Hi there, I’m Robyn!

and I Want to help you Achieve a consistent, joyful, effective, Daily prayer life.

Today, when I pray, I know God is listening. When I take the time to be still and listen, I know I hear Him speak.

But it wasn’t always that way.  

No. It wasn’t. There was a time my prayers to God often looked more like incessant, demands from a harried, headset-wearing, conversationally-deaf teenager than thoughtful conversation between a creature and respected Creator.

Don’t get me wrong. Even today, I offer plenty of frantic requests over emergent crises. The good Lord knows (literally) that the lives of those around me have seen their fair share of calamities lately; consequently, on many days, I have an ongoing conversation with God as the day goes by.

It’s just that now I am committed to spending focused time every day talking to Him — talking to Him about Him — yes, I talk to God about Him — and talking to Him about people and matters that are important to me but that are not necessarily shouting for urgent attention.

Having quiet, uninterrupted, thoughtful, daily conversations with God yields benefits far beyond those garnered from conversations I have while rushing from task to task and event to event in my busy, overscheduled life.

In much the same way I am not able to have a very deep or meaningful conversation with my daughter as we pass in the driveway exchanging glances and calling out “Love yous” through open car windows, I cannot have deep, meaningful, relationship-building conversations with God if I rarely or never give Him my undivided attention.

And that’s exactly what My Fervent Prayers is all about.

My Fervent Prayers is here to help you build an ongoing . . . daily . . . meaningful . . . effective . . . and joyful dialogue — relationship really — with God our Father, with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and with our Comforter, the Holy Spirit.

Committing to daily prayer is no small undertaking. I don’t know many people who believe daily prayer is easy to accomplish — especially in the beginning. Until “the enemy” knows that you’re going to persevere in your practice of daily prayer, he is likely going to mount a full court press to keep you from praying on any given day, and he may continue mounting that full court press long after he has figured out you are committed to praying daily.

Although committing to daily prayer does require effort, the benefits of daily prayer far outweigh the efforts — but how could you know that fact — unless you already have a daily prayer time?

Well, I guess you could know it the same way you know any fact you don’t have first-hand knowledge of. You could know it by asking someone who does have daily quiet time with God, (I’m here to tell you that the benefits far outweigh the efforts), or you could observe someone who prays daily and see if it seems to have a positive impact on her or his life.

My Mother’s Example of Daily Prayer

I was blessed to observe someone who prayed every day. I grew up in a Christian home with a mom who believed in the power of prayer (long before Stormie Omartian made the term popular). As I was growing up, I knew if I rose early before the rest of the family was awake and crept quietly down the stairs, I would find my mom sitting at the head of the dining room table — head bowed, eyes closed, hands folded — and praying.

As I look back, I can very clearly see the positive effects my mother’s prayer had, not only on her, but also on me, and on all the many people she prayed for.

My mom certainly made the practice of daily, devoted, prayer time look easy. I don’t recall her missing a morning. (She also prayed at night — on her knees, beside her bed — very old-fashioned. And unnecessary, right? We can pray anywhere, right? Yes. We can, but let’s talk some more about this topic later).

Well, I gotta tell you, whether it was easy or whether it just looked easy for my mom to maintain a daily prayer practice, I do not know, but I can tell you that in my busy, overscheduled life, first as an attorney and later as a homeschool mom, the practice of daily prayer has been anything but easy. Finding the time, collecting my thoughts, and staying focused long enough to have a quiet time with God each day has always been a struggle.

My Early Experience with Prayer

Thanks to my mom, I learned to pray not long after I learned to talk, but I soon went off to college and later law school, and life got hectic. Habits and routines changed. Finding time to give my undivided attention to God grew increasingly more difficult.

Life and All Its Busyness Tries to Hush Our Prayer Life

I prayed . . . on the run . . . while running late for an exam, or driving down the freeway, or throwing in a load of laundry.

Yes. I still prayed, but I didn’t give God my undivided attention each day. I multi-tasked. I prayed “efficiently” as I went about my day and did other work — but it wasn’t the same. Something was missing.

Then my mom went Home (to Heaven), and I had a child of my own. Not only did I want to teach my child to pray like my mother had taught me, I wanted to rekindle my relationship with God. I realized I didn’t have the same relationship with God that I used to have.

(It’s a funny fact how good conversation and good relationships tend to go hand-in-hand).

I wanted to get that relationship back, and I wanted to have the kind of prayer life I had had as a child. In the midst of life’s storms and the chaos and demands of daily life, I also wanted to know the same Peace my mother had known — because she daily talked to God about Everything.

The Beginnings of My Fervent Prayers

So, I started to pray and talk to God about everything. I started to find the Peace my mother knew. Although I have seen my fair share of tumult in my life, I know Who I can count on and Who is ultimately in control of everything in this universe.

Now, it has been almost 20 years since I recommitted to giving God my undivided attention for a few moments every day. In these past 2 decades, as it pertains to prayer, I’ve dealt with my doubts, faced my fears, overcome some obstacles, and bolstered my beliefs about prayer — and along the way, I’ve learned a lot about prayer and making it happen in spite of the struggles and busyness of life.

In my struggle to maintain a consistent, effective, daily prayer time, I tried journaling my daily prayers, but numerous prayer journals sat on my nightstand collecting dust . . . ineffective tools for me in my struggle to pray daily. I needed something more . . . something different . . . something that would work.

So, I gathered up the lessons I learned from other parts of my life . . . the example I learned from my praying mom, the organizational skills I developed as an attorney, and the self-discipline I had to exercise to succeed as a homeschool mom . . . and I used those lessons to create a system, complete with actual, physical prayer tools, to accomplish my goal of devoting time to prayer daily.

If you’re ready to develop a deeper, better relationship with God by improving your communications with Him and devoting a few minutes every day to prayer, then I can help you do just that. I want to share with you some of the resources and tools I created for myself to use as well as some of the things I learned along the way about making prayer happen — even when life tries to get in the way.

I encourage you to start now and deepen your relationship with God by “kickstarting” your prayer life. Go to the My Fervent Prayers Home page now, and follow my 3-step action plan. There is no better time than now to start giving God some undivided attention every day — and start getting the great relationship with Him that you want and need.

Start today. You will be glad you did.

Blessings,

Robyn Renée Monroe
Writer, Speaker, Prayer Provocateur
Encouraging You to Pray.
Everyday. One Prayer at a Time.