‘Tis the Season to Pray!

“The best prayer time I have is when I pull into my driveway after work and I sit in my car for half an hour, before going into my house, and just have that quiet time there. That works for me. I don’t feel guilty about that,” said Karissa Knight of Richmond, VA.

“Much of my daily activity I’m just praying for support throughout the day, asking God to lead and guide me, for the Holy Spirit to be with me for simple things,” said Mary Kimbrough of Glenn Dale, MD.

“I pray before I get out of the bed. And I also pray throughout the day. That’s what my prayer life consists of,” said Rev. Dr. Yvonne Felton of Upper Marlboro, MD.

As we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it’s important to note that while Jesus walked the Earth, he modeled a lifestyle of prayer. Mark tells us in 1:35 that Jesus rose “very early in the morning, while it was still dark … and went off to a solitary place” to pray. Luke said in 5:16 and 6:12 that Jesus prayed in the desert and other lonely places, and often prayed all night long.

As believers, Jesus is our role model because – also being God – he understood that prayer is a powerful weapon in our daily battles. The disciple James reminds us in 5:16b, NLT that “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

We talk about prayer, we study prayer, we say our prayers, but how many of us are truly cognizant of how, when and where we pray? WOW asked three women to share tidbits about their prayer life. Their candid, transparent responses below should inspire you to assess your own prayer life.

Q. What does your prayer life look like?

Rev. Dr. Yvonne C. Felton, director of the Christian Education Ministry at First Baptist Church of Highland Park, Hyattsville, MD:“It probably doesn’t look like anybody else’s because it’s not ‘every morning I get up at such a such a time and I sit in this chair in this room, and all that.’ It’s not that strict. My prayer life basically is I pray before I get up, not after I get up. And I’m not one of these on your knees people. If I get on my knees, I might be there a while. [chuckling]. So, I pray before I get out of the bed. And I also pray throughout the day. That’s what my prayer life consists of. It gives me an opportunity to be sort of ad hoc in what I am praying about since I pray throughout the day. And that’s really what it’s like.”

Karissa Knight, an office manager of a substance abuse intensive outpatient program in Richmond: “I didn’t grow up in church per se. I was kind of a bus kid. A church bus would come around the neighborhood. Sometimes I would catch it and sometimes I wouldn’t. So church was very sporadic. So, I never saw a strong prayer life. There [is]still really nobody in my family who I see who has a strong prayer life. So, my prayer life has just kind of been under construction. I feel like my whole life [has been] like trying to see what works for me, kind of imitate other people. I think today at 34 years old I kind of got a concrete foundation of what MY prayer life should look like, MY relationship with Jesus that I am so grateful to have my own.

I truly believe that God is a jealous God. He wants my undivided attention. And so, I typically do most of my prayers at nighttime. I know some people like to start their day off with the Lord and I know that’s very important but, in the morning is when I feel I am the most busiest. I want to go to the gym, or I want to answer emails or get some work out of the way.

I want some uninterrupted time, so the best prayer time I have is when I pull into my driveway after work, and I sit in my car for half an hour. Before going into my house and just have that quiet time there. That works for me. I don’t feel guilty about that. I used to struggle with that a lot, feeling guilty about ‘well I’m not praying long enough’ or ‘I’m not starting my day with the Lord.’”

Mary Kimbrough, a retired federal government employee: “First of all, there is no consistency. During the good times, my prayer life is organized. I actually did the Daniel Diet last year with a local church. That was a wonderful blessing for me [because] a lot of my daily organization was around prayer, the scriptures and stuff. I had a prayer journal. I enjoyed that. I find that those kinds of structures help me. I’m also part of a Bible Study Fellowship. I kind of use that as my segway, as I begin [to pray]. But right now, I am all over the map. So, there is not a structured prayer life so to speak.

When I’m working on my Bible Study, of course I spend a lot of time hearing and receiving and giving in terms of the study of the Word. In much of my daily activity, I’m just praying for support throughout the day, asking God to lead and guide me, for the Holy Spirit to be with me for simple things [like] praying for help to find something.

I can define the [prayer] model that I enjoy, and I aspire to that. But it’s kind of mixed, for lack of a better term.”

Q: How does ‘answered prayer’ impact or change your prayer life?

Karissa: “It definitely makes me more excited. On the other hand, it makes me a little bit more timid. You know, like: ‘God you have answered my prayer. You have given me these things, but will you come through if I want something bigger?’  And so, it’s kind of a Catch 22. It’s hard to really want something. [I ask myself] ‘Do I really want it that bad’?”

Mary: I respond to answered prayer “with a lot of praise and thanksgiving and sometimes sitting down and being reminded of where I’ve been and how God has brought me through. A lot of times when walking outside along the track, that’s a wonderful opportunity for me to reflect on God’s goodness. I sing hymns. Just enjoy spending quiet time with God.

So how does it affect my prayer life? It causes me to talk more and more out loud to God. Just thank him. A lot of times I don’t have any special words. Sometimes it’s just maybe eight or 10 ‘Thank Yous.’ I know He knows but I want to say to him how I appreciate what He does to keep me going.”

Yvonne: “Answered prayer …takes me into praise, more than prayer. So answered prayer just lets me know how faithful God is and what a blessing it is to be able to pray to a God who actually hears and is listening and cares and responds. That’s what answered prayer does for me. It puts me in a mode of praise.”

Q: How do you protect your prayer life, especially when the enemy tries to distract you?

Karissa: “Something practical that I do is I put on the focus mode on my iPhone so I don’t get any texts or phone calls during that time. With “a spiritual component, I do pray Ephesians over me. I put on the Armor of God. I do my best to not let intrusive thoughts overtake me.

I have this thing that I do during the day where I give myself what I call a ‘worry break.’ If there is anything that comes to me, anxiety or anything that I am frustrated or angry about I give myself 15 minutes of my day to focus on those things – to be worried, to feel anxious, to be fearful, to be frustrated or angry so that hopefully when the nighttime comes I’ve already given those thoughts my attention. I’ve already done that.

Does it always work? No, sometimes they do creep in, and I explain ‘I already gave you my time, I already worried about you today.’”

Q: How do you introduce prayer to your children, other family members?

Yvonne, who is married to a reverend and has a son and grandson in the ministry, said: “I can’t take all the credit for that because I have a praying husband.

I take one day at a time and one person at a time it seems. What happens with our family is that we pray, and our kids saw us pray. Our son saw us pray. We pray with them. And, when they had issues come up, we told them ‘Pray about it.’ And that’s it. As a practice, it’s just what we did.

My husband and my son always pray together on the phone all the time. We always pray for each other. But that’s it. It happens that all these other people pray because they saw us pray. We prayed with them, and we told them to pray. When they come to visit, we pray at the door when they leave. We are just a praying bunch of folks. For us, it’s what we do, and we don’t think about it.”

Link goes to teaching children to pray book

Q: How do you cope with ‘unanswered prayer’?

Mary: “I guess I can only say it is by faith that I cope with this. One thing that I truly believe through study of the Bible is: It’s not about me. It’s not about us. We are a part of God’s plan, and a lot of times, I don’t know what the plan is. I just have to trust and believe that God Is. Romans 8:28 says ‘And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.’  

How do I cope with it? I ask for the Holy Spirit to give me the strength to go through what it is that I’m going through. And sometimes I guess I realize that a lot of times I won’t necessarily know what the plan is. But I feel that it is ultimately for God’s good because I believe God loves me. He’s been a part of my life and has brought me 69 years. And I just don’t believe He’s going to leave me. It’s not my will but His will. I accept that as the best way to cope with it. That doesn’t mean I don’t continue to ask. I ask for patience in whatever it is that I’m going through.

My new term is ‘you’re going to have to squeeze me a little bit tighter, have a tighter grip.’”