Ross Stackhouse - March 1, 2026
The Prayerful Life: Starting Over with Prayer
Message at 32:10. We’ve already established that prayer is frustrating and disappointing. On the one hand, we might have the inclination that some of the deepest and sincerest spiritual people we know are devoted people of prayer. On the other hand, we may also feel that prayer is frustrating, disappointing, impossible and maybe even powerless. If we’re going to find what we’ve potentially missed with prayer (like we said last week–as if it’s an undiscovered land), maybe we have to chart a new course. Maybe we have to start over with our entire approach.
Scripture References: Psalms 46:1-11
From Series: "The Prayerful Life: a Series for Beginners, Experts & Skeptics"
Everyone has experiences with and opinions about prayer. Though many folks have tons of good experiences and positive views of prayer, there are still many others (perhaps more) who struggle with prayer. What if prayer--for those with the good experiences and those with the not-so-good experiences--is like a land we haven't fully discovered yet? We want to help folks grow in prayer as the ultimate space of growing intimacy with God and being shaped by God’s heart for an eternal kind of life in the here and now and beyond. Prayer is the space where we are still with God, listen to God, thank God, get angry at God, grieve with God, confess to God, petition God. It’s a lifelong garden of relationship where we cultivate trust with the One who made us, saves us, and sustains us. It’s the incubator where the Spirit shapes us so we join Jesus in his restoring work so Earth is as it is in heaven.
