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Don’t Try To Pray Like Her: Breaking Free from Prayer Insecurity With Shellie Rushing Tomlinson · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:01
  Hey, welcome back to She Speaks Life.
• 0:03
  Before we dive into today's conversation, I want to ask you
• 0:07
  something. Have you ever felt like your
• 0:10
  prayers weren't good enough? Like maybe you didn't have the
• 0:14
  right words, the right tone, or the kind of eloquence you've
• 0:18
  heard in others? Or maybe you found yourself
• 0:21
  comparing your prayer life to someone else's, holding you back
• 0:26
  because of fear or perfection, or even wondering what others
• 0:31
  might think if you prayed out loud.
• 0:34
  Well, today's episode is such a freeing and refreshing
• 0:38
  conversation around that very struggle.
• 0:42
  I'm joined by the incredible Shelly Tomlinson.
• 0:46
  She is an award-winning author, speaker, farmer's wife, and
• 0:51
  someone who brings so much warmth, humor, and truth to the
• 0:55
  way she shares about faith. Her latest book called Don't Try
• 0:59
  to Pray, Pray Like her 15 Simple Habits to Enjoy a realer, Richer
• 1:05
  Prayer life is filled with Southern charm, powerful
• 1:09
  storytelling, and practical habits that help us move out of
• 1:14
  comparison and into confidence in our relationship with God.
• 1:19
  In this episode, we talk honestly about overcoming
• 1:23
  comparison and prayer, letting go of perfection, and breaking
• 1:28
  free from the fear of other opinions, especially when it
• 1:32
  comes to praying out loud. Shelly shares from her own
• 1:36
  journey, and I open up about mine as well, as we both lean
• 1:42
  into what it really means to enjoy God's presence without
• 1:46
  pressure, This conversation will remind you that God isn't
• 1:51
  looking for polished or perfect prayers.
• 1:55
  He's simply inviting you to come close, just as you are.
• 2:00
  So let's get into it. Here's my guest, Shelly
• 2:03
  Tomlinson. Hi, Shelly.
• 2:05
  Welcome to SHE SPEAKS LIFE. I am so excited you're here to
• 2:08
  share with us today. Thank you for having me, I'm
• 2:11
  looking forward to our conversation.
• 2:13
  Oh, I'm so proud of you. So excited about your brand new
• 2:16
  book called Don't Try to Pray like her 15 Simple Habits to
• 2:21
  enjoy a realer, richer prayer life.
• 2:24
  And when this came across my e-mail box, I was like, Oh my
• 2:28
  goodness, I could totally relate.
• 2:31
  I have walked through some prayer insecurities, I guess, if
• 2:36
  you will, if, if I should say that and, you know, just not
• 2:40
  that courageous or I should say that secure to pray publicly.
• 2:45
  And I really had to walk through some stuff to get rid of the
• 2:50
  lies and the hindrances that were attacking me from having a
• 2:54
  rich prayer life. And so I just want to welcome
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  you. I, I love the message that we're
• 3:00
  going to be sharing here with the listener.
• 3:03
  But before we do, I always like to start off with what is your
• 3:07
  favorite Scripture verse and why?
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  Because we can find out so much about our guests just by asking
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  that simple question. OK, I'm going to try to answer
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  that in a very simple way. But first I've got to tell you I
• 3:18
  love that you used prayer insecurities.
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  Can I tell you I have done a multitude of these interviews
• 3:24
  and I've been talking about prayer with so much and with the
• 3:27
  release of this book and no one has ever actually, we framed it
• 3:30
  in such a simplistic way. I love that I'm going to be
• 3:33
  carrying that with me. They think it's a prayer and
• 3:35
  security. OK, now my my favorite verse.
• 3:40
  So we had communicated via e-mail and I was I knew you were
• 3:43
  going to ask me and my husband and I have a running joke
• 3:46
  because every verse I'm studying is my favorite verse ever.
• 3:49
  That's how I act all the time. I was like, this is, oh, I love
• 3:52
  this. This is my favorite, so it's
• 3:54
  always changing, but I would have to go with my life verse
• 3:59
  John 17 three says for this is eternal life to know God the
• 4:04
  Father in Jesus Christ whom he has sent.
• 4:07
  That is the first that Holy Spirit used in my life in a time
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  when I was literally struggling to even know if I was a believer
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  raised in church, said the sinner's prayer as a young girl.
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  And then I'm a grown woman and I am still in this place where I'm
• 4:27
  like saying the centers prayer even though I know you can't go
• 4:30
  from death to life, death to life.
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  But I had no assurance of my salvation, right?
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  I had none. And I wanted that assurance and
• 4:38
  I didn't have it. And so I was always looking for
• 4:41
  that assurance of my salvation. And I would like pray the
• 4:44
  center's prayer for the last time.
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  I'm like, I'm never doing this again because I know I know I'm
• 4:48
  yours. And then I would pray it again.
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  I call it the Doctor Seuss Center's prayer.
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  Like, you know, I prayed on my knee.
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  I prayed in the tree. I prayed in the car.
• 4:56
  I prayed for the fire. And hey, I can't relate.
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  I was a little girl and constant the altar and I was like, oh, I,
• 5:05
  I think I need to raise my hand again.
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  Right. You know, 8 years old, 910, I
• 5:11
  don't know how many times just to make sure I am safe.
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  Absolutely. This is what I was doing and the
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  Holy Spirit use, we Holy Spirit use John 17 to open my eyes to
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  the reality that what I was seeking after was to be assured
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  that I was saved. I wanted to know if I was saved
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  and Holy Spirit said you're not seeking to know me, you're
• 5:37
  seeking to know if you are saved because that verse is eternal
• 5:41
  life, which is what I was trying to get some assurance of.
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  You know, it says eternal life is to know God the Father of
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  Jesus Christ and be it sent that day I changed everything about
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  how I was pursuing Christ and my goal became I want to know you.
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  I want to know you intimately. And then it was a long time
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  after that, sister, that I finally realized it occurred to
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  me, whoa, I'm not praying Doctor Seuss prayers anymore.
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  And it was because he had stabbed me that I was his
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  because I was wanting to know him and I was in a relationship
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  with him. So wow, that was wording.
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  But that's that's my verse. Beautiful.
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  That was your trajectory, right? Of just how pulted you right
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  into that intimate relationship. We all have those moments.
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  Most of us, you know, have those encounters and they're so
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  beautiful and they're so beautiful to look back on and
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  just, you know, relive that, you know, I'm sure as you're sharing
• 6:42
  that you have all the feelings that came with it.
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  So, so beautiful. Well, like I said, this message
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  on prayer, it hits home for me. I was one of those where I'm in
• 6:56
  a Bible study and you know, at any moment they could call on
• 7:00
  you to pray over our, our, you know, homework discussion.
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  You know, we're doing a Bible study all the together as
• 7:07
  ladies. And oh, I.
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  Would have the sweaty palms, you know, the shaky voice.
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  I did not want to be called on. And when I did, I just didn't
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  feel like I was praying like the others.
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  And so you talk a lot about comparison.
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  And it didn't help really, to be married to a man, my husband,
• 7:33
  who can pray the most eloquent prayers and memorizes Scripture
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  verse like no other. And so when he prays, you know,
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  it's like you're reading Scripture.
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  And I'm just like, Oh my gosh. So you're precious.
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  Oh, for the longest time I just relied on him to like do the
• 7:57
  prayer time, you know, and, and it was because too, I held back
• 8:03
  on even practicing, you know, and then I started praying out
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  loud with the kids and stuff and got more comfortable with that.
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  So anyway, you gradually graduate out of that and I'm so
• 8:17
  glad I did. But I'm going to have you share
• 8:21
  your personal story on why you wrote this book on personal
• 8:25
  prayer and how you know, comparing our prayers is a
• 8:29
  common thing. But all of that, I'm sure you
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  have a story to share as to why you wrote this book.
• 8:36
  Absolutely. And you know, that experience
• 8:38
  that you describe is so common in the body of Christ.
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  I'm a church girl. I love the church, so I'm never
• 8:45
  in any way going to church under the bus.
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  But the church has not done a good job of normalizing the
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  reality that just because you come to Christ and you give him
• 8:57
  your whole heart in life, you're not immediately this prayer
• 9:00
  warrior this young that you just can pray so, so it does not
• 9:05
  happen. I'm on a mission to normalize
• 9:08
  the fact that many of our experiences are what you
• 9:10
  described. I wrote this book for people who
• 9:13
  love God but struggle to pray. This is what I've said a million
• 9:17
  times. It's for people who love God.
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  And the reason why is because I shared that experience with you.
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  There was a time when you if you would have said, OK, Shelly,
• 9:27
  you're going to write a book on prayer.
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  I'd be like, oh, no, no, no, not me.
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  You know, you might be thinking of Miss Anne or, you know, Miss
• 9:35
  Donna or I could name Mother Fitness Lucy.
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  Now they need to write on prayer because they write their prayers
• 9:41
  are gorgeous and flowing. And and I still do like with
• 9:45
  people like that that have these beautiful, flowing, gorgeous
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  prayers that you describe your husband so well that it's almost
• 9:51
  like they have sub points, right and Alpine and sub points and
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  they they never pause. They never say, hold on a
• 10:00
  minute, Lord, you know, they just write.
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  And it. Used to intimidate me and it
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  could still intimidate me today because I do like with people
• 10:09
  like that. But the glorious news is that
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  walking and talking with Jesus has inoculated me against that
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  comparison. So I went from a place of
• 10:20
  wanting a prayer life, could not figure out why I didn't have a
• 10:24
  prayer life. I love God, what is the problem?
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  You want me to pray? I want to pray and yet I cannot
• 10:30
  close my eyes without falling asleep.
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  If I open my eyes, my mind wanders.
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  And so I'm a pitiful prayer and help me learn to pray.
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  And so years after that, when I feel Holy Spirit pressing on me
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  to write on prayer and I'm thinking, I mean, I'm now I'm,
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  I'm willing because now I love prayer, but I had to sit with
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  him and say, how did you teach me to love prayer?
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  What were those things that helped me learn how to linger in
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  your presence? So this book is me and Holy
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  Spirit kind of walking down memory lane and me remembering
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  things that he taught me that became so integral to me
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  learning how to linger in his presence.
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  I say, because I say I could read back then, I could read
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  written prayers and they're they're still wonderful.
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  Do it. You know, I can read scripture
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  prayers is what I mean. I could pray for you if you
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  needed a prayer. You know, if you were I just or
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  or feel I could pray for you. But I could not sit in his
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  presence and linger with him without all this wool gathering
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  and all this, all these things. So he taught me, Holy Spirit
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  taught me how our hearts desire. And I should say, because I've
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  always quit to say I'm not setting myself up as a prayer
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  expert. He is teaching me.
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  He continues to teach me. I'm writing this book is someone
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  that's next door elbow to elbow with that other person that's
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  wanting to pray. And I'm saying I don't have all
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  the answers, but I know some of them.
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  And these are what the Lord has taught me, and that's what I'm
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  trying to give others in this book.
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  Well, I love it because I, I haven't seen any book like it
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  and I've never really heard somebody else having the same
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  insecurity. Mine was praying out loud over
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  somebody. And you know, God is so
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  faithful. He's just so kind and he's such
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  a gentleman. And I just hit see over the
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  years of him just pursuing my heart and giving me these
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  opportunity, opportunities to get out of my comfort zone and
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  pray over people because the, the, the prompting was so strong
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  that he would lay on my heart to pray over somebody.
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  Like I couldn't ignore it. I didn't want to.
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  And so, you know, just over time, doing it, doing it no
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  matter what, not caring what it sounded like or not, it was the
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  obedience is what he delights in.
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  And, and, and it's just, there's no bad prayer when you're, when
• 13:24
  you're genuinely talking to God, right.
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  And so over time, I even have this, this testimony, pray right
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  here, right now. That's my podcast episode.
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  And it was him telling me, you know, hey, you, you always kind
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  of say you'll pray for others and then you, you know, leave
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  and you forget. And so it really convicted my
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  heart of I need to just pray right then and there, no matter
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  what, you know, place we're at. You know, at the time I was a
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  workout instructor, so I'd have a lot of women sharing what was
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  going going on in their life and I'd have these strong promptings
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  by the Holy Spirit to pray over them.
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  And I'd be like, OK, God, like right here, OK, I'm doing it,
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  you know, so I would just do it and talk about getting yourself
• 14:11
  out there with that boldness pretty quick.
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  And so I just with God pursuing my heart, I was able to
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  overcome, but it required my obedience to say yes to him and
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  not shrink back in fear and let insecurity hinder a blessing, a
• 14:31
  prayer on somebody. And I think back and I'm like,
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  if I allowed fear and security hold back a prayer, like how?
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  How would those prayers be answered?
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  Like God uses us. We have to be a part of his
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  plan. And because he's such a win, win
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  God, that's one of my favorite names for him.
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  He's a win win God. What he did when you put
• 14:54
  yourself out there for others. And you said I'm going to pray.
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  I don't Well, but I'm afraid because you, you're pressing on
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  me to pray for them right here, right now.
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  And so you're, you're, you're asking me that I'm going to do
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  it. He's such a win win God, because
• 15:09
  not only does he and did he bless them?
• 15:12
  Yeah, like he blessed you. He began to grow you at the same
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  time. I mean, you cannot, it's not
• 15:18
  good grammar, but you can't outgood him, okay?
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  You just can't. He can't.
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  You're Amen. That's right, you can't.
• 15:26
  For me to now be on the prayer team at my local church, just
• 15:30
  like God called you to write a book on prayer.
• 15:34
  Like he'll use those areas where we feel weakened, but like we're
• 15:41
  we're weak. He's strong, his powers.
• 15:43
  There. And there is something very
• 15:48
  unique. There's an anointing on us and
• 15:51
  you know it's just the enemy trying to hold us back from
• 15:55
  areas where God wants to use us, right?
• 15:58
  So. That's my little brief testimony
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  in a nutshell, So I can highly relate.
• 16:05
  So when I got your book, I was like, Oh my goodness, where was
• 16:09
  this back in the day, you know? I tried to write in this book so
• 16:16
  simply. I don't I don't set myself as an
• 16:19
  expert, as I said earlier, but I also beyond that, I try to write
• 16:24
  so simply and transparently that the Shelly that was going.
• 16:30
  How do I pray you know that I'm talking to her.
• 16:34
  Then I'm talking to Angel. I'm like just they, these are
• 16:37
  the things that help me because he cannot get us out of
• 16:42
  ourselves, you know, long enough sometimes to pray, right?
• 16:45
  He's just wanting us to quit performing Sherry and talk to
• 16:50
  me. But we can grow up often in a
• 16:54
  rope around the church or grow. I think sometimes, and I think
• 16:57
  this I can't prove this, that people that come to Christ later
• 17:01
  in life have a little bit less of that prayer and security to
• 17:05
  deal through because they did not grow up around people that
• 17:09
  were praying all these big beautiful prayers, you know, but
• 17:12
  they so they just talked to God. And I know some of my friends
• 17:16
  that came to Christ later in life that they did it because
• 17:19
  they just talked to God, you know, but we need to learn the
• 17:22
  same that he is not looking for a clone of anyone else.
• 17:27
  He does not want to hear Shelley times 2 or Angela times 2 or the
• 17:32
  second version of Billy Graham praying.
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  He wants to hear you. Yeah, his, his individual child.
• 17:40
  He doesn't want to so learning not to compare ourselves with
• 17:45
  someone else. Oh, and can I tell you something
• 17:47
  about the title because you mentioned when you saw it come
• 17:49
  across, even without reading it, you saw that title the the year,
• 17:54
  probably a year or so that I was writing the book while I was
• 17:57
  traveling and speaking. I would mention the title.
• 18:01
  And that's when I knew that Holy Spirit was really resting on
• 18:05
  this message because if I mentioned it in a room like an
• 18:09
  audience of God theory, God would believe in women, right?
• 18:14
  I would hear, I would, I would say my next book is called don't
• 18:17
  try to pray like her. I would hear this collective
• 18:22
  sigh, this piece over that title.
• 18:25
  When I would say don't try to pray like her, it was like
• 18:28
  people would just, like, breathe.
• 18:30
  And it was like, permission to pray like me.
• 18:35
  Yeah. And so I do.
• 18:36
  Holy Spirit is resting. Oh yeah, 100%.
• 18:39
  And I think for the majority of us who are afraid of that public
• 18:44
  prayer, it's that fear of man, don't you think?
• 18:47
  But when you've got that fear of man, it's really being so
• 18:53
  concerned what others are thinking while you're praying or
• 18:57
  you know, what they their opinion is and, you know,
• 19:01
  thinking they're critiquing or judging and they're they're
• 19:04
  really not. You know, it's just the way the
• 19:06
  enemy tries to go in there and mess you up.
• 19:09
  So, you know, once you identify it, like I identified it and
• 19:14
  then it was like, OK, could take the root out.
• 19:17
  All right. Now I'm like, no stopping me.
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  I'm praying. OK, let's talk.
• 19:22
  What about your book and how each chapter opens up with your
• 19:25
  humor. I could already tell it's very
• 19:28
  funny Southern humor. I love it.
• 19:31
  You, you do that in your book as well.
• 19:33
  And you have these little stories.
• 19:35
  So you purposely did it this way before you put in these habits.
• 19:40
  So the book was made out of 15 prayer habits.
• 19:44
  And so share a little bit about the breakdown of your book.
• 19:49
  I'll be delighted to, I do open up each chapter with story
• 19:55
  because this is how the Lord taught me to communicate,
• 19:57
  because people can lean in and they can listen, you know, and
• 20:01
  then bring something that is deeper and that will help them
• 20:05
  with it. But I set it up that way on
• 20:07
  purpose. And so each chapter, the heading
• 20:10
  of the chapter, the chapter title is the prayer habit for
• 20:14
  that book. And you may have noticed they're
• 20:16
  very deep habits. Very deep.
• 20:19
  Chapters, you know, like for instance, one of them says
• 20:23
  remember to use the door that's very deep, right?
• 20:26
  It's just simple It's just simple simple to help people
• 20:30
  remember that Christ Jesus is why you have access to God in
• 20:35
  the 1st place. He will always be your access to
• 20:39
  God. It's not whether or not you can
• 20:41
  focus well, your, your focus didn't qualify you to to come
• 20:46
  into God's phone run Christ Jesus did.
• 20:48
  So you're in a the ability to focus can't guard you from the
• 20:52
  throne room because it's Jesus. And so he is the door to God's
• 20:56
  presence. He's the door to God's presence
• 20:58
  when you first come to faith. He is the door to God's presence
• 21:02
  thereafter he is our mediator. So I tell a little story in the
• 21:06
  book to help people remember that when they sit down to pray
• 21:09
  and and if I could stop and and put something in here, you can
• 21:12
  go to my website and get, excuse me, a printable bookmark.
• 21:17
  Once you read the book that has all these habits in it so that
• 21:21
  you can snip it into your Bible and maybe remember it.
• 21:24
  But one of the ways I tell people to remember to use the
• 21:28
  door is I ask them, how many times have you trying to get
• 21:32
  into a computer program or open an app on your phone And it's
• 21:36
  saying you're like that because you're not using the right
• 21:38
  password, you know, so you're trying to know the password and
• 21:41
  you can't get in and the whole entire time.
• 21:43
  What is it saying in a little right below that box?
• 21:47
  Did you forget your password? That's what it says.
• 21:51
  And we'll be going. No, I didn't forget my password.
• 21:53
  I know my password. We'll try another password.
• 21:55
  Right? Yeah.
• 21:56
  What? I bring that illustration to us
• 22:00
  because I'd want us. Every time we sit down in prayer
• 22:04
  and we start doing all these things to try to get into
• 22:07
  Father's presence, he feels distant.
• 22:09
  So we don't know. Should maybe I should read?
• 22:11
  Or maybe I should read my Bible first.
• 22:12
  Maybe I should sing first. Like maybe I should do all these
• 22:15
  these things. I want us to hear our Father
• 22:18
  saying chill, Jamie, did you forget your password?
• 22:24
  Did you? And to be able to say yes, Lord,
• 22:26
  I forgot my password. It's Jesus.
• 22:29
  I can come to you because of Christ Jesus.
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  He is the only reason and begin to build our confidence in
• 22:36
  prayer right there. And remember to use the door
• 22:41
  that is Christ Jesus. I love that.
• 22:44
  So is that your favorite? Is that your favorite out of all
• 22:49
  the 15? It is so hard to choose a
• 22:51
  favorite that would be like way up at the top.
• 22:54
  I would definitely say it's foundational.
• 22:56
  I put it in chapter 1 because I said if you do not understand
• 23:00
  that Jesus is your access to God and nothing that we do or don't
• 23:05
  do, it's Jesus is our access. Nothing else I say about prayer
• 23:09
  in the book, you know, is going to help us.
• 23:12
  So I would say it's foundational, but man, it's
• 23:15
  followed by so many others, you know, that have been so helpful
• 23:19
  to me. OK, well, do you have a
• 23:21
  favorite? The one that comes to mind is
• 23:25
  always the favorite. You know, it's just like, I
• 23:28
  literally believe in all of them.
• 23:30
  But if we, for time's sake, if I could pull out another one, I
• 23:34
  would tell you that one of my favorite habits is to learn not
• 23:39
  to try to communicate in prayer unlike any way you ever
• 23:45
  communicate with a flesh and blood person.
• 23:47
  And what I mean by that is that if you notice when you sit down
• 23:51
  to pray with a friend or to talk to a friend, your husband, your
• 23:54
  parents, your whoever, when you're talking to somebody, you
• 23:58
  don't go down a list in a linear progression and remember
• 24:04
  everything you want to say about this subject before you go on to
• 24:07
  another one. You don't do that.
• 24:09
  Me and you, if we are in conversation, we're going to,
• 24:12
  we're going to start a conversation and we're going to
• 24:14
  start and we, we may go somewhere else, talk about
• 24:16
  something else, giving ourselves the permission to come back and
• 24:19
  say, oh, Jenny, I wanted to tell you something else about that.
• 24:22
  You know, we just, we kind of ping everywhere in conversation.
• 24:25
  Very naturally. Then what we tend to do is we
• 24:29
  come to God in prayer, and for some reason we try to pray very
• 24:33
  linearly, one topic, next topic, you know, exhaust that topic and
• 24:39
  go to another one. And what happens is because
• 24:43
  we're trying to communicate in a way that we don't communicate at
• 24:46
  any other time in our life with anyone else, it begins to feel
• 24:50
  awkward. And if it feels awkward, we
• 24:52
  don't linger. And if we don't linger with him,
• 24:55
  we aren't transformed by him in prayer.
• 24:57
  So don't try to pray in ways that you don't communicate the
• 25:03
  rest of your life. I love that Shelly, you know,
• 25:06
  that brings me to what I do is I write in a journal my prayers to
• 25:13
  the Lord. And so that becomes
• 25:16
  conversational because I'm the way I'm I write the way I I
• 25:22
  talk. So I'll just write and then I
• 25:26
  sit there and I listen to, you know, hear from him and I'll
• 25:31
  just write whatever comes to my spirit, you know?
• 25:34
  And so it's just a beautiful conversation that way.
• 25:37
  So that's just one of the other, another way of communicating
• 25:41
  with him. Of course I go into prayer, but
• 25:43
  I do love or verbally talking, but I do love to journal and
• 25:49
  write out my prayers to him, which is another form of
• 25:53
  communication. And so you had mentioned there's
• 25:56
  a a big personal surprise for you in prayer.
• 26:00
  There is something that was the big biggest surprise to you.
• 26:05
  I guess, and I don't know what I wrote because again, I wrote so
• 26:08
  many surprises, but I right now, as I sit here right now, it
• 26:12
  would be that I could so enjoy prayer.
• 26:15
  That prayer that felt like a duty, something I needed to do
• 26:18
  because God expected me to do could become mana that I have to
• 26:25
  have that I want to sit and prayer with God for me.
• 26:28
  I never thought I could get there.
• 26:30
  That was a surprise for me. When I was out of that, out of
• 26:34
  all that early angst, when I found myself at a place that I
• 26:39
  just love sitting with the Lord, it was a sweet surprise.
• 26:43
  I love it. OK, What would you recommend for
• 26:47
  somebody who's kind of shy and that, you know, not very secure
• 26:52
  and praying publicly? I I mean, I see that a lot now.
• 26:57
  I'm in women's ministry, you know, and I'm, it's like you
• 27:00
  want to give them the opportunity to, to share and,
• 27:04
  you know, practice praying out loud.
• 27:06
  But at the same time, I remember what it was like where your
• 27:09
  heart is pounding and your hands are sweaty.
• 27:12
  And I don't want to put that on anyone.
• 27:15
  So what what do you recommend for somebody who's just kind of
• 27:19
  battling with that? Do you know?
• 27:22
  And I love this question because I started doing something,
• 27:26
  excuse me, I'm losing my voice for a lot of interviews.
• 27:29
  I started doing something with my ladies class at church that
• 27:32
  has really been beneficial. And it was because of exactly
• 27:37
  what you just said up wanting to help other people feel more
• 27:40
  comfortable in practice praying aloud in front of other people.
• 27:45
  So oftentimes the reason someone won't pray aloud is because
• 27:50
  they're just thinking about one thing that they would like to
• 27:53
  add to the prayer or, you know, if you're praying about
• 27:56
  something, but someone else has just prayed this big, long,
• 27:59
  gorgeous prayer like we just talked about earlier, you know,
• 28:02
  and they're like, and so we want to go Ditcho what he said, you
• 28:06
  know, but So what I started doing, I will ask my group.
• 28:10
  I will have our whole class together and something to come
• 28:14
  up we need to pray about. And I say let's do a little bit
• 28:17
  of one sentence or one thought, Frank.
• 28:21
  And so I asked them everyone, when it gets to them to just add
• 28:26
  one thought or one prayer to the pile of prayers, the bowl of
• 28:32
  prayers that we're sending up to the Father for this person, you
• 28:35
  know, that is maybe in crisis and it is so freeing.
• 28:39
  I hadn't watching it break chains off people because that
• 28:44
  next lady can just say, Lord help them, you know, and just
• 28:48
  whatever's on her mind, help them know that you're with them.
• 28:52
  Your presence is there. Amen.
• 28:54
  And she doesn't have to feel like she has to say 9100 other
• 28:57
  words because she just said exactly what's in her heart,
• 29:01
  which is prayer when you're praying exactly what's in your
• 29:05
  heart. So I would offer that especially
• 29:08
  to groups to begin to practice that.
• 29:12
  And yes, it does kind of temper the person that is worthy, you
• 29:16
  know, that they kind of have to temper themselves and just offer
• 29:20
  a thought, but that. But when they realize that's for
• 29:23
  the good of the whole group and that they're helping their
• 29:27
  brothers and sisters and learn how to pray, they're willing to
• 29:30
  do it. And you know, they can use all
• 29:33
  gazillion of their words afterwards, you know, with the
• 29:37
  Father if they want to. But I think that is a really
• 29:41
  good concrete practice. Yeah, that's so good.
• 29:46
  I love that. Yeah.
• 29:47
  And then, you know, you just get, you know, higher and higher
• 29:51
  with the Lord. He's always saying us from glory
• 29:53
  to glory and, you know, faith to faith.
• 29:56
  So, you know, then there's just these prayers where, you know,
• 30:00
  your mind's not even going, You're praying out of your
• 30:03
  spirit. So whatever the Holy Spirit is
• 30:06
  putting in you, it's coming out. And yeah, you know, and it's
• 30:10
  just so glorious to to just communicate with him that way
• 30:15
  and take away. This is how I end my episodes.
• 30:18
  I know I'm springing this on you.
• 30:20
  I didn't tell you ahead of time, but what would you say as a take
• 30:25
  away for the person listening that they can ponder on or take
• 30:30
  action in? Maybe it's something in, you
• 30:33
  know, your book or something you're offering right now.
• 30:36
  But just really just wrapping this up in a bow, what's that
• 30:39
  one encouragement that you could share?
• 30:41
  Oh, I would encourage everyone listening to consider this
• 30:46
  thought. When you think about the
• 30:48
  comparison that we've been discussing, how you compare
• 30:51
  yourself in prayer to other people, I would encourage
• 30:54
  everyone to consider this one thought that day.
• 30:57
  I'm going to say she, I'm going to talk directly to one lady
• 31:00
  that she is so uniquely made. She knows that she's, she knows
• 31:06
  that she is made in God's image and there's no one else like
• 31:09
  her, right? So with that thought, consider
• 31:13
  this. If she does not pray to her
• 31:16
  father in her own authentic voice that he has given her,
• 31:21
  that sound will never reach his ears.
• 31:23
  That sound can't come from Shelly or Jamie or Jamie's
• 31:28
  husband or anyone else. It is hers.
• 31:31
  And if she does not open her mouth and speak to her father in
• 31:36
  that voice that he's given her, he'll never hear that voice.
• 31:40
  Yeah, that's so good, Shelly. Beautiful.
• 31:43
  Well, thank you so much. It's been just a joy to have you
• 31:48
  on here and to share about this. I just love it.
• 31:52
  I have enjoyed myself immensely. Thanks, Shelly.
• 31:56
  Thank you. God bless you sweetie.
• 31:59
  Thank you so much for listening today, and I trust that God has
• 32:03
  encouraged you through this story.
• 32:05
  Did you know this podcast is on YouTube?
• 32:08
  Hop on there and subscribe and you can see a live recording of
• 32:12
  each episode. And For more information on this
• 32:16
  ministry and to access free downloads, please visit my
• 32:19
  website at jamieelizabeth.com. That's JAYME elizabeth.com.
• 32:26
  And let's connect beyond this podcast by going to my Instagram
• 32:30
  handle, Jamie Elizabeth, She speaks life or Facebook.
• 32:34
  Until next time, my friend, I hope God reveals himself through
• 32:37
  your own life story.