Hi friends and Happy Friday! Hope August is treating you well so far. I’m excited to dive into the first few chapters of “Praying Women” with you today. Here are the questions:
Introduction
*Did you have a routine bedtime prayer you prayed as a child?
Pray When You Don’t Know What to Say
*How would you honestly rate your prayer life? Is prayer your first response in everything?
*“Loving God is not about religion but relationship. Prayer is not about the right words; it’s about the right heart” (pg. 30). What is on your heart right now? Do you believe you can go to God with it?
Pray Because God Is Waiting for You
*Do you have a favorite place to pray?
*Jesus illustrated two types of attitudes before God in prayer:
- going to God in self-righteousness
- going to God broken and humble
Do you struggle with the idea of coming to God without cleaning yourself up first? Or without expectation that He is pleased with you because of all the right things you’ve done? How does knowing God wants you to come in brokenness and humility, just as you are, help your relationship with Him and with prayer?
Scripture of the Week
Psalm 34:4-8, 17-18
Psalm 18:6
Luke 18:9-14
Prayer of the Week
Father God, help us to be women who go to You immediately, not after we’ve exhausted all other options. Help us when we don’t have the words to say. You are listening right now. We can come to You as we are. We don’t need fancy prayers or a special place to pray. We can come to You broken and humble, unclean and in need of mercy. Thank You for the privilege of prayer, Father. In Jesus’ Name, Amen
For Next Week
*Read Chapters 3-5
Focusing on prayer is always necessary, but this month I feel I need to look at prayer in a different way. Also, I think I need to be intentional about making sure my prayer life even exists.
Honestly, I’d rate my prayers on the low end because usually it’s me-focused rather than Christ-centered. Depending on the situation, prayer may be my first response. Most of the time though I’ll throw up a “Help, God!” and move on with my day.
As another school year approaches, my heart is torn between doing the hard work and interacting differently (intentionally) with our high schoolers and taking the easy way and checking out…just being honest. 🙃
God has been helping me face the sad reality that often I pray for peace and quiet rather than His peace. He is humbling me – breaking me down so He can show me how much I need Him, and how wonderful He is! I love that the author says prayer is really very simple, not needing to be any particular wording. God talks to us – we want Him to talk and move. Should it be surprising that He wants to hear from us? Even though He created and knows us through and through, I am only now beginning to scratch the surface of His love for me. It’s about relationship…and prayer is one of the main ways to strengthen it. 🤗
Friend, I so agree with all you’re saying! I feel like I have totally been me-focused in my prayers. I just want things to be easy and comfortable and my prayers reflect that. But I think we all know nothing is easy – even the easy isn’t really. I’ve been thinking a lot about praying for God to do things and wondering if it’s because I don’t want to do those things or even just wait for the fruit to bloom. With my kids, I tend to want Him to just make them have good habits (and essentially make life easier for me!) but teaching then good habits and how to do things is my job as a parent too. I’ve been trying to focus on prayer as being connection between me and God, as conversation, and as a way to keep the relationship going with Him. Prayer helps me to be aware of God as I’m going through my day and that’s always a good thing. Being more fervent and praying from a “not my will but Yours be done” is what I need to work on!