Do you leave for work in the morning without praying?
Does your mind wander when you bow your head?
Or maybe you don’t pray because God hears the prayers of the righteous and well, …that doesn’t match your lifestyle right now.
Perhaps, you’ve prayed the same prayer so often, you wonder why bother?
Your enemy loves it when you don’t pray. Because then you are defenseless, unprepared, and open to attack. What you don’t think you are under attack?
Priscilla Shirer in her audio book, Fervent, reminded me that the Enemy of my soul desires to destroy:
My spiritual passion,
My identity in Christ,
My family,
My focus,
My Calling,
My Purity,
And not just mine, but yours too!
So, don’t just leave your armor laying around.
“Therefore take up the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you will be able to stand your ground, and having done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness arrayed,
and with your feet fitted with the readiness of the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.
And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”
Ephesians 6: 13 – 17
Dress Properly For Your Day
If you believe in Jesus Christ, then you have spiritual armor. You just have to buckle God’s truth around your waist, allow the righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover your sins, and be ready to share the gospel of peace.
But before you walk out the door, pick up your shield of faith. There are too many arrows flying in our direction everyday to leave home without it. Set the gift of salvation over your mind and pick up the word of God which victoriously battles all evil.
Don’t let anything keep you from praying because…
Priscilla Shirer shared her method of praying using the acronym PRAY.
If you don’t know how to begin praying, Priscilla suggests that we begin by praising God for who He is.
He is the one true God, Our Provider, the One Who Hears, the Eternal One, Almighty God….
We should repent of any thoughts, actions, or words we’ve spoken that have broken the Lord’s commands.
Then we should ask the Lord for what we need.
If you are wondering what Yes means, it refers to scripture promises. Whatever you are praying to receive there are scripture verses about your topic.
You can use biblehub, bible gateway, or another online bible to locate verses for your need.
For example, I often need wisdom to make important decisions in my life. By using an online bible I can locate many verses about fighting fear.
I select one that reminds me that the Lord gives us the power to sift through our thoughts, rejecting harmful ones and choosing healthy thoughts to dwell on.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5
Write Down Your Prayers
Priscialla encourages us to write down our carefully crafted prayers on notecards or sticky notes. She says to pray them often against the enemy in the specific areas that he targets us.
Here is an example that I wrote to battle fearful thoughts.
P – I praise you Heavenly Father. You are mighty in power to defend me against the evil one. Thank you for drawing me close to you and for giving me everything I need to send the enemy of my soul running for cover. Father, you are always the victor in spiritual warfare. Thank you Jesus for comforting me when I’m tempted to be afraid.
R- Forgive me Lord for entertaining fearful thoughts instead of allowing your power to take them captive.
A- Lord, reverse the damage that’s been done to my mind. Allow your power to run through my inner being to strengthen me with your spirit. Allow me to see how you are moving in my life so I will remember your power is vast.
Y- You have given me power to… destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5 In Jesus Christ’s name, I pray, Amen.
Check out Fervent
If you have a public library card, you can download the book for FREE by downloading the Hoopla app on your phone. You can listen while walking, driving, or washing dishes.
If you don’t have a library card or prefer the feel of a book in your hand, then you may find it using my Amazon affiliate link to purchase Fervent Prayer by Priscilla Shirer. 
Are you interested in making progress in your writing journey?
Hi friend!
Quick note just to let you know that hope*writers has opened their doors to new members!
This is my favorite online writing community because they have helped me get my words out of my head and onto the page for you!
Every week they offer live training for their writers, bringing members behind the curtain to ask editors, agents, authors, and other publishing professionals the questions you want to know.
Here are some of the people who I have learned from in the hope*writer community in the past year:
Ann Voskamp (author, NYT bestselling author of One Thousand Gifts)
Chad Allen (editor, Baker Books)
Ian Cron (author and Enneagram teacher – The Road Back to You)
Jeff Goins (writer, entrepreneur)
Joseph Michael (Scrivener coach)
Marion Roach Smith (author – The Memoir Project which is a Great Book!)
All of these conversations are available right now inside hope*writers (and each week they add more!)
Hope*writers provides the training and guidance you need to become a working writer without self-promoting.
They are committed to giving you the tools and perspective you need to share your words.
So if you’ve ever wanted to write a book, or grow your blog, , this is the best place for you.
That’s the good news.
The bad news is hope*writers is only open for new members until this Friday.
If you feel like you’ve outgrown Google, ditch the robots and find your writing people! Learn more and get signed up today right here
I can’t wait to see you in there!
April
More Hopewriter Resources
With the start of a new year, is one of your goals to finally make
progress in your writing journey?
My friends at hope*writers teamed up with over 20 writers like you and asked them, “What worked for you?”
From empty nesters to stay-at-home moms, from school teachers, to professional counselors, these 26 incredible women share the keys that finally unlocked the door to help them share their meaningful words without sacrificing their meaningful lives.
This brand new video series is a project that hope*writers has been working on to help you take that next step, must most importantly to help you figure out what the next step is! It is a FREE video series hosted by long-time hope*writer member, and published author, Niki Hardy.
See how hope*writers can help you on your writing journey here!
If you would rather read, here’s a FREE pdf about the Top 20 Questions That Writers Ask.
There is also a FREE pdf called the Newbie’s Pocket Guide to Writing.
If you like to take Quizzes, you can take the quiz Hopewriter Path to discover where you are on the writing journey.
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