pray continually

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. [1 Thessalonians 5:16-18]

Honesty time: i have a hard time with prayer. It isn't that i don't want to pray or that i don't have time to pray. i just have a hard time remembering throughout the day. And, because we're being honest here, i've had a hard time seeing God answer my prayers.

After months of being frustrated with myself and, often, with God, i decided that i needed to make a few changes. The first was that i started writing down the prayers that i saw God answered in the back of my journal. It started as writing down simple answers like a safe drive to work, and slowly but surely i started noticing other, bigger, prayers being answered. Don't get me wrong, they didn't all start getting answered and they certainly weren't all answered the way i thought they would be, but keeping track of them helped me to start noticing when they did get answered. It helped me pinpoint prayer answers that i may not have noticed before.

The second change i made was a prayer journal. i had looked into prayer journaling before, but i found it pretty daunting. Too many things to fill out and too much structure. My version of a prayer journal became a separate journal, lots of colored pens, writing in cursive writing (somehow that seemed more prayer like... don't ask me why, cause it's just working for me ;) and literally just writing out a prayer as it came to me. i have found that it helps me focus as i pray and remember more as i write some requests out. It also helps me to end the day (that's when i decided to write in it - before i head to bed to wrap up the day) being thankful for the good things of the day. Sometimes the prayers are a few pages long, other times they're short ones, but i've loved having the prayer journal because it has challenged me to be more consistent in my prayer life.

Anyways, hopefully these two ideas encourage you! i have found them really helpful and i hope that as i continue to dive deeper into a consistent prayer life that i would continue to see God working through my prayers and working at shaping my faith.