Prayer is a mystery to me. I pray, but I don’t really understand it. Sometimes I pray silently, in my own head, sometimes I whisper, sometimes I yell. Sometimes I am hopeful and expectant, sometimes it is fear, masquerading in anger. Sometimes, when I feel no one is there listening, and other times when I feel surrounded and held.
In 2011, I read Get Off Your Knees and Pray: A Woman’s Guide to Life-Changing Prayer by Sheila Walsh. Her book helped me find ways to pray I had never considered before. Part of her story was one I connected to deeply, and she (along with my Godmother) helped me learn that I do have a right to pray and to ask for things. We are commanded to do so.
- Matthew 5:44, “Pray for those who persecute you”
- Matthew 6:9, “This, then, is how you should pray …”
- Matthew 7:7, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.”
- Romans 12:12, “Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
- Ephesians 6:18, “And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
- Philippians 4:6, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.”
- Colossians 4:12, “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray continually”
I could go on, but you get the picture.
God has been answering my prayers, day in and day out, in His time and in ours (thankfully) and I learned personally about the power of prayer. It has been through prayer that my faith has been renewed in ways I could not have imagined.
A couple of years ago, I read The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears by Mark Batterson. I learned that I had been drawing circles back then and since then I have been drawing circles again around some important dreams and fears in my life now. Today’s prayers have been answered but in unexpected ways. I have been focused on dreams and things I believe are promises for my future and the future of those I know and love. Some of what I had circled in prayer has changed my life already this year. Some involve dreams and some around my greatest fears. Fear prayers are the harder prayers to pray. The book’s clear message, though, and it’s one I believe in firmly… not because I hope and/or pray that it is true, but because it has happened in my life. From the book:
“There is nothing God loves more than keeping promises, answering prayers, performing miracles, and fulfilling dreams. That is who He is. That is what He does. And the bigger the circle we draw, the better, because God gets more glory.
The greatest moments in life are the miraculous moments when human impotence and the divine omnipotence intersect and they intersect when we draw a circle around the impossible situations in our lives and invite God to intervene.
I promise you this: God is ready and waiting. So while I have no idea about your circumstances you find yourself in, I’m confident that you are only a prayer away from a dream fulfilled, a promise kept, or a miracle performed. It’s absolutely imperative at the outset that you come to terms with this simple yet life-changing truth: God is for you. If you don’t believe that, then you’ll pray small timid prayers. If you do believe it, then you’ll pray big audacious prayers. And one way or the other, your small timid prayers or big audacious prayers will change the trajectory of your life and turn you into two totally different people.
Your prayers are prophecies. They are the best predictors of your spiritual future. Who you become is determined by how you pray. Ultimately, the transcript of your prayers becomes the script of your life.”
And, I have some big, audacious prayers right now! I am circling things like the work we have laid out for us in 2017, where we will live, and how some relationships will grow, change, be restored, or end in a way that brings God glory.
Yes, this is my business blog… but in my little world, prayer is a deep part of me and an important and powerful part of my business. As I lift up clients, projects, and possibilities, I find peace, comfort, and prayers answered time and time again. I am grateful to have had this book, The Circle Maker: Praying Circles Around Your Biggest Dreams and Greatest Fears placed on my path and for the way it is opening my eyes in deeper gratitude for what has happened in the past, and for what is yet to come this year.
Do you have a big, audacious prayer to pray and change the trajectory of your life?