Today's episode topic: building a consistent daily prayer life. Mari emphasizes the importance of prayer as a lifeline to Jesus and discusses various methods to incorporate prayer into daily routines. She offers practical tips for starting small with morning and evening prayers, utilizing tools like the rosary and scripture, progressing to more extended prayer sessions, and the benefits of Eucharistic adoration. Mari also provides insights on forming a prayerful environment, setting priorities, and seeking accountability to sustain a Christ-centered life. This episode is perfect for women aspiring to deepen their relationship with Jesus through consistent and meaningful prayer.

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mari-wagner_1_07-10-2024_180807:

Hey friend, before we kick off

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this episode today, can I just

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Alright, thanks so much,

let's kick this off!

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Hey, I'm your host, Mari Wagner,

and you're listening to the ever be

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podcast where faith meets lifestyle.

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I'm so excited you're here, whether you're

a new listener or a longtime follower,

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I know there's something here for you.

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Pull up a chair and listen in for

insightful real life conversations

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and actionable steps on how to claim

the full life God created you for.

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If you're a woman desiring to live

a Christ centered life in today's

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modern world, then this is for you.

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Welcome to Ever Be.

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mari-wagner_1_07-10-2024_180807:

Hey, friends, it's just me today.

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And we're going to be chatting about

prayer and truly how to build a

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consistent prayer life, a daily prayer

life in a consistent prayer life, which

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honestly, as I'm saying that out loud,

that kind of sounds like the same thing

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so, uh, if you can do

daily, let's shoot for that.

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But if you feel like you are starting

from ground zero, consistency

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can mean different things.

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Consistency can mean starting with

a small amount of time every day or

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consistency can mean picking a few

days a week to be super intentional.

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Um, but all in all the key is consistency.

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So we're going to dive into what it all

looks like to have a prayer life and

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Some tips that I have to help you build a

consistent prayer life that helps you have

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a strong, solid relationship with Jesus.

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The number one thing you need to remember

about prayer is that prayer is your

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lifeline to your relationship with Jesus.

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I've said it before and I will say it

again over and over again 'cause it's

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a reminder that I need constantly,

and I know that it's a reminder that

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you need to hear constantly too.

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I think we can really fall into the trap

of thinking that our relationship with

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Jesus is great because we know of him

or because we go to church every Sunday.

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Now, I'm not saying you don't have a

relationship with Jesus at all if you

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do these things, but I'm saying that

the depth of it Is pretty equivalent

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to the depth of what your prayer

life is like to your commitment to

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actually spending time with Jesus.

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Cause if you're not spending time with

him, it's really hard to know him.

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It's really hard for him

to speak into your life.

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The more solid of a prayer life that

you can build in your life and root

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your life in, the more solid your faith

will be and the more rooted in God

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and Christ centered your life will be.

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I promise you that.

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So I want to give you a few ideas on

what you can do to pray in your day.

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What are some different routines, let's

say that you can adopt and insert into

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your day or into your week to help you

strengthen your relationship with Jesus.

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And the things I'll be sharing are

things that I've actually tried in

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different seasons of my life and have

seen work and have seen bear fruit.

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And so that's why I'm sharing it with you.

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It's not because it's this

lofty, unattainable thing.

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There are things that I've done

in different seasons when I've

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had different capacities to give.

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And I just want to encourage you.

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I just want to walk alongside you, um,

and give you that little nudge, that

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little piece of encouragement that

you need to really get started, or to

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really keep up with your prayer life.

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I want to start small and work

my way up to what I feel like is

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the optimal and what is amazing.

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Um, so let, let's start small.

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Let's start on the very easy,

very small commitment a day.

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And I would say a morning

offering and a prayer before bed.

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I call these the prayer

bookends of your day.

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So morning and night, and this really

helps root your life in Christ, right?

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Our goal is to live a

Christ centered life.

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And so starting your day with prayer

and ending your day with prayer

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is going to be the sweetest, the

shortest and the easiest way to start

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incorporating prayer into your everyday.

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And these can really be short one

to five minute times of prayer.

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Okay.

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And the formula, right?

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And I say formula loosely, there's

no right or wrong way to pray.

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But the formula that I recommend

is starting with praising God.

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Starting your prayer with praising

the Lord for who he is, for his

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goodness, for his fatherhood.

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Number two, gratitude, thanking God for

the blessings that he's given you for

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your health, for your life that day,

for your family, whatever it is that you

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felt grateful for throughout the day.

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And number three would be petitions.

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And this is just a space for

you to bring to the Lord.

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Anything that's on your heart, anything

that you want to ask of him and nothing is

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too big or too small to ask of the Lord.

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He's a good father and he wants

to give you the desires of your

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heart, whether it's big or small.

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It doesn't matter to him.

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I always try and use this analogy

of, um, a father with, you know,

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his adorable three year old girl.

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You may have had a different experience

with your father, but, uh, at least for

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my dad, I know that he looked at me when I

was little and still now as a 26 year old

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woman, but especially as a little girl,

you could look up at your dad, right?

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Big eyes, Sweet little voice.

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And you could ask for anything,

daddy, can I please have this?

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You know, can I please

have another cookie?

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Can, can you please

come play dolls with me?

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Can we please, you know, go out

to the backyard, whatever it is

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that you were asking when you were

three years old and your father

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looked at you with so much love.

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With so much compassion, with so much

mercy and just looked at you so much

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adornment and couldn't help but say

yes and couldn't help but desire to

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give you what you were asking for and

desire to give you the best, right?

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So God wants the same thing.

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You guys, God wants to

fulfill your prayers.

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Um, And sometimes your prayers aren't

quite aligned with his will, and

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that's okay because it means what he

wants to give you is actually so much

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better than what you were asking for.

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So that's just a little note on petition.

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Don't, don't be afraid to ask

for little things or big things

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of your father in heaven.

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Another easy and short form of prayer that

you can add into your day is the rosary.

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Now I think it's episode 14 where

I talk all about the power of the

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rosary and if you're not quite

convinced yet on the power of the

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rosary, you can go to episode 14.

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You need to pause, go listen to that and

come back because it is so dang good.

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And it's truly only 15 minutes a day.

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You guys, 15 minutes where you get

to spend time in prayer, uh, in

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peace with the Lord, reflecting on

his life, meditating on his life and

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drawing closer to his mother, Mary.

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One tip I have for this is

to habit stack the rosary.

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I know that even when you have the desire

to pray the rosary often or daily, it can

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be really hard to actually commit to it.

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And so a tip to really build

this habit is to habit stack.

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For example, if you go to work

at an office or something like

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that outside of your home, if you

don't work from home, you probably

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have a commute every single day.

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Get in the habit of throwing the rosary

on hallow on the hallow Christian prayer

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app and pray that on your way to work.

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Have a rosary in your car or if

it's too distracting for you to have

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the rosary in your hand, um, you

know, if that's not safe, then just.

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Listen to the words and repeat

them out loud and just pray

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it out loud as you're driving.

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Some might argue that this isn't the

best way to pray the rosary that you

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should only pray the rosary when you

have super focused intentional prayer

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time and I would say Yes, and no like

yes, of course your prayers should be

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genuine and should be heartfelt, um and

prayerful, but Start where you can if

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you are not used to praying the rosary at

all and you want to incorporate it into

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your life It's okay to start this way and

it's okay to do it while you're driving

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Even if it's not the best that you could

give in that moment I would argue that

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it is very good to give what you can in

that moment and to spend that time of

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prayer with Mary, praying the rosary in

just those 15 minutes on the way to work.

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Okay.

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So we went from five

minutes to 15 minutes.

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Now let's move up to 20 to 30 minutes.

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Now what I recommend here, if

you're looking for a prayer

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routine, that's 20 to 30 minutes.

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Start incorporating scripture.

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Scripture is such a helpful tool

when you're trying to extend that

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prayer time and really start to

go deeper with the Lord, because

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scripture is the living word of God.

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Truly, it is alive.

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And every time we go to it, every

time we read it and digest the

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word, something new comes up.

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The Lord speaks to us in a different way

and speaks to us directly into our life.

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So what you can do is just

start with the gospels.

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Start with one of the books of the

gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John.

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I love Matthew.

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Uh, Trey really loves the book of John.

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I also like the book of John.

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Uh, I would recommend you start with

one of those two and just start reading

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maybe a few verses a day or a chapter

a day if you want and spend 20 to 30

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minutes reading reading, maybe journaling

about it or reflecting on it in silence

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and meditating, uh, a really beautiful

practice to have in prayer is Lectio

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Divina and Lectio Divina can even

be combined with imaginative prayer.

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So Lectio Divina is when you

really spend time reflecting on

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the word and meditating on it.

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Uh, and this means that you can be.

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Reading the same verse over and over

again for, you know, five, 10, 15, 20

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minutes, you can just keep meditating

on those words, seeing what they,

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where they resonate in your heart

and what Jesus is bringing up and how

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he's trying to speak into your life.

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And then if you have an imaginative

prayer, or if you want to kind of

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test the waters and see what that's

like, scripture is a very helpful tool

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because it paints the picture for you.

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You know, for example, um, the

hemorrhaging woman is one of my.

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Favorite gospel stories.

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And it's the story of this woman

who suffered from these hemorrhages

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for 12 years, but she has faith

that if she touches Jesus, she

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will be healed immediately.

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She has great, great faith and she

approaches him in the midst of a huge

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crowd as he's walking through the town.

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He's on his way to heal someone else's

daughter and she's walking through

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the town and she, she pushes, you

know, through the crowds of people and

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She works her way up to where Jesus

is and the crowds are pressing upon

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him and it's so tight and it's so

crowded that all she can manage is to

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reach for his cloak, which she knows.

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And she has so much faith that if she

even just touches one thread of his

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cloak, She would be healed because

she knew that that was the Lord.

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And so you can just use this time, right?

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This time in prayer with scripture,

for example, with this passage to close

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your eyes and to imagine, imagine her

weariness, imagine her confidence,

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imagine her pressing through the crowds,

imagine her reaching her handout.

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And the moment that she touches his

thread, the moment that she touches

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his cloak, there's a power that emits

from his, from the cloth of his cloak.

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And he turns around and he says.

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Who has touched me.

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I felt power come out from me.

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And in that moment, she's healed.

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And the moment she touched

his cloak, she's healed.

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You can imagine her, you know, her

whole body being filled with warmth and

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light for her soul being filled with

the Holy spirit and joy and color and,

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you know, peace returning to her face.

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You can just imagine the awe that she

had looking at her Lord and just being

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in complete gratitude and complete

awe that he healed her in that moment.

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And then you can imagine the encounter

that Jesus must have had with her

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immediately after when he says, I

think it's a, you know, woman, your

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faith has saved you, or my daughter,

your faith has saved you, um, you

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know, be well, or something like that.

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He says that in, in a ton

of the healing gospel.

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tools.

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But you get where, where

I'm going with this.

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You can use your imagination

to connect with Jesus.

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And scripture is one of the best tools to

help kind of ignite that type of prayer.

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If it's not something that you're used to.

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All right, now let's talk about

45 minutes to one hour of prayer.

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If you've never heard of this before, you

might be like, what are you talking about?

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You can pray for 60 minutes.

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And I remember that when I first

heard that I thought the same thing.

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I was like, That's kind of a long time.

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There's like literally no way

I could pray for that long.

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I do not know what to say.

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If you have maybe been praying holy hours

already, but have kind of dropped off.

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I get it because it's hard

to stay consistent with them.

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But also you guys in the weirdest

way, once you start praying

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holy hours, It just gets easy.

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Like an hour can really go by quickly when

you are in deep meditation with the Lord.

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And I think the key is to really

get over those first 15, 20 minutes.

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Once you kind of hit that 30 minute

marker above time is different in prayer.

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It's like time just starts to slip away.

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Your heart begins to open and you

really are able to just connect with

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Jesus and hear him in your soul.

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Maybe not audibly, but just

feel his presence, hear him

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speaking to you into your life.

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Um, there's just a peace that

washes over you and you could even

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just be content just sitting in

and gazing at the Lord, whether

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that be a crucifix or an adoration.

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So.

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That's what I want to talk

about is Eucharistic adoration.

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This is very common when people say

that they're praying a holy hour.

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A lot of the times it means that

they're going to Eucharistic adoration.

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And this is when Jesus, um, like the

bread, the communion that we receive

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at mass is exposed in a beautiful,

uh, ornament called a monstrance.

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It's this gold.

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I don't even know if it's called an

ornament or whatever it's called.

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This old, this, this gold piece

that holds Jesus in the middle.

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And it makes it so that he can be

exposed to us in, in a little chapel

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so that we can just spend time in

prayer with the presence of our Lord

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right in front of us and adoration can

be so powerful you guys, because it's

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Jesus's presence right there, right in

front of you, exposed right before you.

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And I've heard many testimonies and

experienced testimonies of people

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who maybe weren't Catholic or had

never gone to adoration before.

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And in the moment they step foot

into the chapel, it's an overwhelming

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feeling of love and peace.

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Um, because your soul

just recognizes the Lord.

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Um, but don't, don't expect

there to be fireworks every

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time you step into a chapel.

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Prayer doesn't really work that way.

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But I'm just saying that there is a

powerful, powerful difference of being

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in a church or in a chapel, especially

in adoration than it is praying at home.

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Now both are good, but I encourage

you to make it a habit to go to a

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chapel or a church or to adoration

to spend time in prayer there.

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So how do you pray a holy hour?

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What do you do for a full hour?

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I'm going to read off my breaking

down how to pray a holy hour reel

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that I posted that went super viral.

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It's got like 800 and 800, 000 views

and I know that it resonated with so

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many people and it was so helpful.

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So I'm just going to read you this

formula, this kind of breakdown

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that's really helpful if you kind of

need some guidance on what to do to

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fill an hour's worth of prayer time.

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So number one, spend 10 minutes quieting

your mind and opening your heart.

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This is time for you to just arrive at

a place of prayer and drop off all the

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things that you, you know, experienced in

your day, all your worries, all your to

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do lists, anything that's just distracting

you maybe from peace and prayer.

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This is a space for you to just drop

it off at the door, sit down and spend

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some quiet time with Jesus and allow,

you know, the Holy Spirit to come

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and prepare your heart for prayer.

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You can simply start with come

Holy Spirit, teach me to pray,

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quiet my mind, open my heart.

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That's a prayer that I start with often.

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Come Holy Spirit, teach me to pray,

quiet my mind, open my heart, prepare me

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to hear what the Lord has for me today.

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And number two, you spend 20

minutes conversing with Jesus.

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Just pretend you're talking to a friend.

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This can be very natural.

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It doesn't have to be beautiful or pretty.

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It can just be how you would normally

express yourself, your fears, your

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worries, your anxieties, your joys,

your celebrations, your petitions to

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a friend or your mom or your husband

or your boyfriend or whoever it is.

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Um, just be yourself

and just talk to Jesus.

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Journaling your prayer in this, in

these 20 minutes can be helpful.

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If you ever feel like you're at a loss

for words, a lot of us know how to express

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ourselves in writing, because honestly,

that's what we're trained to do at school,

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writing so many essays and reflections.

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So sometimes it's easier to kind of.

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Process through your feelings

when you're writing things down.

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So I really recommend you have

a prayer journal of some sort.

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Um, I have mine, the adore

journal from West coast Catholic.

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It has a cute little gold monstrance,

uh, image on the front cover.

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And it just kind of puts me

in the right head space every

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single time I go to prayer.

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Number three would be spend 15

minutes forming your mind and soul.

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This can look like picking up scripture

or a spiritual book, uh, learning about a

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saint or a new devotion, something that's

going to deepen your faith life or maybe

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Expanding your devotions in the faith or

expanding your faith in general, uh, by

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learning something new about the Lord,

learning something new about the faith.

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The more we learn about who God is through

actually forming our mind through actually

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educating ourselves on the teachings of

the church and the teachings of our faith.

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It's fascinating how much our soul

comes to know and love Christ more

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because we're forming our minds as well.

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Lastly, number four, spend 15

minutes reflecting and pondering.

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And this is where you can just kind

of do whatever you feel moved to do.

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You can spend 15 minutes in silence,

15 minutes, um, just gazing at Jesus,

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15 minutes kind of allowing everything

that stuck out to you to sink in.

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Um, This time of silence, especially

is where you'll most often kind of like

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feel the Lord speak into your life, um,

or give you a word of wisdom or kind

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of just place something on your heart.

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Silence is really tough for us, you guys.

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And I feel like it's something

we don't do very often.

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And at least for me, even when

I'm, even when I'm home alone or

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something, I'll throw a podcast on

or show or something to kind of like,

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Um, so this, this is really

important because we're not very

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used to silence and in silence is

where the Lord speaks the loudest.

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So these last 15 minutes while you're

reflecting and pondering, just make

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room for silence, gaze at Jesus,

allow him to speak or, or touch your

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heart in the midst of the quiet.

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Okay.

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So I hope those different like

models of prayer were helpful to you.

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Hopefully that you can, you

know, just kind of grab one of

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those, take it with you and start

implementing it into your day.

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Maybe you already do a few of

them and you want to kind of, you

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know, quote unquote level up and

include more prayer into your day.

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Uh, and you can, you know,

stack them on top of each other.

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There's never too much time for prayer.

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And honestly, if you did all those things,

let's see, you'd spend five minutes,

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you know, doing a morning offering and

a nighttime prayer that maybe five to 10

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minutes, you do 15 minutes of a rosary.

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Now you're at 15 minutes.

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You do one holy hour where you could

do, you know, scripture or journaling or

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just conversing with Jesus, meditating.

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It's really like an hour

and a half of your day.

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It's really not super.

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Unattainable and you can

absolutely work up to it.

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So let's say you're rocking it.

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You've got your prayer life going.

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You're feeling super on fire.

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You're connecting with Jesus.

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How do you stay consistent?

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I have a few tips for you on how

to make sure that you are going to

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prayer daily and really keeping up

that daily relationship with the Lord.

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Number one would be to make

God your first priority.

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I know that this kind of is weird

to hear because you're like,

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well, of course God is number one.

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But.

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Amen.

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If you really spend some time reflecting,

it becomes very obvious to us very quickly

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what things we place above the Lord.

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Maybe it's social media or scrolling

the second you get out of bed.

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Maybe it's checking your email or

starting work before you even get a

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second to pray and thank God for your day.

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Maybe it's time just, you know, unwinding

and kind of vegging out and watching a

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show or something like that where you

don't actually get to pray at night

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because you're just so exhausted and you

get into your bed and you just are like.

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Whatever.

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I just need sleep.

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Whatever it is.

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Those are just, just a few examples of

things that I've experienced that I've,

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that have kind of opened my eyes to how I

have chosen other things above the Lord.

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So putting God first in your life

means making him a priority and an

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easy way to do this is to have prayer

be the first thing you do in the day.

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Whether you start your day with a

morning offering, or you even start your

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day with, you know, a 20 or 30 minute.

387

Um, time in scripture, or you

start your day with a holy hour.

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Start your day in prayer because once

the day gets going, you guys, things

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come up, your to do list gets longer,

uh, different things just come up

390

throughout your day that can push your

prayer back more and more and more.

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And I've done it a million times

where I'm like, Oh yeah, I'm just

392

going to pray in the evening.

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I'm just going to pray before bed.

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I'm just going to pray later and I

don't get to it and maybe that's just

395

me, but I also think it's not just me.

396

So pray first thing in the morning.

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Number two is put yourself

in a prayerful space.

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If you're able to get to a

church a few times a week or

399

every day, you know, do it.

400

If you can't create a home altar,

create like a corner of prayer,

401

a place that encourages and

inspires prayer in your very home.

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This can be in your bedroom or in

a separate room in your house or

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in a corner of your living room and

basically just having different.

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Holy items around you that can

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you know, focus your energy and

your mind on Jesus and on prayer.

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I encourage you to have a crucifix,

maybe a statue of Mary, um, a

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Bible, maybe a holy card or two,

or just a beautiful faith image.

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Um, or a collection of these things,

a collage on your wall or a little,

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you know, shelf where you have these

different things that you can put on

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there, holy water, um, Prayer cards,

images, statues, every, everything

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that I just said can help create

that space of prayer and surrounding

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ourselves with a beautiful prayer space.

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It's going to really center ourselves,

help us to create that time of

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quiet and peace in our hearts to

really, really speak with Jesus.

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without any distractions.

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Lastly, don't be afraid

to ask for accountability.

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I've done this many times before

where I'll shoot my friend a

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text and be like, Hey, my prayer

life has been super off lately.

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Like, do you want to do

a Bible study together?

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Or do you want to read a book together?

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And we can kind of Check in weekly or

send each other a text or even do a

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zoom call or a FaceTime call, um, to

kind of reflect on what stood out to us.

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You can do this over the phone or you

can do it in person with a friend.

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It's totally okay to ask for

accountability in your prayer life.

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And chances are, if you have a friend

that's also trying to grow in her

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faith and just really center her

life around Christ, she might be

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really excited about the invitation.

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So don't be embarrassed.

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Don't be nervous to ask somebody

to pray with you or to join

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you in some sort of prayer.

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prayer challenge because sometimes

it's the best way to really

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kickstart your prayer routine

and kind of ignite that fire.

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And again, we're not meant to

do this journey of faith alone,

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this walk of faith alone.

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And so having someone in it

with you can be so helpful to

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help you build that consistency.

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Alrighty, friends.

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That's all I've got for you today.

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This has been such a good episode.

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I hope that it was helpful to you

and just encouraging to you to keep

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going and to root your life in Christ.

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Know that I'm praying for you and

praying that you carve out some good

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time to spend with Jesus this week.