She Prayer Journals – Crafting a Higher Quality Prayer Request & Prayer Journaling Tutorials Galore!

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Please Note:  If you received an email form me on Saturday, October 1, regarding a 31-Day series, it was in error.  I apologize for the confusion.  It is a topic I am working on, but am not ready to share it just yet.  Thank you for understanding.  Now, on to my prayer tip:

While praying the other day in the restroom at work, of all places, I noticed a deficiency in my prayer.  I was actually praying for a co-worker who has recently been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer so he is on my mind often throughout the day.  I caught myself saying something like, “God, I’m just praying for his healing…”  Now, that’s just a silly thing to say when you think about it—not the part about requesting healing, but my phrase “…I’m just praying…”  I would never say to my husband, “Honey, I am just communicating to you that I want you to…”  I would simply state my request to my husband; he already knows that I am speaking to him.  God is also aware that I am speaking to Him, so there is no need for me to waste time or energy on clarifying the obvious for Him.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives a simple definition for the word pray:  “to speak to God especially in order to give thanks or to ask for something.”  To pray is to communicate something to God.  I realized that my problem phrase fell into that area of redundancy that is noted in Matthew 6:7.

“And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.”  Matthew 6:7

Now, I realize that I am being a little bit hard on myself with this self-critique, but this scripture did come to mind.  I realized that I often say, “Lord, I am just praying this…Lord, I am just praying that…” and I’ve now decided that I am done saying that little prayer filler phrase.  It is a useless phrase, isn’t it?

This whole discussion with myself prompted me to craft some better phrasing.  Here are some of my new choices…

• God, I am believing in your healing power to heal my friend.
• Father, I am trusting you to heal my colleague
• Lord, I am giving this sickness over to You for You are the Great Physician.

Just by making these minor adjustments in my phrasing, I have crafted a much higher-quality prayer petition.  Notice how much more confident these statements are?  God loves confident prayers!  How confident are your prayers?

Next up!  #ShePrayerJournals Video workshops:

 

 

Gina Duke is the award-winning author of  Organizing Your Prayer Closet: A New and Life-Changing Way to Pray (Abingdon Press), that introduces the gift of structured prayer journaling.  You can enjoy her weekly #ShePrayerJournals weekend workshops on YouTube, and follower her on Twitter and Instagram at @TheGinaDuke.