Prayer. I truly desire to be a woman of prayer, and I believe each of you do, too! Sometimes, though, desire does not become action, but in order to truly abide in Christ, prayer is a lifeline to finding rest in Him.
And . . . what better verses to motivate us to be more purposeful in our prayer life than I John 5:14, 15!
“And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
What a promise! We often go about our daily lives trying desperately to handle every situation on our own and fail to place our confidence in Him and ask direction according to His will.
Putting our desire to be women of prayer into action can start today, so I’ll throw out some ideas to get us started on our purposeful journey. No time like the present, right?
~Using a prayer list/notebook This will order our prayers and help us remember who and what to pray for. It will also serve as a visual reminder of God’s faithfulness and goodness as He answers our prayers and help to create an account of God’s working in our lives.
~Scheduling our prayer This will make sure that it gets done. We do have time for a thriving prayer life – it’s more what we choose to do with that time. It’s good for us to remember that praying is not even a choice . . . we’re commanded to “pray without ceasing” (I Thess 5:17).
~Spending time praying with others Daniel (Dan 1:17) & Paul and Silas (Acts 16:25-31) are great examples for us to follow. Praying with others serves as a motivation to pray, provides accountability, and brings encouragement.
~Praying using Scripture (Heb 4:12) God desires that we claim His promises, and it’s so important that we remember times when He answered our prayers.
~Opening and closing each day with a time of prayer. I think David serves as a wonderful reminder of this (Ps 55:17, 5:3), and, as always, Scripture will remind us of our Lord’s goodness (Ps 92:2).
~Reflecting on and studying the prayers of the Bible What better lovely example for us to read than “Mary’s Magnificat” (Luke 1:46-ff)! Hannah’s prayer also provides a powerful reminder for us (I Sam 2:1-10).
~Following through with our resolve. Our consistent application of biblical truth will lead us to make wise decisions and will help us from making hasty commitments.
~Feeding our hearts and minds with God’s Word (I Cor 2:12) Having God’s Word in our hearts and minds will be a stimulus for our prayer lives. Staying in God’s Word will allow God to fill our minds with spiritual truths. He gives us the Holy Spirit to help us understand spiritual truths. What goes in, comes out, so it would be good for us to minimize outside influences. (t.v., friends, social media).
Wow! We have so much to pray about! As wives, we can pray specifically every day for areas of our husbands’ lives, and as mothers, we can pray in detail over our children’s lives.
You know what? We can be women of prayer! We can see the power of prayer in our lives just as Daniel, Paul and Silas, David, Elijah, and Jeremiah did. As we determine to be more purposeful in our prayer lives, let’s remind ourselves of God’s promise once again in I John 5:14-15.
“And this confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us; And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.”
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