40 Day Prayer Challenge: Introduction

Hey Gems!!!

I will be doing a 40 day prayer challenge in March. I have been feeling this urge to dive deeper into prayer, both verbally and journaling. I find that prayer is something I struggle with more so than I care to admit. I understand that prayer is an essential part of the walk of a Christian. It's through prayer that I can communicate with God.

Prayer is simply a conversation with the Father in which I confess my sins, bring my questions and concerns to Him, praise Him for who He is and show my gratitude to Him. The second half of prayer is also being able to sit and hear from Him.

I fail at prayer most of the times, but with this 40 day prayer challenge, I want to be able to truly understand prayer and make it a priority and habit in my life.

If I had to place where my prayer life was at the moment I'd say that it's lukewarm. I want my prayer life to be on fire and the only way to do that is to challenge myself.

I am opening this up to anyone who wants to join in on this with me. Female or male. Young or mature. Whoever wants to draw closer to God.

This challenge will go from Friday, March 1st to Tuesday, April 9th.

What will this challenge entail?
Each day there will be five parts to the challenge:

1. a journaling prompt
2. key scriptures to study, meditate and pray on
3. prayer journaling
4. a minimum of praying verbally for 2 mins each day. 
5. Sit for at least 2 mins and allow yourself to hear from and/or feel God

Journaling prompts:

There will be a question every day to help you focus on prayer and God. With these questions don't get stressed out. Allow yourself to answer the question as best as you can. Answer the question with your heart. If it helps, think of it as if Christ or God is asking you that very question.

Key scriptures:

Every day there will be a scripture to focus on. With these scriptures you can meditate on them, pray them over yourself or others, study them or even do some verse mapping.

Prayer journaling:

Prayer journaling is a method of prayer in which you write your prayers out to God. Spend at least 2-5 minutes journaling daily. It can be prayers for yourself or others, it can be you pouring out what's on your heart, you can even ask questions to God. Spend this time really speaking with Him.

Verbal prayer:

The prayers you say verbally can be written prayers you read, but the purpose is to ensure verbal conversation with God. Every week I will add on a minute to so that by the end of this challenge we can pray verbally for at least 5 mins. Though verbal prayer can be hard, it is something we must do. Sometimes we MUST SPEAK rather than think or write out our prayers.

Listen:

Once you've prayed, spend a minute or two sitting in stillness to allow God to speak to you. Many of us tend to forget that prayer is a conversation WITH Him. A conversation is involves two people - both listening and speaking. Many of us pray and move on once we say Amen. I'm at fault of doing that many times myself. However, let us make sure that we allow and give God the opportunity to speak to us and reveal Himself for what we just prayed for and/or about.

This is a 6 week challenge with a different focus each week. Here is a look at the weekly breakdown:

• Week 1: What is prayer? Defining prayer, the purpose and necessity of it.
• Week 2: Why do we pray? The command, knowing God, hearing God and gaining strength and perspective.
• Week 3: How do we pray? Types of prayer, methods, heart posture.
• Week 4: Jesus and prayer. The best example of prayers from the Savior.
• Week 5: What to pray. Praying scripture, praying for self and others.
• Week 6: Prioritize prayer. Consistent, persistent and habit.

I personally will be using several things outside of my Bible and prayer journal. I will be taking the time to read Christian non-fiction books on the topic of prayer and doing several devotionals. Each day I will share what I'm reading so that you may all find and use helpful tools.

I pray you join me on this journey and grow your prayer life. If you want to see photos during this challenge or want to share photos use the hashtag #DOIPrayerChallenge on IG and Twitter.

Blessings,