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Prayer (A Woman's Perspective)

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As followers of Jesus Christ, we are called to be imitators of Him. The word Christian means “Christ-like”. Our Lord and Savior was a man of constant prayer. He would be found praying in the morning, afternoon, and night in accordance with the rest of Israel and according to the Temple service and saints of old. In addition to praying in the morning, afternoon, and night, Jesus would often escape into seclusion to spend time with His Father in prayer (Matthew 14:23, Matthew 26:36, Mark 1:35, Mark 6:46, Luke 6:12, Luke 9:18, Luke 9:28, Luke 11:1, Luke 22:39, Mark 9:29) (The Four Responsibilities of a Disciple- Darren N. Huckey). If Jesus was a man of prayer, how much more should we as followers of Him be wo/men of prayer? Prayer should not only be an important aspect of our daily Christian walks, but it should also be ever present in our courtship.

One of the things I have enjoyed the most in my courtship with Greg is how eager he has always been to pray for us and for others. Greg and I established within the first month of our courtship our prayer routine. We decided to implement prayer with each other every night before we got off the phone with each other. It was a bit rocky at first. There were many nights that we both forgot to pray with each other before heading to bed, but I would ponder that our forgetfulness was a mixture of the enemy’s desire to not see us pray with each other. Now prayer before we get off the phone with each other is second nature. Greg does such a beautiful job at incorporating God into all of our happenings.

The importance of praying together has stood out significantly to me within our relationship when Greg and I have disagreements or when we are just not seeing eye to eye. During disagreements, I am more apt to want to solve the issues by my own means and with little input from God. I become very selfish and into myself. Greg is such a blessing. When things are fresh he will always ask, “Hey babe, can we pray about this?” My flesh is always ready to yell out “NO!” “I want to bask in my selfishness and I do not want God to be a part of it because I know I will be confronted with my selfishness in the matter and have to see things righteously.” I almost always say, “Okay!” and the moments after we include God into our disagreements (through prayer) the situation becomes so much more easy to handle, to see clearly, and to consider things with God’s grace. We also have beautiful opportunities to apologize to each other because of things we may have said to each other. This is just one beautiful example of how God will challenge us to become humble and to kill the pride within us.

I am convinced that all of our disagreements become more bearable because of prayer. Because we have actively understood that we need help and that the help we need has to be divine. A divine help that will assist us both in putting our selfish ways to the side and considering each other’s feelings first. Like Paul reminds us in Philippians 1:3-4 “3 Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.” I am convinced that we would never be able to regard one another as more important than ourselves without God. The selfishness and pride that resides within us needs to be overpowered by the grace, mercy, compassion, strength, wisdom, etc. that is only found when we seek God and when we allow Him to intervene.

Prayer is also essential in our relationship when we need each other to stand in the gap for one another or for others. Greg is always willing to pray for me and for others. He takes the active approach in praying for the situation or people while we are on the phone together and I have had many opportunities of thanking God for answering the prayers that Greg has prayed. I want to encourage you all to be couples that are willing to be like Jesus, men and women of prayer. Knowing that when we pray, God IS listening. The King of the Universe, the Creator of it ALL has given us the awesome opportunity of conversing with Him as often as we need to and He is pleased in answering us when we call. Only positive outcomes will come out of implementing prayer into your courtship and we encourage you all to do so.  



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