Friday, May 21, 2010

Prayer


My mom just gave me some articles that she found while cleaning out her office that she thought I'd find useful.

One magazine was from 1996, which is awesome. The pictures in it are classic.

There was an awesome article in it on prayer that struck a chord with me. In the article, Becka Tirabassi talks about how she went to a conference and the speaker said something that completely spoke to her heart and called her to the plate. He said, "Prayerlessness in the life of a believer is sin." She realized that that calls her and other Christians to decide if they're going to live in sin or not.

Even though all her life she had said "I'm too busy" I'm too tired" "It doesn't do anything" "It takes too much time" "It's boring" and "Prayer is for old people," she decided to challenge herself. She would pray for an hour everyday because it was the least she could do after everything God had done for her.

It was just an awesome article about how God showed up and she learned to cherish that time with Him. She has a my PART, and God's PART. Her part has four sections : Praise, Admit, Request, and Thanks. She prayed in a journal so as to keep track. His part consists of LMNOP (no acronym apparently lol) Listening, Messages (going through sermon notes), New and Old Testaments, and Proverbs. She also has a "to do" section in the binder where she makes notes of what she feels God is calling her to do (write a note to someone, etc.)

I was hugely convicted while reading this 14 year old article, because now more than ever...since I'm working more part-time, I should be able to make this time with God. If I can't do it now, when I'm not holding a full time job, I obviously don't care enough to make prayer a huge part of my life. (Because I somehow never cease to find the time to workout, get on facebook, or watch a TV show.) I'm going to try this method, probably more like 30 or 45 minutes at first, but I think I'm going to love it. I'm going to make a commitment to God, and then set the timer and keep it. (as recommended by the article.)

The Test: I did this last night, and right when I set the timer and set my phone to the side...I got a call from Kevin reminding me that I was supposed to be at his office for a work function I had committed to. I raced off to the event, frustrated as ever. But later last night I got a chance to spend time in the word and writing my prayers out to God. It was so refreshing and so needed. It's been way too long since I made it a huge priority in my life.

I pray that you guys would think about prayer more as "the heartthrob of the believer's life" -Dr. Ole Hallesby

~Future prayer warrior

4 comments:

Aubs said...

Amen! I was JUST convicted about this yesterday as I was driving along singing along to Christian radio, and realizing that I hadn't really interacted with God in much too long. I started praying as I drove... the only problem is I automatically kept closing my eyes..lol. I'll have to find some "safe" praying strategies! Thank you for the confirmation of what God says to do.. and lets both do it!

Liv Ryan said...

LOL. I love that. It's so easy to just let Christianity be a 'way of life' instead of something really intimate and personal with God.

Keep your eyes open while you drive ok? haha. Love you Aubs!

Elisa said...

Totally convicted.
I think about my lack of a prayer life all the time. Lots and lots of guilt! But I never actually do anything about it. God is always there, ready to talk and listen and breathe into my life, but I don't show up nearly as often as I should or want to.
Thanks Olivia!

ALF said...

Livs, thanks so much for posting this...even though it was a long time ago! I just stumbled across it, and I really needed to read it! Keep up the writing! I love to read about what's going on with you!
-Amy