Hey everyone! Hope y’all are having a great week! We are almost done with school for the week and next week is our thanksgiving break… so there is absolutely some excitement in the air over here! The weather has finally cooled off and we put our Christmas trees up uncharacteristically early this year…. so my evenings have been spent curled up on the couch watching This is Us with the glow of Christmas lights. Its been heavenly! ❤️

I’m working through a new devotional and Bible plan each morning. It’s one of the top things on my to do list everyday. Even though it has been a blessing to me and has been revealing some things, God has been speaking to me about how I’m approaching my devotion and prayer time. This is nothing new here. We’ve all probably heard it many times before, but I thought I would share it just in case you needed a reminder.

The Lord was really stirring my heart about time with Him not being something that I just do to check it off. Maybe I’m the only one, but sometimes my prayers can sound a little repetitive. I’m praying for all the general things- friends,family, protection, school, health, and that we all have a great day. Nothing wrong with that. I think that’s probably how it goes for a lot of us. The problem comes in when prayer becomes something that you simply recite instead of an active conversation.

I have really been reminded that I need to pray way more specifically than I do. I tend to get very specific when I need something or when something is going wrong. But why can’t I be that specific about the good things, too?

I don’t just need to pray protection over my kids and for God’s favor in their life. That’s great, but it’s also kinda generic.

I need to pray specifically for struggles they are facing, character issues, habits, friends in their lives, future spouses, protection, doors to open in their lives, Gods guidance in their future…. see the difference. If I’m not going to take the time to pray this way over them, then who is? I know this isn’t always ideal and sometimes it may feel like we just don’t have the time to pray like this. I get it. Maybe it works better for you to write it out in a prayer journal.

My point in this post is not to shame anyone on their prayer lives, but to challenge you to think about how you pray and consider taking it to the next level. I feel like it is easy to grow stale when generalized prayer rolls off your tongue.

“Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere.”
‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6:18‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Stay alert….

Be persistent….