31 Days (Day 29) Limited in my prayers

I can definitely say that I believe in the power of prayer.  But, I can also say that there are times I fail to pray.  There are sometimes seasons that I fail to pray.  Our pastor has been leading us through a series called "I Pray".  There are huge chalkboards that line the walk way into and out of our church.  Those chalk boards have allowed people the freedom to fill in the blanks....."I pray when________".  I love scouring the chalk boards and seeing "when" people pray.  

Prayer is something we are teaching our children.  Our daughter even at 2.5 years of age loves to pray to Jesus.  Her words are short but they are full of deep rich meaning to Jesus.  We encourage and lead our children to pray about and for all kinds of things, people, situations......

I fill in my blank "I pray when things are going well".  This is the pattern of what I see in my own personal life.  My deepest prayer conversations happen between me and Jesus when things are going well.  When things seems to be spiraling out of control in my life....ie, the last week, I tend to clam up and trek through and mutter small prayers thoughts along the way.

I love to pray for future things with great hope and expectation that God will be true to His name.  I prayed over my husband through a prayer journal starting at the age of 13.  I gave him that prayer journal on our wedding night 12 years later.  I pray specific scriptures over my children and what I desire for their lives.  I pray over our families future and for what our time on earth will matter.  I love to pray for healing to flow from the hand of the Great Physician.  I love to pray for the Lord to show himself as the Great Provider.

But I fail too many times to pray in the now, in the day to day, in the struggles of my moment.  Maybe it is because I feel like I can handle it.  Maybe it is my pride that gets in the way.  I tend to clam up and push it to the back burner.  It is not the pretty part of me.  I limit myself when I allow myself and my LIMITATIONS to get in the way of God's LIMITLESS revelation of Himself to me through conversation in prayer.  I don't want to miss what He has for me "when thing are not going well".  I want to be poured out and not proud soaking in and seeking all HE longs to reveal of Himself to me.

"Where do you feel like you need God least?  Where are you most proficient, most sufficient?  Maybe that is precisely where God wants you to trust Him to do something beyond your ability.  It is God's strange and mysterious ways that renew our awe, our trust, and our dependence." 

 The Circle Maker  by Mark Batterson

How about you?  

I pray when __________?