169: Cultivating a Restful Prayer Life with Asheritah

Asheritah CiuCiu is a wife, mom, podcaster, writer, and author of the new book "Prayers of Rest: Daily Prompts to Slow Down and Hear God's Voice." She joins me on the podcast today to inspire us with the understanding that prayer is not a drudgery, it is not a task to check off the list, it is not a burden that we "have" to do, but rather is a peaceful, restful, life-giving gift to our souls. May you walk away from this episode encouraged and built up to grow in your own prayer life with the Lord!   What we Chat about in This Episode ~Asheritah's newest book, Prayers of Rest, what led her to write it, and what readers can expect ~Prayer as *the* work, the all-important foundation for everything else we do, but not viewing it as work ~Viewing prayer as rest and peace and joy ~The prayers of REST (Recite God's goodness, Express your neediness, Seek His stillness, Trust His faithfulness)  prayer model, what it is, and how  and why to follow it ~Learning how to pray by actually praying, rather than just reading about prayer ~God's still, small voice; why it's important and why we need to mute all the noise coming at us so we can hear His voice and have it change our lives ~Going to God and being gut-level honest about how we're truly feeling deep down - the importance of sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with the Lord ~The power of knowing that we are fully known and fully loved by God ~The loving Father's willingness to again and again welcome us and renew us in the midst of our repeated struggles day by day; the impact this resting in God's presence has on how we lovingly and humbly view others ~Understanding that the Lord does not call us to hustle our way into His kingdom, but to instead take on His yoke that is easy and His burden that is light ~Dealing with distractions while you are praying ~How God uses prayer to first change us before He uses it to change the things going on around us; how this does away with that question of, "Why should I pray when God already knows everything anyway?" ~Prayerlessness as an act of unbelief; stopping this belief that prayer is our last resort ~God does know, and He wants us to bring our issues to Him first ~The gift that not only does God give us the gift of answered prayer, but that He gives us the ultimate gift of Himself ~The sweet, beautiful, restful, life-giving, soul-shaping nature of prayer ~Having prayer be a rhythm of your day; the fact that it doesn't have to be a rigid, long, drawn out thing, but can be a part of the rhythms of our days ~And more! For full show notes, head to www.hargraveshomeandhearth.com/podcast