Making a Prayer Commintment

A few days ago I was in my bedroom listening to a podcast about the power of prayer. We all know that prayer has power, amazing power that we can not explain but it doesn't always mean we pray consistently or use it for the powerful tool it is. While listening to this podcast I kept feeling like I needed to make sure I was praying more consistently. It's one thing I'm awful at. I will pray if a friend asks for prayer and I will even pray for them for weeks or months if requested. But when it comes to lifting up my husband or my boys in prayer daily, it just doesn't happen. I forget to pray for everyday things, like keeping my husband safe while he's away at work, helping the boys maintain good attitudes throughout the day, and sanity for myself to work through the struggles that are bound to come up throughout the day with two boys stuck in the house because of the ice storm that just hit our area.

So while I was listening to this podcast my brain started working. I started to feel guilty about my prayer life knowing that it was no where near where it should be. Then I started feeling guilty because I don't spend daily time in the Bible the way I know I should be. Basically I started a spiral of guilt that God never intended me to feel. Yes, He wants me to be in His Word more than I am and He wants to hear my prayers everyday but He does not cause us to feel guilty for it. So I made sure and put a stop to those guilty thoughts and instead prayed. I prayed that God would give me the desire to do these things. That He would lead me to the way to begin once again on this closer walk with Him.

And guess what? He showed up right when I needed Him. He lead to me make a commitment to Him that I would set aside time each day to pray for Hubby. He laid Hubby's needs on my heart heavily. For the first time in a long time I started to see what Hubby was dealing with right now. Building a house, getting the property ready to move on, caring for his family, and working to bring in enough money to make all this possible. Add that with some other things that have been going on around this home and I can't imagine how he must be feeling. It has to be so stressful and overwhelming.

The next step to this commitment was to find a accountability partner. I knew that making the commitment to God wasn't going to be enough to keep me going once a week or maybe two went by and life got in the way. I needed someone that would remind me and not make me feel guilty if I missed a day or got behind. I reached out to a trusted friend with no pressure. I didn't want her to feel like she had to do it. She has a family of her own, larger than mine, along with many responsibilities that I don't and I didn't want to add to her to do list if she felt like it wasn't something she could take on. But again I know her. I knew that she would be there to support me through this and would be willing to help keep me accountable for this month of focused prayer.

After that I wanted to make sure that I also spent time in the word getting scripture in with this prayer commitment. I hopped on the YouVersion Bible app and started looking through the marriage plans available. I wanted to make my bible time follow along with my prayer time and focusing solely on my marriage. I chose to read 'Pearls and Promises for Your Marriage' which is 32 days long which will end perfectly on December 30th.

By the time I went to bed that night and said my first prayer for Hubby and this prayer commitment I made I was set for the next morning. I had everything that I needed to be successful. When I woke the next morning I was able to relax in bed for awhile because Hubby was home from work. I grabbed my phone, read day one and prayed before my feet even touched the ground. It felt good getting the day started off right.

I know that we will see amazing things happen during this prayer commitment. God has promised it! I know He will show up every day and exactly where we need him to be!