Ever since I can remember my parents taught me the importance of prayer. We prayed together at meals, my mom taught us to start our day in prayer, my dad led our family in prayer often. We prayed for other missionaries, we prayed for the lost, we prayed for each other. We gave thanks for our food and our lives.
I can remember many times when I was scared or unsure about something, and the first thing my mom would ask, “Did you pray about it?” Like most children, I did at times think that God was a bit of a fairy godmother granting my wishes. But, as I got older, the more I prayed and listened to the prayers of my parents and other saints, the more I realized prayer is all about a relationship. It is not just me talking to an invisible God, but it is so much more than that.
I always loved prayer books, devotionals that used scripture to help me pray. When I was in my twenties, I received the book, the power of a praying wife. That book changed my prayer life. The author, Stormie O’Martian, took the idea of praying scripture to a whole new level for me. She made it clear in her books, that knowing God made it easier to communicate with God. The more scripture I knew the more I understood the heart of God, the character of God, the desires of God. The more I know Him, the more I know how to pray in line with His will. Because as Yeshua, said, in His lesson to the disciples on prayer, our ultimate prayer should be, “Your will be done(God of the Universe).”
For me praying is something I do all day and all night. Sometimes, I wake and realize even as I slept I was meditating on Yehovah and His Word. Prayer is not just asking God for things, it is not just thanking Him for things, it is a friendship, it is an awareness of who Yehovah is and who I am. Abraham, in the Bible (Genesis), walked and talked with God. David, the King of Israel, had a heart after God’s own heart. He wrote many prayers, and we are blessed to read hundreds of them in the book of Psalms. Yeshua, taught His disciples to pray, and it is recorded for us to model our prayers after in the Gospels of the new testatement. Paul, prayed many prayers and they are written in the letters he sent to the churches he planted all over the world. We are so blessed to have many, many examples in scripture of how to pray.
When I wake up every morning, the first thing I do is talk to Yehovah. I usually do not talk to him outloud in the morning, but rather I think about Him. I think about all the blessings He has bestowed upon me. I think about the beautiful new day ahead of me. I stand up and look out my bedroom window at the property He has entrusted me with, and I thank Him for His creation, and the work He has given me. I think about my husband and children, and I thank Him for each one, and pray for them one by one, as the Holy Spririt leads me. As I get up and move through the day, I continue to reach out to Yehovah in my thoughts. All day long, I send my thoughts to Him.
As I go downstairs to start the day with my children, I call them all together for Bible reading, discussion, and prayer. We read and discuss the scriptures, and as we discuss we are aware that Yehovah is in our midsts. This two is a type of prayer. As we include Him in our discussion, we allow the Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us. We talk about our plans for the day, and our prayer concerns for ourselves and others, as the Holy Spirit leads us. We disuss the progress of prayer requests from the days before, and we praise Yehovah for His goodness. Sometimes, we stop and we go deep and cry out for certain prayer needs, and other times we just discuss them in the presence of our God.
As I move through my day, I am ever mindful that God is with me, His Spirit is ready to guide my every step, and if I have a petition that I need to take to the Father, I can do that.
An example of a simple, and maybe silly prayer happened the other day.
The kids and I were working outside. We were cleaning the property, and we had a lot of brush and branches that needed burned. It was a nice day out and starting a fire should not have been a difficult thing, but for some reason that day I could not get my fire to stay light. I had tried several times, and Jeremiah and TylerAnn also tried to get it going. But it would quickly just putter out. It was strange, and I sat down and wondered if there was a reason that the fire would not stay light. I thought in prayer, “Yehovah, if there is a reason you do not want this fire to start, then do not allow it to start, but if you would allow us to get this fire light to finish this work today, then please do.” I thought, I will try one last time, and if it doesn’t go then I will know it is not to be done today. So, I stood up and rearranged the wood and brush in the pit. I then looked for the lighter, and couldn’t find it. I looked over to Josh and shouted to him, did he know where the lighter was. He said he had put it way in the garage. As, I turned to go to the garage, I saw out of the corner of my eye something. So, I stopped and looked at the fire pit. A fire had started in the pit and it wasn’t a little fire, in fact in less than two minutes it was a roaring, raging fire. It was so hot I had to step away from it. It remained in the fire pit, but it blazed hot and fierce for about 10 minutes. As, it settled down, I sat down, and I began to pray in the Spirit. I prayed for about ten minutes for everything that the Spirit laid on my heart. I prayed in a spirit of thanksgiving, knowing fully that Yehovah was listening to my prayers. I prayed for specific people and specific situations. As the day went on, I was able to get all the brush and sticks burned up. As the day came to an end, I got word that two very specific situations that I had been praying for were in recovery mode.
Prayer is necessary. Prayer is powerful. Prayer is NOT all that I can do, it is everything I can do.
If you don’t know how to pray, or if you don’t think prayer matters, I hope this post encourages you that you can pray and it does matter.
Yehovah cares for you, and He is always available to you.
We are Bible believing, scripture only people. We love to learn about the Hebrew roots of our faith. We believe it is important to not add or subtract from the Divine Word of God. The compiled scriptures that agree with one another and have no contradiction is the 66 books of what is commonly referred to as the Christian Bible, or the Holy Bible.
These writings were originally written by men inspired by God. They were written in the language of the writers and readers of the original documents. Many of the original documents have been lost, but God’s Word is eternal and remains. Therefore, it is important to us to study, learn, and consider the culture, history, and language of the original writers of the scriptures.
In our studies we have learned that the true name of God is Yehovah, and His son, our Messiah, is named Yeshua. Therefore, as you read our posts we will use the Hebrew names of God and our Messiah.
We are Bible believing, scripture only people. We love to learn about the Hebrew roots of our faith. We believe it is important to not add or subtract from the Divine Word of God. The compiled scriptures that agree with one another and have no contradiction is the 66 books of what is commonly referred to as the Christian Bible, or the Holy Bible.
I love this! I’ve been trying to cultivate that kind of a relationship with our Father. Thank you for posting this!