throw it outside the window. Here is paved because it's paved with tar, right? Maybe a mix of concrete and tar. Again, go with me on this. Because it's paved, you can go somewhere, and something is true when it comes to our spiritual lives. If we have this tar, if we have this pavement, then we can actually race after the Lord. Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and this is Essential Presents. You know, when it comes to prayer, sometimes there are so many different ways to do it, and so many different options, and so many different steps that it can be kind of complicated. You can become one of those situations where it's like, I don't even... where do I even start? There's a thousand different acronyms. I have another acronym someone had shared with me, and I thought it was really good. The acronym is TAR, T-A-R: Tell, Ask, and Rely. Here's how it goes. So, the first part of this prayer is you look at your heart, and you tell God what you found. Like, you basically reveal

yourself to the Lord. So, it's that whether you want something or whether you're going through something, whether you're going through some pain, basically what are your thoughts, feelings, and emotions. You examine those, you just basically find them out, and then you just tell God about them. Another way we sometimes say it in other kinds of prayers is you relate those things to God, basically just tell them to the Lord. Now, one of the obstacles for so many of us is we're like, Well, no, I mean, he already knows everything. Well, yeah, but in a relationship, even if someone already knows something, they know it from someone else, they know it from some other kind of means. To be able to tell someone something is an act of humility, it's an act of trust, it's an act of love when you tell them that. So, the first step in tar is, Okay, what's in my heart? What am I going through? Where am I at? And just tell God that. The second step is ask, so tell and then ask. Basically, I'm asking God for help in

this moment, whether that be like, Okay, here's my life. I'm recognizing that in this stage in life, in this day in life, or maybe this season in life, I find myself so distressed and so sad about, uh, here's the situation with family, here's a situation with work, here's even just a situation with my own heart. I'm just so frustrated with my weakness. I'm frustrated with my own sin. I'm telling God about this, and I ask God, 'Would you please, God, step into this, step into my own heart and heal me, God. Step into this relationship with my family and just make a way here, God.' You're just asking God to be present. You're asking God to do something. You're asking God to act now. Telling God is an act of trust. Asking God is also an act of trust. So often, I think, I think sometimes we disqualify ourselves from asking something of God because, well, we're like, 'Well, it's not that big of a deal,' but it's maybe a

false humility. Sometimes, I think we refrain from asking something from God because we're like, Well, maybe he'll say no, and I don't want to reveal my heart. I don't want to make myself vulnerable because if he says no, then, well, that's my answer, so I don't know if I want to ask. And yet, to tell God what's in your heart and then to ask is an incredible, incredible act of faith. It's an incredible act of trust because then I'm saying, God, you get to answer me. You get to answer me however you want. And that's what the R is for, is I rely on God. Now, I've told God what I'm going through, that pain, that that, or I have this great hope, this great excitement, this great anticipation, this great desire for something, and then I ask God, Deal something, do with this, you know, do something with this. And then I rely on God to act. I rely on God to do whatever it is he needs to do, and that reliance is so

critical because now only if I made this personal right. I've told God what's inside my heart. I've asked for the desire of my heart. But then also now God, I'm relying on your heart. I'm relying on the fact that I believe that you're good. I am relying on the fact that I believe that you want the best for me. I believe that whatever it is you bring me, whatever you give me, or the situations I'm praying for will be the best. And that's, I think, that takes also a lot of faith. See, tar to tell, ask, and rely takes so much faith because it is so vulnerable. It is such an act of trust, and it's such an act of this, again, this powerful reliance on the Lord. But who's the model of this? The greatest model of this is our Lord himself. How does Jesus pray in the Garden of Gethsemane? He says, Father, let this cup pass from me. He tells the Lord, he actually, what he says is, before that, he even shares with his Apostles, he says, My soul is

sorrowful even to death. He tells that he asks father, Let this cup pass from me. And then he says, Yet not my will, your will be done. He relies on the father. Jesus is always going to be the model for prayer. He tells what's in his heart. He asks from the father what it is that he desires. And then he relies so tar all the way through. A lot of us, we uh, we kind of muddle our way in our relationship with the Lord because we have stops and starts where we trust him a little bit but then don't trust him. Or we kind of reveal our hearts to him then we stop revealing our hearts to him. But if we were to actually let the Lord pave the way and have this tar lie down, we tell, ask, and rely on the Lord um, I think we could go places. That last part, I don't know if I I like it because I think it's true but it also might be a little bit cornbread. So you know corny cornbread, that's anyway anyways that's

What I got for today for all. Let's hear this instruments. My name is Father Mike. Still, God bless. Still [Music].

Fr. Mike’s Prayer for Beginners

Fr. Mike’s Prayer for Beginners