Love...Prayer Time

So I KNOW I am not the only one who sometimes wished prayer before a meal would go just a little bit quicker! I mean you are HUNGRY .. and it is usually those days where you haven't ate anything and  the "long winded" prayer warriors want to pray for the meal. Lol.. don't judge me God isn't through with me yet! But shouldn't we enjoy prayers? I mean it is our conversation with the creator right?


I used to be the person who just COULD NOT pray. I guess I should say WOULD NOT pray! I would rather sing a song to God to express myself and worship rather than just breaking down and talking to Him. Which is AWESOME, BUT can you imagine every time your best friend wanted to talk to you about something, they sang a song to you instead of talking to you? WEIRD right!?!? God is our BEST FRIEND.. or He should be...We should totally be talking to Him constantly! 

" Devote yourselves to prayer with an alert mind and a thankful heart."- Colossians 4:2 

To be devoted to something means you are taking the time to be serious about the task at hand. God wants us devoted to our prayer life with Him! He desires you to come to Him and " hang out!" Talk to Him spend time with Him.. and pray humbly and thankfully to Him. 

I can be totally upfront and honest with you when I say my prayer life Sucked about a year ago.It is still a daily thing that I have to INTENTIONALLY do. It does not just come naturally for me to go " Yep.. time to pray." My mind isn't wired that way.. But I am working on it. IT wasn't until last October that God tapped me on the shoulder and said, "TALK to me." I heard Him loud and clear. I was in my car driving to work one morning listening to Adele, JAMMING. When I heard so clear God tell me to just talk to Him. So I turned my music off and I began to just chat with God. At first I was a little apprehensive, the people in cars driving by were just looking at me and I felt weird. But God then said "focus." So I focused and I devoted ( Colossians 4:2) myself to talking to Him. I prayed for everything from my family life, school, friends, people I had not thought about for years and years, I mean EVERYTHING. Before I knew it, I was at work. I felt so good and very liberated. I felt like chains and things had LITERALLY been  broken in the spiritual. It was bananas too me. So I made it a habit to pray in my car too and from work. 

I kept up an AWESOME prayer life for a while. God and I were buddies, it was great. Until one day I was praying and as soon as I said "amen," my tire blew out. Thank God I was okay, no one got hurt, just a little blow out. So I called my dad, we worked it out and I was fine. Then a month later I was praying in my car again and I said, " amen," and heard something (DEFINITELY the holy spirit) tell me to put both hands on the wheel ( btw I tend to drive with one hand propped on the wheel and the other on the gear stick..I think I am a thug lol). So I put both hands on the wheel and the next thing I knew my OTHER tire blew out and I swerved almost hitting a semi-truck but I missed it! PRAISE GOD my hands where on the WHEEL!!!!!! HALLELUJAH!! So I was fine, my friends were an amazing help that day and made sure I got where I needed to go and things were okay.. I got ALL new tires on my car so I was fine. So I still continued to pray in my car  daily and then a month later I was driving home from work and I began to pray. This was my best prayer session EVER with God. I was casting things out.. calling the devil out on his stuff and doing major work! I said , "thank you Jesus, amen," and the next thing I know a deer comes out from the median of the highway and rams into my car. I cried and cried, I called my dad and it was so awful! I knew at that very moment that the devil HATED my guts and my prayers were not helping my popularity with him. I was terrified to pray in my car after that. I could have been killed in my deer accident , he put a hole through my back door and took off my entire left fender. I was mortified. So my prayers ceased! 

Things definitely got chaotic in my life after my prayer time with God stopped. He missed me and I missed Him but I let the devil get to me. WRONG MOVE! 

"Be unceasing in prayer "- 1 Thessalonians 5:17

I had "ceased" to pray! I was going against what the word of God said for me to do. I had stop my continual communication with God and my life showed it! 

ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up). Luke 18: 1

I had become coward to the devil! Which is NUTS.. * Side Note : When you have the holy sprit inside you, the devil will NEVER win.. EVER. He might try and bully you but your daddy is bigger and so much better than him! Make sure you never let him even THINK he has any victory! 

One day, my little brother (my BUDDY love him!) was listening to me while I cried to him about how stressed out and just sad I was all the time. He looked me in the eye and asked me about my prayer life. I thought " you are real bold aren't you!" But I was honest with him and told him how I felt about my car incidents. He looked at me and spoke with tons of wisdom ( holy spirit for sure!). He told me I HAD to start prying constantly again. I had lost myself because who I am is in God and I was not connecting to my source. So in my next car trip.. I womaned up and I PRAYED! and it was AMAZING and changed my life! 

Now I pray constantly to God. My life is centered around talking to Him about EVERYTHING even things that seem so small to me. I want Him to have every part of me so I have to give it to Him daily. 

So what can YOU do to improve your prayer life??!??

1.) First, you have to know that prayer doesn't have to be formal! Talk to God like you would talk to a friend. I constantly use words that I use with my friends . Sometimes I even end my personal prayers with, " You are so TIGHT God!.. I love you!" He is your friend.. He calls YOU friend.. treat Him like it! (John 15:15) 

2.) Fasting is an AWESOME way to increase your prayer life.. because fasting should ALWAYS be partnered with prayer.. if not .. you are on a diet not a fast (blog on that coming soon!) When you are fasting you are trying to accomplish something in the spiritual or sometimes even the natural that normally can't be accomplished until you have personal, devoted, earnest, one on one time with God that comes with sacrifice! It is a form of WORSHIP! Worship Him! (Luke 2:37)

3.) Try writing a prayer journal! This is something that has helped me so much in my prayer life. Sometimes you may not be able to accurately articulate what you want to say to God. But writing might be something that comes easier to you. I know it does for me. and It makes prayer kind of fun, it is like writing a love letter to God! 

4.) READ YOUR WORD!!!!! The best way to become familiar with God is to know His word and what He says! Jesus is the word of God in the flesh.. how you gonna have a DEEP conversation with a God you know NOTHING about??!?? It is like having a very awkward conversation with a stranger at a bus stop.. It will work.. they will hear what you are saying and you will hear them but how invested are you in building a relationship with that person? Prayer helps build a relationship with the God who created you! 

5.) Always keep in mind the God is all about what kind of relationship yall have with each other! The more you talk (pray) with Him, the stronger the bond you have. Never look at prayer like a task! It is something that should be fun and done with joy! 

Here are some scriptures on prayer that show you JUST how important it really is. It breaks chains, and bondage, builds relationships, and most importantly makes God smile! He gets glory when we pray to Him! 

Let my prayer be set forth as incense before You, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141: 2

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; and listen to the cry of my supplications. Psalm 86: 6

Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition (definite requests), with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. Philippians 4: 6

Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast in your prayer [life], being [both] alert and intent in [your praying] with thanksgiving.Colossians 4: 2

The Lord has heard my supplication; the Lord receives my prayer. Psalm 6: 9

Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55: 6

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

All of you must keep awake (give strict attention, be cautious and active) and watch and pray, that you may not come into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Matthew 26: 41

And whatever you ask for in prayer, having faith and [really] believing, you will receive.Matthew 21: 22

For this [forgiveness] let everyone who is godly pray--pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely when the great waters [of trial] overflow, they shall not reach [the spirit in] him. Psalm 32: 6

Is anyone among you afflicted (ill-treated, suffering evil)? He should pray. Is anyone glad at heart? He should sing praise [to God]. James 5: 13

Confess to one another therefore your faults (your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins) and pray [also] for one another, that you may be healed and restored [to a spiritual tone of mind and heart]. The earnest (heartfelt, continued) prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available [dynamic in its working].James 5: 16

Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man. Luke 21: 36

Now My eyes will be open and My ears attentive to prayer offered in this place.
2 Chronicles 7: 15

The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination, hateful and exceedingly offensive to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is His delight! Proverbs 15: 8

The LORD is far from the wicked, but He hears the prayer of the righteous.
Proverbs 15: 29(NKJV)

But certainly God has heard me; He has given heed to the voice of my prayer. Psalm 66: 19

Blessed be God, Who has not rejected my prayer nor removed His mercy and loving-kindness from being [as it always is] with me.Psalm 66: 20

Be earnest and unwearied and steadfast in your prayer [life], being [both] alert and intent in [your praying] with thanksgiving.Colossians 4: 2

Be unceasing in prayer [praying perseveringly] 1 Thessalonians 5: 17

And it shall be that before they call I will answer; and while they are yet speaking I will hear Isaiah 65: 24

But I tell you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Matthew 5: 44

I desire therefore that in every place men should pray, without anger or quarreling or resentment or doubt [in their minds], lifting up holy hands. 1 Timothy 2: 8

Evening and morning and at noon will I utter my complaint and moan and sigh, and He will hear my voice. Psalm 55: 17

So too the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. Romans 8: 26

ALSO [Jesus] told them a parable to the effect that they ought always to pray and not to turn coward (faint, lose heart, and give up). Luke 18: 1

For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it]. Mark 11: 24

Pray at all times (on every occasion, in every season) in the Spirit, with all [manner of] prayer and entreaty. To that end keep alert and watch with strong purpose and perseverance, interceding in behalf of all the saints (God's consecrated people).
Ephesians 6: 18

“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”. Matthew 18: 19-20

I encourage everyone to get deeper in your relationship with Christ. He wants to talk to you! Don't just call on Him when you are sad, someone is dying, or you need something from Him. Call on Him in the good too! Just like you like it when your boyfriend/girlfriend call you just to say "hello," God loves it when you do the same for Him. So call God, Text Him ( I have done this.. make sure you text your own number.. or you will have some random person very confused!) However you have to communicate with Him.. JUST DO IT! He takes joy in you !!! Love on God today and give Him some of your time! :) 

God is CRAZY in love with YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

Nicole L.