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Speaker 1: Welcome back, friend. You are listening to the Teach Us
Speaker 1: to Pray podcast, where we teach believers practical and real
Speaker 1: life tips on how to grow your faith and relationship
Speaker 1: with God through the power of prayer. I'm Christina Patterson,
Speaker 1: host of the Teach Us to Pray podcast and founder
Speaker 1: of Beloved Women, where I encourage, equip and empower women
Speaker 1: in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of
Speaker 1: God's Word. I am so excited to share today's episode
Speaker 1: with you because it's an interview with my good friend,
Speaker 1: Heather Dixon. Heather is an author, speaker, and Bible teacher
Speaker 1: who understands living with a story that is not easy.
Speaker 1: Diagnosed with an in curable and terminal genetic disorder that
Speaker 1: she inherited from her mother, she is passionate about encouraging
Speaker 1: and equipping women to trust God, face their greatest fears,
Speaker 1: and live with hope, especially in the midst of difficult circumstances.
Speaker 1: If you have ever wanted to have a stronger prayer life.
Speaker 1: This episode is for you. I know that many of
Speaker 1: you already know the importance of prayer, but maybe you
Speaker 1: desire to grow in this area. In this episode, Heather
Speaker 1: is going to share with you practical steps that she's
Speaker 1: taken and is still taking to grow in the discipline
Speaker 1: of prayer. In this lighthearted and fun conversation with Heather,
Speaker 1: you will learn practical steps to make prayer a daily
Speaker 1: part of your life, how to use the Lord's prayer
Speaker 1: to start your day with God, and how daily prayer
Speaker 1: can drastically change your life. So if you are ready
Speaker 1: to strengthen your prayer life life, enjoy this episode.
Speaker 3: Let me tell you one of the ways that God
Speaker 3: is challenging me with prayer and will I will say,
Speaker 3: of the spiritual disciplines, prayer has probably been the one
Speaker 3: that always needed where I needed more growth in. Like
Speaker 3: I love reading God's word, like love it like that's
Speaker 3: an easy yeah, I know you do, two sisters, so
Speaker 3: eat that's an easy one for us. And worship love it.
Speaker 3: Worship is fun, Worship is encouraging, you know. I love
Speaker 3: spending time you know in worship, whether it's singing or
Speaker 3: just you know, telling God who he is. But like
Speaker 3: actual prayer and like praying for all the people that
Speaker 3: ask for prayer, request and literally praying that one was
Speaker 3: kind of a doozy for me in terms of figuring out,
Speaker 3: you know, Okay, how do I incorporate this into my
Speaker 3: life and actually do it well, I guess, or do
Speaker 3: it in a way that is well. I don't want
Speaker 3: I want to attach values on prayer, but you know
Speaker 3: what I mean. But you know, I just I wanted
Speaker 3: to do it better, you know, But I just really
Speaker 3: felt like that spiritual discipline was probably an area where
Speaker 3: I could grow. So I started this year. In the morning,
Speaker 3: I you know, wake up and my body is very
Speaker 3: cranky because number one, I'm forty five and number two,
Speaker 3: you know, I live with a connected tissue disorder, so
Speaker 3: that often means just cranky joints and cranky body in
Speaker 3: the morning. So I roll my joints out and you know,
Speaker 3: and I kind of, you know, stretch a little bit.
Speaker 3: And then before I go I've gone to bed at night,
Speaker 3: I placed one of my big pillows right next to
Speaker 3: my bed, and so I get up and I like
Speaker 3: roll over on the side of the bed and I
Speaker 3: land on the floor on my pillow, face down. Okay, Okay,
Speaker 3: so I'm like face down because that's about all I
Speaker 3: got in the mornings, and I'm face down, and I
Speaker 3: started reciting the Lord's Prayer. Most of us, if we
Speaker 3: can recite anything from the Bible, can probably recite that,
Speaker 3: if we've grown up in the church at all. And
Speaker 3: if you can't, it's fine, it's there.
Speaker 1: You can.
Speaker 3: You can learn it. But I start, you know, face down,
Speaker 3: saying that prayer, and as I get through, you know,
Speaker 3: in my mind, I'm just thinking through all the different
Speaker 3: sections of that, like our Father and you just like
Speaker 3: just stop there, and the truths that we can think about,
Speaker 3: like our number one Christina, You and I are sisters
Speaker 3: in Christ. We are a member of the same family
Speaker 3: humanity believers in Christ. We are all one united family.
Speaker 3: We have one united father, our Father. We are a
Speaker 3: part of a royal family who are in Heaven. Okay,
Speaker 3: He's in heaven. He is in control. He is not
Speaker 3: just some dude behind a curtain like the Wizard of Oz,
Speaker 3: like he's you know, he has created the earth. He's
Speaker 3: created the heaven and the earth. He is the creator.
Speaker 3: So anyway, I just I go through each a little
Speaker 3: little piece of that. I let my prayer where it's
Speaker 3: just spin off of whatever, you know, whatever comes to
Speaker 3: mind as I hit those phrases in the Lord's Prayer
Speaker 3: and I get up and get some coffee because another
Speaker 3: reason why I'm reciting the Lord's prayers because I have
Speaker 3: zero words and the first thing in the morning, you know,
Speaker 3: but those you know, easily roll off my mind and
Speaker 3: it is changing my day.
Speaker 1: I love it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, here's why. Number one. I mean, I've seen God
Speaker 3: moving in situations that I have prayed for or I've
Speaker 3: just done like little small prayers. But like in this prayer,
Speaker 3: something we had a family member, something was going on
Speaker 3: with her and it was, you know, we needed medical attention,
Speaker 3: you know, very quickly. And I remember the caregiver calling
Speaker 3: me and she was like, I don't know how this
Speaker 3: happened so quickly. And you know, my husband looked at me,
Speaker 3: he says, because you started your day because you were
Speaker 3: face down, And I was like, thank you Jesus. I'm seeing,
Speaker 3: you know, God moved throughout my day. I'm recognizing he's moving.
Speaker 3: And because I have started my day giving him glory,
Speaker 3: it reminds me to give him that glory as things
Speaker 3: go go, you know well throughout the day or I
Speaker 3: see answered prayers, it also is convicting me. So when
Speaker 3: I start to worry or get anxious, I can remember,
Speaker 3: you know what I give us this day in my
Speaker 3: daily bread, you will give me what I need to
Speaker 3: get through this moment. And so, you know, my brain
Speaker 3: is starting to connect the you know, the circumstances of
Speaker 3: my day with the words that I've prayed in the morning.
Speaker 3: And I don't know God is I mean, I haven't
Speaker 3: come to a lot of conclusions yet. I can just
Speaker 3: say that God is really teaching me a lot through
Speaker 3: that practice right now, and it's really changing the way
Speaker 3: I'm walking through my day. So what would you say
Speaker 3: about prayer?
Speaker 1: One thing that I always like to say is to
Speaker 1: start with you have you know, because I know when
Speaker 1: you're always like really busy and you know, tired and
Speaker 1: things like that. But like any other spiritual discipline, it's
Speaker 1: something it's a spiritual muscle that you can build up,
Speaker 1: you know, So you might not be praying hour every
Speaker 1: morning like your grandma did you.
Speaker 3: Know, I'm not me either, but she sure did, didn't she?
Speaker 1: And so but maybe you can still with two minutes
Speaker 1: and then maybe five minutes, and not even like you
Speaker 1: need to be like timing yourself like we were talking
Speaker 1: about before, as as far as like putting a grade
Speaker 1: on it, like a longer prayer is necessarily a better prayer.
Speaker 1: Like no, there's so many like just quick, short prayers
Speaker 1: in the Bible as well that God answered, that God heard,
Speaker 1: you know, And so just encouraging women to look at
Speaker 1: prayer as not an obligation or something that we need
Speaker 1: to check off, but like I'm connecting with my father
Speaker 1: and he's hearing me, and I'm hearing him, just like
Speaker 1: you would be excited to talk to your girlfriends, you
Speaker 1: know and having a conversation with them, and so really
Speaker 1: just trying to shift that mindset on prayer. And for me,
Speaker 1: it's I have my set times where I pray, particularly
Speaker 1: trying to pray before I go to sleep at night,
Speaker 1: before and then maybe before I do my devotions in
Speaker 1: the morning, but then also just like little prayers throughout
Speaker 1: the day, you know, as I'm driving, Lord, let us
Speaker 1: get to school safe, let the kids have a good
Speaker 1: day at school, or even before we're doing an interview,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm like, oh God, let it go, well,
Speaker 1: you know, and I'm just kind of like just a
Speaker 1: little quick prayer in my head, you know, just acknowledging
Speaker 1: that like God is here with me in this moment
Speaker 1: as well, you know, and he's he hears and he sees,
Speaker 1: and I'm not alone in this moment. And when we
Speaker 1: just pray little prayers throughout the day, it reminds us
Speaker 1: of that. What a power packed episode with practical tips
Speaker 1: that we can implement today to strengthen our prayer lives.
Speaker 1: It is my hope that today's episode has provided you
Speaker 1: with insight and helpful tips on how you can pray.
Speaker 1: We have so much more to talk about when it
Speaker 1: comes to prayer, so I hope that if you are
Speaker 1: encouraged by today's episode, you will share it with a
Speaker 1: friend and subscribe so you don't miss any future episodes
Speaker 1: of the Teach Us to Pray Podcast, where we will
Speaker 1: continue to learn how, just like breathing, prayer can become
Speaker 1: a natural, consistent, and life giving part of our everyday lives.
Speaker 1: Until then, be sure to connect with me at Belovedwomen
Speaker 1: dot org and check out the show notes to download
Speaker 1: my free five day prayer guide. I also want to
Speaker 1: invite you to study the Bible with me by downloading
Speaker 1: the Beloved Women app available in the Apple and Google
Speaker 1: play stores, or at Belovedwomen dot tv. Thank you so
Speaker 1: much for taking time to listen today. God bless you
Speaker 1: and I'll talk to you in the next episode.
Speaker 2: Teach Us to Pray is a production of Life Audio
Speaker 2: and the Salem Web Network. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 2: would you take a minute and leave us a review
Speaker 2: in your podcast app? It really does help more people
Speaker 2: like you find the podcast To hear more from Christina Patterson,
Speaker 2: be sure to check out her fantastic site, Belovedwomen dot org.
Speaker 2: A special thanks to Kelly Gibbons, Steven Sanders, and Stephen
Speaker 2: McGarvey for their production and editing on this episode. You
Speaker 2: can find more podcasts like this over at lifeaudio dot com.