Full Transcript for A Prayer for When God Feels Far Away

00:00:02 Speaker 1: Life Audio You're listening to Everyday Prayers with Million Praying Moms, helping you pray God's Word for your family in the areas you need it most. I'm your host, Nicolette Bell. Here, we believe prayer isn't a last resort. It's our first and best response in parenting. and every day we come together to partner with God for the hearts of our children. Today, I want to share a preview from my newest devotional, Everyday Prayers for Moms, Praying God's Word for Your Children from Newborn to Empty Nest, that comes out next week. I'm so excited it's finally here, and today I'm going to read a little bit from the introduction to give you a sneak peek. Introduction The pages of this book were written in the trenches of motherhood. Some entries were written while I was pregnant with our second born. Others were written during 2 a.m. nursing sessions in the squeaky rocker in our nursery. My eyes drooping a bit using the notes app and voice to text on my iPhone. As I type this out, my shirt is stained, my jeans are a bit too tight, and I am only on my second cup of coffee. Trying to get a little work in before heading out the door for carpool. Maybe you can relate. This book was written for real moms doing real mom things day in and day out, working to love and support their family in prayer. It is an invitation to encounter the scriptures and receive God's grace in the spilled milk of the toddler, the slammed door of the teenager, and the starting of the car that drives off to the college dorm. That's the beauty of motherhood. the quiet moments that no one sees when you faithfully show up for your children again and again. Not perfect, but present. In this book, we will discover why praying God's Word for our children matters, explore how to pray God's Word for our children in simple everyday practice, uncover what happens when we pray God's Word for our children, and what fruit we can expect from Mothering doesn't come with a handbook, but God's Word can serve as a blueprint, empowering our prayers for our children. As believers in Jesus, our desire and goal is to become more like Him. Jesus was a man of prayer. He would often get up early or stay up all night to pray. He prayed before all of His major decisions. Even though He had true communion with the Father, He prioritized prayer, and we want to do the same. Each day we will study scripture and spend time in prayer for our families. In this book, we use the Million Praying Moms Think, Pray, Praise method of prayer developed by our founder, Brooke McLaughlin. I'll invite you into this method with our daily entries. It's both simple and spiritual. Additionally, you will see a section called To Do. This section is meant for you to write down any to-dos that pop up in your head while you are meeting with God in prayer. It's amazing how getting a thought down on paper can release our minds and allow us to focus back on God. I love that Brooke included this as part of our method. It's made a huge difference in my own prayer life. Unique to this book within the Everyday Prayer series, I have written and included a breath prayer for every day. I first learned the practice of breath prayers with one simple verse, Psalm 4610. Breath prayers are really pretty easy. You inhale and exhale on a four count beat. One, two, three, four. To a scripture or biblical promise. For example, you breathe in. Be still and know and exhale that he is God. And you repeat it over and over. When I first learned about breath prayers in the midst of a season of grief, I began to practice with this verse on repeat. and I truly believed it was one of the tools that God used to pull me out of a pit of despair and restore to me the joy of His salvation. My hope is that the breath prayers in this book will help you slow down in the midst of the chaos of motherhood, connect you to your breathing, and ultimately connect you to your Creator. Praying for our kids every day makes every kind of difference. Commit to this devotional for the next 30 days, and when we're finished with our study, we'll give God all the glory for how he has helped us to grow in praying for our children. So a little excerpt for you for everyday prayers for moms. There are still a few days left to pre-order and to get your pre-order bonus. If you pre-order today, you receive early access to our new prayer video course that is a great preview or a companion for the book. You can find a pre-order link in our show notes. Today's devotional is written and read by Emily Waranga. She's the founder of the Lulu Tree and author of her new book, Commune With Me. It's a shorter one, so I decided to tack on that intro preview for you, but today we're Emily shares a prayer for when God feels far away. To learn more about her or to learn more about our ministry, visit millionprayingmoms.com. After a quick word from our sponsors, we'll pray together for our families. 00:05:32 Speaker 2: A prayer for when God feels far away. I remember her arms as I lie there in the dark. I was 11 and she was my mother. I called her mom because she was British and her tongue rolled with the British curl. She smelled of Jergens body lotion. Her hands were worn from mending clothes and making bread and doing laundry. Her face wore worry like a gently used sweater. I was sick. I was hungry. Night was the only time mom could hold me. Night when she thought I was sleeping. I wouldn't let her hug me during the day. She did it only once that I know of. I couldn't sleep that night, my stomach keeping me awake with its loud growl. It sounded like I held the hunger of nations. I doubted all the food in the world could fill me. My entire family could hear my hunger. We slept close there, in that cottage by the lake where loons called long and slow, with a titter at the end like they were laughing. Plywood walls separated us in our beds like dashes in a sentence. If I were Mom, I would have stuffed bread into my mouth to