Priming the Pump #alittleQC

Good morning, good morning. Hi, Marissa. Good morning. Hey y'all, no, it's not Monday. It's not Monday. Good morning. No, it's not Monday. No, it is not Monday. But I was like, I have a book that comes out this week. So instead of talking on Monday, I was like, I'll talk on Tuesday today. Is that all right with y'all for me to just decide to change it up? 28-day prayer journey, y'all, it's out today. Like, out. Like, some of y'all got it yesterday or will be getting it in the mail today if you pre-ordered it. Some of y'all are braving the stores and you're going into places like Target— Target has it, y'all. Hey, C Stewart, good morning, good morning. So the book is out, you guys. Okay, so I wanted to talk to you a little bit this morning about a couple of things, but let me get my drink. Hibiscus today. Hi, Christy Wisty, I like your name. Y'all listen, here's the deal. It is Tuesday, September the 1st. Here's the first problem: we are in September of 2020 and we are still in a doggone pandemic. That's what I want to say. We are in September of 2020. Not, not, not March, right? Not April, not June. We are in September of 2020 and we are still in the middle of a pandemic. It is what it is, y'all. It is what it is. And so, um, I am still doing these Coffee with Crystals, a little QC, because this is still a little quality control for your quarantine life, quarantine content, for to give you— make sure you're living with quality, or whatever it is that I used to say. Y'all, I can't even. But here's the reality: we are still where we are, and we still get to choose every stinking single day how we're going to live. Yes, Megan Lively, eternal cabin fever. I ran into a friend from church yesterday at the local Kroger Marketplace, which y'all, Kroger is one thing, Kroger Marketplace is another. I was walking around in that place for 2 hours, just looking at stuff, just looking at stuff. I bought some dishes. Who does that? Who buys dishes at the grocery store? Me. When you walk around the Kroger Marketplace for 2 hours,. But I digress. I was walking around and ran into a little girl named Grace and her 3 children. I remember when she was trying to have children. Now she's walking around with 3 of them. So we chatted for just a hot second in between the frozen food aisle and the chips about how this was basically recess for her kids. She was like, you know, um, you know, she said at some point, like, as much as they want to stay home, and stay safe. She told her husband, listen, we're gonna get out a little bit because we'll either be safe from the pandemic, we'll be totally healthy, but you'll have a stir-crazy wife who's on the brink of losing it. Or, you know, it is what it is. That's where we are now, y'all. It is what it is. This is, this is, this is what you have to say to yourself. It is what it is. Not that you don't want it to be better. Not that you're not working on things shifting in your life and in your situation. Not that you're not hoping for things to come to conclusion faster than they otherwise would, but you just say, it is what it is. So I'm going to make the best of the situation. I'm going to make the choices of things I can control. I'm going to release what I cannot control, and I'm going to smile anyway because It is what it is. If I were in church right now, I would say, somebody look to the right or to the left and tell your neighbor, it is what it is. But that doesn't mean that the way it is right now is the way it has to be forever. And if you say it is what it is as a kind of digression, a kind of release in terms of giving up, like I'm gonna quit trying, then you lose. It is what it is is a form of acceptance while you still hold on to the things that you can do to make a shift occur in your life. It is what it is is a statement of surrender, not that I'm not willing to move forward, but that I accept that there are certain things that I cannot change. It's the Serenity Prayer. Lord, grant me what I need in order to accept what I cannot change. You know, but, but it does not mean that because you accept what you cannot change that you are not still working for what you can. What I want to talk to you about is priming the pump. Priming the pump is what you used to do in the old days when there was a pump at a well where you used to get water. And if it had been sitting dormant for a while, if you pressed it the first time, wire— water may not come out. Press it the second time, water may not come out. Um, but if you press it a few times and if there's water that it is able to tap into, a well underneath it, then you might just get some water after a while. But you have to be willing to do what it takes to put in effort when your effort is not yielding results, but you decide to keep putting in the effort because you believe that you are tapped into something that you cannot see, something that you don't understand, and something that you don't necessarily have clarity on when it will produce what you hope it produces. But you stand there and you prime the pump. Hi, Jessica Peavy. You stand there and you prime the pump because you believe that there is something underneath the ground, that there is something beyond the veil, that there is something in the dark in the corner. And if you keep doing your part what you need will come forth. This is what prayer is about. It is about priming the pump, doing the work, participating with the effort, even when you are not positive that what you want to see is gonna come, or it's gonna come when you want it. That is what prayer is about. It is about participating participating with God. Listen, y'all, the, the God of the universe— and y'all, I'm gonna be practical, so I'm gonna preach a little bit and then I'll be practical. The God of the universe has said to his creation, join with me in making things happen. Did y'all, did y'all hear that? The God of the universe said, I have given you creative power. We said when we made Adam and Eve, let us make man and woman in our image, which means in the image of God. You have creative power. He said let them rule, meaning let them exercise dominion. It's the dominion mandate. He said let's let them make some decisions. Let's let them decide to exercise the power that we've given them to make some things happen. I always say, well, God told Noah to build the boat. He could have just said, "Boat," and a boat appeared. But no, he said to Noah, "You go and build the boat." He could have said to a honeycomb or beehive, "Bees, I want you to live in a beehive, in a honeycomb." So, poof, honeycomb. No, he asked the bees to participate with him in building the honeycomb. He could have said, "Nest," so that the bird didn't have to work so hard to put together the nest, the same nest that I take a broom handle to and knock down when it's over my doorstep. And I don't want those birds leaving poop all over my doorstep. That same bird will go somewhere else and build a nest because God didn't just say nest. He said, bird, I want you to cooperate in building that nest and putting it where it needs to go. And he says to man and woman, I could speak some things into existence in your life. I could just make them appear, but it is to my glory and your good to have you participate with me in some things that you exercise your creative power, that you exercise the rule that I have given you, the power that I have given you to make decisions and to make something happen. And sometimes, y'all, your desire to participate with God, even though you'd rather make the thing happen yourself— you can't make the thing happen yourself. And your participation with God, you're doing something, is getting on your knees and saying, God, there are some things that are locked in the heavenlies, and they will only become unlocked in the earthly realm when I participate with in prayer by calling some things forth that you have predestined to happen, that they may not otherwise happen, or they may not— I might not otherwise see them unless I come to you in prayer. Like the widow who drives the judge crazy, like the woman who drives the judge crazy in the New Testament. I believe it's Luke 18. She drives him crazy and he says, oh my goodness, because she won't leave me alone, I'm gonna give her what she asked for. And that's how we think of prayer. We think of prayer like something that will only happen when we ask for what we want. And so prayer becomes this mechanism mechanism whereby we treat God like a cosmic jack-in-the-box where whatever we want, we're going to ask for it, but we're not going to pray any other time unless we want something. Do you know how easy it is for me to get my kids to do whatever I want them to do if I just say, you can't play video games until you dot dot dot? And all of a sudden magic happens. Magic happens around my house. Hi, Siloel, good morning. Magic happens. You want to know why? Because all of a sudden what they want is attached to something I've required of them. All of a sudden, when in reality, here's what they don't realize: their lives and my life would be so much easier if they would just do what they're supposed to do, if they would just participate in the household of faith, cuz that's what we are, if they would just participate ongoingly, it just primes the pump for the things I want to do for them anyway, for the surprises that I want to give for them anyway. It takes me out of the position of having to drive them to their knees, requiring them to do all these things so that I can give them what I want to give them anyway. Now again, prayer is not only about getting out of God what we want from God, but there is something to this idea of consistently participating with God by communicating with him. Don't you know that you are made of spirit and that when your physical house ceases to exist, when you take your last breath, you, the core of you, continues to exist? And the core of you is has always been designed to live in cooperation with stuff that's happening that you can't see. Here's the problem, here's the problem. The problem is if you are not communicating with the person who can see what you cannot see, then your spirit that is existing right now in your physical house misses out on the whole message. You miss out on the whole message. Prayer is the way you prime your mind, your heart, and your hands to push forth things in your life that you know nothing about unless you are connected to God in spirit. And prayer is the way that you do that. It is the way that you talk to him. It is also the way you hear from him. It is the way that you connect Y'all have heard me say this before if you've ever listened to me ever, ever before. Y'all, we are all spiritual people. If you believe in Jesus or you don't, hold on, don't, don't, don't lose your— don't lose your panties over what I just said. The point is we were all created to be spiritual people, and by golly, some of us are going to connect or try to connect to something spiritual even if we want to, even if we want to skip Jesus. And that's where people connect to things outside of Jesus because because they're trying so hard to connect to something spiritual, not realizing that God said, well, you know, I had a son and there's a prescribed way to connect to the spiritual. There's a prescribed way to make sure that you're not just connecting to any old spiritual, but that you are connecting to the spiritual part of what I am actually delivering to you through my prescribed channels. So you gonna catch some stuff, but you won't catch the stuff or the right stuff or in the right time or the way I want you to get it. That's why there are words like, you know, serendipity and the universe and karma, because y'all, there are some universal rules that are at work. But here's the beauty of connecting through God, through Jesus Christ. You're not hoping you catch it. You understand? You are not hoping you catch it. You are not hoping that what you catch is the right thing. You have God's word to spell out for you. Exactly what he thinks at high levels for principles in your life. You get to understand the mind of God by reading the word of God. Y'all have heard me say it before: in the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God. And so if you come through the Son, you don't have to guess as to what God said. And then you get a clear, clear path of delivery of communication from God because you are going through his son. And that is what reading the word is all about. When you pray, you are connecting with God in a prescribed manner. Now listen, my kids can come to me and they can say whatever they want to say, but if they come to me the way I want them to come to me, then they go further. I have one son, he doesn't mean to be short. He doesn't mean to be rude, but he's a blunt communicator by nature. I have raised all 5 children to speak to me correctly. You need to put a "yes ma'am" on that. You need to say "please" on that. You need to ask a question, not dictate. You need to say what you have to say, but you need to say it in a way that I can hear you. It's the way it is. And if they don't say it to me correctly, I just stand there and look at them. And then when they look at my eye and they realize that they missed it, they self-correct. Do you want to know how that happens? It's because they know me. They know my looks. They know when I tilt my head to the side and I kind of do this with my head, they're like, oh, we didn't say it right, we didn't say it right. Yes, Ole Boge, I think that's how you say your name. Humanity is always hungry for something bigger than itself, a form of divinity, hence the children of Israel made a golden calf. Very true. So I cock myself to the side and I just say, and I guide them with my eye There's a scripture that says that, that God can guide us with his eye. When you know him, he can guide you. Let me see if I can find that for you guys, you girls, you guys. Psalm 32:8, that he will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go. He will guide you with his eye. And there's a certain kind of guidance that you only get when you're looking at Him. That's what prayer is. It's you looking at Him and saying, "Oh, how do you want me to do that?" So I get up every morning, most mornings, because somebody told me when I had little kids and I was like, "When do I have time to pray? I don't have time to have devotion." And she said, "Oh honey, let me tell you what you do. You get up in the morning and you—" and I talked about this and she's still there too— "You stretch your hands toward heaven before your feet ever hit the floor and you Say, God, today is your day. Help me to see what you're doing today and for me to jump in the stream of what you have going on, to get in the flow of what you're doing. Help me to know what's important to you for me to do today. Thank you for a new day. Help me to operate in your love, your mercy, your power. Just acknowledging that I want to look at him first and get in the flow of what is— what he's doing. It's Psalm 32:8. So here's the deal: you need to prime the pump, and I understand that. So if you've been following me on Facebook or Instagram for 30— not 32, y'all got me talking about Psalm 32:8— for 28 days, I have primed the pump for you. I've come on and I've said, here's a little prayer, you got 20 seconds, 28 seconds, here's a thought, pray. I got you going. I got you going. All that this book is, is more priming of the pump. 3 times a day, morning, afternoon, and evening, for me to give you a thought for you to get going with your prayer. To remind you not only to talk to God, but maybe what to talk to God about. Because I believe that, you know, 21 days, 28 days, 33 days, 66 days— because did you know, technically, scientifically, it takes 66 days to form a habit? Did you know that? But let me give you some practical stuff. Now that I've gone all churchy on you, let me give you some practical stuff about priming the pump, because I always want to make sure I'm leaving you with something practical. And let me give you an example. When I, um, was a new homeschooler and I was meeting all of these great women who were teaching me all of these great things, baking bread, uh, you know, teaching my kids to learn, um, you know, making things from scratch, growing things in the backyard. And then, y'all, oils. It was all about Young Living. I tried to tell my family about Young Living because I was learning all these things. And y'all, my family was laughing at me. They were like, Chrystal is so crunchy, you know, she's doing all these things. And what are you doing? You're making bread? You do that? That was That was what they said about oil. You know what, I got to say this because, Janine, that's a good point. I'm gonna talk about primer makeup, just to say, remind me if I don't. But they were laughing at me because they, you know, I was weird. And, and the thing is, it's not that weird because my mother used to bake bread and my mother was, you know, made a lot of things from scratch. I remember there was a season where she made our clothes, but I remember there were oils and I remember that my family was like, what? So let me tell you, fast forward 10 years. This is what I've learned about me and my family. I'm usually ahead because I'm the oldest, but I've always been ahead too because I'm, I'm a season ahead. Like, I was a parent at 19, so nobody was thinking about parenting and doing stuff when I was 19. So I was always a little bit, you know, doing things and thinking about things they were just weren't at yet. So 10 years later, all of my family He's talking about oils, trying to get me to sign up for Young Living, and I just refused. I just refused because I was like, oh no, y'all not gonna have laughed at me and then try to get me to sign up under you. Absolutely doggone not. I was just mad. I was just like, I don't understand. But here I am with the diffuser in my house, and you want to know why? Because I could hear my mother saying to me, okay, Chrystal, because my mother had a Young Living account as well, just take my Young Living account, take some of the oils from my house and just do it because you already know So y'all, here's the deal. Every day I'm working my diffuser. Don't tell my family. And here's the thing, the diffuser is wonderful, but it does nothing if I don't prime it first. I have to put water in it every day, and I have to put oil drops in it every day, or however often I want it to run to diffuse oils in my home. If it sits there looking beautiful with nothing in it, nothing will come out. In order for me to get out the good smells, in order for me to get out whatever benefits I believe that those oils would give me, in order for me to get out the, the environment that I feel like I have in my kitchen when that thing is going, in order for me to get anything out of it, I have to put something in it. When you prime the pump, it is that you have put something in it expecting to get something out. It takes me less than 2 minutes to put the water in it and to put the oil drops in it, but it will go and diffuse and change my whole atmosphere of my whole day if I just spend 2 minutes in the morning. This is what prayer does. It's priming the pump for your whole day, for your whole mindset, for your whole week. It sets the tone. That's what happens when you go to church. You prime the pump. It's not that you shouldn't be doing it all week, having church on your own, but when you go to church and you hear the word of God and you spend time, even if right now you're spending time with people in the comments, of your online church service. You prime the pump for the rest of your week. Y'all, every now and then I have to go to this juicing place, or have a juicer, have the time, and I make myself a few green juices. Why? Because I just need to prime the pump. I need to reset my palate for the things that I need to taste, for the things that I need to eat, and I just need to cleanse my palate of the stuff that I've been craving. It's not that that one green juice or that one day of juicing is going to totally fix my situation, but what it does is it times the pump. It resets my brain, it resets my mouth, and it says, girl, you are craving something differently than what you're giving yourself right now. Listen, some of y'all, when you need new ideas for what to fix, you go on Pinterest or you go on, uh, you search for, um, a, a recipe online because, you know, okay, I got some chicken and some cream of mushroom and whatever else I have in the house. What can I make? Or you go to All Recipes, or you have your favorite things that you— favorite accounts that you follow on Instagram, and you're going because you're looking for inspiration. And then you find this thing and you print it out or you bring it up on your phone. And now that you're all excited and it looks good and your eyes are bigger than your head and you cook this thing, you prime the pump. You prime the pump to say, there's something that I need to prepare, but in order to prepare it, in order to feed myself to do the next thing, I need to go looking for inspiration. I need to go looking for motivation. I need to say, I don't have a recipe idea right now, so let me go go in search of somebody who's already done the work. Listen, there is a plan in place, and some days the only day that you will know what the plan is is if you stop and prime the pump. If you start with God for inspiration for your day, start with his word for inspiration for how you need to concoct your day and put the recipe of your day or your days together. And when you skip the process of resetting your palate, of letting that diffuser run all day, or preparing to eat that meal, you can go about it but you may miss something. Prayer is priming the pump for what is below the surface, what you may not be able to see, but what you can see by faith when you engage with God where he's asked you to engage. And he's asked us to pray. He's asked us to talk to him. So y'all, Priming the pump matters. So here's what you have to do. You don't go to a pump for water unless you realize that you need water to drink. The first thing I want to tell you about priming the pump is to acknowledge where you are, that you're dry, that you need help, that you are nothing without the guiding eye of God, that you need his direction, that you need his word to be alive and to be a rhema word in your life, that you need his strength, his power, you need his You need his guidance. You need stuff from Jesus. We don't go to a pump unless we're thirsty, and it's okay to go to the pump and to prime the pump looking for water to come out. Jesus said he's the living water. Why does he say that? Because he knew that we would understand this idea. Hi, Narcy. He knew that we would, he would, we would understand this idea of needing water every day. I tell my children, don't ask me about juice, don't ask me about soda. We don't keep soda in the house, but if we happen to drive through somewhere, don't ask me for soda if you haven't had your 2 water bottles of water. Why? Because you need water. And if your brain isn't working right, you're probably dehydrated. If your mouth is a little dry, if I see a little scratchiness around the corners of your mouth, you're dehydrated. You need water not just to live, like to function, but you need water to live well. They've got these 2 water bottles. You want something else? Prime the pump, feed yourself the water that you know you need first. And when you're dry, there's nothing worse than moving through life and not admitting that you're dry. Hi, Miss Ophelia Hearns. I'm so happy to see you. There's nothing worse than going through life dry, not admitting that you need a break to prime the pump, to drink some water, that you need to set some time aside to refill your cup. Fill my cup, Lord, until it overflows. That's why people say that kind of stuff. Y'all, because we need to understand that if we're not full of what God wants to have happening in our heart, in our head, and in our hands, then we will run dry. Because you cannot pour out faster than what you are being— what you are receiving in. If you do, then you're dry. And that's why you're frustrated. That's why you popping off at everybody with a crazy mouth. That's why you're giving everybody crazy eyes. That's why you don't want to be around anybody, even though you love people. You're dry. And you're not making the time to fill up. Janine, you gave me that illustration. Makeup is so much better when you put primer on first. It's true. I've learned this, even though I'm not like makeup, makeup, makeup. I've learned this. It goes on smoother, it stays on longer. And if you're trying to hurry and get somewhere, you might want to skip that step. But if you don't skip— if you don't— if you skip that step It's not gonna last. So if you are out of energy, out of spiritual inspiration, out of connection with God, out of whatever, then you probably need to come back, prime the pump, and pray. And it starts with acknowledging where you are, that you're dry, that you have limits, that you're ignoring those limits, and that you need a minute to get, um, uh, to hear from God. I was just talking to somebody just recently, and I asked, hey, Kaylie Olson, I asked her a question and it took her a couple of days to answer me. And she said, I wanted to just take a minute and not hurry up and respond. I wanted to make sure that I prayed about it to make sure I was hearing from God and not reacting to what you said or reacting to what I wanted to say. And y'all, we do things too fast. We need to acknowledge where we are and make sure our motivations for saying yes are pure and make sure our motivations for going forward are right and make sure that we are where we're supposed to be doing what God set us to do. You'd be surprised if you just take 28 days and spend some time talking to God consistently, what changes in your life. Some of y'all know this to be true with, uh, an intentional relationship, that once you acknowledge, dang it, our marriage is dry, but I'm going to be intentional about being sweet to my husband, I'm going to be intentional about calling my mother, I'm going to be intentional about sitting with my I'm going to be intentional about doing these things. The temperature can shift, but it doesn't shift if you don't first acknowledge where you are. Second thing is ask for help. Acknowledge where you are, because you're not going to go to the pump if you don't acknowledge that you're thirsty. And ask for help. Ask for help. And there's nothing wrong with saying to people, people, can you pray for me? Can you pray with me? Can you pray on my behalf? Can you keep praying? Listen, y'all, some of y'all have access to some women who know Jesus, and you may not want to tell them all the details of what's going on in your life, but you better call them and say, 'Aunt so-and-so, who really wants to be in my business,' Can you pray for me? I really need you to pray for me. Can you pray with me? Can I call you every Friday? Can we pray together? One of the things that, um, we have been doing with this QC situation, some of y'all have become friends. Like, you find each other on Facebook, or you've connected on YouTube, or you see each other all the time. Hey, Kelly Ministry and Mothering in Instagram, and you have— you realize that I see them now. And I've heard about some of y'all making some connections, talking about this little QC community. Listen, there's nothing better than community, nothing better. And it makes life better when you do things with somebody else who can help you when you're low and you can help them when they're low, maybe. I want to encourage those of you who have gotten the book already, or you— it's ordered and it's coming, Do it with a friend. Pick a time, time of morning, time of evening, and just say, "You know what? We're gonna do this together." Call your mother, call your auntie, call that lady in the church that always sits in the same spot and always has her Bible out, and you can tell crossways from two aisles behind her, across the aisle, that her Bible is all marked up. The next time you see her online, "Sister So-and-so, can I ask you a question? Would you mind praying with me?" praying for me, teaching me how to pray. Ask for help. Use your resources. Make room to see and hear what God is doing in your life, and make room for community, because often what God wants us to see or what he wants us to do comes when we are coming to him in community. That's why you can have been in all your word all this week, but then you go to church, you hear a sermon, and then after that, all of a sudden, after you've you know, been in community with other people and then you've gone home and then you've talked about the sermon with your friends or maybe with a small group, that all of a sudden God starts popping off everywhere. The song on the radio says the same thing. Your coworker says the same thing. You open up your Bible on Thursday and it's the same thing because God was like, "See, you did it the way I wanted you to do it." And can I just tell you that being in community in your local church, having a small group, a Bible study, that is God's prescribed way. And it's also often the way He answers our prayers. Where two or three are gathered, there I am. He's there. So I want to encourage you, yes, to pray to God by yourself. There's nothing sweeter than knowing that you can say anything to God. He already knows. You're not going to surprise him. You're not going to disappoint him. He, he, he knew you before you were born, and everything that you've ever done has been uncovered. Everything that you ever thought, every intention, there's nothing to hide. But there's something special that happens when you quit hiding from other people. And you start saying, this is where I need God, this is what I need him to do in my life, this is what I'm asking. And when you are with other people and you learn how to pray based on how they pray, when you say you want to ask God for forgiveness and you hear somebody else confess and you're like, okay, God is not gonna shoot me if I'm honest. Jesus came to God in the garden, his Father, and he said, you gotta be kidding me, God the Father, is there not another way? Can you please take this cup from me? He's sweating blood, sweating blood, because he didn't want to— just in case you thought that just because Jesus was Jesus, he wanted to have a torturous death for you. Listen, he wanted to save your tail. He didn't want to do it the hard way that was prescribed, and he He willingly did it, but first he prayed and said, do I have to do this? Do you understand that sometimes prayer is coming to God just to just keep it real and say, do I have to do this? Do I have to stay married to this man? Do I have to keep loving on this child? Do you really want me to stay committed on this job? Do you want me to be a person of authenticity and not spend the money this way? For real, you want me to pass up this Because he really, really— can I just be frank, y'all? He really wants some booty, and I'm trying not to give him some booty, but because I'm trying to do things your prescribed way. Do I really have to be chaste and pure? Do you have— I mean, sometimes, can I just say, can I just keep it real? Sometimes you just have to come to God and keep it real and say, for real though, are you serious? Half of our battle with praying to God would be taken care of, y'all, if we would quit trying to pray like them. If we would quit trying to pray like him or her or the pastor— there's nothing wrong with how they pray. I'm saying that if you would quit trying to do it like them and just come to God like you I mean, he already knows. So when you, when you, when you say, okay, I'm gonna acknowledge where I am, it is what it is, because God already knows, then you're gonna ask for help or use your resources. Ask people to pray for you, ask people to pray with you, use resources like, you know, like the book that I have, right, the 28-Day Prayer. But there are a million books on prayer. I have a million books on prayer— not a million, but I have a few. Kay Arthur, Teach Me to Pray, Lord, in 28 Days, The Circle Maker maker. Y'all listen, there are resources out here. I'm saying don't not pray because you don't know what to say. Use the help. Call somebody, pray with somebody else, submit your ideas and plans, or your lack thereof— I don't know what to do— so that he can direct your steps, so that he can order your steps. Because don't you know, he likes to put things in order for you. But often he's not, he's not gonna fight you. He's not gonna, you know, he's not gonna, he's not gonna knock you down. Psalm 37:23 says, the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord. They're established when he delights in his way. He wants to tell you what to do. He wants to guide you with the scriptural principles that are available when you crack open his word. He wants to speak to your heart. The Holy Spirit wants to align your circumstances circumstances so that you do know where to go, what to do, how to answer that question, how to deal with that hardship. You do know how to deal with that person. You do know how to deal with you. But he's not gonna do that if you're not looking at him. There's something about keeping your eye on him, and it's okay to ask for help if you're struggling to do that. Let your friends be a sounding board. Let them hear you talk it out, but let those friends not just give you their opinion, but pray for you, pray with you, come to God on your behalf. Behaft. Behaft. So acknowledge where you are. Ask for help. Use your resources. Use your people. Use your books. Use your Bible study. Act on what you receive. Act on what you receive. Sometimes, y'all, God will surprise you. He'll come through and you'll be like, Did God hear me? And so when you are impressed in prayer by that thing you just can't shake, you can't shake it, and his word confirms, or at least doesn't disagree with it, and in the Multitude of Wise Counsel you're moving forward with the peace that you've had after you prayed about something. Be prepared to receive and respond to what God says. I was in a hallway at the Crescent in Dallas, Texas, working for an institutional money management firm. Forgot my title— assistant VP, associate VP, something like that. I was finally, finally making tread, gaining traction in my career. I was making some decent money. I was happy that I'd finally kind of caught the chain. Like I like to say, you know, you're riding a bike and the chain gets loose, and then after a while you just keep pedaling, you catch the chain, you find your rhythm. It's finding my rhythm. And I remember when a friend of my family's introduced me to my now husband, and I told my friend of our family, he pulled me into a back hallway and he said, okay, so what do you think about him? And I was like, I'm sure he's nice. I'm not interested. Not in him, just not in anybody. I'm finally at a place where I've caught the chain. I'm finally at a place where I can I can palpate my relationship with God. I'm where he wants me to be. I'm hearing from him clearly. I don't go a day without talking to him, and I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with that relationship. I'm satisfied with my life. I'm having a great time with my friends. My life is full. I'm enjoying being a parent, got my own place. I'm finally getting out of debt. Things are going great, and I can see my future I'm good, I'm good. And so he was a great friend, and he used to bring me lunch to work. He lived 30 minutes away. He would call me when he was off because he worked a lot on the weekends, and he would say, did you make plans for lunch today? And I usually said no because I'm a workaholic. I would just go to work and work till I was getting a headache. So he would drive, pick up something for me. My favorite at the time was shrimp etouffée from Papa Dose. He would pick up the lunch portion of that and drop it off. And I remember one day when he handed me my food, and he literally drove from 30 minutes away, brought me my food, handed it to me, got back on the elevator and went about his day. And one day in the hallway, as I walked from the elevator back to my office, I prayed a quick prayer and I said, "Lord, you gonna have to tell me if this is the person I'm supposed to marry. Am I missing something?" And right then and there, my heart skipped a couple of beats, and it was if the Lord said to me, "Girl, didn't you make a list? Check your list." And I went and checked my list, and there was a checkmark by every box. I mean, but instantly the Lord said to me, check your list. I ain't looked at that list in a long time. Sometimes you will even forget about what you prayed about, and God, because he's always working with his invisible hand to do things on faith, in faith, that you are not seeing, but he's working it out. Sometimes you forget you prayed about about it, you know? You're just like, oh yeah, listen, y'all, this is my last time. I'm claiming it by faith. We're gonna clean this house out today. It's the last day. I got the movers coming to move the second batch because we had to move in batches, to move the last batch. And I forgot about some things, y'all. All that I asked God for in the house that we have moved into. Been praying about it so long, I forgot. I forgot. And God said, girl, the whole time you were wondering if I was gonna come through where you needed, for the amount that you needed, for the things that you desired. And the whole time I was working on your behalf and you forgot. Act on what you receive and believe that you will receive. Be an active participant in whatever you're trying to accomplish or develop. Develop. And then when God answers your prayer, say so. Let the redeemed of the Lord say so. Let me tell you the problem. Let me tell you why we get tired of praying. Because everything that I've talked about almost thus far is about what you want. And prayer is not just about what you want. Ah, you need to acknowledge where you are when you need to prime the pump, get going. You need to ask for help. You need to act on what you receive. And all of those things work together to keep you connected so that you are working in prayer, that you are connected in prayer, so that you are, um, experiencing God in prayer, even if he's not answering your prayer requests when you want them. But here's Here's how you also continue to prime the pump. Are you listening? You don't just pray about what you want. The acronym that I used in the 28-day prayer journey is PRAY. I used an acronym before called TRY. You may have seen acronyms called ACTS, A-C-T-S. They all say the same thing. Thing. Pray. Praise and give thanks to God. R, repent. Say you're sorry. A, ask. It's one part of prayer. Y, yield. Say, whatever you decide, God, I trust you. You want to know what keeps you connected in prayer? What keeps you acknowledging where you are, asking for help, using your resource, which is the Word of God, and acting on what you receive? It's that you're coming to God even when he's not answering what you're asking him for. Any relationship, any relationship where you only come to the relationship and ask for what you want, that ain't no relationship. That's not a relationship, that's a sugar daddy. That's what that is. That's— and that's not the kind— you— that's not the kind of relationship you want. You want a relationship relationship where you're coming and it's mutual. It's, it's mutual. Some of y'all like, actually, I do want a sugar daddy. No, you don't. You want a mutual relationship. Here you go. When you come to God— okay, let's just break it up. If you— when you're dating a guy and you come and you just are like— I won't even say dating, let me talk about my situation. I'm married, so I'm gonna just talk about my situation. If I come to my husband all the time and say, honey-do, honey-do list, honey-do list, honey-do list, will you do this, will you do that, honey-do list, honey-do list. That gets old for him real quick. And I'm guilty, I'm guilty. But as many of you who are married know, as many of you who speak man and understand men know, if you come to your spouse, come to your man, and you just are grateful and thankful and sweet and reminding him of what he's already done done and saying, thanks for always being so consistent. I really appreciate your faithfulness to X, Y, and Z. Thank you so much for taking the trash out. And thank you so much for helping me with the kitchen last night and being such a great— that's relationship, not just honeydew. When you screw up, because we all do, you got to come to your husband and say, I'm sorry. Any relationship where you never say you're sorry, that's not a relationship, because you're not always right. I know you think you're always right, but you're What? So if you want relationship, sometimes you just come to say thank you. Sometimes you just come to give praise to the person. You just say, I think you're cool. I think you're great. Sometimes you got to come and say, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to offend. I didn't mean to upset. I didn't mean to ignore. I didn't mean to sideswipe. I didn't mean to take over. Sometimes you ask, you should ask, by the way, ladies, if you don't communicate to your husband to your spouse, to your boss what you need, how will they know? You got to tell them. It's not that they can't give you what you want or what you need, but you make it plain when you speak it out. And then all the time, all the time, you ought to come to God and— you ought to come to God and yield and surrender and surrender and say, this is what I want, this is the way I want it, but whatever you want for me, I'll go your way. I'll do it your way. I'll do it the way you want me to. So y'all, acknowledge where you are, ask for help, use your resources, tap into the people that are around you, act on what you receive, because the more you are obedient, the more you'll hear from God. Be a blessing. Don't just prime the pump for yourself. When you prime the pump for yourself and the water comes, water somebody else. Be a blessing. Pray for other people. When you know God answers prayer, pray for other people and say, listen, I know God answers prayer. What I'm trying to eat right, y'all, I get some juices to reset the thing. When I'm trying to change the atmosphere in my home, I put the oils in the diffuser to reset the atmosphere and the smell in my home. When I'm looking for great meal ideas, I use Pinterest and I try to get— I'm not— that's not true. Pinterest stresses me out. Sometimes I use Pinterest, but most of the time I just Google. I use Google and I find new things to cook, or all recipes, because we all, y'all, need some time sometimes where we get some fresh water, some work that we're trying to get, some get some fresh water in our lives. And that's okay. It's okay to start again. We've done 28 Days of Prayer on Instagram and Facebook, 28 seconds for 28 days to help you think about how you want to talk to God. Okay, today's day 29. It is day one. It's day one of your next 28 days or 33 days or 66 days or 360 days. My hope is that you pray because the God of the whole stinking universe made himself available to you. He made himself available to be known by you, for you to hear from him, for you not to have to guess about what he wants you to do in this world, for you to get to know him. So why wouldn't you prime the pump, develop the habit, restart your habit, get the water to flowing so that you are refreshed and hydrated? The 28-day prayer journey, y'all, all of this is, is to prime the pump for you. It's all it is. That's all it is. And when you do that, when you hit the restart button and you say, I haven't been doing things, but I'm gonna start, I'm gonna start priming that pump to see if the water comes out, guess what'll happen? Happen. It will, and you will be full to overflowing so that you yourself are watered, and so that now you are able to water others. Black Panther died, y'all, and I was watching one of the videos because all the videos are floating around online, and there's one where he is speaking about Denzel Washington at an event to give Denzel Washington a Lifetime Achievement Award. And at the end of his statements about all of the wonderful things that he loved about Denzel and how Denzel had played an incredible role in his life, he said, "Let him who has watered now be watered." You've done the work, Denzel. You laid the groundwork, Denzel. You've made a path for a lot of us young actors to follow, and now it's time because we have been blessed by everything that you've done to be a blessing to you. This is what happens. Tippy said, Wakanda forever. Amen. Listen, this is what happens when you prime the pump for you. The water will flow. You will be hydrated. You will be refreshed. And when you are refreshed, it will overflow. It will overflow. So y'all, I hope the 28 days that we have done together Instagram and Facebook has primed your pump. But just like a mom who teaches her kids to ride their bike, eventually you ride alongside, you ride alongside, you hold on to it, and then you release them so they can ride on their own because they were designed to ride on their own. You were designed to ride on your own. Your relationship with God, your communication with God, your praise, your, your thanksgiving, your repentance, your honesty, your asking, your requests, your yielding, your surrender— all of that, girl, you can do. If you need more help, this is here. It's here for those of y'all who need to know. Chrystal Hurst chrystalhurst.com/pray. You can get it there. I think the freebies are still there today. If you didn't preorder, do it today. Go to Target if you're shopping in person. Support the book, y'all. Get it for a friend. Do it with a group of friends. But here's the deal. Just know that in dry seasons, that's the best time to find your way to the primer of prayer and get to work. Your efforts will not be in vain. Your work will not be wasted. And when the water comes, it won't just refresh you, it will overflow and do it for everybody. Don't underestimate underestimate what God wants to do in you and through you as he downloads his plans to you in prayer. Don't underestimate the power of praise to reset your mindset, to reset your energy level so that you can do what God has asked you to do because you believe that he is who he is and that he is the rewarder of those who seek him and that your emotional state can change when you elevate God into places in your life mentally and physically and emotionally based on your praise. Do not underestimate underestimate what happens when fellowship with God is possible because you have said you're sorry for the thing that you've done wrong, and then you start walking in obedience, that you are fully repentant. Don't, don't give low credit to what yielding to God can do. The yielded lives, y'all. Are the best ones. I found a letter, y'all, from my mom. Forgot she'd written me. I was in college, and the letter ended, "Always praying for you." Her handwriting during a difficult season in my life. Words of wisdom, wise counsel, closing with, "Always praying for you." I'm sure she wondered at times if her prayers were working. Can I just say I was so glad she didn't stop priming the pump in prayer for me. Both my parents prayed for me. Found a book, y'all, that my dad gave to me when I was in college, and he wrote a note to me in the front. "We are praying for you." Prayers count. And if you're in a dry season, prime the pump. Get to work. Short prayers will do. 28-second prayers throughout the day will do. You don't have to be deep. You don't have to be eloquent. You don't have to do it like your pastor does it. Just talk. Just talk. And know that your prayers are working. Would you do me a favor? I would love to give away some books. 3 people in the comments today, and I will have girls on our team jump into the comments and find 3 gals else to get books sent to them. Maybe you already have one, but maybe you don't. Maybe you will have it and give it to a friend and y'all can pray together. But here's what I would love for you to do as well. I would love for you to share this so that other people can see this, so y'all can help me get the word out about the book, the fact that it's out and know that this, y'all, was created a long time ago, and then it happened to become a book. I really did create it with you in mind, but you need to know that the reason why this book exists is because years ago I needed to prime the pump because I wasn't praying as consistently as I needed to, and I wrote prayers thoughts every day and shared them. I said, if I'm gonna work at doing a better job at praying, why shouldn't I be helpful to others? And that's what this is— me trying to prime my pump, and while I'm doing it, trying to be helpful to others. And then who knew it became a book? I didn't even know that that was gonna happen. So y'all, As my phone keeps ringing, I didn't put it on do not disturb. I want you to have a good day. I want you to have a great day, but I want you to start every day talking to the one who made you, talking to the one who set your life in motion, who gave you your first breath, and who didn't want your connection with him to stop there. You have access to the God of the universe. Use it. Pray. Prime the pump. Get going and don't stop. All right, y'all, share this for me. Leave your comments. 3 random people, we will comment comment in the comments and find you. Thank y'all for participating and leaving comments. Appreciate that. And I will see you next week on Monday, but I will see you next week. Happy book launch day to me and happy book launch day to you. Like my daddy always says, love you with life. ChrystalEvansHurst.com. If you need more— I see y'all asking questions— ChrystalEvansHurst.com/pray. Talk to you later. Bye.