a praying heart & being still

For most of my adult life, I've felt like God was telling me to be more of a Woman of Prayer. To be a Prayer Warrior or intercessor {someone who prays for others} but for the most part, I feel like I've failed miserably. WHY? Why is it so hard to just pray? It's not hard...I like to talk...so just talk to God, what's the big deal? I think I'm lazy. Maybe that's it?

So a few years ago, I started praying for the DESIRE to pray more. To give me an urgency about it. And He has.

There are many times a week that God will put someone's name in my head and give me an urgency to pray for them. Sometimes it's a friend or family member. Sometimes it's someone I've met or and sometimes it's just a name, a name I don't recall ever knowing. All I can know is that God has placed a name in my head and I'm supposed to pray. For what though? Safety? Wisdom? That their heart is opened to knowing Him? Yep. All those things. And anything else the Lord places on my heart that I should also lift up.

These aren't big hour long prayers. I don't run upstairs to my room, lock the door, and get on my knees next to my bed. I have a house-full of kids who'd be knocking on the door trying to figure out where I went and what am I doing? Rather, I call them "arrow  prayers"

I still don't pray as much as I should. Especially for my family. Ugh. Again...WHY?? They are the most important people in my life? For goodness sakes, Teresa...pray for them. Pray better. Pray more. Pray more fervently. And then I get stressed out about it. Maybe even intimidated. And I just don't. Are you that way, too?

But when I do stop, even if it's just for a moment during a chaos filled day...I know that I'm engaging with God and something amazing happens: I enter into the presence of God. Sometimes nothing even needs to be said, just being still. Do you remember that old hymn "Be Still and Know that I Am God"? All the words of the entire song are in the title. Be still. Say nothing. Just enjoy being in the Presence of the King of the Universe. Can you do it? Can you pause for a moment and allow the world to just fall away as you worship Him?

Psalm 46:10

¹⁰ He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Prayer, I have learned, isn't reciting beautiful & flowery words. Be authentic. Be raw. Throughout our days, praise Him. Talk to Him amid the craziness, the chaos, the crying and tantrums, the playing, and the sweet cuddles. Pray even that He gives you the desire to pray...because I promise you...He will.