The Power and Priority of Prayer
I fell to my knees 21 years ago, and snot and slobbered and cried all over the floor of a little dank trailer that we lived in. That was my first real connection. That was the moment I felt He was my daddy, I could trust Him no matter what. I knew that even if He was mad at me, He was going to love me. He’s going to love me in my failure, and hold me like his daughter. It really began a desire in my heart to talk to Him all the time, because I felt the safest with Him.
As a new Christian, I heard people say that it’s you need to pray first thing in the morning. So I thought, “Oh, I’m gonna be a really good Christian,” so I would try to get up first thing in the morning. But I’m going to tell you, my default in the morning is not, “Hello, world, this is such a great day.” My default is, “Let me get to the bathroom, let me get into my coffee, let me drink one cup, and then somebody can talk to me.” Honestly… But most people say that I’m a morning person! That’s just because I have developed a pattern over the past 21 years of getting up, getting my coffee, and sitting down and reading the Word. I turn worship music on really low in the background so that I can just listen to the words. I talk to God about my day, all the things I have to do, the person that got really mad at the day before, or, the embarrassment of my heart about a situation, etc. Whatever it is, I know that He’s going to hear me.
A few weeks ago, I shared a story about my mom. There had been some hurt feelings growing up, and I really didn’t have the greatest relationship with her even after I was a Christian… But I knew that I wanted my children to have a great relationship with me, so I modeled that for them. So that’s what I did.
To scheduled that time with my mom, I actually set an alarm on my clock. That may seem really cold hearted, but it gets really busy as you know. It would go off right when we all got in the van to go to school. I would call her, and we would talk. At first it was kind of forced because we didn’t have a day-to-day relationship, we had a month-to-month relationship. I got to fall in love with my mama again. I couldn’t wait to get in the car at 7:30am and call my mom.
If you develop a pattern in your prayer time, and you make it scheduled, pretty soon it develops a pattern in your heart. (I suggest first thing in the morning, it helps us all with our attitudes). When you get up, and read the Word, and just start talking to Him, it helps you to be intentional with your prayer time. If you miss it, there’s no condemnation. Sometimes I’d miss a call with my mom, and my mom didn’t say the next day, “I can’t believe you didn’t call me. I waited all day long and you didn’t call me.” My mom never said that to me. There were days that I forgot, or it went off and I was dealing with my kids in the backseat. But I knew that my mom was ready for that phone call the next day and there was no condemnation.
How much more is our Heavenly Father with us? So if you miss a day, if you miss two days, if you miss a week, what about a month? Yes! He still says, “Come to me.” “Lean on me.” “Let me hear what it is that you’re dealing with.” “Let me help you with your broken heart.”
God is Ready to Hear You!
There is this great song by Zach Williams called called, “Heaven Help Me.” The first heard it, I flooded tears because sometimes we think that we’re so bad if we’re running to God with the deepest, desperate, most fervent prayers when we’re in trouble. But God loves it when we come to Him. He wants to help us. He loves it just as much as when our children run to us. We love to hear them say, “Mom help me.” “Daddy, helped me.” “Mommy, can I have?” “Daddy, can I have?” Can you imagine? A good, good God… That’s who He is, He’s a good Father. He’s Holy and perfect. As you run to Him, He is ready to hear you. Whether you’re happy, sad, mad, glad, it didn’t matter. He’s ready to hear you.