more on prayer

if you remember at the beginning of this year i decided to start purposing to spend more time in prayer...  i also started a fourth day group and we just happened to start a book on passionate prayer at the same time (Passionate Prayer, by Catherine Martin).  last month one of my fourth day gals read most of the introduction to another book on prayer (Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds: Praying God's Word, by Beth Moore).  all of these things, as well as digging into His Word, have rooted me even further in my purposeful prayer life. 
here are a few of the benefits /slash/ things i've learned in my studies:

• God yearns for our communication with Him.
• communication is a 2-way street.  praying without reading His Word is like talking to someone non-stop with earplugs in and your eyes closed.  same goes vice verse, but might be a smidgen better because the person that you'd be listening to, would be Him...
• praying God's Word is a very powerful way of communication.  if you don't understand that, read the psalms and meditate on them.  those are some of the easiest verses/chapters to pray!
• praying adoration to God blesses HIM.  what a thought.  He blesses us in so many ways every single day.  wouldn't it be nice to return to Him some blessings?!  Adore Him for who He is, what He does, for His eternal glory, and eternal praise and gladness. 
• pray when you need to confess sin. 
• ask for His guidance/leading of the Holy Spirit.
• pray to say thank you.  thanking Him is different than adoring Him.
• pray constantly. 

and then yesterday the proverbs 31 facebook page had this as a status update:  Convert your thoughts into prayer. As we are involved in unceasing thinking, so we are called to unceasing prayer. The difference is not that prayer is thinking about other things, but that prayer is thinking in a dialogue with God. ~Henri Nouwen

isn't that just beautiful?!

Try to remember, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."