How A Year Devoted To Prayer Changed My Life

It had been a particularly hard Tuesday. My 7-month-old daughter was on Day 8 of an upset stomach and consequently, a severe diaper rash. I was battling sleep loss, changing my umpteenth diaper of the day, and giving as much energy as I could muster to our 2-year-old whose clinginess was signaling her need for attention. If you’re a mom of young children, you might be able to relate.

My husband shared with me about a conversation he had with a close friend of ours who was calling our character into question. I was spiraling and I was angry. I felt like this conversation catapulted my inner peace so far from my soul that there was no coming back. At least not that night.

How A New Journey In My Prayer Life Started

I went into our bedroom and sat down beside the bed, criss-cross applesauce. I needed quiet. After a few minutes of sitting in all the negativity, I realized where I was sitting and the irony was not lost on me. You see, the space beside our bed is just wide enough that the way I was sitting meant that one knee was touching the bed and one was touching the door to our closet. My prayer closet.

Did I need to physically be inside the closet to lay my spiraling emotions at the feet of Jesus? Of course not. Was my physical position symbolic of the hardening of my heart? Absolutely. I was incredibly close to peace, just inside the door. That night, in my humanity and my sin, I chose anger. I didn’t go inside. Have you ever done that? Built distance between you and God when you knew you should draw close instead?

Back in January, when everyone was considering what their New Year’s Resolution would be, God was putting prayer on my heart. I didn’t call it a resolution, because, in my mind, resolutions don’t provide space for progress. I knew God was wanting more for my prayer life. He wanted to sanctify it, and for that to happen, there had to be room for ups and downs. There had to be available space for bad weeks and good weeks. So when people asked me what my goal was for this year, I just simply answered “prayer.” Although I may not have known it then, the Lord wanted to sanctify me. He wanted me to draw near to Him and prayer was the avenue for that.

How Journaling Helped My Prayer Life

I began the year by journaling my prayers. I journaled in categories: Personal, Family, Community & Gratitude. It wasn’t every day but every few days. I just recently went back and read through some of those journals and MAN did God show up this year. He answered very specific prayers that I had written about very specific people. As seasons changed, I was prompted to begin SOAP journaling, which is journaling with a focus on scripture. Ya girl can only journal so much, so the prayer journaling faded away a bit. Yet, even with this change, my prayer life was becoming more consistent.

Mid-way through the year in the exhaustion of parenting a newborn and a 2-year-old, I picked up a book I had ordered in preparation for Baby #1: To Light Their Way: A Collection of Prayer and Liturgies for Parents by Kayla Craig. How freeing it was to continue in prayer with words that I didn’t have to come up with on my own! When there was no brain power left to be had, there was still a way to talk to the Lord.

Then, in the fall, when it felt like a particularly difficult season for many people in our Community Group, I started to become overwhelmed with all the prayer requests people were sending us. So the Lord put it on my heart to clear out space in our closet, write down prayer requests on pieces of paper, and tape them to the wall. I taped them in similar categories that I started the year off journaling: Family, Friends, Church & Lost. This prayer closet has become my little hideaway from our otherwise very busy home, and it has helped me organize prayer in a whole new way.

Practical Tips That Helped My Prayer Life

These are my tips for a more consistent, life-giving prayer life:

1. Specific Prayers

Pray specific, bold prayers. Pray for people by name. Ask for Kingdom things in urgency. Name your biggest and smallest emotions in the presence of the Lord. Ask that He would grow you in a particular area. I asked that He would teach me to pray and here we are. When you pray with specificity, you are more likely to be able to identify when a prayer has been answered. There is no better way to become more consistent in prayer than when you see God visibly answering your requests.

2. SOAP Journaling

I love this one. SOAP journaling is a bible study method that stands for Scripture, Observation, Application, and Prayer. Read a passage of scripture and write it out. Write what God is revealing about Himself and/or what He reveals about you. Process how this scripture applies to your own life. End in prayer. This one is so great because of the combination of scripture and prayer. You can pray through the scripture that you just wrote out. What an awesome way to make sure you are praying in the will of God!

3. To Light Their Way A Collection of Prayer and Liturgies for Parents by Kayla Craig:

Add this to your list of books to buy right now! It would also make a great gift for a new mom, or even an experienced Mama! There are so many solid, scripture-based prayers and liturgies to get you through holidays, big emotions, little emotions, milestones, and so much more. I love using this collection as a starter prompt. I read a section of the prayer out loud and then piggyback off of it as it leads my mind to specific people and situations in my life. It’s also a great resource even if you aren’t a parent.

One of my favorite prayers in this book is called “A Prayer for Your Daughter to Know Her Worth.” Do you know how many times I have prayed this over myself? The limit does not exist. I also can’t tell you how many times I’ve used it as a guide to pray over families in my community group. It is just so, so good.

4. Labeled Prayer Cards

These are as simple as they sound. Write it down when the Lord prompts you to pray for something or a friend shares a prayer request. I tape mine to the wall in my prayer closet, but you could just as easily keep them in your Bible or your bedside drawer. Put them wherever you will be reminded to pray for those things. Finally, label them with a day of the week. There is nothing worse than wanting to pray but feeling like you don’t know where to begin. Labeling my prayer cards with a day of the week has helped me know where to start. On Mondays I pray for our family, On Tuesdays I pray for friends, etc.

My Encouragement For You

As much as the Lord has taught me about prayer this year, there are still bad days. There are nights when my anxious little heart tells me that I am alone, that no one cares how I feel, and that hanging on to negative emotions is better than walking in freedom. This is why I’m so grateful for the visible picture that God gave me that night of how my angry heart kept me separated from the presence of the Lord. I’m grateful because, in the realization of it, God gently invited me back in.

He wasn’t angry with me. He isn’t angry with me. The Lord only wants me in His presence. In His presence is unbridled peace. A peace that surpasses all understanding- meaning that my circumstances may be absolute chaos, but the Creator of the world is holding me fast. In that presence is where I can lay down every messy, overwhelming emotion- the lament, rejection, and anger- and somehow, through His holiness, He makes it good.

Kacie’s Favorite Prayer Resources

About The Author

Kacie is married to her high school best friend and has two girls (with another baby on the way)! She and her husband lead a community group at their church, and Kacie loves connecting with women in that space. The hardest, yet most fulfilling, experience she ever had was spending a year counseling women facing unplanned pregnancies. Kacie is a big fan of adoption, plain old chocolate ice cream, learning about the women of the Bible, and rewatching romance movies that she’s seen 57 times.

Other SIE Prayer Resources

5-Minute Prayer Rhythm To Change Your Life (Article by Jen Crowder)
Does Prayer Matter? Our Prayer Tips (YouTube Video with Jen Crowder and Ashley Swain)