Let's Talk About Prayer

Prayer is a huge part of our spiritual life; it's how we communicate in our relationship with Jesus, so it's a pretty big deal! So what happens when our prayers are unanswered? Or we doubt if God heard us? Waiting on God's good and perfect plan can feel not so good and perfect at times. Lele and Juli talk about prayer in broad terms from unanswered prayers to how they approach their own prayer life.
While they may not have all the answers, knowing you're not the only one who sometimes can't figure out what God is up to, helps. So grab your coffee cup and pick a seat at the Table as we chat about prayer on this episode of My Tennessee Table Podcast! (Bonus: Lele shares her Fudge Pie recipe!) 

Fudge Pie:
3/4 c. unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 c. granulated sugar
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/3 c. cocoa
1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
3 large eggs
1 nine inch unbaked pie shell
Combine all ingredients and pour in pie shell. Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 min.

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mytennesseetablepodcast@gmail.com

Transcript

juli-_2_09-04-2024_135051: 0:01

Hey, welcome back to my Tennessee table. We're so glad that you guys are listening today. I'm here with Julie and we're going to talk about kind of the interesting subject but before that, we're going to talk about Julie and some of my other neighbors. I had them over for dinner on Sunday night and Julie was like, what is this pie that I had? Yes. Mm hmm. It was a chocolate pie and it's fudge pie. For those of you who know what fudge pie is, it's so good and it's super duper easy to make. And I told them that this is what I always make when I'm taking dinner to a new mom, that just had a baby. I usually make chicken poppy seed casserole, some salad, some bread, and I'll make a fudge pie. Cause it's so easy. Well, earlier today, Julie's like, Ooh, can we talk about that? That baby pie, that baby pie that you make. And I'm like, What are you talking about? He was looking at me like, am I having, what's going on? I'm not having a baby. You're going to confuse everybody. They're all going to think I'm pregnant. I am not pregnant. That is, I might be pregnant. Get that pie. You have a food baby. It's what you're going to have. Just so you'll bring me the pie. Anyway. So in the show notes, we'll put the recipe for the fudge pie. Cause it really is. It's so good. And if you guys have ever made fudge pie before, it's super easy. That has absolutely nothing to thing to do with what we're talking about today. Very important. But very important. We just thought we'd mention it. today we're talking about, y'all remember that Garth Brooks song, sometimes I thank God for unanswered prayer. We're talking about unanswered prayer. Garth Brooks talks about it in like such a positive light, which, you know, we all can appreciate. But today we're going to talk about kind of the hard part of unanswered prayers. When you pray and ask God for something and you get a no or whatever his response is. we're just going to kind of talk through that. Julie and I were talking about this being an episode and I was like, Julie, I, I feel a little underprepared to even talk through this because theologically I'm like a little lost on the issue. And so you guys know that like, we have a wealth of knowledge over here in our friend, Julie Banks. She is, Oh goodness. I know. Well, I'm setting you up, Julie. Do a good job. So Julie has been to seminary and she just has just that Touch more knowledge that I know probably some of us wish we had, but the Lord gave her that gift of getting to go to seminary. And so we get to like, just receive from that today. So Julie, have you ever experienced, or are you experiencing unanswered prayers in your life or kind of tell us a little bit about that? Sure. Well, this topic came up because It's happening to you or it has happened to you. It has happened to me. It's a topic of conversation. oftentimes in Bible study groups, or just a friend that may not, you know, even be connected with church that it seems to be such a quandary and it is, I'm not saying it's not, and there's so much wrapped up in it. with our emotion and with, Our energy and our trust of the Lord. So that's why we're talking about it. And we jokingly, we kind of walk through kind of our, lineup today of how we will, talk about it. And Lili jokingly said, I feel like I have no answers for the unanswered prayer. Reason for it. We're going to leave you guys totally without any answers as we talk about unanswered prayers. It's like, so sorry. but I hope that as a conversation, like we would have at our table together, you and I, that we just had, or girlfriends do you have, or just to have a discussion about it and, how we, how it makes us feel, how it challenges us. Maybe look a little into maybe what God's. Purpose is in it. And that's a big thing to say. I just, before we started recording, asked my husband, pray for us, because I want to be real about it and that we don't have all the answers, but, and we're in it too, but we know. To whom we pray to, and we know that he hears us. And, so you asked, have I ever experienced that? So, you know, resounding yes. I mean, probably listeners do. We're all like, yeah, if we're not in it right now. and I had thought of, our daughter Chelsea And we do hope to have her on too, as a guest on the podcast. She's a single mama I was raised by a single mom and watched my daughter do that. I can't speak into it, but I think it's a really important place for us to land one day. On topic for the podcast, but I was telling you, you know, when Chelsea was in my tummy, I prayed for all kinds of things, but I prayed she would know the Lord Christian spouse, her family. and this is where we are right now. You know, she is not married there are absolute reasons for that. And this is, This is better. And we can delve into that deeper, but in that thinking, Lord, I prayed since she was anybody. I hadn't even met her yet in my tummy for these things. And, I didn't get the answers that I wanted. in this particular instance and just praying that if it's the Lord's plan that he would bring a godly man for her to remarry, And not receiving an answer to that pair, but there has been little, answers to prayers that kind of couple that they may not be specifically to that about a spouse, but about the Lord's care for her. And I've seen how the Lord is being a spouse to her. But the point is that that prayer is still, kind of hanging out there. Yeah. You're still in the waiting. We're still in the waiting. Now, I think, I think it's more difficult. This is for my child. But when you have an unanswered prayer, that's specifically for yourself, maybe it's health. maybe it's emotional, maybe it's finance. Maybe it's just something you really want God to help you rid from your life. That's a, that's a struggle, I think, but I think it's a different kind. So for my example, It would be just waiting on an answer for that specific thing. Yeah. I do take comfort. there's lots and lots of scripture that talks about how he hears us when we pray. I had jotted down a couple specifically, one was Psalms one 45, 18. the Lord is near to all who call on him to all who call on him in truth. And then Proverbs 15, 29, the Lord hears the prayers of the righteous. I take comfort in, as I wait for answers, knowing that he does hear me every time, I approach him is, It's good for my soul. It doesn't mean it's not hard. And when we were talking about this a couple of weeks ago, she started talking about, just the book of Job and, just some challenges that we see him face there. And I was like, Oh, Julie, I don't know. Can we go there? Like, it just feels like a lot. we're going to kind of just tap into that a little bit here and talk about What that was like for job and you might, you guys might hear some like papers wrestling cause we've got our Bibles out. We've got notes. So if you hear some papers wrestling, just know we're digging through it and, If you're not driving your car on a walk or something, grab your Bible and dig in with us, but we're going to kind of unpack a little bit of what. happens in the book of job. Yeah. You know, when we were kicking around topics for, episodes and unanswered prayer was one of them. So Lance and I had gone for a drive and I was thinking about it and praying about it and put some things in the notes on my phone. And, it was interesting that I felt like the spirit took me to job. It's probably maybe not where I would have just maybe naturally gone, And if you don't know, Job lost family, lost, lost his wealth, lost his home, lost everything, had a wife and had some friends come that weren't super helpful. And so that's kind of in a nutshell, but we get to chapter 38 and God has been very patient. And, in his omniscient Ness, knowing everything that's happening, and then he enters, invoice in chapter 38 and, says to Job in essence, answer me, Answer me to were you there? Do you know that he put the margin to the sea that he put the footings God? Not job the footings on the earth That he set the dawn in place and the stars in the sky And job doesn't get a chance to respond, you know till later maybe chapter 40 and then job says I'm unworthy To answer. and then God continues until about chapter 42. and then we see at the end of job story, his humbleness before the Lord and that, the great ending that the Lord blessed him. It says more in his latter part of life than the former, which is a gift, but all that to say, What really feels like appropriate kind of helping Joe, put job in his place in relation to who he is to God and his laments are questioning. And I'm not saying that for us to feel bad because the Lord wants to receive, our heartfelt desires and, and heartaches. but what it brought to mind was while Job is being able to understand who he is in relation to who God is, which is a great place for us to position ourselves. it also brings reassurance. I'm listening to chapter 43 or 42. And, it's like a pump up like, because God just lists on and on and on how he created, what he created. Were you there? Did you know, can you, um, measure the storehouses of snow in heaven? Like, do you know where the lightning comes from? All these things that we see tangibly with our eyes, which is such a gift of mercy to the Lord from the Lord to let us. to give us examples that we can see and touch. He knows in our finiteness, we need a lot of those tangibles. it just reassured my heart that yes, you, you do know my prayer. You do see my heart. You are more than capable of changing a situation or you're more than capable of changing me. It just, it brought reassurance to his character and his power and his nature and his divineness. And, It was a comfort when I was thinking about unanswered prayer. And now our situation may not be job. We may not have completely have everything, you know, wiped out. but it does bring hope to my heart. You know, he hears me. It reminds me of who he is when I read that story and his power. We also talked a little bit about, Unanswered prayer, but really it's answered prayer. There's a couple options of what could happen. you know, we have no, right. or maybe just not yet. You know, there's a whole wait. I think that's another part that's, accompanies this unanswered prayers. A lot of waiting. It feels like waiting. There's a yes, like how we really hoped it would happen or get answered. Right. And then there's yeses that are totally unexpected. Yeah. Just not how you thought it would play out. It's like, yeah, but Oh, this is different. And my husband has shared that before too. Like if we're praying about something together specifically, and he'll say, I can guarantee you this, God's going to work it out. And probably not how we thought it was going to work out. And that's happened over and over. And thank God for that. Yeah, for sure. I think there's times, that maybe we can feel a little abandoned as a big word. Cause that's not in his nature at all. You know, the God who doesn't slumber nor sleep and he's faithful all the time. But again, in our humanist, we can feel a little forgotten but, but we've not been, we can trust his character. Yeah. And sometimes knows are for our protection. Yeah. That's hard to hear, but yes, it is. It is hard here for our protection because we have limited, we have limited site, literally and figuratively, but the alpha and omega, The first and last, he has the ability to exist in all his existing in the past. He's existing now and he's existing in the future. And he also knows the whole entire roadmap for Lili and for, for each one of us, and he has the ability to see how that tapestry is weaved from the beginning to the end. And we don't, we have this little blip, right? And so we think that I think I don't want to imply. I think I know the best plan right now for this little blip for the, for the future to work as it should work. And I don't. I can't. so knowing that he, and his power does can bring some peace. I know we're not giving answers to unanswered prayer here, but just some bedrock of. Who he is, that he does hear our prayers and, his plan for us is best. Yeah. I remember when I was in college, it was probably like my biggest time of spiritual growth. and maybe some of you guys kind of feel like that too. It's like, it's like the time in your life where you have like the most amount of free time you are in the most. Like I'm discovering myself what I believe you're not in your parent's house anymore. You're, you're just kind of out. So those were the years that I really feel like God grew me the most. And at that point in time, I don't know if any of you guys are around my age, but, and you might not remember this, but, there was a big movement called like the passion movement. And there were these big, weekend conferences or not even conferences. We like slept in a field. Guys, we slept in a field in the middle of Texas and worship God for like three, three days. And there were speakers and worship and we prayed and it was amazing. Well, so the passion movement kind of like settled into Atlanta, which I think was where maybe it always was. I don't know somebody who with all that knowledge and history can correct me if I'm wrong, but. They were in Atlanta and I went to Auburn. So Auburn's only like an hour and a half away from Atlanta. So I would drive to, I would drive to Atlanta with a group of friends and we would go to this passion. I forget what it was called at the time, but it was like a weekly meeting of like college students, young adults. And, at the time Louie Giglio, And he's still kind of over that movement, but he, he was preaching that night. And I remember there was like this, beautiful blank canvas. And it just reminded me, cause you were talking about this earlier, but of, and somebody was up there painting. And at the beginning you were like, what, what is she painting? I'm not following this. By the end of the series, she had painted this beautiful picture of Jesus and Louie Giglio's point in the whole thing was that, you know, sometimes when you're looking at just a. Part of the painting, you don't quite understand what's happening or what the whole thing is going to turn out to look like, but at the end, you're like, oh, I see, I see what you were doing there, God, like you were. Making me to look more like you. And so I think our response in unanswered prayers is probably more important than even the unanswered prayer. And maybe, maybe that's what God's getting to. I don't know. We, like we said, we don't totally have the answers. But when you are getting a no from the Lord or when you're getting a not right now and you're frustrated and you're in that waiting point, it could be more about the bigger picture and the design that he's creating in your life to make you look more like Jesus. Cause that's the point. That's the point of our walk with the Lord over however many years that we get to live We have to trust that God's just doing what he's going to do to create that in us. And so I know that when I was kind of going through that spiritual growth point in my life, all of a sudden my, my prayer life really shifted. And instead of me like pleading to God and asking him for things all the time, which like I said last week, I have a prayer request list. And if you have asked me to pray for you, I am praying for you. You were on my list and I'm just asking the Lord to just do what he's going to do in your life. Yeah. But it changed my personal prayer life from when I'm just pleading with God, like, can you do this? Can you do that? Please do this. Please do that too. God, what are you doing here? Like I can remember when we were trying to get pregnant with our third baby and we had multiple miscarriages and it was really sad and I just, I was so, I just was so sad and I was so frustrated and I didn't understand what. God was doing at the time. I still look back and think, I don't really know what you were doing, God. Um, other than the design of your family was just for me to have this big age gap. Maybe like, I don't know. And, but at the time, instead of going to God and being like, please give me another baby, please. I remember just being like, God, what are you doing? What is happening? What are you trying to do in me? What are you trying to do in our family? Like, What, what's happening. And so sometimes it's just the wrestling through with the Lord while we're praying that may be what he's trying to get to. I don't know. I don't know. Well, and yes, my husband has said similar, similar thing to me where it was a, I was asking a lot of why's. Yeah. Of something. And not hearing answers to why. And I don't really even think if I got the answer to the why it would have comforted me. It's just maybe how we're wired. Or like you just wouldn't have understood. You should have been like, well, I don't understand that guy. Or I still wouldn't want to accept whatever it was. You know, thank you for the why, but it does. Oh, right. I didn't want it to happen anyways. So, and he had said, maybe we just need to shift our attention and ask the Lord, like you're saying, what, what do you have for me to learn? What do you have for me to do? What's the purpose in it? Sometimes those answers come a little more apparent than maybe what the unanswered prayer is that you're waiting on for sure. I'm reminded of, as you were talking, Isaiah 55, eight and nine, you know, that the Lord says, I'm not going to quote it perfectly, but go look, cause it's really good. But you know, my thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are my ways, your ways, the Lord speaking. You know, they're higher than yours again, because he knows, He knows. and, and there's comfort, there's comfort in that because he knows where he's taking us. We don't know where we're going. We think we know where we want to go or where we need to be, but, but God knows best in that. Lance will say, I can guarantee you God's going to work it out, but it's probably not going to be the way we saw it and how it's supposed to work out. and typically it's not, and actually it's better. Then it, you know, then I expected, And I know when I get, we're, we were talking about kind of our prayer list or how we approach prayer. And you shared a little bit about that. and I do, I have a journal. Love that. Love it. it was probably from Lili, actually, this journal, and I have prayer requests in there and I'll tell people I'm going to add you to my prayer journal and I do it so don't forget. and I pray through that and there's times when I, I really don't know what to pray, but I will pray over that request. Lord, let your will be done. Yeah. Lord, let your will be done because his will is always perfect. So when I'm at a loss for what it is, and maybe that's even, maybe a little, suggestion for your own unanswered prayer that in saying your little, your will be done. I'm on clenching my hands from what I'm expecting or wanting the answer to be. I'm really surrendering it. Lord, just let your will be done. there's peace in that, for sure. Yeah. I think in the Lord's prayer, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your will be done. Earth as it is in heaven. And we kind of fly past that. but that's, that's how the prayer opens. It's laying the foundation for what's going to. Come after that. And those are the, that's the one prayer that we know Jesus prayed. Yeah. Let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That's what we want. I mean, I think deep down, that's what we want in the immediate. We just think we need what we need. Yeah. Or we want our friend to be healed or we want to have a baby or we just, whatever we're walking through. Yeah, absolutely. What about you? You shared a little bit about your life. What's your, do you have a specific, in your quiet time? Your how you pray or how you approach it I mean there's requests for you personally, but yeah, because you have ever since last episode you've been getting more prayer request text Thank you, my friends who were texting me. Hey I listened to your podcast episode. Here's my prayer request. I I really I'm loving that I wrote it down and I will say I have this list that I keep at the front of my journal Usually I just put your name And A lot of times when I am praying and I'm reading through that list, I just say your name. Like, because I know, that God knows what's going on. Mm-Hmm. And I know that he is delighting in the fact that just in that moment I'm spending my time just on my knees praying for my friends or even people that aren't friends, people that maybe I know through a friend. Through a friend. so I, I think that time is very. Precious because of that, because I'm just lifting up your name to the Lord. And he's hearing that. And he's, he knows what's going on. He knows what the outcome is going to be. And he knows what he's trying to do in your life through that time. I don't know that. I don't know what he's trying to do in you. So just the fact of just like lifting up those names, I think is just, it's just a special time for me. And then I go on and I will pray for other things. And most of my prayer life is really just a conversation with God. Like I really don't. Sit there and talk to him like. With all these like long lists of requests because a lot of times I'm like God, you know You know what you're gonna do. I just got to talk it out with you You know, you are my God you are who I love more than anything else on this planet And I know that you love me, And so we just talk through things. And he, like you had said, you know, you say your friend's name out loud, knowing that he knows all the inner workings of whatever's going on in that person's heart or need or life or how it's going to play out. I love that part. And, I think that's where my, where sometimes when I'm just at a loss and I, you know, pray will be done. Cause I just don't, I don't really know. Yeah. We did, want to open up the opportunity. Lily has a new prayer journal. I got my prayer journal. So we do, we want to be able to pray for you. Yeah. So we're going to put, my Tennessee table email and the show notes and. You can, no one else will see that. No one can get to that email. But Lili and I, and you can share as little or as much as you want about a prayer need, or if it's, an unanswered prayer and you prefer not to share specifics about that, I totally respect that. You can just put, I'm waiting or unanswered prayer and we'll pray alongside you in the wait for, For you. Yeah. We'll lift your name up. Yeah. To the Lord. Well, again, we've circled the topic. Yeah. And we came out with no answers. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode because welcome to the unanswered podcast episode of Unanswered Prayers. Yes. There we go. Yes. I know. Sometimes it's just good to talk it out. It is. And to hear that you're not, you know. You're not the only one. Yeah. For sure. You're not alone. We're all, you know, waiting is really, a sidebar of this whole unanswered prayer thing. don't give up. Don't give up in the way. Yeah. Yeah. God's doing something. Yeah. In that time for sure. So thank you for joining us again at my Tennessee table and I will do my best to put the fudge pie recipe. Oh yeah. Baby pie. But not a baby. But not a baby. Not a baby in the pie. Yeah. And Lily's not having a baby. So I'll put that in the, show notes for sure. So thanks for just joining us at the table and just spending some time together with us. We, are going to be praying for you Thank you for joining us today for my Tennessee table. If you like what you heard, would you be willing to just press the follow button and maybe even leave a review that are so meaningful to us. So thank you so much for again, meeting us at the table until next time blessings.