Prayer Art

New Beginnings and Old Art

Wow! What a great week this has been! 

Welcome, Fellow Traveler. Let me tell you about my fantastic week:

• We didn't get too much ice last Monday, but we still got the day off work.
• Work on our ramp started.
• We had Parent/Teacher Conferences at work, and so we got Friday off, too.
• The bathroom remodel is complete. Done. Finished.
• The ramp got to the point where we were able to move my mother-in-law in with us! Welcome, Gram!
• I've passed the mid-point in the online grief course that I'm teaching. I have over 70 members!
• And...I learned how to make a video! (Thus proving that you CAN teach old dogs new tricks!)

We've spent February here at 13Prayers talking about prayer resources and the prayer art cards that I make and use now. Last week we saw Diane Marra's prayer cards, too. As a grand finale to this month on prayer, I made this short video that lets you take a quick flip through my art journal that primarily focuses on spending time with God.

As I worked on these pages, my thoughts turned to my Heavenly Father, and I invariably ended up in worship and prayer. I love that I can take these quotes and turn them into time with God and end up with a visual reminder of our time together.

And I love that I can now share that time with you! This is my Prayer Art Journal 1.

Next month (March) is traditionally under watch for the whole lion/lamb thing. What WILL the weather be? Well, we're going to look closer at the lion/lamb thing in a different way. Please join us for an exciting study.

Prayer: Precious Father, thank you for the blessings of this week! Your love for me just leaves me speechless. Thank you for mentors who encourage me to leave my comfort zone and learn new skills. Your faithfulness to provide just what I need - just when I need it - is something I know I can ALWAYS count on. Be with us as we have this new beginning. In Jesus' name.

Prayer Cards

Diane Marra's Prayer Cards

Diane Marra is a new friend of mine and one of the foundation team members at His Kingdom Come, a wonderful community of Christian artists here. She has become a dear sister and fabulous resource as I grow in the art and blogging world.

Since I have been discussing prayer this month, I wanted to share Diane's practice that originated from the book Praying in Color.

You can read her post on her blog here. Thank you, Diane!

If you enjoy Diane's blog, be sure to follow her. She also has a class or two available at His Kingdom Come. Come by and check them out!

Prayer: Father, I praise You and thank You for new Christian sister-friends who love You and seek Your face. Regardless of what our prayers look like, help us to always remember to spend more time with You. In Jesus' name.

My Prayer Tags

My Colorful Prayers

I've enjoyed looking back at some of my favorite prayer resources these past weeks. Today I want to give you a look at the tags I use for my prayers these days.

I started this art session with some blank tags and a few I'd gelli printed.

Prayer Resources, Part 4 - The Finale

 I'm concluding my look at some of my favorite prayer resources today.

6.Praying in Color

Sybil MacBeth wrote a wonderful book called, Praying in Color: Drawing a New Path to God. In it, she describes how staying focused in prayer was a challenge for her. Then she began doing art as she prayed. The art cards she made became a visual reminder of the prayers. She starts with the person's name and draws a circle around them. Then, as she prays, she doodles around the name. Like this prayer for my hubby, the football coach:

I think this is a great idea. I love doing art as I pray. Worship art! But I had one big problem with this method:

Prayer Resources - Part 3

We've been looking at some of my favorite prayer resources. First, we looked at the Bible and the My Partner Prayer Notebook. Last week we discussed books by Kay Arthur and Paul Miller.

5. Intercessory Prayer by Dutch Sheets

Oh, wow! Where do I start? This is a heavy-duty, mind-blowing study of intercessory prayer. This book I would read a chapter at a time and then stew in it for a week or more. Sheets cites countless Biblical prayers as his basis for this jam-packed volume. His discussion on various types of praying makes up the bulk of this book and will have you shaking your head in amazement that you hadn't seen his insights before now. It is my intention to do either a course on or a multi-week look at this book. Soooo much goodness!!

I think the one thing that really got me hooked was when Sheets asked "Is Prayer Really Necessary?" After all, God is God. He created the universe. What does He need with me? I'd always been thinking that God would/could make things happen whether people prayed about them or not.

I'm not sure I can do justice to Sheets' explanation, but I'll try:

God's original plan - He gave man dominion over the entire earth and all creation. Adam was God's manager. Adam was in charge. Adam messed that up, and the enemy even offered control back to Jesus. 

(Luke 4:6-7) And he said to him, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours."

So...God is all-powerful, but He limited Himself to working through human beings.

He tells us to pray for His kingdom to come (Matt 6:10); for our daily bread (Matt 6:11); for workers to be sent for the harvest (Matt 9:38). Why am I supposed to ask Him for something He already wants to do if it's not that my asking somehow frees Him to do it?

When Elijah prayed for rain after 3 years of drought, it was God's idea. God's PLAN. God's directed timing for the prayer. BUT GOD DIDN'T SEND THE RAIN UNTIL ELIJAH PRAYED.

Boom!

If that doesn't give you an entirely different view of "You do not have because you do not ask God "(James 4:2) then I don't know what will! 

So this is my understanding of it all:

God built us this earthly house to live in and gave us the keys. (Adam messed up and gave a copy of the key to the enemy, so he's running around like he owns the place.) But God is the OWNER/OPERATOR. We are the managers/tenants. 

God still has plans for the property, but since we're here, He needs to get our "Okie-dokie" before He starts work.

Oh, my heart breaks for the potential of things I never bothered to pray for! For the days I was "too busy" or "too tired" to activate God's blessings and work.

Prayer: Forgive me, Father, for the times I tied Your hands with my silence. I ask now that You give me a fire in my heart for prayer and for seeing Your will come to pass. Show me the things You need me to pray for. Do not let me become complacent and weary. Grow in me a passion for the prayers that will free You to change lives.

Prayer Resources - Part 2

Last week we looked at the Bible and Becky Tirabassi's "My Partner Prayer Notebook" as resources here. Today, we'll look at 2 more.

3. Lord, Teach Me to Pray by Kay Arthur

If you have never done a Kay Arthur Bible study, I challenge you to do one. She relies on scripture as the basis for everything. This resource comes as a book: Lord, Teach Me to Pray in 28 Days and as a workbook that CAN be done with a group - including videos. This is an excellent way to familiarize yourself with the scriptures that deal with prayer. It is set up as a 4-week study: 1-Learning to pray God's way, 2-It's all about Him, 3-You belong to God, 4-Staying in the Word. The book is available at Amazon here.

There are lessons on: the names of God, the Lord's Prayer, even 'When Our Prayers Seem to Hit the Ceiling.' Man, I've felt like that before!

4. A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller

This text changed the way I look at prayer. I'd always seen prayer as "conversation" with God. Miller challenges the reader to see prayer as a relationship, so his book is about getting to know God. He writes, "focusing on the conversation is like trying to drive while looking at the windshield instead of through it."

Also, "We have an allergic reaction to dependency, but this is the state of the heart most necessary for a praying life. A needy heart is a praying heart. Dependency is the heartbeat of prayer." Amazon has the book here.

With God as Father, won't He want to listen to His children? With God as Father, shouldn't we desire to spend time with Him?

I didn't get a chance to photograph the spectacular sunrise yesterday, but here is one of my favorite sunset pictures. I included it today because seeing God's artistry in nature always brings me to prayer. To praise Him and to be with Him. And that's really the key, isn't it?

Prayer Resources - part 1

I firmly believe in the power of prayer. (I guess having a blog named "13 Prayers" would be kinda goofy otherwise.) And lately, my prayers have gotten...visual.

In fact, currently my intercessions  are gathered on a ring. Each prayer is a tag that I created during my initial prayer for that person.


 
Prayer is more than just a "Gimmee" session with God. Prayer is a 2-way communication system. We have prayer as a way to honor, glorify and praise God. As a time when we can thank Him for all the blessings He has given us. And, yes, as a time to make our requests known to Him.

I suppose I've been a student of prayer all my life. As I bring you along to explain how I got to the point where I art my prayers on tags, I thought today I would begin to detail some of my favorite resources.

1. Bible

You can't beat God's word as a resource of how best to communicate with Him. Visit an online Bible site like Christianity.com's online Bible search here and enter "Pray" in the search box for a list of verses in your favorite version.

Some of my favorite prayer verses:

Matt. 6:5-6  "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." (Teaching us that prayer is best done in private.)

Matt. 6:9-13 "This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one." (Teaching us that true prayer contains many elements such as praise, confession, intercession for others and requests for ourselves.)


Matt. 14:23 " After he [Jesus] had dismissed them, he went up on a mountainside by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone." (Again, teaching us and demonstrating that Jesus prayed alone.)

Luke 6:28 "Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Teaching us that our prayers should not be reserved only for those we care about. This is a command to pray for our enemies.)
 

2. My Prayer Partner Notebook 

This is a product by Beck Tirabassi. I was fortunate to hear her speak on prayer back in the day. The first time I started writing down my prayers, this is what I used. It's a very easy system that uses dividers for different parts of your prayers and to also organize other notes from your spiritual journey. Over the years, I've tried different ways to keep my prayer time organized, and I keep coming back to this. Everything is tucked into a small 3-ring binder. I still have mine from 20+ years ago. For info on Becky Tirabassi go here. The notebook is available in her store or at Amazon here. There is a workbook that goes with it that could shake up your prayer life: Let Prayer Change Your Life here.

You see, writing prayers down does a couple of things for me:
--helps me stay focused while I pray. Sadly, my mind like to go hopping off on little bunny chasing adventures while I pray. I start out strong, but can somehow go from praying for Daughter to find a place to live to planning meals for the week with very little nudging. Seems that the day-to-day creeps in when I'm not looking.
--Helps me track prayers. How exciting to have a list of requests and answers! When did I start praying about this? When did God answer that? What a blessing it is to sit down with my notebook and reread requests and how God faithfully answered!!

I'll be sharing more about prayer resources over the next few weeks. But remember this: HOW you pray isn't as important as DO you pray. God wants to hear from us. Has He heard from you lately?
 

Promises Fulfilled

Blessings, Fellow Traveler:

So, the dust has settled. 

--Perhaps I should say, "The SOOT has settled." My mother-in-law's house is burned beyond our ability to repair. No people injured. Two pets lost. Most contents unrecoverable, but some things did survive. All that remains is to regroup.

Sometimes the Holidays Are Just Hard

God is good. All the time. But sometimes the holidays are just hard.

Thanksgiving is never my best day. I do try to be more grateful and express my gratitude on a daily basis. But having a miscarriage on Thanksgiving Day years ago makes it a tough thing to get through.

This year, on Thanksgiving Day, I faced Dad's grave and the new gravestone for the first time. I have not processed losing him because I was in chaos with Mom's broken leg at the time. And of course, she broke her leg at my sister-in-law's funeral, so that's another thing to deal with entirely.

So, here we are on the Sunday after the holiday. And we've spent most of the day dealing with the fire at my mother-in-law's house this morning. This event changes so many things. I'm certain we don't have a grasp on just everything that must be done.

Yet, God is good. All the time.

My mother-in-law and niece were in the house at the time and got out safely.

Prayer: Dearest Father God, thank you for Your watchful eye over my extended family. Guide us in the days to come as we make a mountain of decisions. Give us wisdom and patience. Grant us peace over what was lost, and let us not lose sight of what could have been taken from us.

Being Deliberate in Faith

As one year rushes to an end, it is my habit to begin preparations for the next. (I am, by the way, the Empress of Planning.) I am determined to become more deliberate with my faith. So I'm toying with various ways to do that. I've located several online groups that may prove helpful:
1. His Kingdom Come
   This group has a WEEKLY Bible study planned called Take Me Deeper.
   They also have a "One Word" program called Logos365 - a YEAR-LONG focus.
2. Documented Faith
    There is to be a focus word each MONTH.

Advent Update

No pictures of the advent progress today, but I will get some up this week. The weekend was very arty for me. I now have angels on Mom's advent calendar - the basic scrapbook paper shapes anyway. Yes, a different angel for each day. Next I'll paint their hair. Then I can move from the table and start the outlining, doodling, embellishing... Remind me why I decided to do this...

Because of Christ Jesus I am...

I also finished 3 more backgrounds for the 2015 calendar I'm making, and did a challenge page in my art journal:
 I used watercolor pencils in my Dylusions Journal and finished with my waterbrush. I don't usually do pages this quickly, but the prompt really spoke to me.

We had a great service in church this morning, and now I've got a dozen ideas for pages and such swirling in my head. There is not enough time in the day! 

Hubby and I also got a special word from a church member: his - he will see the doors that have been closed come open because he has FAVOR from God; mine - I have a destiny that will be fulfilled; I was almost destroyed but I have come through.

Wow! I have come through a bunch of stuff, and that was the message today: coming through the storm & that God has a destination for us.

Prayer: Beloved Jesus, because of You, I am alive, saved, loved, free, healed. I am a child of the King, forgiven, made clean and heaven-bound. I am at peace. I am whole. There is no other who can offer so much to one so unworthy! Help me to live each day in full appreciation of the marvelous gift Father God gave us - YOU!

Scripture Art Journaling

I've been working on Scripture Art Journaling in Psalms. This is from Ps. 40:2 - He lifted me out of the slimy pit, out of the mud and mire; he set my feet on a rock and gave me a firm place to stand.

My 13 Prayers for You:

Welcome to 13 Prayers!

This is a place where we can pray, art and grow together. These are my prayers for you:
1. That you will choose Jesus as Lord and Savior.
2. That you will develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.