Revelations of a Mama Prayer Slacker

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Let Me Be Honest

I don’t know about you but I’m one of those gals that doesn’t ever really get around to praying except at meal times, church, or I’m not getting my way with our Almighty Maker. I have to say that was me until recently. The dynamics of prayer time has changed and so has my heart towards it. First I’d like to say God does hear all of our prayers, every one of them. Secondly, prayer time is a way to build your relationship with Jesus who intercedes for us. And thirdly, it awakens the power that was instilled within us when we said yes to our Savior.

The Change

The change in my prayer life happened with the loss of my baby. It was one of the darkest moments of my life. I wasn’t able to sleep and there were so many questions I wanted to ask God. In the midst of another night of insomnia, I muttered that I didn’t understand His reasons for allowing it to happen. That’s when I heard ever so faintly, “Why is it that only in a crisis do I really hear your thoughts?”

(me) OUCH. “Wait a minute, I talk to you all the time, what about when I’m working out, doing dishes, for heaven sakes, what about all those extra minutes in the shower?”
(God) “Do you ever take the time to hear me respond?”
(Me) “What about my ministry and those prayers?”
(God) “Do you know My heart for you?”
(Me) “Okay You got me there, because I totally don’t get this!”
(God) “Meet Me in the morning.”
(Me) “What are you talking about? I don’t have time in the mornings!”
(God) “For My Word says, Satisfy us in the morning with your unfailing love that we may sing and be glad all our days.” (Psalm 90:14).
With that scripture verse, I also received an impression of Jesus sitting downstairs on my couch with my cup of coffee, waiting for me to descend. He was waiting for me to tell Him my joys, fears, who I was worried about.  With this conversation and impression, I begrudgingly began testing this theory and I cannot begin to tell you what He has awakened within me.
Though the loss and trial of beginning a new prayer life has been fairly recent, the differences are night and day.There is peace in the chaos and I know so much more about God’s heart than I ever thought I could know. The trials haven’t gotten any easier but knowing Jesus is waiting to hear about my heart makes the endurance sweeter.
While you may not be in the same place as me in terms getting up early, or maybe you’re aren’t quite ready to make a big commitment like this, but it is so worth the lost hours of sleep.The relationship between me and my Jesus is so much more that what it was. I encourage you to ask God where He wants to take you.

Make the Changes In Your Prayer Life

It’s about communication and an open heart…It’s about prayer. Prayer is communicating your heart, thoughts, desires, dreams, failures, and worries to God. It opens the line of communications directly to your spirit. Without prayer, we cannot be sure of what God wants from us or for us. If you’re like me, you’ll open your Bible, but nothing makes sense. You’ll bumble about your day feeling dissatisfied because your spirit hasn’t connected with God.
Here’s a few tips that you can not only incorporate into your daily life but into the lives of your kiddos too.

  1. Set up a prayer altar. Purchase scripture cards and a small notebook, each more pull a card out, read the verse and write out your prayers in the notebook. Instruct your whole family to do the same. Before you leave for work or as you go about your day, you can refer back to the prayers of your family and pray over each prayer.
  2. Memorize it. If you have little ones, simplify your prayer/scripture time. For example, our kids memorized Philippians 1:6 last week. The verse reads, “Now being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.” Our kids memorized it as “God is working in me.”
  3. See it, read it, & send it up. Take small business sized note cards with you full of scriptures and prayers, set them about your home. As your eye reads them, send up a prayer to God on what that scripture prompts you.
  4. Faithful Friends. Have an accountability partner. Meet or call a friend once a week to prayer for each other and help each other strive to pray daily.
  5. Ask Him. Ask God for the desire to deep your relationship with him. When you are done praying, sit in his presence and ask God to fill your time with what he wants you to hear from him.

Changing the way you talk to God is a big step. It’s a life style change. Getting up early wasn’t easy, nor did I incorporate all these things at once. I want to encourage you to pick one or two things and begin with that. Then as time allows, build on what you’ve put in motion. I pray all these things help you to be the mom you want to be and your relationship deepens with God.

By Heather Riggleman

Stephanie Shott
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