ways I pray over my family and why

 

Happy Wednesday, friends! I'm off to my last day of Bible study for this semester. I'm always sad to say goodbye to my Bible study small group at the end of each semester. The next one is never quite the same and this small group I had the privilege of leading for the last year was a tremendous blessing in my life. I think we're all going to be friends for life, because we know too much about each other. 😂 I know some of you know what I mean by this! 

I seem to be writing about the same things on the blog lately, but I can't shake the feeling that it's for a reason. Maybe there's one or two of you out there who need some encouragement in the area of prayer and I'd like to share more about some of what I like to do on today's post. I mentioned my quiet time that was so good on Monday morning on yesterday's blog post—you can read it by clicking here—and I shared this picture.

I'm getting up close and personal here, but I claim to always be real with you, so that's what I'm doing. I like to keep verses like these laying around so that they serve as a reminder for me to pray for one (or all) of my sons. This one jumped out to me yesterday for our youngest son, Noah. I put them here at our kitchen table, because this is where I sit most mornings to have my quiet time or to work on the computer. When I sit and pause to look out the window, these remind me to pray.

I read this verse in my Bible Monday and wrote it down immediately so that I could keep it out to pray. I wrote his name, took this picture and sent it to him in a text. He's about to be going through a job change, so this was very encouraging to him. Nothing happened, he is just looking for another job, something more fast paced to keep him busy. His days at his current job are torturously long and slow, with very little work for him. Feel free to pray for him alongside me! He does have one plan in motion, a plan b and a plan c, but he went ahead and turned in his two weeks notice yesterday. That's a tiny bit stressful to me, but he was promised a local job if he needs it at the last minute. We're praying it gets worked out with his plan a or b, though.

One such verse I read on Monday reminded me to thank God for getting Graham back home safely from his weekend out of town. It was also applicable for God's mighty hand of protection constantly at work in the lives of our sons. The verse is Psalm 139:3.

You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do.

I always begin my day with prayer, then after I've made lunches for people in the house to take to work and it's quiet for me once again, I sit down to read the Bible. I do also pray as I read, especially because I often turn what I'm reading into my prayer, like Monday. It's easy for me to do this right now because we're still reading in the book of Psalms, but even when we're reading somewhere else in our daily plan, I still pray and ask God for wisdom or to help me to take what I've read and apply it into my life. It's hard to read the Bible without praying and it's hard to do both when it's busy in the home. There's a reason I do things this way—my early morning prayer jump starts my day on the right foot and it helps me to be genuinely happy as I work to get everyone out the door to work. I cannot pray or read when people are up and moving around. For me, this time is early in the morning, but for my friend who works full time outside of the home, her best time is in the evening after everyone has gone to bed. 

The time isn't the important thing. The important thing is that we pray and read the Bible every single day. It's okay to miss here and there, like when you're sick, but don't miss too long. It's hard getting back into the habit. The other piece of advice I'll give about reading the Bible is to always have a plan handy. I start thinking every year in November about what I'm going to do for the next year, as far as Bible reading goes. I do not consider my Bible study homework to be part of my personal quiet time. I think it's important to do both, but for me, I cannot count them as one. I have all the time in the world, so why would I shorten the time with Jesus if I don't have to? I love to spend my days with Him and Bible reading on my own for personal application is totally separate than reading the passage we're currently studying in our Bible study. Again, this is just what I do, but if you do both of those and count them as one, or if you only do Bible study homework and count that as your quiet time, that's great. The wonderful thing about God is that He is not legalistic about when or how we go about this time. The point is that we're spending time with Him and growing closer to Him in our relationship. 

If you're anything like me, are you often distracted during prayer? I don't have a foolproof solution, but here is what I did many years ago. I found a local pastor's wife who had a blog post on a prayer notebook and after watching the video, I basically copied what she did and made my own. In it she explained the ways to pray: some call this ACTS (Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication), or I use my own way that has no acronym, but that begins with giving God thanks, then praising Him for who He is, I confess any sin that might be hindering our relationship, then I pray for myself, my family and finally, everyone else. Somedays I pray for our pastors and church staff and family, others I pray for our  government nationally and state/citywide, still others I pray for missionaries or all of the first response emergency workers. Notice I said I do a bit of those SOMEdays, not everyday. That would be overwhelming. This takes some time! I find it impossible to pray in under twenty minutes. I won't put a time limit on it and you can't, but maybe I'm just long winded. Once I start, I could go on and on and usually do. 

I made a notebook and I had pages for the things I prayed everyday, according to that ACTS acronym. I literally wrote the words that I prayed to jumpstart me into starting, but I quickly left that behind and did my own thing. I found scriptures to support what I was praying for, like Psalm 139:3 that I wrote above for when Graham traveled, and I included them within the notebook. Every morning I sat down with my notebook and I prayed. If you'd like to read blog post, here is the link for you. 

Friends, I'll say one more thing before wrapping this up. The enemy loves it when we let our spiritual lives slide. He loves it when we don't pray, when we don't read the Bible and when we don't go to church. He has us right where he wants us when that happens and it's at that moment we are most susceptible to him and his evil tactics. He often attacks when we are at our weakest and when don't talk to Him and spend time with Him everyday, we're growing apart from Him. We're even growing apart from Him by not attending church services regularly, I'll go ahead and just say that. It's true. There is accountability and encouragement that can only be found when we attend services with a like-minded body of believers. It's okay to miss a time here or a time there, but friend, for the love of all things that are holy, don't miss too many in a row. And don't continue to sit back and only attend online. It's okay if there's absolutely NO OTHER OPTION, but don't let it be forever. 

Candace Cameron Bure had something to say about spiritual warfare last week. I wholeheartedly agree with everything she says, because what she says is talked about in the Bible. There is a very real enemy who is lurking, just waiting to pounce on us and we must fight him with the tool of prayer. Read Ephesians 6:10-18, then watch this video. It's powerful! This video has gone viral and I don't know what people are saying about her, but all I can say to her is good for her. This is a topic a lot of people are uncomfortable talking about, lest it make them sound like they've lost their marbles. We don't need to care what people think of us, though. We need to be strong and bold for Jesus, because there's a day coming when we'll have to decide who we're going to follow. The Bible tells us that broad is the path, but narrow is the gate for those who enter through, so we'll be in the minority, those of us who are truly Christians. The day is evil, friends. We must guard ourselves and suit up for battle in our spiritual armor. 

I pray these words inspire you to pray like never before! Thanks for reading, friends. Love to all.