How to Pray: I Don’t Want to Be Like Those Around Me

In this episode, we dive into *how to pray for yourself* when everything around you seems to be going wrong. Drawing from Jeremiah 10, we explore the prophet’s powerful personal prayer amidst a nation that had turned its back on God. What does it mean to seek God when culture promotes everything but Him? How do we keep faith in a world full of false options?

We unpack the *power of prayer* in uncertain times, the dangers of modern idolatry—including the subtle ways we replace God with things like convenience, culture, or even technology—and why true dependence on God can unlock miracles.

You’ll hear reflections on the difference between fighting spiritual battles with God as your only option versus leaning on man-made solutions, as well as moving testimonies from believers who’ve experienced God’s provision when there was nothing else to rely on.

Most importantly, you’ll be encouraged to pray like Jeremiah: “Correct me, Lord, but with mercy,” and learn how to keep God at the center of your life—even when the world pulls you in every direction.

If you're hungry for deeper connection, clarity, and revival in your personal prayer life, this episode is for you.

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everyone. Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast.

Thank you for joining me today. Today, we're going to be talking about a prayer that Jeremiah prays for himself in the middle of a backslidden nation. I think this one's going to be applicable to us because we are definitely in the middle of a nation that's going through changes and that has forgotten God on so many levels.

How do you pray for yourself when all around you wrong is what is promoted? Well, let's look at it. In Jeremiah chapter 10, when I look at it, I'm actually looking at one blueletterbible.com as I'm recording this. The header there is a satire on idolatry.

I just think that's really interesting that it uses the word satire. A satire is a way of speaking or writing that uses humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people's stupidity or vices. So basically, it's a way of making them feel foolish or calling them out by pointing out their errors and how foolish the errors are.

So in Jeremiah chapter 10, the number one error that Jeremiah is pointing out to the children of Israel is the way they have gone after false gods. He talks about how basically you build up your own God, you cut down the tree, and then a workman makes it with an ax, and then you put silver and gold on it, and you fasten it with nails and a hammer. He says these gods are upright as the palm tree, but they can't speak.

Don't be afraid of them. They can't do evil, neither can they do good. He lets them know that the God you're creating for yourself is not alive.

You're having to adorn your own God. I once heard a preacher who's from Africa talking about his experience in the United States and the difference between the saints in Africa and the saints here. One thing he pointed out that I think is very true, he said in Africa, we fight the devil, the actual devil.

We deal with witches and warlocks. In America, you fight the devils you create. When I consider that, I do think of how many issues we create for ourselves that turn into the fights we have that we call the devil, whether it's mind battles because we can't focus, but we watch whatever on TV, and we listen to whatever in our ears, whether it's prioritizing life and its issues over God.

But we look and we say, we have to do this. We have to work this way. We have to prioritize this job, this season, this time.

And yet, when it comes down to it, if we were as some may be in Africa, not everybody in Africa is poor, but if we were as some may be, at least in the area where he was, where all you have is God and hope to feed you sometimes, then you recognize the importance of God because he becomes your go-to source. In America, we have so many things, so many options we look to that when one of them fails us, we're not angry with them, and we pursue our avenues of getting back what we want or getting back what we thought we lost or getting back what we feel are our rights or rightfully owed to us. But when your rights leave, when there's nothing else out there to help, you figure out that God is the source and the only one that could actually help.

We do tend in America to make gods of things, and I would even argue gods of ideals, where we serve an ideal, we serve a culture over what the Bible says. And that's because it's in our rights. Don't we have a right to speak on this? Don't we have a right to feel this way? Don't we have a right to be respected? But when those rights aren't there, and the only defense you have is God, you start to rely on God.

America has too many options. We have too many options. And yet, as I'm sitting here saying this, and I know this part is not in the text, I am bracing for the day that heaven lets our options be taken away, even in America, because I do believe for us to be revived and for us to turn to him again, we're going to have to need him.

People begin crying out when they need God. I've never wanted to be the person, and I've told God this, that has to learn things from experience. I don't want to be his hard-headed child.

I want him to be able to tell me, and I learn how to put him first. But I do know there are some troubles that have birthed tears and a cry to God that wouldn't have come without needing him on a level nobody else could help me. And I look for God as we're crying out for him to save and have mercy, and don't forget his people are here.

As we're approaching the last days in these end times, I look for him to let us have to cry sometimes. But in that cry, where there are no more options, I believe we will always find God because we know him. The problem with these people in the built their own options, and they were willing to serve them.

They dressed these options up, and they made them look good. They put them in gold and purple, and they arrayed them with jewelry, and they made them look like they were something. But at the end of the day, it was just the option they built.

It had no real power. It is my prayer that I not put anything before God. And if you're listening to this, I suspect that that's in you as well.

That you don't want to make a God with a little g out of anything. Not out of our jobs, not out of our children, not out of our political parties, not out of our culture, not out of anything. I need God to be the governing factor in my life, and I know you do as well.

And yet when you're in an environment that is constantly feeding you options, and even the way to think, and the way to plan, and the way to live, you start to think about how to do things like balance your life. We are all influenced by what is happening around us. Now the extent of the influence may vary, and the influence may cause you to reject what's happening around you.

But to even form that opinion of rejection or acceptance, you have to have been influenced or impacted by what's going on around you. We are all influenced because we live in such a godless time, and we have so many things around us that can be options to us for answers over God. We are all influenced and have to fight to keep God first.

I'll give you a simple one. Google. There are some things that I might have prayed about harder if I didn't google them first.

Why seek God for an answer when I can type and say, these are my symptoms, what's my problem? Now with that said, Google almost always makes you feel like you're gonna die. That's not a good idea. But Google will say things like, you have a runny nose and a slight cough.

If it persists for more than 25 days, there is fear of death. You cannot trust Google. But that's just one example of the options we have.

We can google techniques to better raise our children. We can google techniques to deal with anxiety. We can google the techniques to find a better job.

We can google our symptoms or any healthcare questions. Does that make Google a sin? No. But it does put Google in a place where it can become our go-to.

Where it can help guide us through life. Where if we didn't have it, what would we do? I was listening to a YouTube actually about missionaries. Because I love missionaries.

And this particular group of missionaries were in Ukraine, I think, or some other country. They had a large family and they followed God. And they ended up in a city that eventually would be war torn.

And they didn't have any money. They didn't have any food. They didn't have Google.

Because this is actually many years ago. And they just said, God, our children don't have enough to eat today. Will you help us? And then they said there was a knock on the door.

And a lady showed up and said, the Lord sent me with your rent money and with food. Now when they went to thank that person, they could no longer find them. And they said they believe it was an angel.

But that's not the first time I've heard of that. There was another young man who shared with me. He's from Jamaica.

And he said sometimes they would just start the fire, like they're about to cook something, knowing they didn't have any food. But they wholeheartedly believed God was going to send them something to eat. Now here in the States, we don't operate like that.

We have options often. We have food pantries. We have government system.

Sometimes people just post online, I need this or I need that. And people supply their need. Does that mean it's easy for them? No, it does not.

But it does mean we have options. But I've watched as I've traveled, when people have no other option but God, God responds in a great way. I do believe that's why we tend to see more miracles overseas, because they trust God to be the need filler, because He's their only option.

In the middle of this backslidden country, and this people who knew God but have now chosen not to serve Him, Jeremiah prays for himself. He says, O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh to direct his steps.

O Lord, correct me, but with judgment, not in thine anger, lest thou bring me to nothing. He confesses to God, I know just thinking by myself, I can't do right. It's not in me.

I'm not wise enough. I'm not smart enough. And I can't even order my own steps.

I can't plan my next step. But God, I'm asking you, correct me. But don't make your correction final.

Don't judge me. Just correct me. Teach me your ways, O Lord.

I love the psalmist in Psalm 119, where it is written, Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statues, and I shall keep it until the end. Psalm 86 and 11 says, Teach me thy way, O Lord. I will walk in thy truth.

Unite my heart to fear thy name. This is very similar to what Jeremiah is praying, because he doesn't want to be judged. He doesn't want God to give up on him.

He doesn't want a decision that's final, made based on where he is. But he's crying out to God to correct him. Teach me.

That word also means instruct me, discipline me, chastise me, whatever you got to do, but I don't want to be like what I'm around. God, make me different. Make me better.

Don't judge me here today, but correct me as you see necessary. Because God, if you react in anger, I know you'll bring me to nothing. I'll be destroyed.

But today, because of where we live and the time we're in and the influx of information that's coming to our hearts and minds and the sights we have to see on screens or just even walking down the street, our prayer is, God, have mercy on me. If I'm doing it, correct me here, correct me now, but don't leave me. Don't judge me here.

Don't make a final decision here. I want to walk with you. Teach me your ways.

Instruct me, oh God. I love this prayer, because one thing I know for sure, God is going to have somebody in every generation who survives every circumstance, and they're going to come out saying he was God all along, and he'll be God after this moment. He is always going to have a people.

And as we ask him to correct us, to instruct us, to teach us today, we're trusting him to let us be among that number, because we know prayer reaches every single situation. Join the movement, join the community, like, share, and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering, how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice, and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.