This has been one of those weeks in May that is full of wonderful things, but leaves little room for regular responsibilities. Today I will be preparing to give my niece a bridal shower tomorrow, so I’m sharing a blog from last year. It is still very much the journey I’m on. I’d love to hear how your journey in communicating with God is going as well.

 

I’m sorry to share with you how lacking in faith my prayers have been over the past few months. The more discouraged in prayer I became the less I saw God answering my prayers. Sure, I’d see God answer requests, but my thankfulness was immediately evaporated by the next request or worry. Then this summer a friend shared with me a book she was reading, “A Praying Life” by Paul E. Miller. My friend read a section to me that talked about cynicism in our prayers and that it appears almost “wise” to be cynical about life—the I-knew-it-would-turn-out-that-way attitude. This section grabbed me. I was there. I immediately bought the book and have been digesting in the past few weeks.

While I strongly suggest you buy the book, let me share with you a few changes in me and my prayer life since reading and applying the book.

 

• When I pray I talk to God instead of reciting a list of requests. I tell Him how I feel. It’s a personal conversation.
• I boldly talk to God about my requests and on the behalf of friends and family. I share my heart for them with Him.
• As a result, I’m drawn closer into relationship with God and my faith in His hearing and answering has increased.
• I’ve followed the Spirit’s prompting to fast certain things for certain requests. It’s been intense at times. I feel I’m pressing into God more on behalf of my friends and family.
• I’m seeing answers—real answers for things I’ve been praying for a long time. Whoa, Bessie! I’m not saying this is a formula for prayer. I still don’t understand the workings of me talking to God and asking Him for His involvement in my life and the lives of my loved ones. But I do know God is responding—sometimes small steps, sometimes a major answer. Over the weekend we sold Kelsey’s old car. It had been for sale for months without a serious nibble. Then all of a sudden a man called about it, showed up to see it, liked it, and paid what we wanted for it. The whole transaction took less than thirty minutes. Thank You, God!

Lastly, the most powerful thing I’m learning from “A Praying Life” and my journey in my prayer life is that all of my life and my loved ones’ lives are a masterpiece of God’s. He is working in each and every situation, even and especially in suffering. He is for us. He hasn’t forgotten us or put us on His proverbial back burner. He is active in our lives every day and in everything that comes into our lives.

Paul Miller talks about his wife’s journey in suffering while raising, praying for, and seeking answers for their autistic daughter, Kim.

“When we suffer, we long for God to speak clearly to tell us the end of the story and, most of all, to show himself. But if he showed himself fully and immediately, if he answered all the questions, we’d never grow; we’d never emerge from our chrysalis because we’d be forever dependent. Jill was profoundly changed in her twenty-year wait. If God had instantly explained everything to her and healed Kim, that change would not have taken place. No one works like him. He is such a lover of souls.”*

My praying life is changing and, as a result, so am I, and so is my life. Are you ready for a change in your praying life? How have you or your life been changed by prayer?

 

*A Praying Life, Paul E. Miller. NavPress, 2009. 157.

Brenda Garrison is an author and speaker who empowers women with the confidence to live their calling. Brenda is currently pursuing a Bachelor of Science Degree in Ministry Leadership with a Concentration in Women’s Ministry at Moody Bible Institute. She and her husband, Gene, are the parents of three young adult daughters and live near Metamora, IL.