Prayer as a Way of Life
By: Sara Payne, Magnify Missions Coach
Email: sara@magnifymissions.com
It’s one of those beautiful Indiana evenings - the kind where there’s a certain stillness to all of the activity as the sun gently sets leaving a golden light that fades into pale hues of pink, orange and blue. The birds are singing their songs and calling out to another. I hear a mourning dove coo and even farther away I hear an orchestra of frogs sounding off. After a long day of work much of which involved keeping a toddler alive, I’m on my porch soaking it all in. I take a deep breath and let the song, which feels much like a prayer, sweep over me. “Yes,” I think to myself, “creation is praying, and I get to hear it.” It is a holy moment, and I experience God’s presence in it. It’s a deeper connection, a reminder that He is with me - as close as my breath. The fact that I have access to the One who created all that I am seeing and hearing is pretty amazing. I want to be connected to Him. I want to pause and notice what is going on and how He is in it all. Jesus tells us, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). I am reminded that I need to remain - that it’s absolutely necessary. My life depends on that connection, and I’m finding one of the best ways to keep it is prayer.
My Survival Kit
When I was a teacher one of my favorite projects (PBL Units) I ever did was called The Zombie Survival Kit. I wanted students to learn a problem solving process that they would be using in future projects, so I made the problem a fun hypothetical one: If zombies attacked our school how would we survive?. They got so into it and loved it! I had a guest from Homeland Security and the Fire Department come in to listen to their plans. It was such a fun event! It made such an impression on some of them that I even had a former student who was doing his student teaching ask if I could send it to him so he could adapt it for use with his own students. My husband also loves survival shows and for years had me collecting soup cans in our basement for what he called our zombie apocalypse stash. After almost a decade, I decided it was time to dump it. He took a Wilderness Survival class and has plans to put together his own survival kit. While these are comical examples of survival kits, I recognize a need to be prepared in my life for the unknown that lies ahead. The longer I live the more challenges and suffering I face. Challenges and suffering that can’t be explained by Google or silenced by all of the noise and distraction. I need a survival kit, but I need the kind that will give me access to a source that is strong, steady, and eternal. I need prayer. I want prayer to be my “go to”, the survival kit I reach for when I’m facing difficulties and situations I feel ill equipped or unprepared for. Albeit we aren’t facing the end of the world or a zombie apocalypse, but we are in a war - a spiritual one. Ephesians 6:10-12 says, “Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” The enemy has weapons, but so do we and ours are stronger. Can you imagine being under attack, having an armory of weapons to defend yourself (and your family) and then not using them while your house was moments away from being invaded? What if you were willing to use them, but you didn’t know how? As Paul notes in 2 Corinthians 10:4, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.” We need to know what’s in our spiritual arsenal and how to use those weapons to fight the enemy.
Growing My Prayer Muscles
Prayer is a spiritual discipline I have had a growing desire to build up and learn about especially in the last few years. Coming from a Catholic background meant I was familiar with lots of prayers especially when it came to praying the rosary or the prayers found throughout mass. However, they lacked feeling and a true connection for me. It felt like drudgery - dry, stale, and pointless. It definitely didn’t inspire me or give me great ideas about who God actually was. Now my prayers at home were different. I felt very spiritually aware even as a little girl. I would sense a darkness - something demonic and in my childlike faith call out to Jesus. I would imagine or literally see Him or one of his angels standing in front of my bed glowing white with a sword drawn. Needless to say I’ve had a healthy respect and belief in the spiritual world for quite some time and I’ve seen the power of prayer. However, I’ve come to see that prayer is an ocean and my understanding of it is a bucket, so I’ve got lots of room to grow.
I’m part of a mom’s group at my church that meets twice a month. They do a great job of bringing in speakers and panels to cover a variety of topics. This last month, they brought in two godly women who provided advice and insight on how to disciple your kids and help them spiritually develop. They provided a wealth of resources among them which was a book called, The Power of a Praying Parent, by Stormie Omartian. I began listening to the book and was struck by how detailed the author was in covering every aspect of her children’s lives in prayer. I have been familiarizing myself and using prayers that apply to a specific moment or activity such as drinking my morning coffee, upon first waking, or changing a diaper all which can be found in the book Every Moment Holy. Another recent book, Habits of the Household, shared a variety of prayers to use with children at bedtime or when getting them dressed. The focus of praying in this particular book helped me to build upon those prayers, but with a more intentional aim at seeing prayer as partnering with God on behalf of your children. Stormie Omartian writes, “ We were to depend on God to enable us to raise our child properly, and He would see to it that our child’s life was blessed. An important part of our job was to keep the details of our child’s life covered in prayer.” As I’ve explored prayer and learned more about it, I’ve noticed some subtle shifts in how I’m applying it in my life and in essence partnering with God.
Prayer as a Default Mode
Earlier at the start of this month, my husband and I witnessed a terrible accident- a man in a mobilized wheelchair was struck by a truck while crossing the street. My husband was the first to arrive on the scene. I stayed in the car with our daughter and called 911. In those tense and scary moments as emergency vehicles piled onto the scene I was grateful for the reminder to come to the Lord in prayer. I grabbed my little girl’s hands and we prayed for the man who had been struck, for the driver who had hit him, and for my husband. Then I read Psalm 23 out loud to her. Omartian writes, “When we employ God’s Word in prayer, we are laying hold of the promises He gives us and appropriating them into the lives of our children.” I knew that this was a moment when I had the opportunity to demonstrate for my daughter how to respond in those situations. I didn’t want her to see or sense fear or chaos in that moment. In The Power of a Praying Parent, Stormie Omartian shares, “Fear easily strikes children because they can’t always discern what’s real and what isn’t. Our comfort, reassurance, and love can help them; but praying, speaking the Word of God in faith, and praising God for His love and power, can free them.” My response in that moment was equally important to me because it was the first time I was facing a situation like that as a mama. I wanted to set a precedent of prayer for how I will respond in the future. I know that accidents, tragedies, and loss are inevitable, and I can’t control that. I can however control how I choose to respond in those moments. I am not in control, but I can come to the One who is and ask him for guidance, wisdom, and discernment. I can ask Him to do what I am not capable of doing myself. I want my gut reaction, my default mode, to be a response of prayer. I want to be a praying woman, a praying wife, a praying mama, a praying friend, a praying worker - whatever role I take on - I want it to be a praying one.
The One Who Answers
Recently my mother, myself, and my little girl went out of town to attend a festival in a nearby city. My daughter had felt warm that morning when I got her out of bed, but I took her temperature and it was normal. She is a little fire engine, and often wakes up warm so I wrote it off as that. The festival was an hour and a half away and by the time I got my daughter out of the car I could feel that she was burning up. Taking her temperature this time revealed she indeed had a fever. I could tell she didn’t feel well by her behavior, so I gave her some medicine and got her settled in her seat. The festival itself was chaotic - too many people all cramped into too small of a space and not looking where they were going. I kept clipping people on their feet with my stroller and we could hardly move. It was our first time attending and what was meant to be a relaxing fun day was quickly becoming a disaster. We made one lap, went to the restroom, and then were heading to the car. On the way my little girl started crying. She wasn’t hurt, she was just feeling miserable, and my heart ached for her. I got her out and carried her while my mom pushed the stroller. Here I was feeling so helpless and burdened by the reality that my daughter was sick and we were hours from home. I had recently read a chapter in The Power of a Praying Parent about prayers for health and healing, and it came to mind as I was walking. I began praying out loud over her and claiming God’s promises for health and wholeness. I prayed against whatever was attacking her, asking for the Holy Spirit to flow over every fiber of her being and eradicate this sickness. My mother told me she was also praying as she walked behind us. We arrived home successfully and I put Isabella down for a nap. She took another round of medicine and by the next morning the fever had broken and she was back to herself. I remember thinking I’m so glad she rested and took that medicine because now she’s feeling better. In the very next moment, I heard an audible response in my head from the Lord, “She’s better because you asked me to heal her and I did Sara.” I was both humbled and grateful. I shouldn’t be surprised when God answers my prayers, but sometimes I forget. I need those reminders that He hears and responds. I know the answer isn’t always yes. I lost a father to brain cancer 11 years ago, and a father-in-law to blood cancer earlier this year. We asked for healing on this side of earth, but God took them home to receive the ultimate healing. Sometimes the answer is “no” or even delayed. However, I know He’s willing and able. I think of the father in Mark 9 who asked for healing for his son saying, “ ‘But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.’ ‘If you can?’ said Jesus. ‘Everything is possible for one who believes.’ Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, ‘I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!’” (Mark 9:22-23). I need some help overcoming my unbelief and that’s where prayer comes in. Romans 12:2 exhorts us stating, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is-his good, pleasing and perfect will.” Our time in the Word of God and in conversation with the Father helps us renew our minds away from the unbelief of the world. It builds our faith and gives us that access to the peace, hope, grace, comfort, and promises of God.
Keeping the Lines Open and Honest
I have been given the good gift of having both a praying mama, and in more recent years a praying mother-in-law. I am greatly blessed by their example and I know many of the blessings in my own life and my husband’s life are the direct result of their prayers. I have a growing sense of my responsibility to pray and a growing need for prayer to cover my own daughter’s life. I want to live in a way that demonstrates I know the Father is listening, hears me, and responds. This is a gift I’ve been given by godly people in my life and a model I hope to pass on to my own little girl.
I also know that prayers don’t always equate to the results or outcomes we want for our kids or ourselves. It’s about the conversation with the Father. Am I keeping the lines of communication open? Am I asking what He wants for my daughter’s life? What does he want for my life? I picked up another prayer book a few weeks ago. I was in the checkout line of Hobby Lobby, when I came across the title, Honest Prayers for Mama Bears. It’s by the same authors who wrote, Mama Bear Apologetics (definitely a crucial read for mamas, grandmas, aunties, sisters etc.) which I highly recommend). I was struck most by the phrase “honest prayers” though. Again coming from a Catholic background as I mentioned before, prayers were rote and often felt forced. There wasn’t much honesty in my Hail Mary prayer to make up for yelling at my brother, who by the way was usually a brat towards me. Just ask my mom. Nowadays, I’m looking for a conversation with God - a real, raw conversation about why my dad’s gone, and my family is falling apart, and why the man who was hit didn’t live, and how to help calm down a toddler with a learning disability. I need to be a praying parent, but I need the prayer for me too because I can’t keep doing life without it. And what about the moments when I don’t have the words or know what to say? There is a sweet and blessed assurance that the Spirit speaks on my behalf. Romans 8:26 tells us, “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.”
I still have my knee jerk responses and many moments where I forget to pray, but slowly and steadily I’m shifting the wind in my sails towards prayer. I was telling my husband the other day, I’m noticing subtle changes in my own behavior where my first response is prayer rather than taking action first. Most days when I change a diaper I don’t have the ability to open the pages to a prayer about changing a dirty diaper and read it especially when that little bum is wriggling around (posting it on the wall at the diaper station is the best option). Still I find daily moments to take her hands in mine and pray with her. We go to the Father together because we are both His children and He wants to hear from both of us. Right now I do most of the talking, but someday she will have something to say too. I want her to know prayer is a part of how we do life, and that Jesus is always ready and listening.
If you’re looking for ways to make prayer a daily part of your life, download our free resource, Prayer Practices, for some ideas.
Sara Payne is first and foremost a beloved child of God. She likes to surround herself with people who love Jesus, be out in nature, work out, cook, and drink delicious cups of coffee. She is married to Ryan, an amazing man who loves Jesus, and also is (in her opinion) a rock star with a band called Attaboy. They have one beautiful little girl named Isabella, who is a joy and delight! Sara’s first job after college was as a missionary serving overseas in Budapest, Hungary. She then transitioned into being a full time English teacher in a PBL school on the south side of Indianapolis, IN. There her mission field was high school students. After getting married, she worked for Magnify Learning as a Branding Manager and PBL facilitator. Since becoming a mama, she now works for Magnify Missions where she is able to combine her love of missions and teaching to serve and coach missionaries around the world.
