One Thing That Completely Transformed My Life in 2024

PRAYER!!!!

And not because I planned on it either.

It’s one of those someday things isn’t it?

Someday, I’m going to learn how to pray. Someday, when I’m an old lady, I’m going to be a prayer warrior. I’m going to be one of those ladies that people want in their church because they know “she sees God move.”

It was not my intention to make prayer a goal of the year. It wasn’t something I had been planning to start and wanted to see it through.

In fact, it just kind of came about. It seemed like a good idea God planted in my head that I wanted to try. But I can’t believe my God!

Praying Scripture

Years ago, I read little yellow book called Praying the Bible. It was so challenging. I had decided then, that I wanted to allow Scripture to guide my prayers. I tested the waters by reading and praying through the Psalms.

It was a very powerful way to pray, but it didn’t take long to fall flat. The prayers weren’t going anywhere. They were just rote “repeat after me” type of prayers. But it was something I would dabble in for years following because those prayers were at least better than what I could come up with on my own.

Fast forward to the beginning of 2024.

I have one of those beautiful journaling Bibles. I LOVE IT! I have filled it up with so many notes. However, in regard to praying the scripture, I thought that maybe I could use the journaling Bible kind of like a prayer journal.

Instead of just rote praying, maybe I could write out real yearning prayers based on the passage I was reading. And then, they wouldn’t just be a little prayer that I said and forgot by the time I got up to move on with my day, but they would be living there on the pages of my Bible for all of time, and I could come back to them again and again. They wouldn’t be a quick prayer prayed and then gone like a vapor. They would be alive there on a that page of scripture being a continual prayer of my heart.

Journaling Bible as a Prayer Journal

I came up with a little system so that the prayers would be easy to find in my Bible. If I read a passage that I specifically felt led to pray, I would highlight the verse or verses, write the prayer in the journaling section beside the passage, and highlight along the side of the prayer. Then sometimes, if they’re very specific prayers, I’ll even date them.

I don’t highlight anything else in my Bible, so with just my prayers highlighted like this, it’s very easy to pick them out.

Praying this way quickly became a favorite way to pray. My time with the Lord transformed into a conversation with Him rather than something to check off the morning routine. He’d place specific people on my heart to pray certain passages of scripture for. And of course, A LOT for myself and my immediate family. Prayer after prayer for specific growth and for specific situations poured onto the pages of my Bible. Simple prayers. Not huge long books. Just simply, “Lord, do this work in so-in-so’s heart.”

And guess what? Prayer after prayer began being answered!!! I’ve never seen such answers to prayer—both little and big. He’s doing a work here in this little corner of the globe. And I’m not saying that to say “look at me.” I’m saying that to say LOOK AT GOD! His promises are TRUE and REAL if we would just take Him at His word!

Our prayer lives don’t have to be put onto the back burner until we “have more time to dedicate” to them. We can be prayer warriors RIGHT NOW simply by praying scripture right back to God. How can we go wrong praying in God’s will when we are praying HIS OWN words right back to Him?

Prayers Answered!

One of my very first prayers at the beginning of this year came from John 14. Jesus says to his disciples, “He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.” I got to thinking about that word manifest. It means: to show one’s self, to declare, to make known. Oh how I want Jesus to make Himself known to me. I want to truly KNOW Him. I want to see Him work! I want to see Him do miracles in my life just like the disciples did. And so that became my prayer.

Beside that passage I wrote, “Father, give me strength to keep your commandments, and Lord, show yourself to me! Make yourself known unto me! God, I want to know you and know you WELL! Give me eyes to see you working in my life EVERY DAY!”

God has answered that prayer in so many different ways this year. He has shown Himself to our family time and time again…in little ways and in big ways. In ways that many people would think was “just a coincidence.” But I know what I prayed. I know that there are miracles all around and we miss them because we are not seeing them through eyes that are looking for God to work.

Another prayer comes from Matthew 21:22. “And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

My prayer next to this verse states, “Lord, help us to have a prayerful home! A home that sees God—that sees YOU—do big things…things that prove to our children and our neighbors that YOU ARE REAL!”

Children often run off and leave the faith because they haven’t seen God work. He’s not real to them. Neighbors have no idea that you’re any different from them. But I want to live a life that sees God work… that proves to my children and my neighbors and people around me that GOD IS REAL!

My most meaningful answer yet came from Proverbs 9:8-9. “Reprove not a scorner, lest he hate thee: rebuke a wise man, and he will love thee. Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning.” Who loves to be rebuked? This is a specific struggle with a particular child of mine, and the prayer I wrote next to it was, “Father, please soften her heart so that she will accept reproof. Help her to be wise so that she will increase in learning when she is corrected.”

Months later, this sweet girl came to us and apologized for not taking correction humbly. Through tears, she said God had spoken to her heart through her devotions that morning when she read Proverbs 9:8. She did not want to be the fool, but the one who could take correction and learn from it. Cue the immediate tears. I knew that was an exact prayer I had written in my Bible. I ran upstairs and found that specific passage. Sure enough, there was the prayer I had penned months earlier. I showed her. God is working on your heart in answer to a specific prayer! LOOK AT GOD! I was overwhelmed and broken at God’s goodness and love for me and for my daughter in that moment. And I was even more excited to show her how God answered a specific and direct prayer just for her!!!

This is just a handful of answers that have happened all throughout the year. Seeing God work like this in our lives (answering specifically those first two prayers I shared) has immensely grown my faith. They have grown our family’s faith. They have made us trust God more. They have taught us to pray even BIGGER prayers. We have seen people saved, people come to church, decisions made, and much spiritual growth through praying like this. WHAT A YEAR!

It makes me so excited to get up every morning and see what God has for me in His Word…see what prayers He wants me to pray that day. Because He’s going to do a work. And I cannot be a firsthand partaker in that work if I’m not specifically praying for it!

So if there’s one thing I could encourage you to do in the new year, grab yourself a journaling Bible and start praying specific prayers as you go through scripture! It will transform your life!

The Bible I Love

I specifically use the Notetaking Bible which I love, but I’ve linked a few different options here (look for the journaling or notetaking options).