Skip to content Pray: Inviting God's Kingdom into Your Everyday Life Jan 13 · 32 min ...more
Pray: Inviting God's Kingdom into Your Everyday Life
January 13, 2026 · 32 min
Pastor John Mark examines the transformative nature of prayer through the lens of the Lord's Prayer, with particular emphasis on the challenging phrase "Your will be done."
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton January 13, 2026 · 32 min · "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton
Pastor John Mark examines the transformative nature of prayer through the lens of the Lord's Prayer, with particular emphasis on the challenging phrase "Your will be done." ...more Show the full description Show less Pastor John Mark examines the transformative nature of prayer through the lens of the Lord's Prayer, with particular emphasis on the challenging phrase "Your will be done."
Series "Pastor Talks" with John Mark Caton Support this leader Liking this video? Support this ministry.
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101K followers
John Mark is the Senior Pastor of the thriving Cottonwood Creek Church in Allen, Texas, where he has served since 1995.
101K followers
The Power of Personal Prayer 0:02 Well, amen. What an incredible year we have and all we can say is let's go. Are you glad you're in God's house today? Yeah. Amen. So welcome to those of you who are in person as well as those who are joining us online.0:14 Last week, the first Sunday of the year, we started a brand new series on the spiritual discipline of prayer. And we just titled the series I've Got the Shirt on, Pray, How to Talk to God When You Don't Know0:26 What to Say. And consistently, with people, particularly men, when you look at these spiritual disciplines of maybe studying God's word or worship or whatever, prayer0:38 consistently ranks at the bottom. It's not that they don't want to pray or they don't know the need of prayer, they just don't know how to pray. So if you're in here or you're online and you're insecure about praying,0:49 I've got some really good news for you. Jesus, when he walked on the earth, he chose 12 disciples. And they struggled with prayer. They were insecure about it. Matter of fact, we're looking at what is1:01 referred to as the Lord's Prayer, it's really the disciples prayer. And it came out of a question from the disciples to the Lord that simply said, Lord, teach us to pray.1:13 What they were saying is, you're good at it, we are not. And so as we journey through this, we remember last week we talked about the idea that a lot of people call Matthew chapter 6 the lord's prayer. It's really not1:25 the lord's prayer. The lord's prayer is over in John chapter 17 if you wanna read that. This is the disciples prayer. This came out of this prayer that we all recite or many of us know, it came out1:37 of a request from the disciples, Lord teach us to pray. And he says, then pray then in this way. We started last week in the first message looking at the idea that we, through this1:49 prayer, we're gonna talk about a bunch of ships that we can navigate our lives on. The first ship was relationship, started with our father. Then it was worship, who art2:00 in heaven. Alright? So as we think about, our journey, it started with relationship, then it went to worship, and today this is the hard 1. Everybody say hard 1. Your2:14 will be done. Warning, this is the 1 we struggle with, right? I I don't mind praying, our father, I love the idea, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name, your2:25 kingdom come, then I'm gonna skip through it. Then I'm gonna say on earth as in heaven, give us this day our daily bread, right? But this is the hard 1, your2:38 will be done. But before we can get to that, we have to remember that prayer begins with relationship, not a religion. Not just a discipline, that we2:49 have a relationship with the father. Because at the end of the day, prayer doesn't become powerful until it becomes personal between us and God. And let me tell you, prayer is healthy. I I shared a couple of studies with3:01 you last week. Let me share a couple of more with you when you want to know the reason to pray, not just because Jesus told us to pray, but it's good for your health. Ran across this article. How many of you, there's a3:13 new craze over the last couple of years, call it cold plunge if you work out. How many of you have done 1, raise your hand? How many of you have done 1 and you'll never do another 1? Yeah, yeah, that's about a3:24 third of the people that go in. I ran across a study, it was in the National Journal of Library of Medicine. Here it is, Journal of Behavioral Medicine study on spiritual versus3:36 secular meditation and prayer. And they wanted to know, does it matter when you pray, if you pray spiritually to God or if you just meditate, according to a secular method?3:48 And then can they navigate and see the difference in your anxiety, your tolerance to pain, your stress level? And so they did this study, here's what they did in this study. They brought everybody in4:00 and they said here's what we're gonna do, we're gonna have this cold plunge, but it's not for your body, it's just for your arm. Most cold plunges are between 40 and 60 degrees depending on what you're doing, but this 14:12 was 35 degrees, just about 2 degrees Celsius. And what they did is they had these people come in, they told them what they were gonna do, they measured their stress level, their anxiety level, their pain tolerance, then4:23 they said stick your arm in this cold plunge, this ice plunge, leave it there as long as you can. Then they continued to interview them while they're in there. How do you feel? How's the pain? How's this? How's that? And4:34 they went out. Then they brought everybody out, divided them up into 2 different groups, and they said listen, we're going to teach this group some secular meditation ideas. We just want to talk to you about meditation4:46 and so for the next couple of weeks you're going to work on this. And this group, they said listen, we want you to pray to God. We want you to pray and really have a conversation with a loving and heavenly father. You4:57 say Pastor, what was the result? They brought them back in after a couple of weeks, they have them say alright are you prepared for this, you know what's gonna happen. Then they'd measure their anxiety, depression, all5:08 this stuff. And then they had them put their arm back in and they kept talking to them. Here was the exact result, the spiritual prayer group had had greater decreases in anxiety5:20 and a more positive attitude about the experience. Their spiritual health grew, their spiritual experiences were better than the secular group. They also,5:32 those who prayed to God spiritually, they also tolerated pain almost twice as much as the other group. So the point is, prayer helped. Not5:44 just secular meditation, and that's not me saying this, that's them saying it. Man, you and I need to understand if we're going through some stuff, if we're anxious, if we're depressed, if we're worried, or we have some5:54 chronic illness, we want to learn to develop this discipline to pray to God. Second study, I thought was even more interesting. It was the dynamics in prayer life and theNavigating Life Through Prayer: Relationship to Lordship 6:06 implications for well-being. So I went in, I looked at this article and interestingly enough, in the middle of the article was this graph. How many of you have ever prayed the Acts way of praying?6:18 Adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. This was actually in their research study. They said here's what we did, we took people in and we wanted to have 1 group just deal with life, the other group6:30 start praying this every day. And so notice as you look over on the left side, those are the antecedents, the things that were before the prayer. And guess what you had? You had people going through positive6:42 experiences, people going through negative experiences. You had some people in the middle that said, Man, life's going well. Then at the bottom an antecedent of emotions. Some people were happy, some6:54 people were sad, some people were overwhelmed, some people were this. Then they took them through, and by the way, if you're looking for a simple method, I really love this 1. Why? Because I'm gonna talk talk to you7:04 about it again. Remember last week I said most of the disciples prayer, the Lord's prayer, is about God, not us? And what I love about Acts, the Acts way of praying, is it starts with adoration,7:16 then it's confessing to God, then it's thanking God for all the good stuff, and only at the end do I ask God for anything. And so here's what happened, they put them through there and what7:28 they determined was that when people prayed consistently, the outcome was they had greater well-being, overall well-being. Spiritual, emotional, and relational.7:40 So let me tell you what, developing a prayer life wrapped around relationship with the Father, worshiping him as God, will allow us to7:52 accept his lordship in our lives. So let's just read through this prayer again. If you remember last last week I told you, when you look through the disciples prayer, the lord's prayer, there there are no personal8:03 pronouns. There there's no I, my, or me. And I think that's 1 of the problems we struggle with. A lot of times, most of us, when we pray, it's I, my, and me. The second thing8:15 we we talked about last week is most of the words, these 57 words from the original language, are actually about God and his kingdom and his will and not about me. So let's read through it together and8:27 notice what it says. Disciples said, Lord teach us to pray. He said, this then is how you should pray. Starts with relationship. Our father, everybody say8:39 father. Our father, where is he? He's in heaven, that's relationship. Hallowed be your name, that's worship. Now here's the hard 1, your kingdom come, that's8:51 not that hard, we want that. Your will be done. Can we negotiate this out, God?9:02 Can we go like 50 50, something like that? 75 25? And so we're gonna talk about the your will be done. Where? On earth, real life, hard places, as it is in9:14 heaven. So here it is, lordship, relationship, worship allows us to trust God, that's called lordship. Then it gets down to give us today our daily bread, that's stewardship, this other ship that we're9:26 journeying on, we'll talk about that 1 next week. And forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors, that's fellowship, learning to have relationship fellowship. Then notice and lead us not into temptation,9:38 that's guardianship. God guard us as we journey. And then finally, discipleship, but deliver us from the evil 1. So I want you to know, the way we9:50 look at this prayer, and the way we ought to see prayer, not just this prayer but all prayer, It is the stairway between Heaven and Earth. It is the stairway between Heaven and Earth,10:02 where when you and I pray, we get to walk up the stairway of Heaven, get to have a conversation with our loving heavenly father, then we come down and we live in this real world.10:14 So it starts with this before it goes to this. And when I have a great solid prayer life, here's the second part, I see my prayer is the stairway back and forth10:26 into heaven, but then it's the bridge to what I desire, my direction, and my destiny. Now those 3 D's, I want to talk to you about those and10:38 show you how those work. The desire, it's what I want out of life. The direction is where I'm currently headed. Destiny is10:49 where I'm going to end up. Now let me stop you real quick. I want you to know that direction is way more important than desire when determining your destiny.11:02 Let me explain it to you. Let's say that I desire to be in really good shape, but every time I go to the grocery store, my direction is towards the Oreos.11:16 What is going to determine my destiny more? My desire to be in good shape or my direction toward the Oreos? Alright, how does this flow out and flesh it out in your life? Let's11:28 say you desire to have a great marriage, but your direction includes caustic words, being absent and uncaring and unloving. Is your desire to have a good marriage gonna11:40 determine your destiny for that marriage or your direction? See, so when we come to prayer, we need to understand this is my opportunity to navigate that stairway to heaven. And when I11:51 navigate that stairway to heaven, God's gonna say, here's my will for you. Then I can say, thy kingdom come in my life. Thy will be done in my life on earth in this messy place,12:03 just like it is in heaven. And so when you think of prayer, man, it is an opportunity to talk to the father who loves you so much, but then it's also a way for me to set12:16 the idea that prayer is my bridge to make sure that my desire matches my direction so my destiny will end up where I want it to be. We all12:27 desire, folks. I think really as a believer, as a follower of Christ, we desire to be godly, we desire to be good dads and good moms and good kids and good this and good employees and we want to do that. We want to12:39 have an impact on our neighborhood, but desiring that without direction will not get us to God's destiny for our life. See, direction12:52 is your will be done. And that's not easy. Now let me just talk to you, remember it all starts with relationship. Never gonna go away from this. Our father who is in heaven. I love what Paul does in Romans chapter 8. He13:03 really fleshes that out for us, alright? So let me just show you how he he defines that relationship for us. So maybe this will encourage you and help you along the way. Here's what Paul says, Romans chapter 8 verse 15.13:14 This is defining the relationship. Who are we praying to? Verse 15, the spirit you received does not make you slaves. Let me just stop you right there and let you know that listen, when we pray,13:26 we aren't praying as peasants begging for relief. We are praying as sons and daughters. So here it is, we aren't when you pray, you're not a peasant, you're not13:38 a slave begging for relief. He says, The spirit you receive, God's spirit in me, does not make you a slave. So that you should live in fear, rather the spirit of God in you that you received13:50 brought you into your adoption into sonship. In other words, we are sonship. In other words, we are loved. Sons and daughters of God. So when we have a conversation with God in14:01 prayer, we're not peasants, we're his children. You're not a person, you're a son or a daughter of the Lord. You're not a person, you're a son or a daughter of the living God that you're talking to. Notice this, and14:13 by it by him, the spirit, we cry out Abba Father. That is a daddy level trust. When you use those words, you're talking about a14:25 kid. Because here's the reality, when you have a child, when you have a kid, it's a long time before they can take care of themselves. How many of you know that? Right? Everybody's told me forever, you wait till14:37 you have grandkids. They're gonna be amazing, right? You're gonna love them. Heard someone put it this way, grandkids are your reward for not killing your kids.14:49 Right? But everybody, now that I've had 2 grandkids and they're a couple of months old, everybody will have just somebody to go out there, hey don't you just love those grandkids? And I'm like, kind of ready for them to15:01 do something. Right? I mean, they're either laying there sleeping, eating, or that other thing. Every once in a15:13 while, if I do enough goofy stuff, I'll get a smile. Right? I'm ready for them to walk. But guess what, even when they start walking, can they take care of themselves? It's15:25 still in daddy level trust. That mom and dad are going to feed me and keep me warm and care for me and love me and when I fall, there's gonna be someone there to pick me15:36 up. So let's continue to read on, man. You you just ought to be fired up about your relationship with the Father. When you talk to God, you're not a peasant. You're not a person. You're a son of God and you have that15:48 daddy level, Abba Father. Then verse 16, the spirit himself testifies with our spirit, that we are God's children. There it is again, emphasis on relationship. Now if we are16:00 children, then we are also heirs and if we are heirs of God and co heirs with Christ, listen to this, we're not victims of our our circumstances, we are people of promise.16:13 That we are an heir. Regardless of what's going on in your life, you are a person, a son or daughter with amazing promise, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share16:25 in his glory. Man, when you pray, I think a lot of times people pray like they're interns just hoping not to get fired. Or just going to the boss saying, I hope16:37 he likes me. Man, you're you're a child of God who is greatly loved for God, loved by God. So that's your relationship. Well what's the purpose of prayer? Go to Colossians chapter 1, then we're gonna dive in16:49 and I'm gonna give you 4 thoughts on living out God's will when you're overwhelmed in life. And we get there. Here's what Paul says. Here's the purpose of prayer. For this reason, everybody say for this reason. Since the17:01 day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying. Alright? Not stopped praying says prayer is always happening. We pray without ceasing.17:13 Prayer is not just for emergency use only. Prayer is not the emergency exit. It is a daily ongoing conversation with God. He said, we haven't stopped. Instead, we continually17:24 ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will, give you some clarity in the midst of your chaos, through all wisdom and understanding. What does that mean? Not17:36 only knowing what I need to do, but how I need to do it. So I'm praying God fill me up with your wisdom, that the spirit gives so that what? That you may live a life worthy of17:48 the Lord. Full stop. If you are a believer, I believe every person in this room has a great desire to please God.18:01 1 of my greatest desires is to someday be able to stand before God and he say, well done, good and faithful servant. That's my desire.18:15 But remember, there's a direction that will ultimately lead me or not lead me to that destiny. And I believe that as children of God, that if we want to reach our18:27 destiny, which is ultimately here in well done, good and faithful service, prayer is a part of it. Because Paul says, listen, we pray to God, we don't stop. That he would fill us with the knowledge of his will,18:39 knowing what to do and how to do it. So that I can live a life that is ultimately pleasing to God. And to please him in every way, going back, bearing fruit in every18:51 good work, that's real life situations, and growing in the knowledge of Christ. So, here it is, our relationship, we are sons and daughters of God. We worship him, and when19:03 we worship a loving God, that leaves us with a daddy level trust, which is lordship, and only then, and then and only then, can we then pray this prayer, your kingdom19:14 come, your will be done. So why would we want to pray your kingdom come, your will be done? Well, because in life sometimes we are overwhelmed. How many of you know19:26 that? Just junk comes our way. With your health, with your finances, with your struggles, here it is. So if we're gonna pray this way, how do I pray when I'm19:38 overwhelmed using the disciples prayer with this phrase, your will be done, your kingdom come. Thought number 1, pray for God's rule in your life, not just yourSurrendering to God's Will in Overwhelm 19:50 relief. Pray, God, I want you to have control over my life. I want to pray for your rule in my life. I don't want to just pray for relief. Remember Acts? Adoration, confession,20:01 thanksgiving, supplication. It starts with me saying God, I want you to rule over my life. Here it is, Matthew chapter 6 verse 10, he says your kingdom come.20:14 Man, why would I want God's kingdom to come in the midst of chaos in my life? Well number 1, God's kingdom is bigger than my problems. How many of you know that? I'm grateful for that. Number20:26 2, because here's what we understand. When I pray God's kingdom, your kingdom come, it can turn my panic into a purpose. That not just what I'm going through,20:38 but how does God want me to go through it? Man, I want to be the kind of person that when I'm overwhelmed, when I'm going through something, I can say, God, I want to pray that you would show me not only what to20:50 do, but how to do it. I I submit to you that too often our prayers, when we're overwhelmed, are God get me out. Can I encourage a twist21:01 on that? Instead of starting to pray, instead of continuing to pray God get me out, how about this? Start praying God get me through. God get me through this. And21:13 God if you don't take me out of it, I want you to show me how you want me to act and what you want me to do. Alright? So change that when you pray if you're overwhelmed. Maybe it's family or finances or struggle21:25 or health or whatever. Man, sure pray for God's healing, pray for God to do a a special work, but say, but if that's not your will, God get me through it. Remember a21:37 guy named Daniel in the old testament? Daniel was 1 of those guys that when, Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians came in, they overthrew, the children of Israel, tore down the walls,21:49 destroyed the temple. Daniel was 1 of those guys that was taken back to Babylon. Served under Nebuchadnezzar. There came a time when Daniel was serving faithfully. And all of a sudden there was an22:01 edict of the king that you would bow down and you would worship this monument to the king and remember what Daniel did? He didn't say God get me out of here. Now if you'd asked22:13 Daniel early in his life, you'd say hey Daniel, are you looking forward to Jerusalem being swamped, the walls being torn down, the temple being torn down and you taken to a different place? Are you looking forward to22:23 that? He said, no. He would have prayed, Lord get me through it. So the king came in and said, hey are you not going to bow down to me? I've said a decree, the decree says listen, if you're not going to bow down to me,22:35 I'm going to throw you in the lion's den. Sure enough, Daniel says, what am I going to do? He goes into his room, he prays 3 times to his God. They tell on him. King calls him forward, says, are you going to bow down to22:47 me? Daniel says, no. Alright, take him to the lion's den. Daniel rolls into the lion's den. Doesn't ask for God to get him out, asks for God to get him through and what does it say? An angel of the Lord came22:59 and closed the lion's mouth. The next morning, the king comes and he looks and he sees Daniel in there, petting the lions. I'm making that up. K?23:11 He was alive, but you know, I always see these little cartoon pictures. If Daniel's like, I know Daniel's better than me because he got in the bible, I'm not. I'm just, I'm on the back cover somewhere.23:23 Maybe. But my thoughts are Daniel's gotta be sitting in there praying all night, right? We we we see all these wonderful cartoon pictures where Daniel's in there hanging out with lions, petting the mane. I'm like,23:35 I think he's over there going, keep him away, Lord. Keep him away. Just keep him away. Let the sun come up, let the sun come up. It says the angel of the Lord shut the So what Daniel went through it. He didn't pray get23:47 out of it. So here's thought number 1. Man, when you and I are journeying forward, number 1 is pray for God's will, God's rule, not just your relief. Here's number 2, Pray for God's agenda,23:59 not just your preference. Pray for God's agenda, not just your preference. Now here's your warning label. Your kingdom come, your will24:11 be done. Warning, this is where we all fall short. Our father, I can pray it. Give me this24:23 day my daily bread, I can pray it. Forgive me of my debts as I forgive my day, I can pray it. On earth as it is in heaven, I can pray it.24:35 Your will be done. That's hard. You can only do this if you understand relationship with your father. You're not a peasant begging24:47 for relief, that you worship him as the 1 true God, and you love Him, which leads to a trust in the heavenly Father that, listen, as you think about it,24:59 tells us that God's will is bigger than my will, and then and only then can I pray, God, your will be done? This is25:11 not an easy thing to pray. This is a hard thing to pray. This is a God, if you need to,25:23 get me through it. Don't get me out of it, God. Tell me tell me what you want me to do and how you want me to do it.25:34 Remember in the book of Daniel again, Daniel had some friends, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. There was a time when King said, hey, I'm going to build an image to me. You're25:46 going to bow down to me. They said, we're not gonna do it. King said, I've got this fiery furnace for you. It's either the furnace or you25:58 bow to me. Remember what they said? They said, oh king, we will not bow down and pray to you. He says, you're going into the26:10 furnace, remember their response, our God is able. Everybody say, our God is able. Our God is able26:22 to save us from the hottest furnace. But that's not where that phrase stopped. It was comma, but even if he26:34 doesn't. Do you get it? See this is your your will be done statement. God, get me out.26:47 But even if you don't, show me how to go through it. Tell me what you want me to say and how you want me to live and how you want me to act. Here's the third26:59 idea as we journey forward on earth. Pray for heaven's power during the earth pressure. When you're overwhelmed, your kingdom come, your will be done27:11 on earth. Here's the way I look at that. That's real life situation. That's on earth, that's your family.27:23 That's your health. That's your job. That's your finances. That's you. The Lord on earth, this is real27:35 life. This isn't heaven. By the way, if you think this is heaven, I've got good news for you, heaven's gonna be way better. K? But we live here. We live27:47 in this earth and it's broken and it's hurting and it's hard. It's not nice to us sometimes. That's why it's so important that we pray your kingdom come, your will be done. Even right27:59 here on earth. Now that means there's some work for us to do. Remember a guy named Nehemiah in the old testament after, the Babylonians came and overthrew him, Nehemiah28:11 rises up, they get a king that is open to letting him go back. He goes back and he looks at Jerusalem and says the walls are down, the people are discouraged, everything is a mess.28:24 He's overwhelmed. Go read what it says, the next thing Nehemiah did, he says he went back and he prayed. Lord, your will be done.28:36 But he didn't stop at prayer, because the desire to have the walls rebuilt had to be led by direction to go to the king28:47 and ask for permission, and also ask for the money. So he went to the political route, then when the politics said okay, then he gathered around people, carpenters, he says we're28:59 gonna go down there and we're gonna inspect it. So they go around, they make these plans, then they gathered a team of people around them and said let's rebuild the walls. Now if you go read the story, it doesn't say29:11 everybody cheered for them. As a matter of fact, some people were their enemies. But I love this idea that Daniel said, listen, I'm gonna go build that29:22 wall. I'm gonna pray to God and I'm gonna put in the work. When you talk about your earth, this earth, your marriage is struggling, your walls are down,29:35 pray, go to work. Your finances are a mess, pray, go to work. Your relationships are a mess, pray, go to29:47 work. And I believe that God will help you rebuild your walls. See desire, it's good. Direction is29:59 better. So Here's the last idea, I love this final idea. Pray for heaven's blueprint in your life, in this earth,30:11 not earth's chaos. Well we can all think about perfection but here it is, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth chaos. Just as it is in30:23 heaven. See, we always gotta remember in our marriages, in our lives, in our family, heaven's the standard. Earth's not the model.30:35 You get it? Your job is not to look at someone else's marriage. Because we can always find somebody whose marriage is just a little worse than mine. We can also find somebody that there's a little30:47 better than mine. Lord, whatever you do, don't ever look at someone else's kids. You got no idea. See, heaven is a standard.31:01 Earth's not our model. That we want to pray God, heaven's perfect and we know that. It it it's perfect, it's peaceful, it's purposeful. Exactly the31:12 opposite of my life and house. But God, I want your will to be done in this broken and fallen world.31:25 And guess what, when you pray you'll no longer accept earth's chaos. Through God's power you'll start changing it and31:36 we'll see his kingdom come. Let's pray. God thank you so much for being a good God and a loving God. God thank you that although I deserve it,31:49 when I bow down to pray I shouldn't be a peasant just begging for relief. Instead you called me a son. God, I pray that we would leave here today understanding that although it's scary32:01 sometimes to pray, your will be done. When we understand that we have a heavenly father with a daddy level trust, we can know he's gonna do what's good for us.32:13 God, let us be a people that doesn't just simply pray, God, get me out, but we say, God, get me through. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen and amen.In this video 0:00 The Power of Personal Prayer5:59 Navigating Life Through Prayer: Relationship to Lordship19:42 Surrendering to God's Will in Overwhelm
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