Why it’s Important to Pray for Myself Too
It doesn’t matter what age you are, what your marital status is, what the condition of your body and soul is, or how long you have or have not been a believer—if you are a woman, this book is for you. I’ve been a devoted follower of the Lord for over 30 years and I have not fallen away from Him in all that time, yet I need this book too. In fact, I wrote it for myself as much as I wrote it for you. That’s because I’m like you. Many days I find life difficult rather than easy, complex rather than simple, potentially dangerous rather than safe, and exhausting rather than exhilarating. Often it’s more like a strong, hot, dry wind than it is a soft, cool, refreshing breeze.
But I have come to know that God can smooth my path, calm the storms, keep me and all I care about safe, and even make my way simple when I ask Him to carry the complexities of life for me. But these things don’t just happen. Not without prayer.
In the midst of our busy lives, too often we don’t pray enough. Or we only pray about the most pressing issues and neglect to take the time to really get close to God, to know Him better, and to share with Him the deepest longings of our heart. In our pray-and-run existence, we shut off the very avenue by which He brings blessings into our lives. And we risk waking up one day with that empty, insecure feeling in the pit of our stomach frightening us with the thought that our foundation may be turning into sand and our protective armor may be becoming as fragile as an eggshell. This is what happened to me.
A few years ago, I had become so busy with working, taking care of teenagers, trying to be a good wife, running a home, writing books and traveling to promote them, being at all church meetings, helping people who needed it, and trying to make everyone happy, that I neglected the most important thing—my intimate walk with God. It’s not that I stopped walking with Him. To the contrary, I couldn’t make it through a day without Him. It’s not that I stopped praying. Actually, I was praying more than ever about everyone else on the planet. But I didn’t pray about my own walk with Him. It’s not that I didn’t read His Word. I read for hours as I did research in the Scriptures for different projects I was working on and the Bible study classes I was taking. But I didn’t give God time to speak to me personally through it. I was busy doing good and neglected to do what was best. I became Martha instead of Mary without even realizing it (Luke 10:38-42).
I didn’t take enough time for God and me alone, and as a result I became so depleted I couldn’t go on. I felt like that eggshell, as if I could be crushed with very little outside pressure. I knew I needed more of God in my life, and nothing on earth was more important than that. There wasn’t anything else that could satisfy the hunger I felt inside except more of His presence. And I came to realize how important it was for me to guard and protect my personal relationship with God in prayer.
The way to avoid the kind of thing I experienced is to pray about every aspect of our life in such a manner that it will keep us spiritually anchored and reminded of what God’s promises are to us. It will keep us focused on who God is and who He made us to be. It will help us live God’s way and not our own. It will lift our eyes from the temporal to the eternal and show us what is really important. It will give us the ability to distinguish the truth from a lie. It will strengthen our faith and encourage us to believe for the impossible. It will enable us to become the women of God we long to be and believe we can be. Who among us doesn’t need that?
In my previous books on prayer, I have shared the ways husbands and wives can pray for one another, parents can pray for their children, and people can pray for their nation. In this book, I want to share how you can pray for YOU. I want to help you draw close to your heavenly Father, to feel His arms around you, to maintain a right heart before Him, to live in the confidence of knowing you are in the center of His will, to discover more fully who He made you to be, to find wholeness and completeness in Him, and to move into all He has for you. In other words, I want to show you how to effectively cover your life in prayer so that you can have more of God in your life.