Read Textual Sermon from Steven Furtick
How to Pray
When you pray… You want to know how to do it? You want to know how to avoid the things that want to take you over? You want to know how to rise up above the things you’re crushed under? When you pray, pray like this:
“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done.” (Matthew 6:9-10, NKJV)
So first, it’s about His priorities. But then, when you start praying about provision, I want you to think in three terms. He uses food, He uses forgiveness, and He uses freedom.
He says God is going to give you bread. God is going to give you the ability to forgive, and He’s going to give you forgiveness for your sins. You don’t really get to experience one without the other. So, Jesus says there’s going to be food. There’s going to be forgiveness. Then He makes this promise: “Deliver us from the evil one.”
When you were saved, you were not just saved by God through Jesus from your sins; you were saved to walk in the newness of life. I said, you weren’t just saved from hell. It’s not just so you won’t burn one day while a guy with a pitchfork stands over you saying, “Burn! Burn! Burn!”
I’m not just saved from something that’s going to happen one day; I am saved today to walk in the newness of life. Not one day—here and now. As a matter of fact, “This is the day the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24, KJV)
God saved me from, and God saved me to, but that does not negate the fact that I am going through.
We All Go Back Sometimes
A man once told me, “I went from wanting to end my life to standing here with my daughter. But to be honest with you, I’ve been going back to some things.”
And I didn’t embarrass him. I said, “I get it. We all go back sometimes.”
Don’t look so holy like you never go back sometimes. We all go back.
This made me think not only about the Lord’s Prayer where He said, “Deliver us from the evil one,” but also about the central story in the Old Testament.
Do you know about Moses? He lifted up his staff and parted the Red Sea, and the people went through. They had to walk through walls of water on either side, probably terrified they would collapse. God brought them from Egypt to the Promised Land, but they had to go through something to get there.
And the good news? They made it through. Their enemies didn’t. The good news is God used what they went through to free them from what they would have been tempted to go back to.
Is God using what you’re going through? I believe He is.
Deliverance Isn’t Always Dramatic
How many have been praying lately, “God, get me out of this”?
“God, if you get me out of this, I promise I’ll take notes. I promise I’ll worship. I promise…”
Sometimes deliverance isn’t dramatic. Sometimes it’s not fire from heaven—it’s God quietly sustaining you.
We all have things we thought we were done with. We all have places we thought we had passed through, but then we find ourselves going back.
Like Israel, out of Egypt, yet in the wilderness. Out of bondage, yet hungry and confused. The desert is disorienting—it’s not where you were, and it’s not yet where you’re going.
And some of us get stuck there. What should have been a short line becomes a long loop. Around and around we go.
Enough for Now
When Israel grumbled in the desert, God said to Moses:
“I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day.” (Exodus 16:4, KJV)
Enough for now. That’s the way God works.
He doesn’t give you all your breaths at once. He gives you the next breath, then another. And when He gives you breath, you praise Him with it.
When Jesus taught us to pray, He said, “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11, KJV) Not a monthly stipend. Not a 10-year plan. Not retirement savings. Daily bread. Enough for today.
And the only One who knows what I need for today is the One who is already in tomorrow, working all things together for my good.
Selected Bible Verses
- “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” (Psalm 23:1, KJV)
- “Give us this day our daily bread.” (Matthew 6:11, KJV)
- “I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger.” (John 6:35, KJV)
- “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” (Psalm 55:22, KJV)
- “My God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 4:19, KJV)
Questions This Sermon Answers
- What does the Lord’s Prayer teach us about priorities in prayer?
- Why do believers sometimes “go back” to old struggles?
- How does the story of Israel in the wilderness reflect our spiritual journey?
- Why isn’t deliverance always dramatic?
- What does it mean when God provides “enough for now”?
- How can we learn to trust God day by day?
