Hello, beautiful friends! While I’m enjoying my time off during these early postpartum days, I’m honored to have my very dear friend Kim, who writes at Always a New Day, guest post for us on how to pray boldly. Her words will surely be a blessing to you. May her words sink into your heart today.
How to Pray With Boldness
by Kim at Always a New Day
For anyone who knows me, it’s no surprise to hear that I worry. Excessively if you ask those very close to me. Each morning when I wake up, I spend my first minutes praying for a worry-free day and to remember God is with me. Most days, I do well. Some days, I struggle.
This week has been no different. With a big worry presenting itself to my family, I turned wholeheartedly to prayer. In fact, I turned on a podcast to see if today’s message would speak directly to me. And just as He always does, God provided.
Today’s message was simple, and it was not anything I hadn’t heard before, but today, I heard it loudly. When you pray, pray boldly. Pray big. Pray heavy. How many times are my prayers generic – I pray to keep my family happy, healthy, and safe. Sure, I crave those things for all of my loved ones. But, today, my heart needed more. I needed to pray for my mom who is grieving; I needed to pray for my husband who is stressed at work. Those specific things were weighing me down – physically to be honest. My prayers were heavy; I needed to be bold when speaking to God. These simples messages were what I heard coming through the Podcast to my willing ears. Just as He does, the timing was perfect.
Do not feel afraid
As silly as it sounds, I feel like I can’t pray for the security of my husband’s job or for my anxiety and/or grief because I pray too much for those things. But, does God see things this way? Of course not. Our struggles are His struggles so we must let him seep into our hearts and pray boldly. Speak your heaviness and let God guide take it from there.
Use Him to your advantage
On the days I feel as though no one will understand my grief or my anxiety, I have to remember God does. He knows I have a worried heart and seeks to remind me He is on my side so use Him to my advantage. Sometimes, I feel I am burdening my husband or close with friends with yet another worry. But I will never burden my God.
Be a bigger blessing
Every morning, spend a few minutes asking God for YOU to be a bigger blessing. For me, I first pray for my kids to have a great day. But what about me? I want to be a bigger blessing for them – I want to be better, seek forgiveness for when I am not. I want to be better at being a wife, a friend, and a servant for God. Pray boldly for specifically that – pray that YOU will bless someone in your life.
See His way
Oh how we question God’s ways; I am 100% guilty of these questions. Why am I grieving again? Why am I still a bundle of nerves? We may not see a way, but God does. Pray boldly to see why you are enduring this specific heartache. I honestly never thought to pray for my trials in this way – instead of praying to help our grief in losing my brother, I can pray to see how this loss will shape our new normal.
You do not have because you do not ask God. James 4:2
The “generic” prayers are fine – I can keep those in my daily routine, but it’s this message today that I
needed to hear. God does not think I am selfish if I ask him to help me reach my goals of owning my own business. God does not grow tired of hearing me pray for our loss. God wants ALL of our dreams to come true. Pray higher; pray boldly; pray fiercely. When we release our faith through our changed prayers, we allow God to do BIG things in our life. He WANTS this greatness in our life. Isn’t that a freeing thought?
So each morning when I feel timid in my prayers or when I think God is rolling his eyes when I ask for yet another day without worry, I will remember this perfect message I heard today, and I will pray louder because God hears these bold prayers.
Then He touched their eyes, saying, “According to your faith, be it unto you.” Matthew 9:29
Join me in praying boldly. When you do so, God’s favor will be forever yours. Though the reminder seems so simple, it gave me the grace I needed to open new doors in my prayerful life.
Hi, friends! Big thanks to my sweet friend, Kristy, for letting me guest post on her precious blog. I’m Kim, a mama to two, wife to a hardworking hubby, and strong believer in love, faith, and coffee. I write and share over at Always A New Day where you’ll find bits of life that are honest, raw, crazy, and fun. I’m grateful for this life and each new day God provides, and I would love for you to join me at my little corner of the world.
Thank you for letting me share a bit of my faith journey. It was an honor to write for Seven Graces! xoxo
Very good suggestions! It’s so important to believe like a child for the things you ask of Christ, and He will give it to you.