Struggling With Prayer?

Happy National Day of Prayer!

Here at WOMNOFWORTH, we are passionate about a lifestyle of prayer and we want to encourage you to grow in your prayer life. Many of us struggle with praying for more than a minute or two because it was never taught, modeled, or conveyed otherwise. But God doesn't want prayer to be an afterthought. He wants to be a constant thought or better yet a constant conversation throughout our day. The Bible says to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:16-17). We look at that verse though and think how on earth can we do that?

When you are in a relationship, why do you keep thinking about a person or texting them? When you eat at a really good restaurant and have an amazing meal, why can't you stop thinking about it?

What you dwell on is what you will depend on.

If you dwell on the word, you'll think about the word. If you dwell on social media you'll think about social media. If you dwell on that amazing cheesecake you had, you will be constantly reminded of it and crave it. If you dwell on Netflix or Hulu you'll sit there stuck for hours unable to move but if you dwell on the Lord, you'll think about the Lord. You'll talk to the Lord. You'll depend on the Lord. You'll sit in his presence and be undone by HIM.

We all want to be seen, heard, known, and loved by people but what if you were already those things but not by a person but by God!

He loves you. He sees you. He hears you. He knows you.

He wants to get to know you and vice versa.

I really dislike the saying "quality over quantity," when it comes to our spiritual lives. You can spend 5-10 minutes with the Lord as long as it was a quality time. Sure, maybe with everything else, but with the Lord it really doesn't work like that.

Let me preface and say this: If your season doesn't allow you to spend hours with the Lord like if you are a new mom or you have several young children, or you have a special needs child you are constantly caring for then of course God will meet you where you are at with the limited time you have to give Him...

BUT for the rest of us, "No Time" is not an excuse, especially when the average screen time these days are almost 5-7 hours... which is really concerning but that's another topic.

Back to the relationship illustration,

-Would you ever marry someone who you've only spent 5-10 minutes with every few months?

-Would the "quality" of one text in the morning offset the fact that there is NO other communication the rest of the day?

-What about the only time you hang out with each other is when you hang out with your group of friends (aka when we go to church and think we've done our due diligence for the week)

I certainly hope you wouldn't marry the person, because they clearly don't care about you.

When we spend only 5 minutes with the Lord in the morning or 20 minutes with the Lord a couple of times a week, what we are saying (intentionally or unintentionally) to him is that we don't care about him. We don't care to talk to him. We don't love him enough to spend time with him.

When we allow God to be part of our WHOLE day not just the parts we invite him into like during our 10-minute "quiet time" in the morning or night, we will actually have a relationship with the Lord. When you have a relationship with the Lord, it will be so much easier to do a longer period of time in the word or prayer because you will WANT to.

We have compartmentalized our lives into nice neat little boxes that we have created for ourselves: church, career, family, friends, school, etc. We pull out our church box on the weekends and maybe once during the week if we are part of a bible study or community group where we do our "religious rituals" like prayer, reading the bible, singing our songs, reflecting on our lives, and being kind, humble, & gracious with those around us. We act one way during most of the week and then during our "holy days" we act another. Why is that? Because God is not constantly part of your day. You are not consistently walking and talking with God DAILY.

A good analogy is when you're making a bowl of cereal you put your cereal in the bowl, maybe some nuts and fruit if you're making it healthy, and anything else you want to add in, and then you pour your milk into the bowl. You want the milk to touch all the parts of the cereal. You wouldn't just put some milk in your spoon with one piece of Reese's Puff. Likewise, we want God to touch all parts of our lives. He is the milk that holds and combines everything together. We don't want just a spoonful of him, we want the whole bowl. Not just giving him the parts we let him have but all of us. Surrendering daily the parts I've tried to control myself. And prayer is a way we can do that constantly inviting him into our day.

Let me let you in on a little secret if you struggle with prayer...

Prayer is essentially just talking with God!

Prayer is one of our greatest privileges as believers in Christ. What other religion allows you to directly talk to God and have a personal relationship with Him?

However, you do have to put in some effort and seek him. When you seek him, you will find him (Matthew 7:7). We hope you will choose to incorporate prayer into your daily life allowing yourself to constantly talk to God throughout your day and finding time to separate yourself from the world to commune with your heavenly father.

The mystery of seeking God is that he is the One who finds you. -Kingsley Opuwari Manuel

If you struggle with prayer we have included some helpful tips below to encourage you to have a more consistent and constant prayer life. We will also be having a WOW Workshop on Prayer in the upcoming months so stay tuned.

An easy way to start praying daily is the acronym PRAY.

P: Praise

R: Repent

A: Ask

Y: Yield

P: Begin with praise before the Lord. Thank you and bless his holy name. If you don't know how to do this or what to say, the Psalms have wonderful words of praise you can pray back to the Lord.

R: Our unrepentant heart can actually keep us stuck and distant from the Lord so come to the Lord daily with a heart ready to ask for forgiveness from the ways you've tried to rebel and the things you've done knowingly and unknowingly to grieve God.

A: Most of us probably know how to do this part. Asking God for the things we need and want. Pray that your desires would be according to his desires and ultimately to bring glory to his name.

Y: We want to also yield to the spirit. When we are yielded to the spirit we will be able to discern if the Lord is moving in one direction and we in another. If we have one desire and he has another, we would yield to his will. We would surrender our lives before him knowing his ways are higher. Not my ways but your ways be done oh Lord. (Isaiah 55:8)

A couple of other helpful tips are

1) Have a specific place you pray every day. Make it part of your routine to go there for a period of time daily to meet intentionally with the Lord. When you see that chair, mat, or room, it will remind you to pray.

2) Make a list of who & what you want to pray for and continue to add to it weekly.

The number one question we get is what do I even pray for?

The short answer: ANYTHING and EVERYTHING

There should never be a shortage of things to pray for.

Start small with family, friends, and coworkers. Then start to add things like the people you encounter every day like at the store, neighbors, or Amazon workers.

Pray for your parents, your kids, their friends, and their parents that they would be good influences to them

Pray for your pastors, and church staff

Pray for the persecuted church across the globe

Ask the Lord to place a people group or a country you should be interceding for on your heart

Pray for your country, the political leaders, the politics & laws, and the political climate of this nation

And keep the list growing

As you mature in your prayer life, God will start to drop people, places, and ideas in your heart to be interceding for as well as having you dwell on scriptures He wants manifested on this earth as it is in heaven that you can start to add.

3) Last but not least end with silence. Allow the Lord to speak to you. He wants to hear from you but he also wants to talk to you and many times it's in a still small whisper so you have to be quiet and attentive to hear him. Silence is hard in our day and age but it's a spiritual discipline that is a mark of a mature growing believer.

Prayer is not just a monologue, it's a dialogue

Questions to Ponder:

- Do I want to spend time with the Lord in prayer, or do I just do it because I have to?

-Do I use prayer just in times of need like a spare tire or is it evident that prayer is part of my lifestyle?

-Has prayer just become a habit, part of my daily routine, or do I commune and delight in the Lord?

- What did Jesus say about prayer and how should that influence my prayer life?

Pray This:

Dear Lord,

Thank you for who you are and who you've created me to be. Thank you for the privilege to communion with you and talk to you. Forgive me for neglecting our relationship time and time again. Teach me to pray. I want to talk to you and spend time with you but I don't know how. Woo me to you. Help me to delight in your word and in your presence. I surrender to your will in my life.