Don't Give Up On Prayer

Welcome to A New Life podcast with Pamela Jean, where it's all about empowering women to empower more women. Get ready, friends, to create a new life. And here is your host, Pamela Jean. Hello my friends and welcome to this week's episode of A New Life podcast. I'm excited you're here as always today. Hey, I want to talk about a book that I've been reading. I just finished up a 40 day prayer challenge called Draw the Circle with Mark Batterson. B A T T E R S O N I wanted to share this challenge with you because it was fantastic. It's truly life changing for me and I think that you're really going to enjoy it. So in the show notes I will give you a link to this book so you know exactly what you're getting. It's the draw the circle 40 day prayer challenge. I also got the journal to go with it, so I had some journaling journal prompting as well. If you have worked with me in the past, you know I'm a big fan of journaling and how that can shift and change your mindset. I think it's really, really important. So I'm going to encourage you to subscribe to this podcast. So every time I have a new one dropped, you get first notification. Share this with your friends. If you know of someone who is in need of business advice, life advice, just something uplifting. This is a great something to listen to while you're getting ready for work in the morning. Pop it in the car when you're running errands. Just. Just something to have on your playlist. I'm a huge fan of podcasts. I listen to them all the time and I hope that you'll be happy to share this podcast as well. I'd really appreciate it. So I want to talk about this book and a lot of what I'm going to share with you today. Excerpts from the book. I mean, I'm not getting paid to promote this book at all. I'm just promoting it because I think it's important. And I've titled this podcast Don't Give up on Prayer. You know, I think if we're honest, we all reach those times in life where you pray. But yet do you know what you're praying for? Am I praying the right way? Does this sound good? This sounds so stupid. Or are you someone who have been a diligent person of prayer that you pray religiously all the time but yet you're not getting the answers that you're hoping for and sometimes you get discouraged and Think, well, the heck with it. I've been praying for all this time, and I'm not getting the answers. I'm definitely not getting the answers that I want. I'm done with prayer. I don't want to pray anymore. Or are you someone that is going through something so hard right now, like your life is so difficult and so challenging that you finally turn to God in prayer, that you're not a religious person, you're not necessarily a Jesus follower, but yet you're like, okay, I've got to have something in my life because I cannot do this on my own. Maybe that's you. Well, I just. This whole podcast is about, don't give up on prayer. Don't give up on prayer. God has a timing, and his timing is his timing. That's it. You know, there's many times in my life that I have prayed for an answer to something, and I prayed the prayer in my way to get my answers instead of saying, God, this is what I'm dealing with. Help me. Help me understand this part of my life that's difficult and challenging, and help me be willing and able and open to accept your answers. Lord, thy will, not my will, which is so hard because I like to be in control. I like to predict the outcomes. I like to be the one that makes sure everything gets done in the way that I want it done, when I want it done. I know that sounds horrible, but I know that a myself, I'm very. Everything's planned out, everything's very specific. And sometimes I think God doesn't answer my prayers when I want him to because he's like, okay, girl, you just sit down because I'm God and you're not. And you need to learn that this is all going to happen on my time, not on your time. And, oh, my goodness, it can be so difficult. But I just want to encourage you today, don't give up on prayer. It is just. It's so life changing. And if you can create prayer as being part of your everyday life, I promise you, I promise you, you will see your life change. You will change. Your perspective and outlook will be amazing and incredible. You know, even when you're sitting at a stopped train, like a train is whizzing by and you're like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to be late. This is miserable. You know what? Instead of complaining about the pause, pray through that pause. Pray through that time. Think about, you know, your friends from high school or college or your relative that lives a long ways away or just Paus pause in prayer instead of pause and be angry and impatient and all of those things. So I want to read a couple of things from the book that is really, really awesome. And this is the draw the circle 40 day challenge from Mark Batterson. And here's a paragraph that is really, really awesome. It says, if we change the way we pray, everything changes. It changes the way we work, the way we parent and the way we lead. It changes the way we prior and strategize. It changes the way we think, the way we feel, the way we speak. Prayer changes everything from the inside out. Oh my gosh, that is just so, so true. Sometimes we have a greeting card relationship with God and that's just not enough. It's not enough. We have to ask God to teach us how to pray and to believe that prayers are answered. They may not answer be in the way that we want them to be answered, but they will be answered. They absolutely will be answered. I think something that we, we make a mistake on, and I know I have before, is I don't pray big enough. I don't pray big enough because I'm afraid to be disappointed. If you're someone who grew up with some big disappointments in your life, that people let you down or things happen to where you felt very, very let down, that anything you've ever wanted in life just never came to fruition and you're afraid to be hurt and let down. So you, you pray safe prayers, prayers that you know are going to be answered or prayers that you know are not going to challenge you, or you're saying a prayer to challenge. Well, I'm here to tell you, you can try to challenge God all you want and he's just gonna sit back and shake his head and go, okay, nice try. He'll just say, nice try, because you can't. There's no prayer. You cannot pray some for something that is too big for God. You just cannot. And here's the beautiful thing. If it's God's will for your life, if it's his will for your life, if it's. It will happen, it will happen. Some of the things that I pray for every day is provision for abundance and financial provision. Because the more abundance that I have in my life, the more abundantly I can give. It's not about greed, it's not about idolizing money, but it's about Lord, if you bless me abundantly, then I can bless others in my life abundantly. I pray for reconciliation. If we're honest, we all have relationships. We have friendships. We have things in our life that we need to reconcile. We need to forgive other people. We need to bridge the gap in relationships. We maybe need to simply forgive ourselves. Do you need to forgive you for something? What do you need to reconcile in your life? Without that reconciliation, there are going to be things that are holding you back, that are always going to be holding you back. So cut those ties on the things that are keeping you from living your very best life. So pray for reconciliation. Pray for clarity. Clarity for God to reveal the clear path of your life. You're not just randomly plopped here on the earth just to exist. God has given you very, very special gifts and talents, wisdom and communication skills. He has given that to each and every one of us. We're not created equally. I don't mean that in a bad way, but what I mean is I will never be a brain surgeon. I don't have the intelligence to be a rocket scientist or a brain surgeon. That's not a gift God gave me. God gave me my gifts, my very special gifts, and he's given everyone those same gifts. Not for us to be equal, not for us to all be brain surgeons or all be rocket scientists. You know, people think about running, starting a podcast, and like, oh, my gosh, I would never want to do that. They would never want to be a life coach or a business mentor like me. They would never have that, the desire to do that. That's not where their gifts and skills are. But I know these are my gifts and my skills. And this is my calling to share with you the power of prayer. Encourage you not to give up on prayer. Encourage you to shift how you do pray. Not everyone has the gift and wants to do that, but this is the gift God has given me, and I'm so grateful for it. So I'm going to read to you something that is just so incredible. And this is part of the book. It's on page 217 of Draw the Circle 40 Day Prayer Challenge book. And I just love this. So I'm just going to read this because I think it's amazing. A few years ago, I heard author Ken Gob share one of the most amazing prayer testimonies I have ever heard. He and his family were driving on I75 near Dayton, Ohio, when they stopped at a restaurant. Ken's wife and children went right into the restaurant while he stretched his legs. As he walked past, past a nearby gas station, he heard a payphone ringing. The phone kept ringing, and Ken thought maybe it was an emergency of Some sort. So he answered it. He heard the voice of an operator who said, long distance for Ken Gob. Ken almost passed out. He said, you've got to be kidding me. I was just walking in the middle of nowhere and heard this phone ringing. The confused operator said, is Ken Gob there? After making sure there weren't any candid cameras, he said, this is Ken Gob. The voice on the other end of the line said, Mr. Gob, my name is Millie. I'm from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. You don't know me, but I need your help. She went on to explain that she had written a suicide note. But had decided to give prayer one more shot. She said, God, I really don't want to do this. And she prayed. She remembered seeing Ken Gob on television. She thought to herself, if I could just talk with him, he could help me. But this was pre Google, making it extremely difficult to track him down. As she prayed, some numbers popped into her head. And she wrote them on a piece of paper. She couldn't help but think, wouldn't it be wonderful if God were giving me Ken's number? Then Millie said, I decided to try calling the number. And I couldn't believe it when the operator said it was you. Millie asked, ken, are you in your office? When Ken said no, Millie sounded surprised. She said, then, where are you? Ken said, you made the call. Don't you know? She said, I don't even know what area I'm calling. I just dialed the number on the piece of paper. Ken said, you won't believe this. I'm in a phone booth in Dayton, Ohio. Millie replied, what are you doing there? Ken said, answering a payphone. Ken went on to draw this conclusion. I walked away from that phone booth with an electrifying sense of our Heavenly Father's concern for each of his children. What were the astronomical odds of this happening? With all the millions of phones in the innumerable combinations of numbers? Only on all knowing God could have caused this woman to dial that number in that phone booth. At that moment when Ken hung up the phone, he walked over to the restaurant and sat down with his family. Still stunned, he said to his wife, barb, you won't believe this. God knows where I am. Isn't that a great story? So I wanted to tell you that. I guess just to say this. Don't give up on prayer, my friends. Don't give up on prayer. God knows exactly where you are in your life. Even those. Those parts of your life that. That you're hiding from. That you're hiding from him that you're hiding from your friends, your family. God knows about them all. He knows every detail of your life. There's something you are meant to do. You are meant to answer the call from Millie. There's Millies in your life that need you to answer the call. And out of your own selfishness or ignorance or you're walking through your life with the blinders on. You're not seeing the Millies in the life. You're not seeing the plan, the calling that God has for you. You're too busy worrying about yourself and how you feel to be able to look out of yourself and make your life purpose about other people. When you're able to do that, when you're able to seek people out that are outside of you and focus on where you are meant to serve and who you are meant to serve, every single day, your life will have a whole new meaning. And all of the things that are holding onto you because of fear, shame, guilt, afraid of being vulnerable, whatever it is, whatever it is, all of those things go away. Because they don't matter. Because the Millies of the world matter more. So friends, don't give up on prayer. Don't give up on God. If you need any help or any guidance in the mindset of prayer and faith and following Jesus and just learning to love the Lord, I am here for you. You can reach out to me via email. Pamela Jean anewlifemail.com Please Please email me at any time. Send me a message on messenger. Email is the best way, but if you need to do messenger that's fine too. I am great with that. I would love to have a conversation with you and building your faith. My friends, this was so good today. Thank you for joining me. Please subscribe Podcast. Follow me on Instagram and Facebook. That would be amazing. And friends, make it a great week. We'll talk soon. Thank you for joining us today on a New Life podcast. We will see you next time.