One of my personal intentions for this year is to increase my prayer life. To me, prayer is the foundation of life. Prayer is how we communicate with God and if that line of communication is not open, how will we know how to navigate life? God is opening many doors for me and my family. There are things my hubby and I have been praying for and we see God moving in those areas. I am at a point where I want to make sure God takes lead 100% in everything I do; in everything we do. That’s where a bomb prayer life comes in!
In my prayer journey, there have been ups and downs, moments when I’ve felt like I had complete clarity from God and moments when I’ve felt so distant that I didn’t know if the voice I heard was His or mine. I want to be completely transparent and share with you my journey in developing a strong prayer life.
Neglecting prayer life
There have been many periods in my life where God has brought me through some things and once I’m out of the woods I tend to leave Him behind. It’s like, “Alright Lord, I need you through this rough spot”, and then once He sees me through, I praise His name, share my testimony, and then, “I’m good, Lord, until next time” (chunking up the deuces). When times are tough, I cling to Him as a baby clings to their mother, but when times are good, I let go of His hand like a child wanting to “do it by myself”. I had to acknowledge those habits and decide to make a conscious effort to not neglect prayer and make it priority over everything else in my life even if that meant waking up earlier or setting a daily notification reminder.
Changing my perspective on prayer
I had to change my perspective on prayer. We are taught as children that prayer is how we communicate with God and while that is true, I had to look at it differently. I got so used to prayer being about requests and thanksgiving and it becoming so routine (morning, before a meal and night) that I had to change how I did prayer. And because of that, it has become so much more to me. I started looking at prayer with God as a conversation with a friend, a parent, and a therapist all in one. A friend is one who listens, a parent is one who advises, and a therapist is one who helps uncover. It may or may not make sense to you, but that’s how I had to look at it in my mind and it changed the game for me. It became so much more than prayer requests and thanksgiving, which are perfectly fine, and it turned into me pouring my heart out to God. Talking to Him during the day when I became frustrated or overwhelmed, asking for His help when looking for something around the house, reflecting on and laughing about a time when I doubted Him and He came through – that’s what prayer has become to me and it’s so much better than it was before!
Writing my prayers down
As you can tell, I love to write. So I applied what I love and do well to my prayer life. Sometimes I have a difficult time articulating my true thoughts and feelings and writing has always been a better source of communication for me. I find that when I write my prayers down, I express myself better and I am able to keep track of my prayers and reflect on them as they are answered. I love going back to an answered prayer in my journal, looking at the date I started praying over that thing and looking at when and how God answered.
Utilizing bible verses that speak to prayers
I began incorporating God’s word into my prayers. Reading and understanding the Word of God has always been something I desired and attaching a bible verse to my prayer has helped in that area. It encourages me to dig into His word more. Attaching a bible verse to my prayers helps me to see that God cares so much about my needs and my desires and His word provides that promise that it will be done. It gives power to my prayer and serves as the icing on the cake (who doesn’t love cake?!) 🙂
Prayer is so powerful and it changes things. I believe in order to truly understand the power of prayer we have to have an understanding of prayer. We have to develop a habit of daily prayer and being in constant communication with our friend, our father, and our therapist. If you find yourself struggling in your prayer life, I want to encourage you to think about some of the things I’ve discussed.
- Ask yourself if you have been neglecting that intimate time with God.
- Think about your personal perspective on prayer and how you might change your thinking so that it becomes easy and something you enjoy rather than a routined task.
- Try writing down all the things you want to say to God – the good, the bad and the unmentioned.
- Search for scriptures that speak to the needs and desires of your heart.
- Engage in conversation with your father daily – in the car, before bed, during breakfast and watch your life change.
I hope this helped you in some way and if you feel impressed to share anything regarding prayer and how it has changed your life, I’d love to hear from you! Comment below 🙂
Live well,
