How many of you make lists? How many of you check off the items on your to-do lists? Over the past few years I have kept daily checklists in my bullet journal that include reading my Bible, doing a 2 minute plank, praying, reading, walking, and writing. I would like to say that I have been consistent without fail over the last year in all of these areas, but I have not. Along the way I have missed one or another item on my list by day's end.
The one area that I have struggled with more than the others has been prayer. The majority of the time I have been able to check it off my list by the end of the day. But I have not been satisfied with the depth or quality of my prayers. Many nights I spend a minute or two talking to God right before I fall asleep, just to say I got it done. That shouldn't be the motivation for my prayers.
While Christmas shopping for books for my family, I came across a couple of books that I picked up for myself. Pocket Prayers: 40 Simple Prayers That Bring Peace and Rest by Max Lucado and 10 Minutes to Powerful Prayer by Stormie OMartian. I also have a few other books by OMartian on the topic of prayer that I plan to revisit throughout the year to come. So with these books in hand for support, I am choosing PRAY as my #OneWord2025 .
I just finished reading One Word that will Change Your Life by Jon Gordon, Dan Britton, and Jimmy Page. I have chosen #oneword for the past several years, but this is the first time I have read the book. I went through the process of asking myself three questions. What do I need? What's in my way? What needs to go?
I realize I need a closer relationship with God. I also realize I need a closer relationship with my husband. Out of all the things I need, these two are the most important. Both can be accomplished through prayer.
The things that are in my way are merely excuses, but I considered them anyway. I live in a world where I allow myself to be distracted by my television, my computer, social media and my phone. I allow these things to become the noise in my life that keeps me from noticing or spending time with my husband and my God. Not setting a limit on these time wasters enables me to get lost down a rabbit hole of distractions that steals time away from the two most important relationships of my life.
What needs to go is my unregulated time spent on things that steal time away from these important relationships. I need to be more disciplined in how I spend my time throughout the day. Many years ago I heard a song called "Love is Spelled Time". I believe that we make time for those things that are important to us. How I spend my time needs to demonstrate who is important to me.
Pray verb
1 to ask earnestly: beg
2 to address God with adoration, confession, pleading, or thanksgiving
The acronym PRAY is a prayer framework that can guide anyone through prayer:
P - Pause, Praise
R - Repent, Recite, Rejoice
A - Ask
Y - Yield
My plan is to: 1. Spend daily, dedicated time in prayer to God.
2. Pray for my husband.
3. Spend daily, dedicated time with my husband.
4. Read about prayer in the Bible, and other books
on the subject of Prayer.
"Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble. But since the power of prayer is in the One who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference." ~Max Lucado
