Make My Life a Prayer – Introduction

Hello!  Welcome to “Make My Life a Prayer”, my first ever virtual retreat here at New Things.  Pour yourself a tall glass of your favorite beverage and relax with me for a minute…we’ve got a full weekend ahead.

This brainchild of hosting a virtual retreat came out of my own need and desire to unplug, pull away to a quiet place and meet with God.  Since I had a good block of time on my hands with my youngest away for the month, I thought it would be neat to put together a mini-series of articles, links, music, and prayers for ladies to get lost in for a day or two…or three.  I had no idea where the Lord would lead, or the amazing things He was eager to show me while working on the study portions.

I’ll post what I have learned from my personal study of what Ray Stedman calls “the longest prayer”, our Lord’s prayer for us in John chapter 17, as well as the prayer that is called “The Lord’s Prayer” or the “Our Father”.  I will refer to this prayer as  “the Disciples’ Prayer” since it is an account of our Lord teaching His disciples to pray, and has become a model prayer for us, His disciples now.  There is a separate blog post with both texts for your convenience.

I even have a craft project in the works that you can join me in completing, if you like.  I’m compiling a prayer book, composed of some of the “God whispers” I heard while studying through the selected texts.  You can make one too so you’ll have a place to record prayers to memorize, or verses that are special that you wish to memorize or remember, and a list of requests that you may have purposed to pray for.

Bob Hostetler

I picked up two three packs of mini composition notebooks at Walmart for $0.88 so I could share with my nephew and nieces.  These are a good size to pop in a purse or even a pocket to access when I have extra time on my hands or find myself waiting for the next thing.  Other crafty supplies that I am using for my book are scissors, glue stick, sharpie markers and colored pencils.  You can get as fancy as you want to, your own creative mind is the limit.

Keith Green’s “Make My Life a Prayer” has become my heart cry as I study…and I can hear his lyrics echo when I read through the texts I’ve chosen for this series.  It is my own prayer springing from a desire to bring glory to God as Jesus did, and that He would glorify Himself through me while I strive to walk in faith and obey what He asks me to do.

Will you join me in prayer for the Lord to use this weekend to touch lives and draw people to Himself.  Also, read through the links I’ve provided below to stimulate your mind and heart to better understand prayer. If you find one that is part of a series, don’t stop with the one I’ve linked to, click around and read them all…there is some really good stuff that will (hopefully) get you thinking about what prayer is, what it’s for, who it benefits (and how), and ways that we can spur one another on to becoming effective pray-ers.  Finally, please, if you are following along, introduce yourself in the comments and share your insights on prayer and what God has shown you or is saying to you on your own journey.  If you have access to articles and resources on prayer that you’d like to share, by all means, please do.  We are here for one another, and we all have something to contribute.  I would love to see this weekend be one of sweet Christian fellowship that benefits all of us.

Ok?

1. Pray
2. Read
3. Comment/Share

Good.

Let’s get started!!!

What is Prayer? — USCCB article on prayer.

We Pray Because—Check out Saintly Sages’ excellent posts on the reasons we pray.  You will not be disappointed, it is THAT good.

How Not to Pray—ctk blog has an excellent example of how not to pray.

How to Develop a Prayer Life that Transforms —

Praying for our husbands — Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ very well done litany of Scriptures to pray God’s will over our husbands.  Really, this guide is so good, you could use it to pray for anyone, but it is specifically applicable to husbands.

Praying for our children  —  This list compiled by Bob Hostetler is a similar format to Nancy Leigh DeMoss’ list above.  There is a month of Scriptures provided for us to pray God’s Word over our kids.