“i will hear you”

Well hello, lovelies! I’m so glad you are here!

Seriously. I’m amazed at what has become of these thousands of women around the world, each wanting to know Him more, and deciding to seek Him together! This is all Him!

Can you believe we are already starting our third Bible reading plan together? How many of y’all have been with us from the beginning? Who’s starting with us for the first time today? Who wishes I would just get on with this post so you can know what plan we’ve chosen to do?!

Either way – we’re just so glad to have you! What a difference it makes to do this together!

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So, something about me (and I’m guessing, probably something about a good number of y’all, too):

I’m a box checker.

[yes, I am going to draw this out… stick with me, though!]

[photo credit: orgjunkie.com]

I love the satisfaction of marking one bold stroke through a task that has been looming.

Are any of y’all list-makers?

Do you ever add something that you’ve already accomplished to a list, just for the satisfaction of checking it off right away?

I’m that girl. And like I said, I bet I’m in good company with some of you.

So, when it comes to my spiritual life, I’m super comfortable with the quantifiable things. I love reading my devotional and scripture for the day and checking that little box, knowing I did exactly what was expected of me. Feels great! Like getting a #SheReadsTruth A+!

My struggle? It’s the areas that aren’t so tidy – so task-oriented and measureable.

It’s the relationship. The communion. The stuff that isn’t about duration or frequency or checking empty boxes.

It’s the heart stuff.

Prayer is where I often struggle the most. I can do tasks. I know about how long they’ll take and how much effort they will require. I can even anticipate about how much introspection might take place.

But my relationship with my Savior is not about checking boxes.

Not only is prayer one of the things we should do each day, it’s arguably the most important thing we should do every day.

I like to pray as I drive, pray as I shower, pray before meals and pray as I fall asleep at night. But I’m not great at carving out time to “pray until I pray”, as my pastor puts it. You know, pray until you really experience communion with the Lord. Until you give Him room to speak and scrape away at all the gunk we see when we view ourselves through the lens of scripture instead of the lens of the world. Prayer is where the change happens.

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[image credit Margaret Barley from the #SRT Istagr.am Feed]

This new plan is simply titled, “Prayer”.

It is 21 days of scripture only, “learning how best to pray, both from the prayers of the faithful and from the words of Jesus Himself.”

As a community, let’s focus on being faithful in the unquantifiable. At our widely various levels of relationship with the Lord, let’s encourage one another to sit with Him in quiet. Really sit. Let’s take as long as it takes to pray until we truly pray. Let’s learn from His word how to go before our Father.

Let this be a season of prayer and learning to pray.

Let’s dig deep with the Lord on the most personal level, praying His words, asking Him to reveal Himself, and asking the One who gives generously to lavish upon His daughters the fruits of the Spirit and real change in our own lives.

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord.” Jeremiah 29:12-14a

Love to you precious ladies. Looking forward to these next three weeks with you!
Raechel

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Head on over to our How page for more information on how to join in on our current reading plan, Prayer.