19: Your Daily Prayer Cheat Sheet

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mari-wagner_1_07-10-2024_180807:

Hey friend, before we kick off

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this episode today, can I just

say something really quick?

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for several years and seeing your

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you continually coming back to listen

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Alright, thanks so much,

let's kick this off!

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Hey, I'm your host, Mari Wagner,

and you're listening to the ever be

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podcast where faith meets lifestyle.

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I'm so excited you're here, whether you're

a new listener or a longtime follower,

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I know there's something here for you.

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Pull up a chair and listen in for

insightful real life conversations

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and actionable steps on how to claim

the full life God created you for.

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If you're a woman desiring to live

a Christ centered life in today's

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modern world, then this is for you.

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Welcome to Ever Be.

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mari-wagner_1_07-10-2024_180807:

Hey, friends, it's just me today.

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And we're going to be chatting about

prayer and truly how to build a

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consistent prayer life, a daily prayer

life in a consistent prayer life, which

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honestly, as I'm saying that out loud,

that kind of sounds like the same thing

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so, uh, if you can do

daily, let's shoot for that.

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But if you feel like you are starting

from ground zero, consistency

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can mean different things.

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Consistency can mean starting with

a small amount of time every day or

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consistency can mean picking a few

days a week to be super intentional.

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Um, but all in all the key is consistency.

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So we're going to dive into what it all

looks like to have a prayer life and

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Some tips that I have to help you build a

consistent prayer life that helps you have

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a strong, solid relationship with Jesus.

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The number one thing you need to remember

about prayer is that prayer is your

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lifeline to your relationship with Jesus.

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I've said it before and I will say it

again over and over again 'cause it's

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a reminder that I need constantly,

and I know that it's a reminder that

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you need to hear constantly too.

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I think we can really fall into the trap

of thinking that our relationship with

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Jesus is great because we know of him

or because we go to church every Sunday.

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Now, I'm not saying you don't have a

relationship with Jesus at all if you

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do these things, but I'm saying that

the depth of it Is pretty equivalent

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to the depth of what your prayer

life is like to your commitment to

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actually spending time with Jesus.

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Cause if you're not spending time with

him, it's really hard to know him.

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It's really hard for him

to speak into your life.

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The more solid of a prayer life that

you can build in your life and root

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your life in, the more solid your faith

will be and the more rooted in God

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and Christ centered your life will be.

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I promise you that.

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So I want to give you a few ideas on

what you can do to pray in your day.

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What are some different routines, let's

say that you can adopt and insert into

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your day or into your week to help you

strengthen your relationship with Jesus.

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And the things I'll be sharing are

things that I've actually tried in

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different seasons of my life and have

seen work and have seen bear fruit.

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And so that's why I'm sharing it with you.

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It's not because it's this

lofty, unattainable thing.

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There are things that I've done

in different seasons when I've

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had different capacities to give.

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And I just want to encourage you.

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I just want to walk alongside you, um,

and give you that little nudge, that

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little piece of encouragement that

you need to really get started, or to

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really keep up with your prayer life.

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I want to start small and work

my way up to what I feel like is

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the optimal and what is amazing.

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Um, so let, let's start small.

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Let's start on the very easy,

very small commitment a day.

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And I would say a morning

offering and a prayer before bed.

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I call these the prayer

bookends of your day.

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So morning and night, and this really

helps root your life in Christ, right?

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Our goal is to live a

Christ centered life.

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And so starting your day with prayer

and ending your day with prayer

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is going to be the sweetest, the

shortest and the easiest way to start

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incorporating prayer into your everyday.

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And these can really be short one

to five minute times of prayer.

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Okay.

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And the formula, right?

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And I say formula loosely, there's

no right or wrong way to pray.

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But the formula that I recommend

is starting with praising God.

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Starting your prayer with praising

the Lord for who he is, for his

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goodness, for his fatherhood.

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Number two, gratitude, thanking God for

the blessings that he's given you for

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your health, for your life that day,

for your family, whatever it is that you

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felt grateful for throughout the day.

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And number three would be petitions.

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And this is just a space for

you to bring to the Lord.

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Anything that's on your heart, anything

that you want to ask of him and nothing is

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too big or too small to ask of the Lord.

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He's a good father and he wants

to give you the desires of your

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heart, whether it's big or small.

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It doesn't matter to him.

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I always try and use this analogy

of, um, a father with, you know,

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his adorable three year old girl.

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You may have had a different experience

with your father, but, uh, at least for

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my dad, I know that he looked at me when I

was little and still now as a 26 year old

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woman, but especially as a little girl,

you could look up at your dad, right?

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Big eyes, Sweet little voice.

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And you could ask for anything,

daddy, can I please have this?

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You know, can I please

have another cookie?

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Can, can you please

come play dolls with me?

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Can we please, you know, go out

to the backyard, whatever it is

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that you were asking when you were

three years old and your father

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looked at you with so much love.

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With so much compassion, with so much

mercy and just looked at you so much

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adornment and couldn't help but say

yes and couldn't help but desire to

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give you what you were asking for and

desire to give you the best, right?

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So God wants the same thing.

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You guys, God wants to

fulfill your prayers.

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Um, And sometimes your prayers aren't

quite aligned with his will, and

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that's okay because it means what he

wants to give you is actually so much

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better than what you were asking for.

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So that's just a little note on petition.

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Don't, don't be afraid to ask

for little things or big things

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of your father in heaven.

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Another easy and short form of prayer that

you can add into your day is the rosary.

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Now I think it's episode 14 where

I talk all about the power of the

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rosary and if you're not quite

convinced yet on the power of the

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rosary, you can go to episode 14.

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You need to pause, go listen to that and

come back because it is so dang good.

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And it's truly only 15 minutes a day.

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You guys, 15 minutes where you get

to spend time in prayer, uh, in

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peace with the Lord, reflecting on

his life, meditating on his life and

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drawing closer to his mother, Mary.

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One tip I have for this is

to habit stack the rosary.

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I know that even when you have the desire

to pray the rosary often or daily, it can

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be really hard to actually commit to it.

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And so a tip to really build

this habit is to habit stack.

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For example, if you go to work

at an office or something like

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that outside of your home, if you

don't work from home, you probably

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have a commute every single day.

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Get in the habit of throwing the rosary

on hallow on the hallow Christian prayer

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app and pray that on your way to work.

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Have a rosary in your car or if

it's too distracting for you to have

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the rosary in your hand, um, you

know, if that's not safe, then just.

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Listen to the words and repeat

them out loud and just pray

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it out loud as you're driving.

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Some might argue that this isn't the

best way to pray the rosary that you

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should only pray the rosary when you

have super focused intentional prayer

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time and I would say Yes, and no like

yes, of course your prayers should be

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genuine and should be heartfelt, um and

prayerful, but Start where you can if

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you are not used to praying the rosary at

all and you want to incorporate it into

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your life It's okay to start this way and

it's okay to do it while you're driving

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Even if it's not the best that you could

give in that moment I would argue that

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it is very good to give what you can in

that moment and to spend that time of

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prayer with Mary, praying the rosary in

just those 15 minutes on the way to work.

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Okay.

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So we went from five

minutes to 15 minutes.

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Now let's move up to 20 to 30 minutes.

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Now what I recommend here, if

you're looking for a prayer

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routine, that's 20 to 30 minutes.

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Start incorporating scripture.

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Scripture is such a helpful tool

when you're trying to extend that

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prayer time and really start to

go deeper with the Lord, because

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scripture is the living word of God.

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Truly, it is alive.

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And every time we go to it, every

time we read it and digest the

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word, something new comes up.

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The Lord speaks to us in a different way

and speaks to us directly into our life.

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So what you can do is just

start with the gospels.

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Start with one of the books of the

gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

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I love Matthew.

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Uh, Trey really loves the book of John.

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I also like the book of John.

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Uh, I would recommend you start with

one of those two and just start reading

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maybe a few verses a day or a chapter

a day if you want and spend 20 to 30

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minutes reading reading, maybe journaling

about it or reflecting on it in silence

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and meditating, uh, a really beautiful

practice to have in prayer is Lectio

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Divina and Lectio Divina can even

be combined with imaginative prayer.

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So Lectio Divina is when you

really spend time reflecting on

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the word and meditating on it.

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Uh, and this means that you can be.

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Reading the same verse over and over

again for, you know, five, 10, 15, 20

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minutes, you can just keep meditating

on those words, seeing what they,

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where they resonate in your heart

and what Jesus is bringing up and how

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he's trying to speak into your life.

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And then if you have an imaginative

prayer, or if you want to kind of

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test the waters and see what that's

like, scripture is a very helpful tool

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because it paints the picture for you.

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You know, for example, um, the

hemorrhaging woman is one of my.

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Favorite gospel stories.

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And it's the story of this woman

who suffered from these hemorrhages

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for 12 years, but she has faith

that if she touches Jesus, she

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will be healed immediately.

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She has great, great faith and she

approaches him in the midst of a huge

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crowd as he's walking through the town.

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He's on his way to heal someone else's

daughter and she's walking through

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the town and she, she pushes, you

know, through the crowds of people and

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She works her way up to where Jesus

is and the crowds are pressing upon

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him and it's so tight and it's so

crowded that all she can manage is to

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reach for his cloak, which she knows.

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And she has so much faith that if she

even just touches one thread of his

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cloak, She would be healed because

she knew that that was the Lord.

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And so you can just use this time, right?

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This time in prayer with scripture,

for example, with this passage to close

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your eyes and to imagine, imagine her

weariness, imagine her confidence,

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imagine her pressing through the crowds,

imagine her reaching her handout.

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And the moment that she touches his

thread, the moment that she touches

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his cloak, there's a power that emits

from his, from the cloth of his cloak.

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And he turns around and he says.

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Who has touched me.

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I felt power come out from me.

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And in that moment, she's healed.

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And the moment she touched

his cloak, she's healed.

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You can imagine her, you know, her

whole body being filled with warmth and

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light for her soul being filled with

the Holy spirit and joy and color and,

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you know, peace returning to her face.

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You can just imagine the awe that she

had looking at her Lord and just being

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in complete gratitude and complete

awe that he healed her in that moment.

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And then you can imagine the encounter

that Jesus must have had with her

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immediately after when he says, I

think it's a, you know, woman, your

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faith has saved you, or my daughter,

your faith has saved you, um, you

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know, be well, or something like that.

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He says that in, in a ton

of the healing gospel.

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tools.

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But you get where, where

I'm going with this.

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You can use your imagination

to connect with Jesus.

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And scripture is one of the best tools to

help kind of ignite that type of prayer.

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If it's not something that you're used to.

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All right, now let's talk about

45 minutes to one hour of prayer.

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If you've never heard of this before, you

might be like, what are you talking about?

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You can pray for 60 minutes.

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And I remember that when I first

heard that I thought the same thing.

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I was like, That's kind of a long time.

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There's like literally no way

I could pray for that long.

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I do not know what to say.

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If you have maybe been praying holy hours

already, but have kind of dropped off.

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I get it because it's hard

to stay consistent with them.

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But also you guys in the weirdest

way, once you start praying

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holy hours, It just gets easy.

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Like an hour can really go by quickly when

you are in deep meditation with the Lord.

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And I think the key is to really

get over those first 15, 20 minutes.

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Once you kind of hit that 30 minute

marker above time is different in prayer.

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It's like time just starts to slip away.

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Your heart begins to open and you

really are able to just connect with

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Jesus and hear him in your soul.

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Maybe not audibly, but just

feel his presence, hear him

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speaking to you into your life.

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Um, there's just a peace that

washes over you and you could even

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just be content just sitting in

and gazing at the Lord, whether

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that be a crucifix or an adoration.

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So.

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That's what I want to talk

about is Eucharistic adoration.

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This is very common when people say

that they're praying a holy hour.

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A lot of the times it means that

they're going to Eucharistic adoration.

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And this is when Jesus, um, like the

bread, the communion that we receive

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at mass is exposed in a beautiful,

uh, ornament called a monstrance.

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It's this gold.

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I don't even know if it's called an

ornament or whatever it's called.

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This old, this, this gold piece

that holds Jesus in the middle.

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And it makes it so that he can be

exposed to us in, in a little chapel

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so that we can just spend time in

prayer with the presence of our Lord

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right in front of us and adoration can

be so powerful you guys, because it's

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Jesus's presence right there, right in

front of you, exposed right before you.

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And I've heard many testimonies and

experienced testimonies of people

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who maybe weren't Catholic or had

never gone to adoration before.

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And in the moment they step foot

into the chapel, it's an overwhelming

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feeling of love and peace.

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Um, because your soul

just recognizes the Lord.

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Um, but don't, don't expect

there to be fireworks every

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time you step into a chapel.

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Prayer doesn't really work that way.

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But I'm just saying that there is a

powerful, powerful difference of being

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in a church or in a chapel, especially

in adoration than it is praying at home.

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Now both are good, but I encourage

you to make it a habit to go to a

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chapel or a church or to adoration

to spend time in prayer there.

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So how do you pray a holy hour?

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What do you do for a full hour?

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I'm going to read off my breaking

down how to pray a holy hour reel

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that I posted that went super viral.

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It's got like 800 and 800, 000 views

and I know that it resonated with so

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many people and it was so helpful.

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So I'm just going to read you this

formula, this kind of breakdown

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that's really helpful if you kind of

need some guidance on what to do to

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fill an hour's worth of prayer time.

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So number one, spend 10 minutes quieting

your mind and opening your heart.

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This is time for you to just arrive at

a place of prayer and drop off all the

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things that you, you know, experienced in

your day, all your worries, all your to

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do lists, anything that's just distracting

you maybe from peace and prayer.

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This is a space for you to just drop

it off at the door, sit down and spend

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some quiet time with Jesus and allow,

you know, the Holy Spirit to come

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and prepare your heart for prayer.

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You can simply start with come

Holy Spirit, teach me to pray,

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quiet my mind, open my heart.

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That's a prayer that I start with often.

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Come Holy Spirit, teach me to pray,

quiet my mind, open my heart, prepare me

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to hear what the Lord has for me today.

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And number two, you spend 20

minutes conversing with Jesus.

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Just pretend you're talking to a friend.

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This can be very natural.

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It doesn't have to be beautiful or pretty.

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It can just be how you would normally

express yourself, your fears, your

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worries, your anxieties, your joys,

your celebrations, your petitions to

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a friend or your mom or your husband

or your boyfriend or whoever it is.

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Um, just be yourself

and just talk to Jesus.

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Journaling your prayer in this, in

these 20 minutes can be helpful.

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If you ever feel like you're at a loss

for words, a lot of us know how to express

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ourselves in writing, because honestly,

that's what we're trained to do at school,

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writing so many essays and reflections.

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So sometimes it's easier to kind of.

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Process through your feelings

when you're writing things down.

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So I really recommend you have

a prayer journal of some sort.

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Um, I have mine, the adore

journal from West coast Catholic.

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It has a cute little gold monstrance,

uh, image on the front cover.

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And it just kind of puts me

in the right head space every

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single time I go to prayer.

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Number three would be spend 15

minutes forming your mind and soul.

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This can look like picking up scripture

or a spiritual book, uh, learning about a

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saint or a new devotion, something that's

going to deepen your faith life or maybe

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Expanding your devotions in the faith or

expanding your faith in general, uh, by

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learning something new about the Lord,

learning something new about the faith.

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The more we learn about who God is through

actually forming our mind through actually

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educating ourselves on the teachings of

the church and the teachings of our faith.

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It's fascinating how much our soul

comes to know and love Christ more

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because we're forming our minds as well.

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Lastly, number four, spend 15

minutes reflecting and pondering.

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And this is where you can just kind

of do whatever you feel moved to do.

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You can spend 15 minutes in silence,

15 minutes, um, just gazing at Jesus,

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15 minutes kind of allowing everything

that stuck out to you to sink in.

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Um, This time of silence, especially

is where you'll most often kind of like

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feel the Lord speak into your life, um,

or give you a word of wisdom or kind

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of just place something on your heart.

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Silence is really tough for us, you guys.

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And I feel like it's something

we don't do very often.

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And at least for me, even when

I'm, even when I'm home alone or

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something, I'll throw a podcast on

or show or something to kind of like,

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Um, so this, this is really

important because we're not very

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used to silence and in silence is

where the Lord speaks the loudest.

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So these last 15 minutes while you're

reflecting and pondering, just make

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room for silence, gaze at Jesus,

allow him to speak or, or touch your

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heart in the midst of the quiet.

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Okay.

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So I hope those different like

models of prayer were helpful to you.

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Hopefully that you can, you

know, just kind of grab one of

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those, take it with you and start

implementing it into your day.

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Maybe you already do a few of

them and you want to kind of, you

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know, quote unquote level up and

include more prayer into your day.

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Uh, and you can, you know,

stack them on top of each other.

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There's never too much time for prayer.

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And honestly, if you did all those things,

let's see, you'd spend five minutes,

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you know, doing a morning offering and

a nighttime prayer that maybe five to 10

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minutes, you do 15 minutes of a rosary.

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Now you're at 15 minutes.

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You do one holy hour where you could

do, you know, scripture or journaling or

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just conversing with Jesus, meditating.

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It's really like an hour

and a half of your day.

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It's really not super.

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Unattainable and you can

absolutely work up to it.

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So let's say you're rocking it.

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You've got your prayer life going.

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You're feeling super on fire.

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You're connecting with Jesus.

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How do you stay consistent?

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I have a few tips for you on how

to make sure that you are going to

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prayer daily and really keeping up

that daily relationship with the Lord.

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Number one would be to make

God your first priority.

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I know that this kind of is weird

to hear because you're like,

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well, of course God is number one.

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But.

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Amen.

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If you really spend some time reflecting,

it becomes very obvious to us very quickly

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what things we place above the Lord.

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Maybe it's social media or scrolling

the second you get out of bed.

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Maybe it's checking your email or

starting work before you even get a

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second to pray and thank God for your day.

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Maybe it's time just, you know, unwinding

and kind of vegging out and watching a

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show or something like that where you

don't actually get to pray at night

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because you're just so exhausted and you

get into your bed and you just are like.

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Whatever.

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I just need sleep.

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Whatever it is.

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Those are just, just a few examples of

things that I've experienced that I've,

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that have kind of opened my eyes to how I

have chosen other things above the Lord.

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So putting God first in your life

means making him a priority and an

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easy way to do this is to have prayer

be the first thing you do in the day.

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Whether you start your day with a

morning offering, or you even start your

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day with, you know, a 20 or 30 minute.

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Um, time in scripture, or you

start your day with a holy hour.

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Start your day in prayer because once

the day gets going, you guys, things

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come up, your to do list gets longer,

uh, different things just come up

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: 00:22:32

throughout your day that can push your

prayer back more and more and more.

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: 00:22:35

And I've done it a million times

where I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm just

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going to pray in the evening.

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I'm just going to pray before bed.

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: 00:22:42

I'm just going to pray later and I

don't get to it and maybe that's just

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me, but I also think it's not just me.

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So pray first thing in the morning.

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Number two is put yourself

in a prayerful space.

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If you're able to get to a

church a few times a week or

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: 00:22:59

every day, you know, do it.

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If you can't create a home altar,

create like a corner of prayer,

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: 00:23:06

a place that encourages and

inspires prayer in your very home.

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: 00:23:10

This can be in your bedroom or in

a separate room in your house or

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: 00:23:13

in a corner of your living room and

basically just having different.

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: 00:23:16

Holy items around you that can

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: 00:23:18

you know, focus your energy and

your mind on Jesus and on prayer.

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: 00:23:23

I encourage you to have a crucifix,

maybe a statue of Mary, um, a

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: 00:23:27

Bible, maybe a holy card or two,

or just a beautiful faith image.

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: 00:23:32

Um, or a collection of these things,

a collage on your wall or a little,

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: 00:23:36

you know, shelf where you have these

different things that you can put on

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: 00:23:39

there, holy water, um, Prayer cards,

images, statues, every, everything

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: 00:23:43

that I just said can help create

that space of prayer and surrounding

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: 00:23:47

ourselves with a beautiful prayer space.

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: 00:23:50

It's going to really center ourselves,

help us to create that time of

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: 00:23:55

quiet and peace in our hearts to

really, really speak with Jesus.

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: 00:23:58

without any distractions.

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Lastly, don't be afraid

to ask for accountability.

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: 00:24:03

I've done this many times before

where I'll shoot my friend a

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: 00:24:05

text and be like, Hey, my prayer

life has been super off lately.

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: 00:24:09

Like, do you want to do

a Bible study together?

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: 00:24:11

Or do you want to read a book together?

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: 00:24:12

And we can kind of Check in weekly or

send each other a text or even do a

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: 00:24:17

zoom call or a FaceTime call, um, to

kind of reflect on what stood out to us.

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: 00:24:21

You can do this over the phone or you

can do it in person with a friend.

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: 00:24:25

It's totally okay to ask for

accountability in your prayer life.

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: 00:24:29

And chances are, if you have a friend

that's also trying to grow in her

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: 00:24:32

faith and just really center her

life around Christ, she might be

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: 00:24:36

really excited about the invitation.

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: 00:24:37

So don't be embarrassed.

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: 00:24:38

Don't be nervous to ask somebody

to pray with you or to join

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: 00:24:41

you in some sort of prayer.

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: 00:24:42

prayer challenge because sometimes

it's the best way to really

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: 00:24:45

kickstart your prayer routine

and kind of ignite that fire.

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: 00:24:48

And again, we're not meant to

do this journey of faith alone,

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: 00:24:52

this walk of faith alone.

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: 00:24:53

And so having someone in it

with you can be so helpful to

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: 00:24:56

help you build that consistency.

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: 00:24:59

Alrighty, friends.

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: 00:24:59

That's all I've got for you today.

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: 00:25:01

This has been such a good episode.

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: 00:25:03

I hope that it was helpful to you

and just encouraging to you to keep

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: 00:25:07

going and to root your life in Christ.

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: 00:25:09

Know that I'm praying for you and

praying that you carve out some good

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: 00:25:13

time to spend with Jesus this week.