The topic of prayer has been laid heavily on my heart this past year. So much so that I have started a prayer group with the youth at my church because I have seen the power of its repercussions. I always knew that God could answer prayers, but this past year I have found that if you sincerely and earnestly seek God, He will make things clear to you through the Holy Spirit.

I was in need of an answer, and I needed it fast. I was confused as to whether my feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness were simply my emotions or if I was feeling the Holy Spirit trying to nudge me in a different direction than the way I was headed. I knew that I couldn’t make a decision based on my emotions and how I felt. Just imagine if we constantly made decisions based on our emotions. We would find ourselves running in circles as our emotions constantly change. Therefore, I knew my only option was to seek God and His will, rather than my own.

First, I had to learn the importance of deep and meaningful prayer. I grew up in a home where prayer was considered very important. My family would pray before meals, and every night when my sister and I were little, my mom would pray with us before bedtime. There were also many times when my mom would gather the family to the living room to have prayer over certain circumstances. I am beyond grateful for my mom’s dedication to the Lord and the example she set for me. Even though she may not have known I was watching, seeing her hit her knees during the most difficult times of our lives is a picture I will always have in my mind.

I knew what prayer was and how it worked, but as I got older and life got busier, I began doing it out of routine. Sometimes, I would speak a few words to God as I drove to school, just to get distracted by a phone call or a good song on the radio. I even prayed before I went to sleep at night. I would sleepily stumble over some words as I laid in bed with my eyes closed. I would give God thanks for my family, selfishly ask for His help with this or that and then my sleepiness would take over, and I would drift to sleep without completing my prayer.

What is prayer? Prayer is the most powerful conversation we can have with the most powerful God. It is our way of connecting with Him. I can only imagine how God felt when I would routinely repeat the same prayer to Him every day, and sometimes not even complete it every day due to falling asleep or getting distracted. Imagine if your best friend only thought of you or spoke to you once a day for only a couple of minutes tops. And what if, when they did speak to you, they told you the exact same thing that they told you the day before. Or maybe they would begin to tell you something, but they would get distracted by something and never complete their thought. That would make you feel like they didn’t care very much about you, right? And shouldn’t we speak more to the One who sacrificed His life to save our souls for eternity even more than we speak to our best friend? I believe so. God deserves our full attention when we speak to Him, and we should be in constant conversation according to the scripture. It keeps our mind focused on spiritual things rather than fleshly things.

I have a devotional called "The Praying Woman’s Devotional" by Stormie Omartian that I began to read during this time of seeking God. As it taught me how to pray, it also shaped the way I thought about prayer. One of the devotionals discussed how God became personally involved when making humans. It says, “Scripture describes God as a potter and human beings as the clay (Isaiah 64:8), making us think of our heavenly Father bent over a potter’s wheel, forming mud figures into the design He had in mind for us. The finishing touch was to breathe into us His breath of life.”

We are His masterpieces.

We are His beautiful artwork.

And He gave us His breath.

He gave us His breath, not only so we could breathe to stay alive, but so we could communicate. Because of the breath He gave us, we have the ability to breathe and speak. My devotional also discussed how we should be in awe of the privilege we have to use the breath of life to speak to our Creator. That’s what we were made to do.

“Just as we are delighted when our babies make their first tiny sounds, so our heavenly Father is delighted when He hears the sound of one of His precious children speaking words intended for His ears.” — Stormie Omartian

Second, I had to learn how to pray and truly seek His will. When I first began seeking God about what I needed to do, I already had in mind what was best for myself. I knew what would be the easiest route for me to take, I just hoped God had the same plans that I did.

Turns out when you are earnestly seeking God, that is not how it works. 1 John 5: 14 says, “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us. When I got serious with my heavenly Father and began spending my time renewing my mind in scriptures and prayer, he shaped the way I thought about the situation. It was no longer about what Kyndall once wanted. I wanted what God’s will to be done. I quit praying for a specific outcome that I thought would be best for me and began praying that God would show me His perfect plan. Because His plan for me is way greater than my own.

I had to quit being selfish with my prayers and turn it all over to God. Mark 10:27 says, “With man this is impossible, but not with God; all things are possible with God.” This verse tells me that man’s thoughts, ideas and ways are less than perfect and restricted, but God’s ways are perfect and limitless.

Third, I had to get serious with God. To get serious with God, it takes spending time in the word, spending time in prayer and being obedient to His request. Jesus also gave us the example of fasting in Mark 9:29 when He said, “This kind can only come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting.” The disciples didn’t understand why they couldn’t cast out the spirit that was in the young boy, and Jesus told them that He was able to do that because of prayer and fasting. Those two are a powerful combination. God knows we’re serious when we make sacrifices.

Last, I had to wait. Proverbs 8:34 says, “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway.” At the time, I didn’t know what kind of answer I was going to receive. I didn’t know what it was going to look like or how God would portray it to me. But I did know that I felt the Holy Spirit giving me peace as I waited.

I was also afraid that I was going to make a wrong choice or interpret God’s response to my prayer inappropriately, but 1 Corinthians 14:33 reminds us that God is not the author of confusion but of peace. And I found that to be very true. God is the author of peace and affirmation. I did not have to guess, He showed me exactly what I needed to do. It was hard, but I am thankful that God gives us direction and peace to follow through with His plan. Learning how to pray took me to a new level with my relationship with God, and the least I can do is share my experience with you so hopefully you can experience the benefits of prayer. It’s life changing.

Matthew 7:7-6 — "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."