Intentional Prayer

It has always been amazing to me how God weaves himself seamlessly in and out of all seasons of my life. Recently I have been struggling with my prayer life. It’s not that I don’t pray, or forget to do so, it’s that I have noticed my prayers have become much more insincere these past few months. My achilles heel—busyness—has caused me not only to put worldly things before my purpose but also distracted me from my intentions to do good.

Being a new mom has thrown me for a bit of a loop. There were always more items on the to-do list than time in the day, but now that is exponentially true. I’ve found myself saying quick prayers between dinner and bathtime, while I run the diapers out to the trash, or as I fall asleep at night, barely keeping my eyes open, but this is not how God calls our prayer lives to be. I’ll catch myself saying, “Yes! Of course I’ll pray for you” only to fall in to the busyness of life and either forget to do so all together, or only give it a moment of my time, far below what it truly requires. If I call myself a believer and a friend, what greater gift or purpose is there in my life than to pray and love on those who need it? I want my prayers to be fuller and deeper and more thoughtful than they currently are.  These feelings have been heavy on my heart for the past few months, and I’ve decided it’s time to make a change. So these next few months I am vowing to make some changes to my daily routine in the hopes to progress my prayer time and be the friend and prayer partner I hope others to be for me.

I came across these amazing prayer journals by Val Marie Paper by chance on Instagram a few weeks ago and instantly knew they were an answer to prayer. I can’t wait to dig into them this month, making time to go over all that there is in my life to pray for and about. These journals are a daily promise for me to keep each commitment for prayer that I make and do it with joy and love rather than half-hearted impatience. Just 30 minutes a day going over these well-thought-out pages helps me to keep my prayer life organized, while still giving me the freedom to let the spirit lead me where it may. I am so excited to dive into this and feel so grateful to have friends joining me on this journey.

I have also started to make small adjustments to my daily routine to help me with this season. My drive to and from work is rather long, and I am usually listening to KLOVE (it’s my fave) or BPM radio (cause it makes me happy dance), but I’ve decided to take one or two of these 30 minute drives to just be silent. To enjoy the scenery God has blessed me with and spend that time in prayer and communication with God alone. I have only done this 3 times, but I can’t even explain to you how much a blessing those morning drives have already been for me.

I am trying to keep an open mind, choosing to find more ways to take out the busy and replace it with the important things in life. How are you intentionally choosing to take out the busy in your life? Help me out! I would love to take this journey with more of you and pray that this transformation in my life can be an inspiration for yours as well.

Categories Intention