Speaker 1: Teach Us to Praise brought to you by Life Audio
Speaker 1: and is a part of our Faith Toolkit series. For
Speaker 1: more inspirational faith affirming podcasts, visit lifeaudio dot com.
Speaker 2: Hello friend, you are listening to the Teach Us to
Speaker 2: Pray podcast with me Christina Patterson, where we teach believers
Speaker 2: practical and real life tips on how to grow your
Speaker 2: faith in relationship with God through the power of prayer.
Speaker 2: You know, as a busy mom and ministry leader, I
Speaker 2: often received the question how do you make time for God?
Speaker 2: Often I receive this question from other believers with full
Speaker 2: lives who are desperate for time with God but seemingly
Speaker 2: little time to seek him, and this struggle for many
Speaker 2: believers has developed feelings of guilt, overwhelm, and condemnation, which
Speaker 2: further hinders our spiritual growth. We know that we need
Speaker 2: to spend time with God in prayer, but we also
Speaker 2: have real life responsibilities for which we are accountable because
Speaker 2: kids get sick, spouses work nights, deadlines are due, bills
Speaker 2: need to be paid, people need to be fed. All
Speaker 2: kinds of things that were responsible for addressing on a
Speaker 2: daily basis that fills up our schedules. And if this
Speaker 2: sounds familiar. You may have caught yourself saying or thinking
Speaker 2: any of the following. I feel so bad today because
Speaker 2: I miss my devotional time with God. Every time I
Speaker 2: make time to pray, I find myself falling asleep because
Speaker 2: I'm so tired. God is probably mad at me. I
Speaker 2: don't think I'm spending enough time with him. I'm so
Speaker 2: anxious with everything that's going on in my life. I'm
Speaker 2: having a difficult time enjoying my time with God. If
Speaker 2: this is you, I want to let you know that
Speaker 2: I completely understand. When I became a mom of two,
Speaker 2: time became a luxury and I felt the pressure of
Speaker 2: trying to keep up with all the things and still
Speaker 2: spend time with God when I needed him the most.
Speaker 2: I get it, and since then, I've learned so much
Speaker 2: about approaching busy seasons in our lives graciously, with wisdom
Speaker 2: to still find time for God in a way that
Speaker 2: doesn't leave us feeling overwhelmed. You know, Jesus says in
Speaker 2: John chapter fourteen, verse twenty seven. Peace, I leave with
Speaker 2: you my peace. I give you not as the world gives,
Speaker 2: do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
Speaker 2: neither let it be afraid. Peace. I leave with you
Speaker 2: my peace. I give you not as the world gives.
Speaker 2: Do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled,
Speaker 2: neither let it be afraid. I want to start with
Speaker 2: this truth. The stress, pressure and overwhelm we feel in
Speaker 2: seasons of busyness of our lives does not come from God.
Speaker 2: Jesus gives us peace no matter how busy life may get.
Speaker 2: With that in mind, I want to offer you some
Speaker 2: practical ways that we can still make time for God,
Speaker 2: especially when our life life is busy. First, I want
Speaker 2: you to know that God understands your situation. I want
Speaker 2: to start by setting you free today. I think a
Speaker 2: lot of people ask me about my time with God
Speaker 2: and how I studied the Bible. That's probably one of
Speaker 2: the most popular questions that I receive, because I do
Speaker 2: that for my ministry, beloved women. I do write a
Speaker 2: lot of Bible studies and I do have to be
Speaker 2: in my word a lot. But when it comes to
Speaker 2: my personal time with the Lord, I honestly have not
Speaker 2: always had a specific structure that's worked every time. And
Speaker 2: guess what, God understands that, and he's not mad about it.
Speaker 2: As a young mom, there were days where I just
Speaker 2: didn't have any kind of scheduled prayer time because both
Speaker 2: the kids got sick this week and then I got
Speaker 2: sick and had deadlines and other responsibilities. And still God
Speaker 2: was with me, and he empowered me to do it,
Speaker 2: and he understands. We can't compartmentalize our relationship with God
Speaker 2: and feel like the only time that He's pleased with
Speaker 2: us is when we're praying. God is pleased with you
Speaker 2: when you were doing what he called you to do.
Speaker 2: And sometimes that calling looks like changing diapers and cleaning
Speaker 2: up throw up, and getting the car serviced or the
Speaker 2: oil change, or listening to your spouse bent about the
Speaker 2: issues that they had on their job, or calling a
Speaker 2: friend and checking up on them. It doesn't always look
Speaker 2: like praying for three hours every single morning. Now that's
Speaker 2: great if you do that, there's no judgment here. But
Speaker 2: what I'm saying, if you don't do that, that's okay too.
Speaker 2: When it comes to my prayer time with God, it's
Speaker 2: changed over the years, So sometimes maybe it will look
Speaker 2: like that three hours in the closet, and sometimes it'll
Speaker 2: look like praying on your way to work. You know,
Speaker 2: when I was in college. I did have a structure,
Speaker 2: I did have a schedule, and I was really good
Speaker 2: at keeping up with it. But that's only because I
Speaker 2: made my schedule to where I didn't have classes until lunchtime.
Speaker 2: But then as a young mom, my prayer time with
Speaker 2: scattered in somewhat here and there. It never looked the same.
Speaker 2: And now my prayer time is actually moving to look
Speaker 2: a little bit more structured because I've grown wiser and
Speaker 2: life has become less demanding of my time in that way.
Speaker 2: And through all of those changes in seasons, God understood
Speaker 2: and he met me wherever I was. So that's what
Speaker 2: I want you to understand first when it comes to
Speaker 2: making time for God in your busy schedule. First, know
Speaker 2: that God understands, which leads me to my next point.
Speaker 2: You need to discover what works for you. Take time
Speaker 2: to assess the season you are in and figure out
Speaker 2: what your prayer time with God is going to look like.
Speaker 2: It's not necessarily always going to be a whole hour
Speaker 2: long prayer every morning. Maybe it's listening to some worship music.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's journaling. Maybe it's reading a scripture to base
Speaker 2: your prayer time on. Maybe it's reading a scripture and
Speaker 2: writing your prayers about it. There are so many ways
Speaker 2: we can connect with God in prayer and hear from him.
Speaker 2: I don't want you to feel like you have to
Speaker 2: be pigeonholed. It's just one particular way in what that
Speaker 2: looks like for you. You know, sometimes my prayer is
Speaker 2: a structured prayer in the morning, and when I say structured,
Speaker 2: I mean I was intentional about setting aside that time
Speaker 2: specifically for prayer. But then other times my prayer might
Speaker 2: be impromptu. I may be walking in my bedroom carrying
Speaker 2: a load of laundry and since the Holy Spirit to
Speaker 2: sit down and pray right then and there. Or maybe
Speaker 2: I'm at the kitchen sink while washing dishes. Although I
Speaker 2: don't always keep a perfect prayer schedule, God is faithful
Speaker 2: to meet me where I am, and he will do
Speaker 2: the same for you. He is so gracious and he
Speaker 2: knows where you are right now in this season of
Speaker 2: your life. So it's important that in all the busyness
Speaker 2: of our lives, that we keep our hearts open as
Speaker 2: to how God is speaking to us through it all,
Speaker 2: whether it's on our morning commute, on our morning run,
Speaker 2: or at night when the kids have finally fallen asleep.
Speaker 2: So just be sure you're open to being led by
Speaker 2: the Holy Spirit to what way that God is speaking
Speaker 2: to you. I mean, y'all, the Lord has spoken to
Speaker 2: me while washing the dishes, doing the laundry, and taking
Speaker 2: a walk. I think we have to realize we can
Speaker 2: open our lives up so that God can enter every
Speaker 2: single area and speak to us wherever we are, whether
Speaker 2: we're in the playroom or the boardroom. God is here
Speaker 2: to meet you where you are. That's what I love
Speaker 2: about Jesus. He came to us. It's not about our
Speaker 2: trying to work up and strive to meet God's standard
Speaker 2: with this perfect prayer life. He's already come to us.
Speaker 2: Jesus met the standard for us. We don't have to
Speaker 2: worry about if we're doing enough for God. If we're
Speaker 2: praying enough to God, God has already decided that you
Speaker 2: are worthy and that He loves you. When we rid
Speaker 2: ourselves of guilt and stop questioning if God is mad
Speaker 2: at us or if we're spending enough time with him,
Speaker 2: we make space to see the truth about God and
Speaker 2: how much He loves us, no matter how full our
Speaker 2: lives are. And when we get to this point of
Speaker 2: seeing God in this way, making time for a prayer
Speaker 2: won't be a problem because we will be so motivated
Speaker 2: and inspired to want to pray and come to Him
Speaker 2: in the first place, to want to take our request
Speaker 2: to the God of the universe who loves us so much.
Speaker 2: When our prayer time becomes less about checking one more
Speaker 2: thing off of our to do list and more about
Speaker 2: connecting with the God who loves us, the more we
Speaker 2: will pray no matter how busy we are. With that
Speaker 2: in mind, my last tip when it comes to making
Speaker 2: time for prayer when life is busy is to make
Speaker 2: it happen. Now. I know you may be thinking, what
Speaker 2: do you mean, make it happen? If it were that easy,
Speaker 2: I wouldn't be listening to this podcast, and I get it,
Speaker 2: but please hear me out. Your prayer time may not
Speaker 2: always look the same, and that's okay and God understands,
Speaker 2: but we also do still need to pray. Prayer being
Speaker 2: a priority for you doesn't mean it has to look
Speaker 2: like someone else or that it needs to follow some
Speaker 2: elaborate prescription. But you do need to pray whatever that
Speaker 2: looks like for you, and however that fits into your schedule. Now,
Speaker 2: I hope that at this point you feel free enough
Speaker 2: to do that. What I mean is you feel free
Speaker 2: enough to receive the grace to not look at your
Speaker 2: prayer time with God as an obligation. Because here's the thing.
Speaker 2: You don't have to pray, and God will still love you.
Speaker 2: The Bible is clear about his unconditional love for us.
Speaker 2: Two Timothy, Chapter two, verse thirteen tells us that even
Speaker 2: when we are faithless, God is still going to be faithful.
Speaker 2: He's still going to faithfully love you. He's still going
Speaker 2: to take care of you. He's going to fulfill his
Speaker 2: promise to you, regardless if you make time to pray
Speaker 2: or not. But you want to pray because prayer is
Speaker 2: not about impressing God. It's about you receiving the strength
Speaker 2: you need from Him when life is busy. God is
Speaker 2: not going to be less powerful if we don't spend
Speaker 2: time praying to him today. We will be less powerful
Speaker 2: if we do not spend time praying to Him today.
Speaker 2: Sometimes this means when you would rather watch Netflix after
Speaker 2: putting the kids to bed, you take fifteen minutes to
Speaker 2: pray instead and really hear from the Lord. Maybe you
Speaker 2: wake up twenty minutes earlier, or you pick a day
Speaker 2: out of the week on your lunch break to take
Speaker 2: a walk and pray. Trust me, the sacrifice of time
Speaker 2: and energy to pray will always be worth the reward.
Speaker 2: Just go back to episode one to learn about all
Speaker 2: the benefits of prayer if you need a reminder as
Speaker 2: to why we can spend so much time pouring our
Speaker 2: lives out to everyone us around us, and we need
Speaker 2: to make sure we make time for God to pour
Speaker 2: back into us through prayer so we can wake up
Speaker 2: the next day and do it all over again. It's
Speaker 2: good to rest and work and be with friends and
Speaker 2: do stuff you want to do, but there is nothing
Speaker 2: that's going to fill you up like God can. So
Speaker 2: I want us to look at our prayer time with
Speaker 2: God as completely and utterly valuable and necessary. If I
Speaker 2: spend time with God or not, is the difference between
Speaker 2: if I'm going to be an angry mama all day
Speaker 2: or if I'm going to be a peaceful, calm mommy
Speaker 2: today to be kind to my coworkers or not. If
Speaker 2: I'm going to let stress get the best of me
Speaker 2: or choose faith. If I can manage this full life
Speaker 2: with grace and peace or frustration and worry when life
Speaker 2: is busy, prayer makes all the difference. I want you
Speaker 2: to be free and know that you don't have to
Speaker 2: feel condemned and guilty in this area. But spending time
Speaker 2: with God and prayer is a gift to us. It
Speaker 2: is a precious gift, and I hope that these tips
Speaker 2: encourage you to receive God's grace so that you can
Speaker 2: get creative and that you're motivated to pray no matter
Speaker 2: how busy life gets. Listen, we have so much more
Speaker 2: to talk about when it comes to prayer, so I
Speaker 2: hope that if you were encouraged by today's episode, you
Speaker 2: will share it with a friend and subscribe so that
Speaker 2: you don't miss any future episodes of the Teach Us
Speaker 2: to Pray Podcasts, where will continue to learn how, just
Speaker 2: like breathing, prayer can become a natural, consistent, and life
Speaker 2: giving part of our everyday lives. Un till then, be
Speaker 2: sure to connect with me Christina Patterson at Beloved Women
Speaker 2: dot org and check out the show notes in today's
Speaker 2: episode to download my free five day prayer guide to
Speaker 2: help you put into practice the powerful habit of prayer.
Speaker 2: Thank you so much for taking time to listen today,
Speaker 2: God bless you, and I'll talk to you in the
Speaker 2: next episode.
Speaker 1: Teach Us to Pray is a production of Life Audio
Speaker 1: and the Salem Web Network. If you enjoyed this episode,
Speaker 1: would you take a minute and leave us a review
Speaker 1: in your podcast app? It really does help more people
Speaker 1: like you find the podcast. To hear more from Christina Patterson,
Speaker 1: be sure to check out her fantastic site, Belovedwomen dot org.
Speaker 1: A special thanks to Kelly Gibbons, Stephen Sanders, and Stephen
Speaker 1: McGarvey for their production and editing on this episode. You
Speaker 1: can find more podcasts like this over a life audio
Speaker 1: dot com.