How to take time to pray.

We need to share our lives with God and take time every day to pray. When I went to a traditional church, I lived a guilty life. I was told if I wasn't reading my Bible every day and I wasn't praying everyday, something was wrong. I was also told the story repeatedly of a man who had so much on his agenda for the day, that he had to add an extra hour of prayer, which put him praying for 4 hours every morning.

At the time, I was a stay at home mom to our children who were little, and I was struggling with any time alone for my sanity, much less taking hours to pray! How on earth did they expect me to function without enough sleep every night?

What I wish would have happened was this... I wish some of the elderly women would have approached me and told me, "Honey, you can pray while changing diapers." or "You can pray while washing dishes." No one came along side of me and told me that prayer is talking to God like you talk to a friend. Prayer is something that can be done anywhere, any time of the day. You don't have to sit down in a chair for 4 hours and do nothing but pray!

Jesus often left His disciples to go pray. I think it was His way of time alone by Himself, but also so He could talk to God. That is a great thing to do..but it's not the ONLY way to pray.

God is not a God of guilt. He does not try to guilt or shame us to into anything...but especially into praying to Him. If you've felt that, please know it's not Him. He loves you unconditionally. He wants you to pray and spend time with Him, just like an Father would.

How do you pray? From the heart and about anything. Nothing will bother Him. If you don't understand why or how He does things, ask Him. If you need healing or desire healing for someone else, ask Him for it. Just tell Him how you feel and what's going on in your life, just like any close friend. You can even be angry at God and yell at Him. That's ok. He designed your emotions, so He can handle it.

I hope you take time out of your day to spend with Him. He loves for us all to. Just remember, He's not a vending machine. We don't put in a prayer for something and God just spits it out. He just doesn't work that way.