This is the Saddleback Church podcast.

Hey Saddleback family. As we prepare to jump into Andy's message today, we want to spend a moment of prayer together.

But before we do that, I thought I could share with you a spiritual practice about

prayer that AD and I incorporate into our daily life. It's what I call pray first and pray last.

And basically what it means is that I start every single morning with prayer and I finish the day

that way as well. So practically what that looks like in my life is when I wake up very first

saying I'm only half awake just laying there in bed, I just invite the Holy Spirit into that moment.

And I say a very simple prayer, something like Heavenly Father, thank you for this new day. I want

to welcome you into every aspect of this day. I need your wisdom. I need your guidance,

and I want to live life with you. And then at the end of the day, after I'm exhausted and I fall into

bed, I finish it also with prayer, but this prayer is a little bit different. It's more like a

prayer of examine, where I kind of think

back through the movements of my day. And when was it that I felt like I was really walking in

alignment with the Holy Spirit? When was I abiding in him? And then when were those other times that

maybe I stepped right out from his will? And I was distracted. Maybe my attitude was off. I was

angry or I mistreated someone. And I just want to invite God into every single one of those moments.

And I receive his love and his forgiveness, his grace. And I just want to invite the Holy Spirit to be with me and to live life with me.

Now the truth is I almost every single night fall asleep in somewhere in the middle of this

process. But I don't feel guilty about that because what better way to fall asleep than

talking to your Heavenly Father? And so Andy and I felt like

this practice might be something easy to incorporate into your spiritual life in 2024,

to pray first and to pray last. Because when we do that, over time, it really begins to transform

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