Tag: prayer

How to Encourage a Friend During Difficult Times

Published by Leslie Newman Relationships 16 comments
Are you looking for ways to encourage a friend? Click through for some creative ideas!

Have you ever felt at the end of your rope? Me too, and when I’ve been open enough to tell a friend, there is almost always is encouragement there to keep me hanging on. I’ve been the receiver of so many thoughtful little things over the years.

Below is a little list of the some of the things others have done for me and a few that I have done for others. Some are things that you’d instantly think of when you know you have a friend in need, and perhaps a few in the list below will give you new ideas.

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5 Action Steps to Carry You Through a Misunderstanding

Published by Leslie Newman Blog Posts, Relationships 21 comments

Misunderstandings. We all have them at one time or another. We just can’t make it through life without facing hurt feelings, harsh words, and misunderstandings within a relationship. Sometimes we receive it; sometimes we dish it out. When these kinds of things happen, our relationship feels fragile. We may stand there stunned, wondering how in the world we could be in the middle of such a misunderstanding. Or we may feel convicted, knowing it was our fault when our own bad attitudes and words created the situation in which we find ourselves.

And at this point, we have a choice.

We can avoid the situation, hide our hurts, cover up the misunderstanding, and even deny our need to seek forgiveness. Or we can be seekers – seekers of His grace both for ourselves and for pouring out to the other person. We all know the right choice, but it’s the hardest one, isn’t it? How can we move forward and turn those hurts and misunderstandings into a deeper relationship?

We can find some amazing answers in Colossians 3:12. Friends, I have read this verse many times. I have prayed it for the past few weeks since this post. I know others of you have prayed these verses right along with me. But what I didn’t realize is what we were really praying when we claimed and prayed this verse over our relationships!

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6 Powerful Verses to Pray over Your Relationships

Published by Leslie Newman Powerful Bible Verses 38 comments
Prayer changes things, especially when it comes to relationships! Pray these powerful verses over your relationships for lasting impact from a God who cares!

Relationships. They fill our hearts full, provide support and camaraderie, and give us all manner of things to help carry us through life’s difficulties. But when there are misunderstandings within our relationships, we may find ourselves feeling at a loss for what to do. I think most of us could say that relationships can be the best and the worst, a stress reliever on many occasions, but sadly, during misunderstandings, they can create much inner turmoil. 

As women who love Jesus, we should be compelled to love others like He does, but that doesn’t often come easily and this calls for a lot of prayer. Even the easy relationships should have our payer attention because we have an enemy that wants to tear us apart.

Prayer can heal our relationships and give us direction when we feel at a loss about how to continue. It can help us understand a situation and keep us going when we don’t. Through prayer, God will hold us close when we are hurting, and He’ll not turn us away. Prayer undoes things inside of us so we can move forward in spite of misunderstandings. In prayer, Jesus walks before us, behind us, and right alongside us, all at the same time. God is working in our relationships in ways we can’t see. He is working in especially powerful ways when we pray.

Click below to read more and find 6 powerful verses to pray over your relationships! *FREE PRINTABLES!

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The Power of Continual Prayer

Published by Leslie Newman Prayer Leave a Comment
Have you ever wondered what it means to pray without ceasing? Do you feel it’s not possible to pray continually? Join us today as we see that an attitude of continual prayer is not only possible, it’s powerful!

Have you ever wondered what it means to pray without ceasing? Do you feel it’s not possible to pray continually? Join me today over at my friend Sarah Geringer’s blog as we see that an attitude of continual prayer is not only possible, it’s powerful!

Here’s a little sneak peak for you! I hope you will click over to Sarah’s blog to finish reading!

Pray continually (1 Thessalonians 5:17, NIV)

Have you ever wondered about what it really means to pray continually?

On the surface, continual prayer might seem like an impossibility. As much as we would love to have more hours in our days for that sit-down kind of prayer time with Jesus, we have things to do, people to care for, and places to be. But we are clearly told to pray without ceasing. So what does that really mean?

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How to Handle Unrealistic Expectations in Your Prayer Life

Published by Leslie Newman Prayer 30 comments
Do you feel frustrated or disillusioned in your prayer life? These very real experiences can sometimes be traced back to unrealistic expectations. Join us today as we look at three very common prayer life expectations through the lens of some truths from God’s Word.

Great things happen when we pray. It’s our open door to knowing God better and being in a close relationship with Him.

But what about those times when prayer doesn’t seem to be working? Maybe you feel frustrated in your prayer life. You might wonder if God is listening. Maybe you’ve asked yourself if prayer is really worth all the effort. Perhaps you feel disappointed because God does not seem to be answering.

These are very real experiences. I think I could safely say that nearly all of us have these kinds of struggles in some form or fashion in our prayer lives. It’s nothing to be ashamed of, but it is very important to evaluate why you might be feeling these things.

Join us today as we look at three very common prayer life expectations through the lens of some truths from God’s Word.

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Waiting in Prayer {Guest Post by Sarah Geringer}

Published by Leslie Newman Prayer 29 comments
Have you ever had to wait for your prayers to be answered? Have you ever wondered how to wait well? Find encouragement today in a guest post by my friend, Sarah Geringer.

Have you ever had to wait in prayer? Me, too. I think that’s something we have all probably experienced and I’m not sure about you, but waiting is not my favorite thing to do! I’m all for getting things taken care of and wrapped up right now. The thing is, God’s time table is not the same as ours. And that’s what we’ll discuss today – waiting in prayer.

Today, I’m happy to introduce you to my friend, Sarah Geringer. Sarah writes and blogs at www.sarahgeringer.com. I’ve been encouraged by her words many times. Sarah is writing today about one aspect of prayer that is particularly hard – the aspect of waiting in prayer. Sarah gives us some practical steps that can encourage us and give us a little different perspective while we wait on the Lord. Sarah gives us some great tips on how to wait well! – Leslie

Waiting in Prayer by Sarah Geringer

In my heart, there is a waiting room for prayers. For some prayers, I’ve only had to wait a few hours to learn the answers. I didn’t have to wait long, but the pressure was still there. For other prayers, I had to wait many years for the answers. I’m still waiting on some prayers to be answered with anything other than “wait.”

I often meditate upon the truths in John Waller’s song “While I’m Waiting.” I play this song while I’m in that waiting room and pray through the truths, verse by verse.

I lean into hope. I put on a hopeful mindset when I pray. I trust that God has good things in store for me. If good things aren’t possible in my situation, then I trust that God has good lessons for me to learn in the circumstance. I hope for better days while I wait in prayer, and that hope shines a bright light in the otherwise dimly-lit waiting room.

Click below to read more of Sarah’s post. She give some practical and actionable steps to help you while you are waiting on the Lord!

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How to Strengthen Your Prayer Life Through Grace

Published by Leslie Newman Prayer 39 comments
Are you putting too much pressure on yourself? Remember GRACE and receive it to bring strength into your prayer life. His strength is made perfect in our weakness!

Grace has always seemed like a gentle thing to me. A soft something that settles down in the heart unnoticed at first, but there, nevertheless. And we feel it’s peace. The thing is, I’m not good at grace. I might be good at giving grace to others, but when it comes to receiving it for myself, that’s a whole different story.

I think we all probably struggle with being harder on ourselves than we are on others, but for some of us, it is magnified, especially if we struggle with perfectionism.

If you struggle with perfectionism one of the things that you may be doing is putting entirely too much pressure on yourself. It’s a vicious cycle because perfectionism tells you that you are never good enough. And that’s the total opposite of what grace says.

Grace would tell you that you are enough, because of Who God is. He created you and He loves you. All of you. Just the way you are.

If you listen to perfectionism and the voice inside your head that says you are not good enough, you are in for a rough journey. It’s a path that leaves no room for receiving God’s grace.

Satan doesn’t mind us traveling this road though, and this is because he wants us discouraged and defeated in all areas of our lives.

He especially wants to defeat us in our prayer lives. Prayer is where the battles are fought and won. And Satan is always the looser. This means that he will do everything he can to discourage us and keep us from praying. Often, these discouragements will come through negative thought processes.

One of these negative thought patterns involves the tendency to be way too hard on ourselves which creates a whole lot of unnecessary pressure in our lives.

Think about the things we say to ourselves sometimes. We would probably never say these things about other people, but we might constantly repeat them to ourselves.

• “I skipped my prayer time today. God will be disappointed in me.”
• “My prayers seem too simple. I’m not really smart enough.”
• “I don’t really understand the Bible. Who am I to be talking to God?”
• “My life is so chaotic. I’m a mess. God wants someone who has it more together.”
• “I’ve done some pretty bad things. There’s no way God can accept me because of the things I’ve done.

This list could go on and on, couldn’t it?

But there is an answer for this. Read to find out more! {FREE PRINTABLE!}

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Build A Better Prayer Life (By Avoiding This Perfectionism Pitfall)

Published by Leslie Newman Blog Posts, Prayer 32 comments
There is Someone who can do a better job building our prayer life than we can. Avoid this perfectionism pitfall in your prayer life! Read to find out more!

For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God. (Hebrews 3:4, NKJV)

Prayer is a little like building a house. It takes a plan, a whole lot of time and effort, the right tools and a master builder.

Now if there’s anything a perfectionist likes, it’s a good plan, right? We like the tools, and we are willing to put in the time and effort. As a matter of fact, we are driven in many ways (and not all of them are healthy ways). We want to be efficient, and we focus on that end result, often at the expense of the process it takes to get there. These are all things we need to keep an eye on in our day to day life situations.

But we also have to watch out for these things in our prayer lives, because if we are not careful, we’ll focus so much on the plan that we’ll forget who the builder is.

Join me today as we talk more about prayer and a common perfectionism pitfall.

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How to Claim 7 Verses That Will Equip You for Life!

Published by Leslie Newman Claiming Scriptures 26 comments
It is a common misconception that praying for ourselves is a selfish thing to do. Join me in overcoming that lie from the enemy as we learn how to claim 7 verses that will equip us for living! {FREE PRINTABLES!}

How do you feel when you think about praying for yourself?

As women, I think we often see the importance of praying for others. We pray for our children, our husbands, our family, our friends, our difficult situations. But what often happens when we think about praying for ourselves?

We believe that we are being selfish.

Why is that?

*Maybe we feel there are so many other needs that are so much more important than our own, so praying for ourself takes away from praying for others.
*Maybe we feel that if we pray for ourselves, we are being ungrateful to God. He has done so much for us already. How could we ask for more?
*Maybe we feel as if we are not trusting God if we pray for our own concerns and needs. He has a plan for us, right? Asking for things for ourselves may sometimes make us feel as if we are taking matters into our hands rather than trusting Him.

These are all common thought process we have, especially those of us who deal with perfectionism. Perfectionism has a myriad of ways of keeping us from taking care of ourselves in a healthy manner. But let’s see what we can do to get beyond what perfect says we should do and instead, let’s focus on what the Bible says.

Read more to find out more and to learn how to pray 7 verses that will equip you for life! {FREE PRINTABLES!}

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Unlock the Power of Praise in Your Prayer Life!

Published by Leslie Newman Prayer 32 comments
Have you ever felt like something was missing from your prayer life? It could be praise and worship. Read to learn more about unlocking the power of praise in your prayer life! {FREE PRINTABLES!}

Have you ever felt like something was missing from your prayer life? I have. I was praying for others, asking for forgiveness, and being thankful, but it seemed like something just wasn’t quite right.

After some searching, I discovered that praise was a missing aspect in my prayer life. When I began adding in praise to my prayer time, an amazing thing happened. I began to have an entirely different focus that really impacted my thought processes for the better.

Praising God is a perspective-changer. There’s no doubt about it!

There are many ways to praise God which are as various and unique as the individuality He has created in all of us. But no matter how we do it, we’ll find that at the core of praising God is recognizing and thinking about His character. When we do this, some very important things begin to happen.

Praise invites His presence.
Praise forces us to take our eyes off ourselves.
Praise helps us understand who God is.
Understanding His character gives us hope helps bring peace.
When we understand Who God is, we find our true identity.
Praise makes the enemy flee!

Last week we studied 2 Peter 1:3 which tells us that God gives us everything we need to live a godly life. He equips us in all areas, including our prayer lives!

If we take a look at what follows (2 Peter 1:4) we gain another valuable insight about prayer. Click below to discover more! {FREE PRINTABLES TOO!}

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