Giving Your Best Life

Episode 96: Finding Serenity and Strength through Diverse Prayer Practices for a Deeper Faith

• Stephanie L. Jones, Giving Gal • Episode 96

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In this episode, Stephanie shares with you a variety of ways to pray. You'll hear about how these practices can deepen your faith and align your life with God's purposes. Stephanie will offer you the tools to weave prayer into the fabric of your daily life. Join her on this journey of reflection and discover how gratitude paired with prayer can be your guiding light, even in the toughest of times.


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Stephanie L. Jones:

Hey friends, it's Stephanie here with episode number 96 of giving your best life, and today I want to dive into the different ways that we can pray. If you guys don't know, I'm an author of a new book that came out with my friend, mike Bellini Uncommon Prayers where we have basically a collection of prayers and teaching you how to pray in different times of your life. And if you don't know what to pray, this book provides a bunch of prayers. I also have a prayer journal called Thank you Notes to God, which I'll touch on that a little bit later. But this past week I was really thinking about wow, there are so many different ways that we can pray. And at the end of this episode I would love to hear from you, like what did I miss? If I think about growing up, you know maybe, and I could be missing something, this is just like my memory, but you know I don't know about you, but growing up the ways I prayed was we prayed in church, we prayed before bedtime and we prayed at the dinner table, you know, a blessing or a grace over food. And when I got into college, my friend, I was really struggling with prayer. I think I've shared this in the past on a podcast is just not being focused. You know, feeling scattered, I don't know about you, but I would love to hear from you if you're one of those people who are just like I try to pray and I'm all over the place. I'm thinking about what we're gonna have for dinner, what I need to pick up the store, 50 things I have to do for work, something for the kids. And my friend Maraghi said you know, write your prayers down. And that's really how Thank you Notes to God was born, because it was a way for I had been writing out my prayers and I wanted to have a resource for people to do the same, but not only write out your prayers but your thank yous and your gratitudes, and really gratitude is a type of prayer, you know, a thankful prayer to God, which is why it's called Thank you Notes to God.

Stephanie L. Jones:

But as I was prepping for this podcast, I got to thinking of other ways. So during the pandemic, a friend had given me a little prayer box and it's just this little tin box and a little tiny pencil in there, little tiny sheets of paper, and I would just write out prayers and put them in the box. I still have that box and every once in a while I'll get it out and I'll read a prayer and some have been answered, some are still ongoing and then I might write another little prayer. So a prayer box. I love the idea of maybe even making it a little bit bigger. This one's like so tiny, it's like a tic-tac box size, but a prayer box.

Stephanie L. Jones:

The other thing too is when I was at my previous house, somebody had shared with me again this was during the pandemic. You know, like get out of your house is doing prayer walks. So I got into the habit where I would walk down my driveway, I would walk my trails, I would just walk the perimeter of my yard. Most of the time I wouldn't have any phone or any technology with me, it was just out there, walking with God and having a conversation. And it's probably one of my favorite ways to pray, especially if you just want to be like undistracted, listen to what God says, be out in nature. There's something so just calming and thinking about like God created all this and being out in his nature and so taking prayer walks. More recently now, this was made popular by a movie called War Room, and I want to go watch that movie again it's been so long since I've watched it Is to have a prayer closet. I would love to hear from you if you have a prayer closet.

Stephanie L. Jones:

Actually, I just set up a prayer closet in a guest room bedroom. I just had a bunch of like different things in there and I was like, no, like I'm going to take this stuff out, I'll find another home. I donated a lot of it to Goodwill. I I've heard different people do in various different ways. I put big sheets of paper on the walls and I have Sharpies and all different colors and I just go in there. Sometimes I put a chair in there. Other times I stand and have worship music. Other times I sit on the floor, which that that just sitting on the floor reminded me of one of my favorite Bible verses and it's listen to my voice in the morning, lord. Each morning I bring my request to you and wait expectantly, and that's Psalm five, three and I have found myself some days of just sitting on the floor of this closet and just like being silent. And what the lessons that I am getting three over the past week that I'll I want to share in future podcasts because it's been so, so good. Sometimes it's things we know, some things. It's like God's reminding us of these things, but so I I love a prayer closet If you have the space. Even if you don't have the space, make the space it's.

Stephanie L. Jones:

I feel like it's been life changing in my prayer life, another way to pray, and friends. Why am I talking about this? Because faith and your prayer life is the one of the foundations of giving your best life. You know, if we don't have a prayer life, if we don't have faith in what God's doing and having conversations with our heavenly Father, you know everything else really doesn't matter at the end of the day, and so we want to be walking on the path that God has for us, and a big way that we do that is in conversation with him. That's how we hear from him, that's how he guides and directs us. So I just wanted to make sure I made that clear. Another way that we can pray is on our knees. So I feel like this is something that we learn as a child. You know, you kneel beside your bedside and you pray. But I will say Over the last couple of years I had not Been getting on my knees and praying.

Stephanie L. Jones:

Actually I'd only done this at a previous church that I grew up in. When we did communion is you would go up to the front of the Church and after you got communion you could kneel in front of the church and pray, and so I was used to doing that. But I really wasn't used to like hitting my knees in my office or different places in my home. And I'm working on a book with my agent shout out to my agent, bethany Jett and this book has been one of the hardest things I ever worked on and I had a timeline and just had all this pressure. I could not get out of my head what was in my head on paper and it. I felt like God saying get on your knees and pray. And I was on my knees, I was weeping, I was praying, but friends, our father and heaven is faithful. I got up, I went upstairs and I mapped out the whole light outline and Everything that I needed to get on paper for my agent.

Stephanie L. Jones:

The other thing is over this past year I've had a friend that has really just been battling with depression and anxiety and stress and some health issues and family issues like just Compounding, and I've been spending so much time in prayer for her and one day she just really hit rock bottom and I had text groups of friends asking them to pray for her. But also, again, it was like God saying hit your knees and pray for her, like there's just I don't know, I don't. I would love somebody's feedback. I haven't really researched this, but I just feel like that is another level of prayer, when we are like on our knees, face down at the ground, and just like Pouring out to God, almost this, like pleading, pleading with him. Another thing which I have not done, but I have seen people do this and I will admit I used to do vision boards and dream boards and Actually do workshops and I've done big ones like hundreds of women doing them together and I don't know, as of late I've kind of been really convicted of that and I don't know if I can articulate why. Um, and maybe that's for another topic, maybe, or another day, and I need to process that. But anyways, I love this idea of like a prayer board. You know if having a Cardboard, you know sheet, and maybe you're writing prayers, almost kind of like what I have in my prayer closet, but I'm putting scripture on it. Maybe it's pictures of people that you're praying for. Maybe it's answer prayers You're tacking up there, gratitude things that you're grateful for. I would love to see if you have a prayer board. Shoot me a picture I Love.

Stephanie L. Jones:

Another way I love to pray is I'm one when I am in the vehicle. Is I always have music on or a Podcast or listening to a book, like that silence. Sometimes it just like I. I can't stand the silence and sometimes I'll just feel like God saying you know what, turn off all the noise, all the distractions and let's just have a conversation. And sometimes it's driving down the road and being very silent. Other times it's me talking out loud, sometimes I'm just thinking and praying. But I love these like conversations in a car with God throughout the day. So I Feel like the more that we build a relationship With our heavenly father, which I was studying in Isaiah today and I wish I don't have my Bible in front of me, but it literally said you know like Lord, my friend, and Jesus talks about that. I think it's in John, where you know like he's, he is our friend, and so I love this like Conversations throughout the day. Is I tend to do this a lot with gratitude. You know, small things happen, big things happen, and sometimes I'll just say out Lord, oh, thank you Lord for that, so we can have these like conversations with God throughout the day.

Stephanie L. Jones:

I Love quick emergency prayers. I don't know about you, but if I hear sirens, if I see police cars, fire trucks, ambulances, is I just do what I call a quick emergency prayer. I pray for those people. If I'm driving down the road and I see someone that appears to be homeless, I say a prayer for them. Sometimes, if I do see somebody walking down the road, you know, not even thinking they might be homeless, but just saying a prayer of protection for them. Another way that we can pray is pray out loud for somebody. When we are With somebody else and we know that they need prayer, instead of just saying like, hey, I'll pray for you know, pray out loud for them.

Stephanie L. Jones:

I love praying in public. I've gotten into the habit with my Friends, when we're out in public and we're having coffee or we're having lunch is we may start our Meeting in prayer or sometimes we will end in prayer, and so I think that's very important if you're meeting with Christian friends. So Zach's Lloyd has been a guest on here twice. He will continue to be a guest. You know, sometimes we will start our accountability sessions in prayer or we will end before we leave for the day. We will end in prayer. And so think about the meetings and the business meetings that you're having, you know. Are you starting or ending those in prayer? I heard one of my friends was telling me that he a pastor. Actually the church I go to one of the pastors goes up to the beach once a week and walks at the beach in praise, and I love that. It's kind of a combination of this prayer walk that I do, you know, out in my backyard, I don't have to drive anywhere, is very convenient, just walk out your back. But maybe there is a place, maybe there is a garden or a park, or if you're close, like we are, to Lake Michigan, you can go to a beach and set a time of going to pray.

Stephanie L. Jones:

My friend, mike Bellini so, who I wrote uncommon prayers with, and he also has a fabulous book, ultra marriage, on marriage. He's been married over 25 years but he goes live. He's done it multiple times and he will go live and pray live. And so how do we use if you're comfortable with that and you're like somebody who loves to pray and you wanna share those prayers, just go live on social media, whether it's Facebook or Instagram, or I think you can go live on YouTube. The other thing that Mike has been doing and I will put it in the show notes is follow him on Instagram, because he has been doing over the 40 days of Lent.

Stephanie L. Jones:

Every day during this Lenten season is he is posting where in the Bible somebody has prayed and God has answered their prayers. And it is so powerful because maybe you're in a season of life where you're like does God answer prayers anymore? And he does. He does, and I love that Mike is taking the time to go through those different sections of the Bible of where someone has prayed and God answered, which it reminds me of a verse that I love Philippians 4-6, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank him for all that he does or has done. I love this idea.

Stephanie L. Jones:

Throughout the Bible, you'll see these two things go hand in hand of praying and gratitude. So you're asking for God about something, you're telling him, you're pouring out what's going on, maybe what you need, but then you're also making sure that you're not forgetting to thank him for everything that he has done and that he has given you. A lot of times, especially if we're going through difficult times we can get so wrapped up in. The difficulty is it's hard to look or pause and look for those things that we can be grateful for, and so that's one thing that I really encourage you to do is practice gratitude as you're practicing prayer or as you're taking part in prayer. Another thing that we can do and I've done this often is not only write out prayers, but write out prayers and send them to people, post them on social media. I love to post prayers on social media, and it seems like every time I post a prayer on social media, someone's like I needed that today, and we don't know how many people read those and don't comment, and so I think that's another way we can pray.

Stephanie L. Jones:

I love a couple of ways that we pray at churches. I'm on our prayer team, and so before every service, our prayer team gathers and we pray as a group and we pray out loud, and I will say it's very uncomfortable. It puts me outside of my comfort zone, but I love that we have not only a prayer team praying before service, but we have them praying during the service. We have people up front to pray with people. So I really encourage you is find different ways that you can pray at your church and be involved in a prayer team, and if your church doesn't have a prayer team is maybe you start one.

Stephanie L. Jones:

So, friends, I hopefully this just gives you some different ideas of a way that you can grow in your prayer life and strengthen it and having this conversation with God, and I'll leave you with this final verse, and it's 1st John, 5, 14. And we are confident that he hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him. I think that's important to note. What that says is when we ask for anything that pleases him. Friends, I wanna thank you for your time, as always. If you could go right every view, share this episode with a friend. Let it be of encouragement, and your prayer life is just another way that you can get to giving your best life.