By Kayla DeKraker
Pastor and author Matt Smallbone spoke about the importance of talking to God, even when you’re struggling with unanswered prayers.
“I will tell you I was very good at praying when I first met Jesus. Had my heartbroken by some unanswered prayer [and] felt like [I] had very good reasons to honestly just put some walls up between me and God,” he confessed on Annie F. Downs’ “That Sounds Fun” podcast.
The Australian native explained that when you put barriers between God and yourself, “You slowly die on the vine.”
Unfortunately, he sees many around him do the same thing all too often.
“I live in East Nashville. All of my millennial friends deconstructed pretty hard, and I’d hear a lot like, ‘I just don’t hear from God anymore, and God doesn’t feel close,’” he explained. “And 100% of the time when I asked them, like, ‘How’s your prayer life?’ They’ll be like, ‘I haven’t prayed in years.’”
Related: Coffee and Conversation with Moriah Smallbone
When we learn how to pray like Jesus did in the Lord’s Prayer, though, we get a new perspective on unanswered requests.
“The Lord’s Prayer is very clear. It’s not to get everything you want whenever you want. It’s actually about relationship with Jesus,” Smallbone explained. “It’s closing the door. It’s never being alone, and it’s trusting that the God of the universe actually listens to us. And that is a transforming way to live your life.”
Downs chimed in, “It’s not the easiest way to live, [but] it’s the best way to live.”
Smallbone leads Church of the City in Nashville as its head pastor.
He dives into the the Lord’s Prayer in greater detail in his upcoming book The Prayer Experiment:
The book grew out of his decision to pray the Lord’s Prayer every day for a year, a “simple rhythm transformed his life.”
“The Prayer Experiment flows from that simple practice…this book weaves together biblical teaching, candid personal stories, and a dose of Aussie humor to explore each phrase of the Lord’s Prayer,” a synopsis of the book reads. “Here’s the mystery: You never outgrow the Lord’s Prayer. There’s no secret upgrade, no graduate-level version. These words remain — and they are always enough. They are simple enough for a child, deep enough for a theologian, strong enough to hold you for a lifetime.”
If you feel alone today, know that God is a prayer away. Through prayer and intimacy with Him, He draws near. As James 4:8 says, “Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you.”
Read Next: How Joel and Luke Smallbone Turned Family’s Story into UNSUNG HERO
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