Prayer Uncomplicated: Real Talk with God

In this authentic and encouraging episode, Hannah dives deep into demystifying prayer and making it accessible for every woman's daily life. She tackles common struggles like "prayer block," feeling the need to use perfect church words, and waiting for that elusive quiet moment that never seems to come.

Drawing from Scripture and modern wisdom from teachers like Jenny Allen, this episode explores how prayer isn't about perfection - it's about presence. Hannah shares practical insights on how to develop a meaningful prayer life, including:

• The liberating ACTS method for structured prayer
 • Creating simple daily prayer rhythms
 • Transforming everyday worries into powerful prayers
 • Special strategies for SisterHood groups
 • The supernatural power of women praying together

Whether you're new to prayer or looking to deepen your spiritual practice, this episode offers both encouragement and actionable steps to transform your prayer life. Learn why prayer isn't just a spiritual discipline - it's a direct line to divine intervention and a powerful tool for spiritual warfare.

You'll also discover practical tips for implementing prayer in your SisterHood groups, including starting a group prayer journal, creating prayer partnerships, and utilizing prayer prompts for more meaningful gatherings.

Join the conversation by sharing your biggest prayer breakthrough using #GatherhoodPraise on Instagram, and don't forget to check out the SisterHood Leadership Playbook for additional prayer resources and guides.

Transcript

Welcome, welcome to the Gatherhood podcast. I'm your host, Hannah, and the founder of Gatherhood. In today's episode, we're diving deep into something that should be simple, but often feels complicated, prayer. Before we begin, if you're new here, don't forget to subscribe and follow us over on Instagram at gather underscore hood for all the daily inspiration and to just keep up with the community. So I wanna start our journey today with a personal story.

Some of you may know that I did lose my mom about a year ago, to lung cancer. And I've been talking a lot about this the past couple weeks because it is kind of the anniversary of her passing in the month of May. And so this has definitely been something that's been on my heart and on my, kind of how I communicate with people, my conversations, what's been going on in my mind. It's just, it's a lot. It takes up a lot of space right now, and so that's why it's been on the podcast a lot.

And it really has a big part of my prayer life, and the personal story I want to share with you all today, Gatherhood, is I prayed so big for my mom to be healed. I prayed for miracles, I prayed, I mean, all the time, I prayed with intense tears, I prayed with joy, I prayed with, I mean, it was just every feeling that you could imagine, I prayed through that, and I prayed for a miracle. I prayed for God to do something big, to do something that I didn't even know could be possible. And he did not answer my prayers. And that was really heartbreaking for me.

When she did pass, was I angry at God? Oh, absolutely. Have I worked through that? Through therapy and through really strong support systems? Yes.

Absolutely. But it doesn't negate the fact that my prayer wasn't answered, dot, dot, dot, how I thought it should be. Okay? So God, in this situation, he had a way bigger plan, and he had a way better plan, and I just didn't know what that was. Now, hindsight 2020, about a year a year later, I can see that my mom was so sick, and all she really wanted was to be able to sleep and to be able to breathe.

And she communicated that to me and also to my dad, actually. She did. She told us that's that's all she wants, and that's not something that was possible earth side, and God knew that. So God really did answer our prayers and answer her wants by taking her to heaven, to a place where she could breathe and she could sleep. And what is just so amazing about prayer, it's not just about getting answers.

It's about transformation. Like, prayer changes us. It shifts our perspective from our limited view, teeny tiny perspective, to God's massive internal perspective. So that's a little bit about me and my kind of most recent prayer journey. I do want to just get really real about prayer.

You know that feeling when you want to pray, but you feel like you need to use the perfect church words. Or maybe you're waiting for that like perfect quiet moment that honestly never really comes. Let's break down these barriers together. Because this can often get in the way of my prayer life as well. So this is just gonna be good for you to talk through and also for me to talk through.

So here's something that has revolutionized my prayer life. Prayer isn't about perfection. It's about presence. Our girl, Jenny Allen, we love Jenny Allen here at Gatherhood. She says it beautifully.

Prayer is simply showing up. It's bringing your real, messy self before God. No filters, no perfect words needed. So true. God is looking for us.

He meets us where we're at and he just wants who we are. We do not have to fake it with him. Prayer is simply a conversation with God. It's not a formula that we have to get right. That fact is just so freeing to me personally.

Like, just knowing that I can talk to God like I would talk to my girlfriends or like I would talk to my husband, like, that's all he wants from us. He wants us real, raw and authentic. Philippians chapter four verses six through seven, we are told, do not be anxious about anything. But in everyday situations, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. Notice, this verse does not say present your perfectly worded requests.

It just says, present them. That's all God wants us to do is to just bring our requests, and honestly, just our words. Just talk to Him. That's all He wants. When you're stuck, here's what I want you to remember.

Prayer block happens to everybody. It happens to the greatest evangelist that ever lived. It happens to our girl, Jenny Allen. It happens to me. It happens to your pastor.

Like it happens to everybody. And James chapter five verse 16, this tells us the prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Not the perfect prayer, not the longest prayer, not the prayer that uses all of the buzz, all of the trending buzzwords, just the prayer of a righteous person, which you are through Christ. When you're stuck, I want you to try this. Start with just five minutes.

Set a timer if you need to. Begin with God, I'm here. That's it. Just show up consistently, even when it feels so small. These small habits are what lead to this big transformation.

And then there's this method that's actually like a researched method in ministry. It's called the ACTS method, a c t s. It's four steps to kind of get through this prayer block and to give you kind of a practical solution here. So the A is for adoration. This is where you start by praising God for who he is.

So you can look back to March and look at all of the attributes, who he is, the different names of God, the different promises that he's given us. Then we have confession. Be honest about where you're struggling. Honestly, God knows whether you're honest or not. Like, he doesn't care.

He's just, he's here to listen. So even if you're not being honest about your struggles, God still knows, like, what your true struggles are. So just cut through all the baloney and just get straight to your struggles. Then Thanksgiving. Be specific here.

I think this is another really big prayer tip for me is pray big and pray specifically. Like, what is it that you want and then looking at this Thanksgiving method of the acts method, like, be specific with what you're thankful for. What are where is your gratitude at in that moment? And then supplication is the S part of the ax method. Bring your requests.

Again, make them big and make them specific. So how do we handle the unexpected answers that God often gives us? Max Lucado beautifully explains this. Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble.

But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. I'm gonna read that again because I think that's my favorite quote that we have in this episode. Here we go. Our prayers may be awkward. Our attempts may be feeble.

But since the power of prayer is in the one who hears it, and not in the one who says it, our prayers do make a difference. So our prayers go to God, the utmost being, the perfect, the powerful, the one who can move mountains. It's not on us. If we were in charge of our own prayers, oh, my gosh, like, who knows what my life would look like if I was in charge of answering my own prayers, but thank God I'm not. And God is.

And that there's such awesomeness in that. We have Matthew chapter eight verses seven through eight. Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.

But sometimes, gather hood, the answers look different than how we expected. Right? Like talking about my mom and my journey with those big prayers that I was praying for miracles. I didn't get what I expected. Sometimes we think unanswered prayers mean that God isn't listening.

But what if those moments are actually invitations to press in closer? What if God is more interested in growing our faith than giving us quick answers? I also really want to focus our episode on the privilege of prayer. Just the fact that we can have a back and forth conversation with our creator I just got goosebumps that is like so awesome and not every like walk of faith is like that on this earth right like our our faith where we put our faith we're able to communicate with him and I also believe that our prayers can change God's mind and that is so cool that he listens he wants what's best for us And we get to have this two way communication with him. Prayer, it's not just a privilege.

It's a direct line to, like, the divine intervention. We have direct access to our creator of the universe. So we call on him, we pray to him, and he will listen to us. So I do want to touch on prayer as warfare. I'm a believer in there are spiritual beings that roam this earth, and prayer is one of the biggest ways that we can combat that type of warfare.

If you have questions about warfare and kind of the spiritual warfare and how to combat it, Again, our girl Jenny Allen has an awesome podcast series on this. It's her most recent one. So I do encourage you to hop over to her series and check that out for much more detail into kind of what we're talking about here. But just to slightly touch on it, every time you pray, you are honestly engaging in spiritual warfare. Your prayers have power.

They break chains, they open doors, and they, honestly, they change atmospheres. When you feel like nothing's happening, I want you to remember, there's always movement in the spiritual realm when we pray. It is like, it's a realm that we cannot see, we cannot feel, but it's happening. And prayer is, it's the best combat for it. Gatherhood, there is something supernatural when women pray together.

Sisterhood, our sisterhood groups, our gatherings that we have monthly, the prayers that we do in those gatherings, it's not just like friends gathering and sharing a couple prayer requests. Like, we are prayer warriors linking arms in spiritual battle. And here's what happens. Faith multiplies. Burdens become lighter.

Miracles become expectations and community deepens. What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. So when we gather in our sisterhood groups, let's think big, pray big, and also expect big. So let's take all of this that I have kind of laid out for you and give you some actionable steps to honestly level up your prayer life. First is I want you to create a prayer rhythm.

In the morning, start with God, I need you today. That's it. That's your prayer. You put your feet on the floor after you get up, or you pour your cup of coffee and you say, God, I need you, I need you today. That's it.

Just start with that. And then throughout the day, turn your worries into prayers. And like, they don't have to be big worries of like, a sick family member, or worry about like your adult child making a wrong decision, or, like, they can be little worries. And turn those little worries and big worries into prayers. And then in the evening, thank God for three specific things.

Another way you could do this, I've started to do this with my boys, is think of where you saw God's light throughout that day. For us, we call it like, where do we see the sunshine, where do we see God's light, where do we see a little drop of sunshine today, and honestly, just that practice, it kind of like reframes your brain to start looking for the good of your day, and that is, those are prayers right there, like thanking God, looking for gratitude moments, Those are different types of prayers, and you're able to kind of give back to God for giving you those moments. I want you to remember prayer, it's not about duration. It's about connection. Start small, stay consistent, and then expect big.

For our sisterhood groups, I do have some practical tips for you. First is start a group prayer journal. I want you to take all of your prayer requests every month and put them in a journal. You can use your member companion notes, you can use your sisterhood leadership playbook to take notes, or you can use a let's gather journal that we have available now. Whatever it is, I don't care.

Just write them down. And this is gonna be so great for you to look each month and see what you need to pray for, have your girls also add to it each month, and then also go back through it and check-in and see what's been answered, what's been changed, what God has pivoted, because He's doing some work, you just need to look for it. And then also create prayer partnerships. So I want you to partner up women in your group to pray throughout the month. And also have these women check-in on one another.

Then the next month, switch up these partners. This is a really fun way to keep your group engaged and to foster deeper connection outside of your monthly gatherings. And then in your sisterhood gatherings, I want you to dedicate the last ten minutes to prayer. So have your girls write down your prayer requests, and then talk about them as a group, and then pray about them. And I know prayer can sometimes be so intimidating.

Again, we have our prayers block that happens to everybody. It's also intimidating to pray in front of people. So when we have our sisterhood gatherings, I have prayer prompts for you in our resources, in the leadership playbook, in our member companion, so you don't have to worry about what to say. I've done that for you. So definitely use those prayer prompts.

If you wanna, you know, go rogue and do your own, my goodness, go for it. If you feel the spirit and you wanna pray big and go all out, these are just suggested prompts. You don't have to use them. But I know I use them every gathering because it just makes praying easier. Gatherhood, prayer, it's not supposed to be complicated.

It's just a conversation with our Father who loves us deeply. So this week, I challenge you to share your biggest prayer struggle. Go ahead and hop on Instagram using hashtag GatherhoodPraise. Let's encourage each other in this journey. And don't forget to check out our sisterhood leadership playbook for more prayer resources and guides.

Until next week, pray bold prayers and expect God to move. We'll see you next week in the gatherhood.