Prevailing Prayers — Sharon Ries

Prevailing Prayer: Learning to Pray

Lord, we just thank you that you have given us this tremendous gift that to think that created beings can talk to God is just an amazing thought. So Lord, as the disciples said, we ask you, teach us to pray.

Teach us through your word. Lord, teach us through these men who've lived and women who've lived throughout the ages the significance of prayer. Exhort us. Give us the hunger and thirst to pray. Show us the importance of it so that we will long for it, we will need it, we will know that we cannot live without it.

In Jesus' name, amen. I had named this topic just prayer. I asked, just let me do prayer. I don't care if three people show up. I want to do prayer because I want to learn more about prayer. And I guess Sandy and them named it prevailing prayer, which is really interesting because my grandmother used to prevail in prayer.

And that's exactly how she'd say. She goes, I'm going to prevail in prayer. And to me, the way she said it described, you can laugh, the way she said it described what prevailing meant. She never described it to me.

I'm going to describe it to you. But she just would say, we must prevail. You know, it was just amazing. And I never forgot that. And it just came back. When I read this, I thought, it's prevailing prayer.

Anyway, as you can see, I love that. I do not in any way consider myself to be a great woman of prayer. And I say that to my shame. Although before I did this study, I thought I was. But when I really started looking into it, I thought, I am just barely whetting my appetite with prayer.

And I want to give you what the Lord gave me. Raul just gave me all these books. I told him, give me a bunch of books on all the prayer warriors you could find. And he gave me Spurgeon and Luther and I'm obsessed with Martin Luther and Tozer and Ian Bounds has just completely blown me out of the water and on and on.

And so I have a lot of quotes of theirs. And I at first, I thought, is this right for me to be quoting all these people that aren't in the Bible? Yes, it's a continuation of the book of Acts. It's people who have prayed.

And I also have people in the Bible, but people who have prayed and have seen things happen and how they described it. And I just would rather hear from the people who are masters at prayer. So I long to be like them.

Many that I read about, they prayed a minimum was three hours a day. Some of them were like eight hours a day. And I thought, so what else did they do? You know, they ate and they prayed. And you'll see why.

Trials That Drive Believers to Their Knees

Through many trials, which I've gone through and you have too, I'm sure, and long testings, some testings that have taken years. One particular testing in my life took seven years, but it started 18 years before.

But it went on for seven years. Those testings have driven me to my knees to find help in time of need, because no one could help me when I was going through these things. They're testings that the Lord allows, and no one can help you.

And they're not going to end until God says it's over. And so I've learned that I had to get on my knees, and it doesn't mean I'm always on my knees, on my face or in the bed or wherever I am, praying, sitting up.

I have found that as the scripture says, I can come boldly into the throne of grace, that I might obtain mercy, which means not get what I deserve, and find grace and merited favor and help in time of need.

And that is because of that thick curtain that used to be around the holy of holies in the Old Testament. It was ripped from top to bottom when the Lord died on the cross, and he opened the way so that now I can go in to that holy place, and I can talk to God.

And you know, we grow up, I grew up in a Christian home where, okay, let's pray. And my grandbabies are just, let's pray. It's just so normal. Girls, it is not normal to be able to go in and talk to God.

It is something that God acquired for us when Jesus died on the cross. He made it possible. So it would be normal for us, but it's not a normal thing. Not anybody can go in to that holy place and talk to God, but we can.

Now I can enter into that holy place, and I can plead my cause, and I'm good at that. I'm kind of a lawyer attitude, you know. Okay, this is the deal, right, God? You know, I plead my case, and I plead the case of others, and we can do that before our loving Father, before the interceding son, who is the advocate, and God is the just judge, and our helper, who's the Holy Spirit.

And I've been to court with a few of my friends, and so I know what that's like, to have the judge sitting there, and you think, does he know anything that's going on here? Then you have the lawyer who's trying to intercede for you, and then you have, I'm always the friend, you know, that's trying to help whoever.

But here we have the whole triune Godhead interceding for us, and concerned, and involved, and what our cause is, and it could be the smallest little thing to the biggest thing. My goal today is to surrender my life more.

That is my goal. I want to surrender my life more, more than I ever have. Each day, in prevailing prayer for myself, for my loved ones, for the church, and for those who are lost without hope. And I've been doing that, and that praying, Lord, is there anywhere, anywhere in the world that needs for me to pray for them?

And I feel like I'm praying for people that are in jail, or in prison, or somewhere. I want to do that. I want to make a greater mark spiritually in God's kingdom than I ever have. You know, I am on the last, the end of the road.

I'm 57, I'm packing for the end here. The scriptures are packed with examples of men and women who had a magnificent obsession for our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And they, because of that, they prevailed in prayer in order to know him.

And that's something we're going to learn today, that prevailing in prayer isn't just when you're going through drama, it's to prevail in prayer to know him. And that God's will will be accomplished. Isn't that what he said in the Lord's Prayer?

Thy will be done in this earth as it is in heaven. There are thousands, literally thousands, maybe millions of pages written by saints throughout the ages who have prevailed in prayer. Their prayers are even written, are written of saints.

They write about each other, these people. You hear one guy, well, Luther prayed like this, and then the other guy says, well, Spurgeon prayed like that. They talk about each other because they study each other, how they pray.

And so I'm entering that group of people that study each other. And they've led a life of prevailing prayer, and they have written about it. And their prayers have been written, like David, the psalmist, and we read his prayers.

I have been contemplating some of these, and I'm going to have a lot of quotes, and I'm just going to throw them out there. You won't be able to write them, but you can get them all out of the books. In our theme scripture, Philippians 3 .12, which you heard of earlier today, I follow after that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended by the Lord Jesus Christ.

That scripture, of all of the scriptures, gripped me this retreat. I want to grasp the reason that he's grasped me, and I don't think I've grasped that yet. And I've been in the Lord my whole life. I've been in Christian ministry my whole life.

But I don't feel that I have grasped yet what I'm supposed to grasp. And I really believe that it's this. It's a life of prayer and grasping that idea that I can communicate with the Godhead, and things can happen in the world, things that I may not even know about till I get to heaven.

But that I was a part with maybe somebody on the other side of the world praying for that same situation, and even for world changes. You know, with Katrina and all these disasters happening, we need to learn to pray for God to stop the rain, or send the storm, or not send the storm.

We pray, Lord, destroy the wicked. And the Lord destroyed the wicked. He destroyed a lot of wicked people when he did that. So my first point is just what is prevailing, the word prevailing, in prayer?

What It Means to Prevail in Prayer

Well, Grandma said it right. She said, prevailing in prayer. And I knew it was serious. It meant this is serious. What does it mean? To prevail means to win over, to be able to overcome, to endure, to have might, and to have power.

And we're going to have to follow after this. We're going to have to pursue this to be able to prevail in prayer. Because we're used to our little prayers. And there's nothing wrong with those arrow prayers, all those short little prayers.

We need to be doing that all the time. But we want to win Christ, as the scripture says. And that happens through prayer. Prevailing prayer is the prayer that wins favor with God against Satan and his forces.

It's able to make one overcome sin and temptation and stand up against spiritual wickedness and hosts of demons. It is the prayer that endures and has might and power with God and man. Now, isn't that just enough to want to make you prevail in prayer?

It is the praying that persists until it has an answer from God, even if the answer is wait or no. You just want an answer. Always tell God, I just want to hear from you by you giving me peace over this situation or whatever.

And my grandmother used to say, honey, you need to pray through. Her name was Yola. Yola Cop. You need to pray through. And she told us when we were very young at age that my grandpa, her husband, who was Leroy, he came to town and he was this young, red-headed preacher.

And all the girls in all the churches were after him. And she was the piano player at our church and she was proud as a peacock, out of her own words. And she just determined, I will be the one girl that is not after him.

Well, he wrote her a 13-page love letter and described to her why the Lord showed him that she was to be his wife and companion for life. And she went storming with that letter to her dad and she says, this guy, he just thinks every girl in town is after him.

Well, I'll be the one that's not after him. And he says, Yola, you better pray through. And he sent her to her room, wouldn't let her out of the room until she had prayed through. And she said, okay, I prayed through.

When she prayed through, that meant that she had prevailed with God. She was filled with divine love for grandpa and she married him. Now, think if she had not been taught to pray through. And you think, how many things have we missed out on in life?

And grandpa did a mighty work for the Lord. She was able to move mountains. She's gone now. But my mother is able to move mountains. She's steadfast in overcoming prayer. On many occasions, I've had, and my sister has too.

I've had my mother and my sisters come storming through my front door. The Lord has told us, come and pray for you. And they just sit me down and they lay hands on me, anoint me. And you do not get up until they're done.

And you've been prayed for. I've had the incredible and awesome experience. I didn't even know how to. I wrote this several times. I didn't know how to say it. Of having Kay Smith prevail in prayer for me personally.

Like, live, one-on-one, over the phone, day after day. When I was going through a very dark night of my soul. In particular, calling me every single morning to pray and not let me go. And I would be, I have to go now.

Wait, I want you to repeat this. I wrestle not, I wrestle not against flesh and blood. Against flesh and blood. You have to know this. Say it again. Prevailing in prayer to get me through. Because she knew that Satan was out to destroy Raul and me and our ministry.

Samuel Chadwick wrote,. The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies. Prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil. Mocks at our wisdom.

But he trembles when we pray. Cool, huh? Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, who came in human form. Was strengthened after he made war. Or prevailed against Satan through prevailing prayer. And the word of God in fastings.

When he was tempted for 40 days. And you can read that. But it was prevailing prayer, 40 days. Against Satan who was trying to get him to stop. And not go into his ministry. Also, Jesus overcame Satan.

And the wicked host that surrounded him through prevailing prayer. When he offered his life up. Remember when he went to Gethsemane. And he prayed, not my will. But thine be done. And he was strengthened by an angel.

To be mocked. To endure mocking. Here's the King of Kings. To endure being beaten. To endure being crucified. We cannot endure these things. Unless we have prayed. We have prevailed in prayer. And we have prayed through.

He prevailed that the fathers will be accomplished. The salvation of souls. Imagine if we just. When we started there was about three women here. And I said we only need one in this class. To pray for the salvation of souls.

Or to pray for God's will to be done. He doesn't ask for everybody. He's looking for one person that will pray. And it says there in Luke 22. And when he had. He was in the place of Gethsemane. He said to the disciples.

Pray that you enter not into temptation. You see the secret there. And they did. They didn't pray. They fell asleep. And they were tempted. And he was withdrawn from them. About a stone's cast. And he kneeled down.

And he prayed saying. Father if you be willing. Remove this cup from me. Nevertheless thy will be done. So I mean he's putting his request. But we always top it off with. Nevertheless thy will be done.

And that's when the sacrifices come in. When God is silent. And you go okay. You want this. I'll give it to you. But you're going to have your will. And that's it. And that's how you pray. And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven.

Strengthening him being in agony.

He prayed more earnestly. And his sweat.

Was as if it were great drops of blood. Falling to the ground. I can't imagine what kind of prevailing in prayer that would be. To just be blood coming out of your pores. Those who prevail in prayer. Become a part of accomplishing.

God's will in this earth. Isn't that amazing? I mean don't you want that? I do. I want that. James the brother of our Lord. Who is said to have had camel's knees. From so much bending his knees. And prayer wrote.

The Effective, Fervent Prayer of the Righteous

Of the strength found in prevailing prayer. The prevailing prayer of a saint. In James 5 16. This is a scripture that has always. Gotten my attention. The effective. Fervent prayer of the righteous. Avails much.

My mother made us memorize that. When we were little. And I had no idea what any of it meant. But the effective fervent prayer of the righteous man. Avails much. Effective means the active. Mighty. Laborious.

So you're going to work at this prayer. You literally have to set time aside. To pray. But you're praying also. I don't want to in any way say you have to be in a certain place. Or you could be driving.

But you're focusing on praying. You could be on your knees. You could be on your face. You could be alone. But you're active. The effective. Active. Mighty. Laborious prayer. And then it says the fervent prayer.

Effective fervent means zealous. Zealous means godly jealousy. You're fighting with a godly jealousy. For God's kingdom. For God's people. Or with fervor or ardor. And that speaks of fire. You're just praying with all your heart and mind.

And it says of the righteous. Of the innocent. The holy. The just. That's us. Because we have been forgiven. And our sins are washed away. We are clean. Avails. Now I never liked that translation. Avails.

It's like, oh, well, it will be kind of good. No. You know what avails means? It exercises force. Is that too cool? That our prayer exercises force. It prevails. What does that mean? It wins. It's strong.

It's good. It's mighty. I mean, you can picture the father and the son. The son sitting at the right hand. And the father interceding for us. And we're praying. We're crying. Whatever we're doing. Wimping.

Complaining. And we're righteous. And we're praying. With this active, mighty, laborious prayer. Zealous. With godly jealousy. And Jesus says, wait. She's praying. What is she saying? Let's do that. Does that just give you the chills?

That gives me the chills up and down my spine. To think that my prayer avails much in the courts of heaven. Charles Spurgeon. And I had a lot of quotes of him. But this one says, prayer is the slender nerve.

That's us. That moves the muscle of the omnipotence. Prayer is able to prevail with heaven. And bend omnipotence to its desires. To what desires? To the desires of prayer. Remember when Abraham interceded for the city of Sodom.

I mean, God's listening. And he's thinking, okay. Can we find these people? Where are they? Can we save these people? Martin Luther said, none can believe how powerful prayer is. And what it is able to affect.

But those who have learned it by experience. So now you know I'm reading about all these guys. Prevailing prayer and humility is one of the topics that I studied. Prevailing prayer and humility. This is important.

Prevailing Prayer and Humility

In order to come to God in prayer, we must first come in humility. James 4 .6 says, God resists the proud, but he gives grace. A merited favor to the humble. Ian Bound said, humility of heart. Get ready to get blown out of the water.

Humility of heart is that which gives the soul of man access to God in prayer. Humility is as indispensable requisite to true prayer. Is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. Humility is born by looking at God and his holiness.

And then looking at self and our unholiness. There is no praying without humility. We have to come to God in humility. So we have to ask him to clothe us in his humility. And cause us to see him so that we can see how wretched and lost we are.

Ian Bounds also says, to be humble is to have a low estimate of oneself. I mean, if we're truthful with ourselves, do we? It's to be modest, lowly, with a disposition to seek obscurity. Now that one made me stop and really think.

Because I thought, okay, I'm up on the pulpit a lot. And so how are you up on the pulpit in seeking obscurity? And that's something we have to think about and bring to prayer before the Lord. We're pastor's wives.

We're up front. So we're not in an obscure place. We're actually in a very focal point of the church. So how do we do that? I challenge you to seek the Lord, to seek obscurity. That Christ would be magnified in me.

That people would see Christ and not me. They would forget who we are. And they would go home thinking about the message and not who the messenger was. Humility retires itself from the public gaze. It does not seek publicity nor hunt for high places.

Neither does it care for prominence. No politics with humility. In humility, there's a total absence of pride. Iain Bound said that. Total absence of pride. There's no self-praise in humility. That which gives wings to prayer is lowliness of mind.

So how many prayers have we said that just bounce off from heaven? Because there's no lowliness of mind. Humility flourishes in the soil of true and deep sense of our sinfulness and nothingness. We have to ask God first to show us our sinfulness.

God dwells in the lowly places. He makes such lowly places really the high places to the praying soul. And in the scriptures, let's see, I may have lost it. But I'm just thinking of that scripture right now.

That says that he dwells in the high and holy place with those who are. Oh, I have it right here. I wrote it here. Isaiah 57, 5. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity. So right there, Isaiah lets us know.

He's high, he's lofty, he's in heaven, he's God. Whose name is holy. And he's holy. I dwell in the high and in that holy place with him. With who? With us. With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.

Who does he dwell with? The humble. So we can spend hours in prayer. But if we don't have a humble heart, we're wasting our time. Isaiah 66, 2. But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word.

Psalm 34, 18. The Lord is near to them that are of a broken spirit. He saves those that have a contrite heart. Psalm 51, 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. This is how he wants us to come to him.

A broken or contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise. Augustine said, God gives where he finds empty hands. In the kneeling Christian, he says, we are never so high as when we are on our knees with God.

On our knees with God in prayer. This is so opposite than the way we are. We literally have to be transformed. Our mind has to be transformed to think up is down, down is up. You know, it's just opposite.

God's thoughts are not our thoughts. George McDonald said he knows little of himself who does not know that he is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. But until he begins at least to suspect a need, how can he pray?

Holiness, Usefulness, and a Life of Prayer

Robert Murray McShane. Love this guy. Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this. Your usefulness and we want to be useful for your sermons last for an hour or two. But your life preaches all week.

We are preaching louder with our life, aren't we? If Satan can only make a covetous minister, a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating. He has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer. Get your text, your thoughts, your words from God.

Luther spent his best three hours in prayer. Isn't that amazing? It's going to get better, girls. Okay. Prayer is by faith, not by sight. Faith in God comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God.

So as we're hearing the word of God this weekend and all the time we are being built up. And when we start losing that faith in God, that trust, when we start doubting, we need to get back into the word.

So he can build up our faith so we can pray. It is not only by faith that we can move into the unseen realm of communication. It's only by faith that we can move into that unseen realm of communication with God.

I thought I lost my place. Prayer puts one on the same page with God. I have found that my prayers, when I go to him with a big drama, which I have plenty, I live with drama and I am drama. So we have two dramas in the house.

I have found that my prayers do not change God. What did God say? I am God. I change not. My prayers change the way I see the things of God. And it's so awesome. He just changes your way of thinking. Prayer opens the floodgates to divine guidance.

It invigorates the mind. It loosens up your thoughts. And it gives us utterances from God. I tested this yesterday. I sat in my room and I just was praying and praying. And the Lord gave me a prayer. It was so amazing.

I wrote it and I said, I can't believe it. I wrote a whole prayer. It was a two-page prayer. And it was just really a neat prayer. Prayer is received by the Father. It's interceded by Christ. And it's empowered by the Holy Spirit.

And a lot of times we just think, I'm just praying and praying. I'm praying and praying. God's not listening. And my grandma would say, that's because you haven't travailed in prayer. Okay, Richard Halverson said, you can organize until you're exhausted.

And I am the Martha in the family, and Raul is the Mary. You can plan, although he's very organized, but he sits a lot in prayer. You can organize until you're exhausted. You can plan, program, and subsidize all your plans.

But if you fail to prayer, it's a waste of time. Prayer is not optional for us. It's mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God. Scary stuff, huh? Little prayer is characteristic of a backslidden age and a backslidden church.

When I read that, I called Raul right away. And I said, Raul, how many prayer meetings do we have going at the church? And he said, he's trying to think. And I said, are you sure we're not in a backslidden stage?

He says, no, Sharon. Are you sure? Okay, whenever there is little prayer in the pulpit or the pew, spiritual bankruptcy is imminent and inevitable. It really did scare me. And I did call Raul and I did ask him, how many prayer meetings do we have going at the church?

Martin Luther said, to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Amazing, huh? Prayer fulfills the will of God. We're learning. 1 John 5 .14 says, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything, hasn't that scripture always bothered you?

Well, I've asked all this stuff. If we ask anything, according to the will of God, he hears us. Now, remember Hannah, how she just prayed and prayed for a son. But then her prayer changed. It became according to the will of God.

Lord, if you give him to me, I'll give him to you. And so when I pray, I go, okay, Lord, I've been praying for this for how many years now? And change my prayer to be your will. Cause me to pray, not just Lord, according to your will, but to pray your will.

And the Holy Spirit will pray his will through us. And I've seen a lot of prayers answered that way. But they're sacrificial prayers. They're, Lord, save my son, and I'll give him to you, even if I never see him again the rest of my life.

You know, even if he's imprisoned, even if he gives his life, you know, whatever. Just, you know, when you start praying according to God's will, you are putting it all on the altar. Chuck Smith, An Effective Prayer Life, great little booklet.

He describes very orderly prayer. And he says prayer can be expressed in three basic forms. Worship, petition, and intercession. With variations within each form. And then he goes through the book, giving all those variations.

The three is worship, which is a result, continuing to quote him, of a conscience awareness of God's presence. And that's probably the first thing we need to do when we pray is, Lord, I need to be consciously aware that you are here.

And a lot of times it's just a verse in scripture. I will never leave you and forsake you is one of my favorite ones. You said you'll never leave me and forsake me. Or two or three are gathered together, you're in their midst.

Well, I'm just here with the Holy Spirit and Jesus. Is that, those three, and you, is that good? Because nobody else is here. Just, it's, and we worship when we're aware of his presence. And when you read the Psalms, and I read a bunch of them today, we see that David was aware of his presence and so he could worship him.

As I realize the greatness of God, I naturally respond with deep inner worship. Worship from the spirit. And I'll just read Psalm 91, where it says, Worship, oh, it's about worship. He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide in the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge. He's my fortress. He's my God. In him will I trust. Surely he will deliver me from the snare of the fowler. So you see that worship first of God before going into a petition.

And then a petition is when you bring, I bring my needs before God and ask him for help in time of trouble. And that's probably where we spend most of our time until God leads us someplace else. Psalm 86 starts out, I love that.

Lord, I need you right now. Are you listening? Are you here? Are you hearing me? I say to the Lord a lot. Lord, just give me a sign, a bird, anything, you know, something to fly by, anything to just say, I'm listening.

He doesn't always do that, though. But it's a way of saying, bow down your ear. You know, I always want, I'm the fleece woman, you know, just some little thing. Somebody call me, a great scripture, you know, some miraculous thing from heaven.

He says, I'll never leave you. I'm inclining my ear to you. I love you when you pray to me. So we need to do it by faith. You know, intercession is when you reach out beyond yourself and we pray for others.

And that's the area that I want to learn more and more about as I'm getting older. Prayer is waiting on God. We must prevail to be still. You know, maybe you came to this class thinking prevailing means just like really going for it, like the preacher that we heard last night.

And I heard many people prevail out loud in prayer and worship the Lord. But we have to prevail in prayer to be able to sit still and to wait on him. We must strive to be still and wait for God until we have established communication with him.

I found that it takes a while to just sit there and just, or wherever you are, to just feel like, okay, I'm in his presence. It's me that has to get in his presence. He's there, but he's saying, okay, I'm waiting for you.

And so I have to prevail to be still. We must be silent and shut every other thought and distraction out that is around us. We must not talk to him but contemplate on him and therefore draw near to him, James 4, 8.

Draw near to God and he will, that's a promise, draw near to you. And then it goes on to say, cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. I remember times when I would be, okay, I'm going to pray.

I'm going to pray for like an hour. But then I had my little notes because you think of all these things and I think, okay, I can't forget that. So go back to pray. Oh, I can't forget that either. And then I thought, what am I doing?

I'm writing notes the whole time about doing the laundry or picking up the kids. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Don't be thinking about anything else when we're praying. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

Gail McDonald says, disengagement means silence before God. It is a time of heavenly discussion during which we listen more than we speak. And silence demands solitude. We need to be alone. We need to be quiet.

We need to turn the phone, everything off. Maybe we can't be at home. Maybe we have to go out somewhere because the home distracts us. Jesus said to his disciples many times, and I just wrote down Mark 6, 31.

Come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest awhile. But the multitudes were following after him. So I thought that was an interesting thing. They were following after him and he ended up feeding the 5 ,000 plus and taking care of all these people.

And then they got on a ship, a boat, and then he came walking to them. So it was quite a while before they came alone to rest and be alone with the Lord. But he calls us. Yes, I know the multitudes are there.

I know you have to take care of them. But take time out. Don't forget. We must persevere and persist and be in still before our God. That is to prevail in prayer, I have found. I remember one time, not too long ago, I was going through a very, very difficult situation.

It was just every situation I think this is worse than the abuse. I always think it's worse than anything I went through. And I was telling the Lord, I can't deal with it. I really could not. And I told Raul, he wanted to go motorcycle riding.

I said, go. I ride a Harley with him. So I said, just go. I'm not going because I'm going to be still with the Lord. And so I was sitting there and I couldn't even be still. I could not still my heart.