Simplicity and Prayer

I have led women’s bible study classes for several years now. It is a passion of mine and I am blown away that God would let me be apart of this ministry. I love the fellowship and us working through the things of God together. In a class a few months back we had some extra time together and I felt that we needed to pray for each other. There were several situations at the time and I knew there were ladies who needed and wanted prayer. I began by asking the ladies to give requests, specific personal ones. Tell us your struggles the things you would like for us to bring before the Lord. After the first lady tearfully shared her request I asked would someone please pray for her. It took a few seconds, but eventually someone spoke up and prayed for the lady and the request she had made. As we went on in this manner it seemed that it took longer and longer for someone to say that they would be willing to pray for one of the ladies in our group. This fact concerned me. It was brought up again recently in a class about praying and especially praying out loud in front of a group. What’s our hang up about it? Many ladies confessed that they just didn’t feel as if they had the right words to say. We talked about what that meant. Could it be pride? Some of us are shy and any form of public speaking is terrifying, so the thought of praying aloud is more than we can bear. I began to think about prayer and the prayer lives of the ladies in the group. Did they struggle at home in their private time with the Lord as well as in a group? I found some wonderful verses from the Message Bible out of Matthew 16 that talks about simplicity in prayer. I hope this can be an encouragement to you in your prayer life. If you are struggling with how to pray or praying out loud I hope you will be blessed by what the word of God has to say. Never do I want to turn down an opportunity to petition the Creator of Heaven and Earth because of my own pride or fear. I don’t want to just be a woman of prayer, but a praying woman.

Matthew 6:7-13 From The Message Bible 7"The world is full of so-called prayer warriors who are prayer-ignorant. They're full of formulas and programs and advice, peddling techniques for getting what you want from God. 8Don't fall for that nonsense. This is your Father you are dealing with, and he knows better than you what you need. 9With a God like this loving you, you can pray very simply. Like this:

Our Father in heaven, Reveal who you are. 10Set the world right; Do what's best as above, so below. 11Keep us alive with three square meals. 12Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others. 13Keep us safe from ourselves and the Devil. You're in charge! You can do anything you want! You're ablaze in beauty! Yes. Yes. Yes.

Lori