Dear First name / friend,

 

 

- 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 -

 

When I first became a Christian in my mid-teens, prayer poured out of me. My siblings still {gently} mock me these days for my “shrine”: a wall of verses, prayer requests, and pictures tacked to the back of my closet. I spent hours in there with a CD player of worship music and a Bible. It formed my early Christian life. 

 

But pretty soon I was eighteen and headed to work and college. And after that, I was dating my now-husband, working full-time, and putting myself through school. And after that came a wedding and marriage and jobs and moving and babies . . . you get the picture. Through those years, my prayer habit continued, but it morphed and changed with my season. At times it felt very dry. I couldn’t help comparing my spiritual life to what I had at sixteen, living on my parents’ dime, with my own room nobody messed up, with all the time in the world. My life would never again look like this, so what would prayer look like? How could I take a strong prayer life with me through all the ups and downs of a real, lived-out faith?

 

This week we are beginning a new series on Verity Podcast all about prayer. I took questions from you on Instagram, compiled them into a document, and formed the entire series on the things you want to study. 

It’s not for the prim and perfect. It’s not relegated to quiet closets. I’d say my prayer life is stronger now that I’m praying in margins, asking for grace when I don’t know how to parent, interceding for friends and ministries, and relying on the Spirit moment by moment. I built a good foundation in my closet at 16, but now I’m building walls and rooms and a roof,  “rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7).

 

I’ve talked about prayer before in our mini-series on the podcast, when I walked you through the ACTS model: adoration, confession, thanksgiving, and supplication. Now we are diving into some of the deeper theological questions of prayer:

 . . . and several more. Be sure to subscribe to our podcast, Verity Podcast with Phylicia Masonheimer, and our YouTube to follow the series. Each week’s emails will come alongside the topic of the podcast, building on what you learn. And be sure to stay tuned for our spring launch in the Every Woman a Theologian Shop, which will also be themed around prayer!