Pray Without Ceasing

Prayer: easy to do, easy not to do.

Prayer has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember, but it was very surface level. A request, a thank you, or a simple talk with God on the way to school/work. Nothing wrong with this type of prayer, but I wanted to go deeper. I think sometimes we think of prayer as a wish that if God wants it to come true than it will, yet it is much more than just some rubbing of a lamp. I think many times we can pray for the good times and then life gets so good we stop praying. On the flip side as life starts to get hard we may not remember to pray until that is the last thing we can think to do. Conversely, maybe we remember to pray as life gets hard but we see no change so we stop praying. I've had my fair share of ups and downs in my prayer life too.

Recently I read the book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson. If we are being honest I picked it up because I wanted to see God moving in my life. While God is always moving I personally wanted to be more intentional in the awareness of it, big or small. So this year with Lent I began my 40 Day Prayer Challenge.

To be very transparent it started out unbelievable, within the first few days moves were being made in our business, with our home, podcast excitement, friends, and life in general. Good things were popping up all over and I was blown away and this was just in three days. I was thinking to myself, "wow, what will God do in 40" and other thoughts like "sheesh, I should have been intentional sooner." These thoughts however were for all the wrong reasons. Yes, of course I should have been more intentional sooner but not only for the good times and prayer answers I want.

I began tracking a move in my life on my notes app and soon I was beginning to find it hard to see God showing up. I kept expecting these big gestures when God is still showing up in the unseen, the quiet moments. I will tell on myself here, I began to be less involved in my prayers, they began getting pushed to the bottom of my to-do list. And quite frankly those blessings at the beginning of my journey began to be removed from my life and I was upset. Upset with myself for becoming lax and upset with God for allowing the unwanted to happen (so I thought). So yes the Lord gives and the Lord takes away, but we must still trust. (Job 1:21)

Now I am not here to tell you that God is up in heaven playing some chess game with my life. Honestly I have struggled with my faith journey in trying to understand too much how much of a hand God has in my life. Learning the line between my work and God's. Learning the balance of free will and God's plan. This is hard for me and this prayer journey has taught me to not hold so tight to a certain outcome, a certain balance, and a certain perfect line to be drawn in any of it.

God is a good God, God is in control, God loves us, God has a plan - plain and simple. I do not have to try and figure it out in order to be successful. I do not have to understand each action in my life on a day to day basis and how it works into the overall plan. I am allowed to let go of the tight grip on my life and surrender to a loving God that has my best interests in mind. I do not have the mind of God and nor should I try to.

Here are some steps I have taken to work on my prayer life:

• Read The Circle Maker - helped me to see I can pray big prayers that take a BIG God to accomplish

• Use the Pause App - setting aside time in my schedule to just be present with God

• Realizing prayer can also happen whenever, wherever - prayer is not perfection

• The movie War Room also comes to mind as I want to be a prayer warrior for others in my life as well!

• Pray without ceasing but trust God with the answers, prayer is not our power but God's power

While I am still on my way to becoming more consistent in my prayer life, I hope this will give you some encouragement to just start. It does not have to be perfect and you can always start again when we fall off. God is with us regardless, but the more we can lean into prayer the more we will indeed feel his presence and the peace that comes with it!