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“A woman who is “prayed up” is one who isn’t afraid of her future because she already spoke to God about it.”
Zuleika Guzman
I’ve heard prayer to be defined as having a conversation with God. Conversations require two parties; a listener and a speaker, but not all conversations are great. You may have found yourself conversing with someone and sharing a personal life experience only to realize they weren’t listening to a word you said. Most likely you will not share anything again with them because the idea that they weren't listening to something so personal and special for you offended you. Yet, when we converse with God we must know that He is always willing to listen, if it’s important to you, it’s important to Him. Most importantly, He wants to speak to you as well. After all, a great conversation needs both a great listener and a great speaker. Have you ever wondered what would change in your life if you spoke with God on a deeper level and more often than not? Have you ever thought to yourself after making a horrible mistake, “I should have talked with God about it first?” Listen, I know life gets busy, I get it, but what kind of life are we truly living if God isn’t involved and only watching it from the sidelines. What kind of life would we live if we only spoke to God and not conversed with Him. Personally, I want God to be involved in everything that I do and if I want that to happen, I know I have to talk to Him about everything I do.
The hard thing about prayer is that we aren’t always in the mood to pray. It may seem boring, redundant and pointless when God doesn’t answer us quickly. We may not feel we have time to pray and wait on an answer when we need to make immediate decisions. What would have happened if Hannah stopped praying? I mean she had all reason to. God was taking a long time to answer and Peninah was driving her insane. Yet, regardless of how much grief, pain, frustration, and impatience was building up inside her, she still went on her knees and left it to God. This woman became so full of grief she could no longer pronounce her prayers clearly. So much so, the priest thought she was inebriated. Yet, God understood every word. Mumbles and all, God always understands every word. You may say, “I don’t know how to pray, or I don’t know the right words to say”. The Bible says that it’s not our word count or extensive vocabulary that matters (Matthew 6:7). Prayer is never about how about you sound, so don’t worry about the pronunciation. God looks into the heart. Just like He knew what Hannah wanted to say when she could barely pronounce her prayers, He knows just what you want to say.
You must know that prayer is not a tool that we use to manipulate God. It is a tool that we use to align ourselves with the will of God. Do you imagine every conversation with your child being about what they wanted? Mom, I want this, and this, and this, and this and that! I know I have been guilty of praying according to what I have wanted before. Thankfully, God has spared me many things and people I did not need in my life. When we pray according to HIS will and not our own, prayer will help reveal God’s plan for us. Prayer will help us open the doors God wants us to open and walk through. God knows you have desires that need to be met and therefore He will always be listening closely to what you have to say. But, He also doesn’t want you to miss out on key instructions for your life. Most importantly, more than meeting our needs, prayer helps us identify God’s voice. If you know His voice in prayer, you’ll know His voice in your everyday life. Instead of using all your prayer time to only speak and ask, allow some time for God to speak. There are times during prayer I listen to a song and wait for Him to speak and lead me. The way you pray truly impacts the way you live your life and therefore, talking with God consistently is far more important than you know.
Lastly, prayer makes women unstoppable. When you pray it equips you to face any hardships that may come your way. A prayed up woman is one who isn’t afraid of her future because she already spoke to God about it. Prayer is an act of faith, we pray because we believe that God is the only one capable of changing the course of world events. After all, He is the creator. Therefore, we pray that His will be done in us, through us and for us here on earth as it is in heaven! A strong woman knows she has strength enough for the journey and everything it will bring because she found her strength in prayer.
Arm up Ladies, Your future is waiting.
Love, Zuleika
If you need some tools on how to pray Matthew 6:9-13 is quite helpful. I hope it helps you build a strong foundation, I say foundation because there’s so much more to prayer that I could possibly condense into 5 bullet points.
Give God praise first (Our father in Heaven, hallowed be the name… v9)
Asking the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. (Your kingdom come, your will be done...v10)
Presenting our material needs (Give us today our daily bread...v11)
Forgiveness, but after we have forgiven others (and forgive our debts… v12)
Deliverance- that we will not fall into temptation but instead be delivered from the evil one. (and lead us not into temptation… v14)