“Take your chances on God. Put your life in His hands. Newness doesn’t come from yourself. It comes from faith in Him.” ~ Beth Moore
We are on a journey here, if you happen to stumble upon this post today. A small group of us are following along in a daily prioritization of praying through 70 days using Whispers of Hope by Beth Moore. Don’t hurry off, you are welcome to linger with us.
Well, my fellow sojourners, I do hope that you are giving yourself grace, regardless of your pace. Did you have any favorite devotions, scripture or quotes from your reading this week?
Is your prayer time growing in priority, or are you still struggling to squeeze it in? I want to encourage you to stay the course.
As for me, I am starting to hit my stride, and I want to tell you a little tip that might help you along your way if you are finding it is more challenging or less fruitful than you anticipated. Every day is different, yes? Does God not know, our busy schedules? Indeed. But, He still desires us to linger with Him. He desires more to linger with us, ready to recharge our worn down batteries for the day. I am finding that there are some days, I spend more time in some topics than others. This makes sense, right? Some days, I linger with Him in Repentance, or Intercession, or Equipping. Or Praise…but this makes sense if you think about it. As the Spirit leads us into sincere fellowship with God, He discerns and leads us where we need to be for our soul to align with God for that particular moment. Be flexible. Relax. He loves you and this is not about jumping through spiritual hoops!
I hope you got to read the Wednesday E-mail. I almost blogged that as a post! But God, led my heart to these words tonight (Saturday), so here you have them.
*If anyone would like the Whispers of Hope Bookmark I made, I would be happy to e-mail it to you, just let me know! I had a sweet sister on Instagram inquire, so thought I would mention it here.
Stay the course my friends, don’t look back, don’t catch up- start where you are right now. Yesterday is gone, let’s take it slow and steady- keeping our eyes fixed on our One True Living God.
Enthusiastically, Dawn 
15 responses to “Whispers of Hope Online Gathering – Week 2”
Good morning! Checking in…I posted some pics of my prayer journal on my blog this morning, if anyone wants to see: http://heartdujour.blogspot.com/2014/02/scattered-life-collective_16.html.
The only thing I seem to be fighting with this week is the enemy nagging at me, “Are you really going to do this for eight more weeks? Don’t you think it’s a bit much?” Uh, yeah! Doin’ it!! I’m finding the prayers coming easier, for the most part. Some mornings the brain is just froze numb, but hanging in there, staying the course! I also feel this is helping me stay more grounded and focused on God and His will through each day…
Happy snow day everyone!!
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Good Morning, Dawn! Loved your pictures of snow, prayer journal and randoms. I so agree, the enemy is working overtime, BUT I am finding my Abiding Factor increasing 24-7! Just like a workout charges the metabolism for the day, our focused (your word) time in prayer will charges up our spiritual batteries! ANyway, I want to encourage everyone also to remember, when it does not come eay, I re-read the intro pages Beth wrote and revert back to basics: BASIC, minimal one sentence prayers. In fitness, I say, “something is better than nothing”- it is normal to have great prayer days and some that feel off. Do them faithfully anyway, God will come through! THanks for warming us up today, Dawn!
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Good evening all!! I found this week to be very pertinent to my life. There were several devotionals that really struck home. I still struggle with what to write in praise. I feel like my praise section is more a thanksgiving than praising. A big positive to me is that I am more consistent with my intercessory prayer!! I am enjoying that a lot!! Blessings to all!!
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Hi Melissa! As far as praise, I honestly will focus on a characteristic, or attribute, or name of God that is prompted in the reading or just my circumstance of the moment. For instance, I often praise Him, as my Good SHepherd, Teacher, King…my favorite focus is Praising Him as Creator of all and the One True Living God…I really have practiced praising Him using the Moms in Prayer attribute scripture list (I shared the link in last weeks post). I even created a Praise journal at one point. NOT that you need to do one more thing! BUT, maybe just open your praise time up with a specific attribute, characteristic or name of God, and one verse that embraces that. Let your praise flow from there. Keep it simple!
(Here is the link to Attributes of God scripture list I mentioned – https://www.momsinprayer.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=luVbMBMtTz8%3d&tabid=458 )
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Struggling…..that’s all I can really say. I’m so sorry I’m such a flake.
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Barbie, you are not a flake! I am praying the Ephesians 2:8-10 verse for you. There is no condemnation here! Gently lifting you to Him in prayer.
“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go.” Be encouraged…love you, love your words and heart. Rest, let His grace and truth restore you!
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Just wanted to let you know that I am praying for you Barbie!!
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Checking in. I’m a little behind but hanging in there. Praying for all you ladies and thankful for your prayers. I am so thankful for God’s “stubborn love” as Beth puts it. The love that helps me not get discouraged when I do fall behind (we all know how easy that is) and helps me keep on. I really loved day 11 and the reminder that the Holy Spirit intercedes for us in our prayers when the words aren’t there. I feel like that is me half the time! I’m still having trouble keeping the prayer format straight, but getting better 🙂 The journaling, however, does not seem to be improving. I start but then usually end up stopping writing and just continuing my prayer. I need encouragement and help from those of you that have done it longer with how the journaling will actually help my prayer time. It’s so new to me.
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Hmmm. So glad to see you here, and sharing this challenge. I suggest, perhaps writing out a focus sentence or two and springboarding in your prayer…then if something significant comes to you through the SPirit, make a note. I tend to write but am not worried if it is messy, I scribble the prayers fast and furious. It is a discipline for sure, it will take practice. BUT I do think, that you should not worry if your written prayers trail off as long as you are finding more focus and intimacy in prayer time with the Lord. Does this make any sense? I gusee the point is , don’t make it a dreaded exercise. Find ways to adapt the format for you…the journaling gets more comfortable in time. You just cannot speed that up. However, I will be doing some journal writing posts soon, which might be encouraging! Hope this helps, Kathleen! We are close enough for a quick meet up coffee chat sometime. 😉
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The past few days it have waited till evening to engage in the devotion. This has been both good and bad. Bad because I have put off focused prayer in the morning, which I rely on to make it through the day and good because I had often seemed to be unfocused at night in my prayers.
This week had some big verses for me, ones that have been significant in my walk with The Lord. Including Psalm 25, ” teach me” and Joel 2 “I will restore what the locust have eaten”. I know these are both significant but I have yet to have full understanding from The Lord.
I have been mostly using Psalms to facilitate my praise, while using the daily reading to reflect upon repentance and equipping. I need a lot of repentance and equipping so it’s no wonder I am not at a loss for either.
Intersessory prayer has evolved, my immediate family is now separate from myself although they do inter connect. I no longer have a list I tick off but it is more spirit guided.
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There’s grace for our schedules- I believe it is a matter of our heart’s priority, not timing. We abide either in self or Him. So therein lies the challenge. Maybe you could praye the ACknowledgement focus at the start of your day to focus and plan your journal pray time according to your schedule. Glad to hear your sensing His SPirit during prayer…that is what matters most.
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Hey Dawn — I’ve been keeping up with my reading & some of my journaling. Sorry I haven’t been very active here on the blog posting. I was going to write something this weekend, but never got to it. The flu bug bit me good & hard on Saturday. I’m still feeling a little weak — in fact I just sent Dave to the grocery store by himself. It will be interesting to see what we’re going to be eating this week. LOL!
I’m doing Julie Gillies Prayers for a Woman’s Soul too & it is exciting to see how these two studies are meshing together. God is good — He always has the right things for me, ALL THE TIME!
Going to take a nap now — thanks for listening.
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Hi Ann, so sorry you have been under the weather! Oh, boy no telling what your menu plan will be! Haha! Well, thanks for schecking in, and I love Julie Gillies book- I did here online study last year. That is a wonderful prayer resource for sure! They definately do mesh! OK, rest up, prayers for your healing and health!
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How do I let Beth know I would like her bookmark sent to my email? Thank you for this push to empower with prayer. I need to do this. Peggy
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Miss Peggy, I will e-mail you one! I made it!
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