If you’re being honest, how would you describe your prayer life right now? Strong and vibrant, something you crave and leaves you feeling invigorated, a time you feel God’s power and receive His guidance? Or, lukewarm, stale, a task to check off each week, a list to ramble through, but not feeling the impact? Or, vacant and tepid, something you do at church on Sundays or maybe a list to run through at night with your children, but not something you give much thought to during the week? Or does it make you feel inadequate or uncomfortable, not sure you’re good enough at it to really try?
I’d venture to guess we’ve all felt most of these at some time in our lives. Maybe you’ve never known prayer as anything more than as what you say together in church or a laundry list of names you run through at bedtime. Maybe you’ve tried prayer and didn’t see any results, so you gave up. Or, you just don’t feel like you’re very good at prayer, so you don’t try as often as you’d like.
But what if prayer could be something you looked forward to each day, a time you craved and came away feeling invigorated? What if prayer became a powerful force in your life, a time to palpably feel God’s power in your life, to receive His guidance, and to truly impact the lives of others through your prayers?
[shareable text=”Crave prayer. Let it change your life. #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Crave prayer. Let it change your life. [/shareable]
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I found my own prayer life transformed in just this way by doing two things:
1) Learn to listen for God in prayer.
Prayer is our conversation with God, yet too often I did all the talking. I used my prayers to list out all my requests and name all the people who needed God, but I didn’t give God a chance to speak. I didn’t share my life with Him, didn’t talk about my hopes and dreams, or ask Him for guidance.
When I began to listen and give God space in my prayers to speak, I realized prayer truly could be a two-way conversation. I found prayer to be more about developing a relationship with God, than a time to list everything in my world that needed God’s help. After all, God already knows our requests, but He wants to engage us in conversation over those needs.
[shareable text=”Prayer is a conversation with God. Let Him speak. #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Prayer is a conversation with God. Let Him speak.[/shareable]
2) Utilize a variety of prayer methods to connect with God in different ways.
For the longest time, I really only knew two ways to pray. One was the corporate prayers at church, where the words flowed almost poetically and the one leading the prayers seemed to knew exactly what to pray. While I loved hearing these prayers, they greatly intimidated me and made me feel like I never had the right words to use in prayer. The other way was my fumbling attempt to go through my prayer list, but it always felt a bit like taking my Christmas list to Santa as a child. I would go through my list of all the things I wanted God to fix in the world around me.
As I began to wonder if there could be more to prayer than this and started exploring different ways to pray, I found numerous other ways to engage God in prayer. I’m no artist, but I love praying through art and doodling. I love getting out my markers and Bible to pray over a key verse, writing out the verse in my art journal and doodling as I pray through the words. I love praying through movement as I walk a labyrinth. I love sitting in the silence, listening for God’s presence and guidance. And I could go on and on…
[shareable text=”Variety is the spice of life. In prayer too. #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Variety is the spice of life. In prayer too.[/shareable]
Explore Prayer More Deeply with Pray Deep Guided Prayer Journals
If you’re looking for a guide to connect to God in prayer more deeply and ignite your prayer life, I’ve just published “Pray Deep”, a 21-day guided prayer journal to help you explore the nature of prayer and experience different ways to pray. This journal will take you through almost 20 different prayer methods, utilizing scripture, art, writing, movement, and listening to engage different senses and styles.
[shareable text=”Ignite your prayer life with “Pray Deep” #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Ignite your prayer life with “Pray Deep”[/shareable]
As a companion book, look for the “Pray Deep Prayer Journal” to record your own prayer journey. This journal provides pages to record your prayers, your key scripture verse, and how you hear God responding each day. It also includes a section to track prayer requests and God’s responses to those prayers, along with a reference section of 23 different prayer methods and how to use each one.
[shareable text=”Track your prayers with Pray Deep Prayer Journal. See God at work. #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Track your prayers with Pray Deep Prayer Journal. See God at work.[/shareable]
These journals will make great additions to your prayer war room or as gifts for friends who want to grow in their prayer lives. Or, use “Pray Deep” as a study tool with a small group and explore prayer together, sharing your experiences with each of the prayers.
[shareable text=”Learn to Pray More, Pray Better, Pray Deep! #PrayDeep //amzn.to/1QW1XXv”]Learn to Pray More, Pray Better, Pray Deep! #PrayDeep [/shareable]
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elizabeth959803 says
“Crave prayer. Let it change your life.” Yes! What a perfect post today for See You at the Pole, Kathryn! Which I’m headed to right now with my middle-schooler after finding you on Coffee & Conversation! 🙂
Kathryn says
Glad to help get your day started! What a blessing to have so many students praying this morning!
Bev Duncan @ Walking Well With God says
Kathryn,
Congratulations on your book. I think we all need some fresh ideas to perk up our prayer life and learn to pray at a much deeper level! One thing I’ve learned recently is to pray with Thanksgiving – not thanksgiving for what God has already done (of course that’s good too), but thanksgiving for how He is going to answer the prayer request that I have just laid at His feet. So glad I popped by!
Blessings,
Bev
Kathryn says
I love how we connect differently through different types of prayers. Love how He’s led you to pray thanksgivings for how He is going to answer your request. He led me to stop praying for my own needs for the whole season of Lent and instead focus on Him and others. It rocked my world – and in the process, I found greater clarity on where He was leading me.
Ifeoma Samuel says
Big Congrats Kathryn on your new books. I just shared about it.
Praying that your books blesses its readers in Jesus Name.
Blessings to you, Kathryn
Kathryn says
Thanks, Ifeoma! Writing and experiencing the prayers when I wrote the Pray Deep blog series transformed my own prayer life and I’m praying these journals will do the same for others!
Tai East says
Kathryn, I’m super excited to get both your prayer guide and your prayer journal as well. I remember the series you did on prayer and every post opened my spiritual eyes and ears to greater intimacy with GOD. Some of the ways I had heard of but never used and some I had never heard of at all. I’ve journaled my prayers for a very long time and that truly transformed my prayer life for the better, but after reading your series there was a life-changing and LIFE-giving transformation that took place because I implemented several of the ways you discussed into my prayer repertoire. I spent weeks researching and learning more on prayer after your series and though prayer beads wasn’t a part of your series, in just reading your posts it led me to seek out deeper ways to pray for myself. I now make prayer beads and use them as a way to help me focus when I’m praying .Your series made me passionate about finding different ways to connect with GOD through prayer, so I am ever so grateful to you for that. Truly, I thank you! Always a blessing to visit with you! Infinite blessings to you, Love! 🙂
Kathryn says
Thank you, Tai! I just love that this series had such an impact for you. It did for me, too! I started this journal series (more are coming!) to help others similarly experience a transformation in their prayer life. Love the idea of prayer beads – I thought about including them in the series. Definitely something I’d like to try.
Tai East says
You are most welcome, Dear Heart! And I’m excited about the more that are coming! Please keep me informed! 🙂
Kathryn says
Need to carve out more time to write 🙂 but, I have one in the works for Advent and another one focused on “Be still and know that I am God” Stay tuned… I’m super-excited about these, too!
Tai East says
Awesome! I can’t wait! 🙂
betsydecruz says
Congratulations on your book release, Kathryn! How exciting! I can see from reading this post (and from reading your blog several months now) that you have so many things to teach us about prayer. I look forward to going through my copy of Pray Deep! Thanks so much for sending it (and your sweet note.) Looking forward to it, and I’ll be in touch soon.
Kathryn says
Thanks, Betsy! Writing and experiencing prayer through Pray Deep transformed my prayer life and I hope I can share that spark with others through this series of journals. I look forward to hearing your feedback!
This Woman Writes says
So true — prayer is conversation with God, our opportunity to think about Him, call to Him, talk to Him. I never liked corporate prayer — but for the longest time my prayers sounded stilted and awkward, the way they do in a group setting. It was when things got really difficult, and what I felt inside was just bursting to come out, that prayer finally became clear, raw, honest, and good.
Kathryn says
I love how we can come to God with eloquence or fumbling words or no words at all and He’ll listen just the same. I think he must love it when the words come tumbling out in their most raw and honest form because that’s when our hearts are really open to Him.
sarahgirl3 says
Crave prayer.
What a powerful thought!
Constance Ann Morrison says
I’m off to take a closer look at your book. Perhaps it would be a good fit for our Women’s Prayer group at church.
your neighbor at Weekend Whispers
Kathryn says
I don’t have ‘look inside’ ready yet at Amazon, but it’s basically the ‘Pray Deep’ blog series with specific prayer prompts to help you experience the prayers. You can find details on ‘Pray Deep’ here: //www.prayerandpossibilities.com/pray-deep/. Let me know if any questions on the book.
Constance Ann Morrison says
Thanks for the link, Kathryn!
Mary Geisen says
Prayer is a hot topic right now but if you think about it that should be the case all the time. I am praying that your books are being well-received and that the word is getting out.