I need this is always in the car when I'm alone. Yeah. Like it's and on the bus, which the bus has cameras. So when I drive the bus in the morning and there's no kids on the bus, if they ever look at the cameras, they might be a little scared. But it's just it's just my that's my time. Like nobody's around me, nobody's hearing me. You know, I don't have a place at home I can go or nobody can, you know, I'm not by myself. But that's when I actually pray out loud and you know, petition my request to God. So whether it be for safety or something I'm struggling with, or also just thanking God. Like I love John always taught us when you don't know what to pray about, just start at the bottom. You know, you always start with the shoes on his feet and just thanking God for for that, and then it leads into other things, you know. Where did God lead you today? Or you know, different, and then just moving on up.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I like that too.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep. Prayer has become something that well, I think it was always supposed to be this lifestyle that we live, this idea of continuing to pray in all things, or the verse that says, pray without ceasing. You know, it should be this continuous conversation that you have with God throughout your day. It kind of leads me to a question I really wanted to like in in in my life, growing up as a Christian, I've been in church my whole life and talk about prayer all the time. And you know, we're supposed to pray and all these things. But sometimes sometimes in my life I feel like, well, why do I need to pray to God? If he already knows me, he knows my heart, he knows who I am, he made me, uh, he knows everything fully. Why do I have to go to him and ask these things? Or why do I have to go to him and talk to him at all when he already knows me? You ever thought that before? Or is that just me?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I I think I felt that before. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Okay.

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, it's it is like that. Like he's he knows everything.

SPEAKER_03:

So So then I'm in my like in my journey, I was like, well, why do I have to pray? I know the Bible talks about prayer, the like you should pray, and and Jesus prayed. And so I know there's a reason for it, but sometimes in my life growing up, I was like, I don't know what this reason is. Like just because I'm supposed to, or just because the Bible says I'm supposed to pray. And then the more I get along, I've learned that it's it's not we're not praying because God needs it, we're praying because He knows it'll help us stay connected to Him. Prayer is about more about helping us stay in connection with Him. And it's the same idea as pray without ceasing, living your life in a certain way. And if you're constantly talking to Him, you're constantly thinking about conversations with God and leaving stuff for Him and thanking Him or requesting things from Him. Like He doesn't need you to pray those prayers, he already knows those more for us to kind of keep us on track, to kind of keep us in line with Him and keep our eyes focused on who He is. And so prayer for me has really changed, and it's been like this whole way of living. You can pray anywhere you go, you can pray throughout the day, you can pray in the car, you can pray while you're walking, you can pray while you're waiting in line at the store. And so I send out prayers all the time. I love sending out prayers just for people I'll see at the store, I'll hear a conversation, I'll pray. It doesn't have to be real long, it used to be little sentence prayers. So, like, God, I see this, and I know you see it too. I hope that you you know are in that situation or whatever it may be. So I think it's become something really meaningful more to me than it was growing up. Like, why am I supposed to talk to God? He knows all these things already. It's it's he does he give us he gives us prayer and gives us a way to talk to him for a reason, and that reason is to get deeper to know him, who he is, I guess.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I know that when I didn't know how to pray, I guess. Not that I know how to pray now, but when I was new to prayer when I was younger, my prayers were always about what I wanted. I was I mean, I would I think back on what I prayed for 10, 20, 30 years ago, 20 years ago. I don't know. I remember 30 years ago, but my prayers were always like, what I what I what do I want? Yeah, what do I want right now? Where now my prayer is, what does God want?

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, and that's where we're supposed to get to. Yeah. That's the whole growing closer to God. It's like, you know, most people who aren't Christians probably or aren't really invested in in their relationship with God, they'll see prayer as a wish list kind of thing, and like, God, why don't you do this for me? Or a genie up in the sky, like I can ask God and He'll do this for me. And if He doesn't do it for me, then must be something wrong with me.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And if you have that view of God and that view of prayer, it'll it'll it's not gonna go good for you. It's gonna be, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

And also like living your life for God, I feel like has a big impact on your prayer life. Because if I'm like, how can I ask for things that I want? I'm not looking at the will of God. Where if I'm living my life for God, then I maybe will ask, even now, I'll ask for something. And I'm like, Brittany, seriously, did you just ask that? Like, I'm talking to myself now. Yeah, as I'm talking to God, like, I can't believe you just asked for that.

SPEAKER_03:

And God lets us wants us to pray because we'll that's what He wants us to get to. We'll start praying and be like, I don't why am I praying for that? I got no like you you correct yourself. Yeah, do I even need that? No, you're growing, and God's like, that's why I wanted you to pray. Because you talk to me, you'll talk it out, and you'll see. I think that's part of it. Like, I just I I think that way about prayer.

SPEAKER_00:

Um Yeah, this scripture was brought up this morning in James 4 with John. It says that when you ask, you do not receive because you ask with wrong motives. So it's kind of like, you know, what is our motive when we're praying and asking for these things?

SPEAKER_03:

It kind of goes back to what we were talking about, uh public prayer. Are you praying so people will see you and hear your words? Or are you praying because you're earnestly seeking God? And that's why Jesus says it's better to pray by yourself because you're much more vulnerable and honest when you're alone. Oh, good. Like on your bus or in your room or you know, wherever you're at. And it's not bad to pray in public, but all the time. And it even talks about in Acts, they all praise God together and and and gave him praise and talked to him together. But you're it has to be personal. It's not about the word you say out loud, it's about are you honest? Are you real? Are your motives behind these things? Good. I guess you could say. Um other thing about prayer is when you said, you know, sometimes you ask God for things and you just like ask him and ask him, ask him. Sometimes how does God answer prayers? How would you answer that? How does God answer prayers? In what ways?

SPEAKER_01:

I mean, sometimes he you he does give you what you're asking for because it's a yeah, it's an ask. Yeah. So sometimes he just gives you whatever you're asking for.

SPEAKER_02:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

And sometimes he doesn't. And sometimes he does not. Yeah. I mean, sometimes it's it's in a completely different form.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Like the whole patient saying, I want patience. Well, God's gonna give me situation to help you practice my patience.

SPEAKER_03:

And so there's an old Garth Brooks song called Unanswered Prayers. Why does talk about Garth Brooks like three times in the last month in Bible studies? But unanswered prayers. Thank God for unanswered prayers. But I don't, it's not a very good theological song, I don't think, because God always answers prayers. Yeah, He always has an answer for your prayers, and sometimes the answer is no, you don't get that. Sorry. Yeah, that's still an answer, even if you don't like it. Right. Sometimes the answer is wait longer or be patient. We don't like that either. Sometimes the answer is yes, and you get to see cool things happen when and I think God answers yes when we're genuine, we're connected to him, we're on the same page as him, when we're asking for the things that he wants, also. And that's where we're trying to get to in our prayer life, I think, is to be what not what I want, but what do you want? What's better, what's best for your kingdom, not my life, but for you, for God and for his kingdom.

SPEAKER_01:

And so when I will look over like all the things I've prayed for, like some major things that I've prayed for, like now I'm sitting here where I've seen some of those things come to life. And I'm like, wow, that is absolutely incredible. And then I'm praying for this other really big thing in my life, and I'm getting impatient, you know, and I have to check myself, like, hi, you're supposed to pray for that. Thank you. And now you're supposed to hand it over to me.

SPEAKER_02:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

And you're not, you're still so it's just a full it's cool to see when things do come to life.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

And is it cool to see when things don't come how you want it? That's you. Have you ever prayed something a long time ago and like you're glad God didn't give it to you now?

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes, because sometimes we don't even know what we want. Like I the prayers that I prayed long, I'm like, thank goodness God didn't give me what I wanted in that situation. Yes, you know. So be thankful for all of God's answers to our prayers. We might not see at the time. Like you'd be like frustrated and you're mad with God, and you're like, Oh, why do I have to go through this this way? Or and then later on, you're like, Thank goodness He didn't give me what I wanted.

SPEAKER_00:

I I just lived that a couple years ago. I had my dream job, everything I had worked for. I was a camp director. I was you know, it was it was five years. It was well, I was there for almost eight. But, you know, I had done everything that I wanted to do for that. And I knew God called me to to do that ministry, and I loved it. And I it was something that I was passionate about, but God kept knocking later on and saying, I want you to go this way, which you know is at Rush Church. He wants me to be he wanted me to be a children's minister. And I kept saying, No, no, I'm a camp director, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. And I wasn't really listening to God. But as I look back now, I was seeing all the little things that were happening that was bringing turmoil turmoil, you know, or just arguments in my family, you know, just different things that was starting to go wrong. And God literally had to take it away from me. Then I had to then go into a time of prayer for him to be like, this is what I had for you. This is what I'm aligning for you. And so yeah, it took, it took me, took me a little bit of heartache to finally listen to God. But I'd rat much rather his way than mine. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

It's easy to say that, but in the moment, in the moment it was hard, yeah. You know, you know, I won't I want to do what God wants me to do in the mind when he wants You do something that you're not as comfortable with, or you're like, what did I pray that for? Like, but that's that's the whole growing process of being a Christian. Kind of the closer you get to God, the more easier it is to go along with what he wants you to do. So anything else about prayer? I think that's a pretty good discussion about prayer. We could go on for a long time.

SPEAKER_01:

I could we could.

SPEAKER_03:

What do we got next? Briddy.

SPEAKER_01:

Fasting.

SPEAKER_03:

Fasting. What do you guys think about fasting? I don't know why I said it like that. Fasting.

SPEAKER_00:

Fasting, I think, is definitely the hardest spiritual discipline. Yeah. For me personally. I just get too distracted.

SPEAKER_03:

Too distracted?

SPEAKER_00:

I do. Yeah. Like I will, like, let's say I it it doesn't even have to be food. It could be social media, television, something like that. I I say I'm gonna take this away for period, you know, for so long. And then all of a sudden I get distracted with something, and I'm like, wait, I gotta do this. And I'm like, wait, I'm on I'm on social media again. You know. So yeah, it's it's definitely a challenge. Something I still have to work on in my life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I fast for health reasons a lot, but I have experienced biblical fasting from food, and it is not easy. But my goal is in that to my goal is for God to see my love, my commitment to what I'm asking for, and because I'm asking him to move something in my life, but I'm also trying to take control of my flesh a little bit, which is really hard. Flesh is hard to reel in sometimes.

SPEAKER_03:

When you say that, when you say flesh, what are you talking about?

SPEAKER_01:

This shell that holds my soul that wants to run to this world instead of to God. I'm like, wait, is that good?

SPEAKER_03:

That's really good. When the Bible says, you know, deny your flesh, like it's a weird saying for us in this culture in this time. I was like, what does that mean to deny your flesh? And like, should I not like wear clothes to keep myself warm? Like, I think it's like it all comes down to like denying ourselves. Like, we're selfish people. We want to be comfortable, we want what we want, and we want, and because we see it all over the world and on and this so denying your flesh is basically just denying the things that you would go after that you want. Yeah, your comfort, your comfort, your pleasure, your whatever it is. And so the Bible says you have to deny that. If you want to be part of God's kingdom, it's got to be about God, not you. It's gotta be about other people and not you. And it's so hard. I don't I think it's hard. It's really hard to really deny yourself.

SPEAKER_01:

It's really hard, not only with just fasting, but like you have a thought or you have a feeling, and it might take over your entire like that was the hardest thing. It might take over your entire being, your entire body. This feeling is so strong, and it's wrong. Yeah. It's not it's not right.

SPEAKER_03:

It could be hard because as humans, as people, like we're like, if I can have it, why can't I just have it? Like, if I'm if I'm able to do this, why can't I just do it? I'm free, I can do whatever I want. God's like, not if you want to be part of my kingdom, not if you want to be on my side, and you deny those things that satisfy the flesh or satisfy your temporary desires, I guess you'd say.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

Food is a and we often and oftentimes you see food as the main thing because we need food to live. Yeah, you need food to survive. And so when you can deny yourself that thing that helps you.

SPEAKER_01:

When I have done my biblical fast, okay, actually, maybe I have some pointers. One, prepare meals for your family in advance. True. Two, also prepare them. Like who you're going to eat with. It's also good to prepare them so you're not just not showing up to dinner, like, okay, you guys eat, I'm gonna walk away. That's true.

SPEAKER_03:

And don't make it a big deal that you're fasting. Don't sit around and be like, right. Oh, you guys are eating your food. I'm over here just Yeah, what is it?

SPEAKER_01:

It says something like splash water on your face. There's a scripture that's like, oh shoot, put water or oil on you or ashes.

SPEAKER_03:

Don't rip your clothes and put ash on your face and moan out, oh look at me. Yes, fasting, woe with me. And it's not because that's another thing. Same thing as prayer we talked about. It's not about the word, it's not about how making these people look at you. And some people would do that. Jesus goes, When you fast, don't cover yourself in ashes and sackcloth or whatever and make people feel bad for you. Yeah. That's not the point of fasting. The point of fasting is for you and God to kind of reconnect and yes, and be prepared.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes it's very emotional. I mean, not just about food, but about the situation as a whole. I mean, I've been emotional for both things. I've been emotional because I'm asking God for this such a big thing in my life, but then I'm also emotional because my mom made meatloaf for dinner and I'm so hungry. So I had to check myself, like, pretty.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. But Ashley, any thoughts on fasting?

SPEAKER_00:

I mean, it's it's biblical. I believe we are called to fast.

SPEAKER_03:

Because you know, it's not really it's not commanded anywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

But it's implied when Jesus says when you fast.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_03:

And that there's not like a if you or should you decide to fast. It's Jesus says when you are fasting.

SPEAKER_00:

So he clearly expects fasting. Yeah. I remember when I came when I graduated high school, I went out to Teen Mania Honor Academy in Texas. And we did like quarterly fast. We would do monthly fast for a whole day, but then we would do quarterly fast for a whole weekend. And it was just, and it was also silent. So not only could we not eat, we couldn't talk either. And that was just our time to to just was set apart for us to seek God, to you know, listen to him, be in prayer, be in that actually sounds really cool. It was amazing. How long was this? So it was three days, and it was quarterly. So we did that three four times a year. But we also just do it one day monthly. But it was it was definitely a exercise to learn how to be able to sustain that through your lifetime. But there was a lot of spiritual growth during that time. Oh yeah. Yeah, that'd be awesome.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, the longest I've fasted from food is three days. We would do one in college with the life group that I was part of, and we do it at Easter time, and then we'd come together and we'd break the fast together at a Seder meal, which was pretty cool. Except for the fact that what?

SPEAKER_00:

Nothing. Yeah, that Seder meal was what we had at in Belfast, yeah. Passover meal. Yes, that was that.

SPEAKER_03:

The traditional Passover meal that they would have had, you know, with the matzo bread and uh all the anyway, the whole thing. But we did that in college in my life grouping. And so three days is you know, you think like I can't go three days out eating food, I gotta eat, but you can. You can you can you'll you'll be okay. Um still drink some we drank juice and stuff, but we didn't eat anything for three days, and then we broke in a Seder meal, which is a light, a light meal with a little bit of food, and it's the way we did it. And then I I made a bad choice after I did a three-day fast, and I was super hungry when we left. I was like, we gotta get some food. So I went to Wendy's and ate a bacon eater after I eat anything for three days. Not a good idea. But but fasting is powerful if you do it, and so it doesn't have to be three days. I mean, you could just say, maybe on Tuesdays I'm not gonna eat lunch. And instead of eating lunch, I'm going to focus on my relationship with God. I'm going to pray, I'm going to read scripture, I'm going to uh do something that draws me back closer to who God is. And so that's like the whole idea of fasting. That's what it is. It's not the people look at you and be like, oh, you're fasting, good job, good for you. No, it's doing this for myself, and I'm gonna give up this thing that I want, and in its place, I'm going to remind myself that I'm dependent really on God and that relationship that I have with Him. So my encouragement to people listening is like work on your prayer life, choose to fast at some point, whether it's a day or just one meal out of the day, start somewhere. Give up, give up something that you don't want to, make it meaningful.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Don't give up like if you don't like broccoli, don't give up. I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_03:

Fasting for broccoli for a whole year. Right. Yeah. Good job. Wow. So anything else on fasting you guys wanted to bring up? Talk about it's mentioned in a lot in the Bible. There's people that fast in the Old Testament where they're fasting for certain reasons, praying about something, they don't want something to happen, or they're asking God to show up and they fast and they pray. And so I think we could do a better job of all the above. What else are we gonna talk about? Solitude. Solitude. Why is solitude important?

SPEAKER_01:

I'd be like I'm laughing because with three kids and living on a compound, there is not a lot of solitude where I live. A compound. Oh, I'm not so I wasn't gonna say that. I was gonna choose a better word.

SPEAKER_03:

It's a good word.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, we all live together on a big old thing of land and yeah, we're all together all the time, which is fine and it's great. It's wonderful. But if you want solitude, you gotta be in your car with the doors locked. Yeah. Yeah. Or in the forests. In the woods. You do have woods. Yeah, we have woods.

SPEAKER_03:

See? Wander around in the trees. Take your shoes off. Enjoy some dirt.

SPEAKER_01:

That actually sounds nice.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah, I thought you would like that. Um but yeah, solitude is important. It's good to, you know, several places in scripture, be still and know that I am God. Sometimes it's good to just be somewhere where it's just you and God and pray, read scripture, or just sit and listen and be still. I do that sometimes at night. I'll go look at the stars, or I'll walk around the pond at church and just be. I'm not really trying to think about anything, I'm just enjoying God's creation. And I think, you know, it's a blessing that He gave us all these things. And so I think solitude. And Jesus does it all the time. He goes, he slips away from the crowds, and it says he went off to a place all alone by himself to pray or to refocus. I think it's something that God wants us to do to recharge our batteries to say, kind of step back and focus and not always go, go, go, go, go. Which is difficult for some people. Yeah. Because we also we have something that we need to do all the time. Yeah. And God's like, you can wait.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. When I am practicing solitude, I do realize that I have to turn off my prayer life a little bit. Because I'll pray and then I'm praying, and then it's more conversation. And I'm like, okay, I need to shut off my end of the phone and like just listen. Yeah. So sometimes I might just think of a short little saying or something. Because I don't know if anybody else deals with this, but my brain doesn't ever stop talking inside my hands.

unknown:

I'm shocked.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm shocked. I know this is gonna come as a shock to everyone. You guys can turn your brain silent. No, and I can't.

SPEAKER_03:

I don't think you can.

SPEAKER_01:

If you I don't think you can either thing. No. Everybody's gonna do it. Oh, just don't make me feel like I'm the only one then.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm saying that everybody experiences what you're talking about. Oh, okay, good.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's like if if I have like a short little thing, like God is good, or I don't something short, and I just repeat it in my head, it helps me kind of clear all the other thoughts and all the other sense.

SPEAKER_03:

I've not done that before, but that might be something. You have to try it, see if it works. Just pick an aspect of God and be like, God is this, or something that I you know like about scripture or his word, or I don't know. Something short just for reasoning to focus in. Yeah, not let your thoughts go. Because my thoughts they go all over the place. Yeah. I want to think about this, but then while I'm doing that, like I'll think, but what about this? And then I think about something else.

SPEAKER_01:

Sometimes it's weird, but and then I have to like apologize in the middle of my prayer. Like, I've done that before too. I'm so sorry. I've done that too.

SPEAKER_03:

I'm sorry, I uh got distracted. There's there's this fish, and it's really big.

SPEAKER_01:

And so I'm like God, thank you for the most important thing in my life. That fish is incredible color. Is that a turtle? Is it a log? Turtle log. Turtle log. Wait, I remember that one time. I remember the one time I saw a turtle. Like, I'm sorry, Lord.

SPEAKER_03:

Yep, that happens, but I think uh like I said, God is knows your heart, knows what your intentions are. And if you're putting effort towards it, he's gonna be this is what he wanted, you know, putting effort into your relationship with him.

SPEAKER_00:

I went into solitude one time that I can remember. That was a couple years ago. My husband, he took the camper to where we're gonna go camping for the weekend like three days prior. So I got to stay by myself for like the Wednesday, Thursday, Friday just by myself. And it started out great. Like I was reading my Bible, I was praying, like I was just in solitude, I spent quiet time, and then all of a sudden I started redecorating the whole camper. I'm like, wait a second, that's not what I'm supposed to be doing. I had to go back and you know, refocus again. But I yeah, I was that sounds nice by the best three days I'd ever had. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

So yeah, these things are stuff that God gives us for our benefit, I think. Prayer, fasting, alone time to recharge, to just be in his presence. That's how I would put it best, I guess. So this was a good conversation. I think it was helpful. Hopefully, you guys found it helpful too. Anything else you guys want to say before we log off here for the day?

SPEAKER_00:

Um, I do have I printed out a seven-day fasting challenge. So if anybody wants one or wants to just have a guideline, they're welcome to see me and I can get it to you guys.

SPEAKER_03:

Very cool. All right. See, Ashley, if you want to do the fasting challenge, it'll be she's got that. Uh other than that, lots of stuff coming up at Rush Church. Lots of uh exciting things. Christmas will be here before you know it. And we got Christmas things to talk about later. Decking the halls, decorating the church. But yeah, uh, we hope to see you on Sunday, Sunday mornings at 9 30 and 11. And once again, thanks for joining us on Rush Hour. Hope you guys have a good week.