How to Pray Powerful Prayers for Your Inner Circle
I watch our baby boy sleep on the other side of the room while rain streams down the sliding glass door. His eyelids flutter as he dreams, and I ask God to lead me as I aim to pray powerful prayers for this little one’s life.
I’ve been juggling lately.
I’ve been juggling my writing career, my friendships, my relationship with God, my family, and more.
We each have our own kinds of juggling.
We juggle careers, relationships, and self-care. Our quiet and hidden work often feels more humble than our public service. Meanwhile, the hidden service is often the most important work.
And a vital part of this hidden work is praying for the people who are closest to us.
The Most Important Part of Your Calling
I’ve been preaching this to myself lately. I’ve been reminding myself that the quiet parts of my calling are some of the most important parts.
As the water runs back to the earth outside the window, I remind myself to embrace the season of parenting little ones.
I’m contemplating my calling as a mom when the truth falls with the rain.
A quiet thought whispers, Don’t overlook the most important part of your calling.
These words come like breath from heaven, and something stirs within me.
The Most Important Part of Your Calling Includes Praying Powerful Prayers
Living present in every moment, embracing teachable opportunities woven into ordinary days, and loving the people in front of me are parts of my life that matter deeply. Meanwhile, there’s a part of my calling that I often overlook: What if the most important part of any given calling isn’t the process of living it out, but the process of encountering God in the middle of it?
And this is the crux of encountering God in my calling: I’ll fail to encounter God if I fail to live out my calling prayerfully.
I can go through the motions, love others in my own strength, infuse life with sporadic prayers for those I have been called to serve, and do it all relatively well. I can embrace moments and make gratitude lists, and these disciplines are all good. They matter.
Pray Powerful Prayers as You Live out Your Calling
But if I overlook the importance of focused prayer as I pour out my life, I might just miss the most important part of my calling. 
I’ve grown savvy at on-the-go prayers for help, wisdom, focus, and Holy Spirit power.
I’ve been learning to live on two levels: one attuned to the voice of the Father and one engaged with the world around me.
Meanwhile, I lack this one discipline: making time to pray powerful prayers with a fervent focus for those within my sphere of influence.
How to Be a Prayer Warrior
I want to be a prayer warrior, and I consider what it might look like:
It’s the mother who makes sure to pray for her children every single day. She buys a journaling Bible and writes Spirit-led prayers in the margins of every page for each of her children. She prays for breakthroughs for her teenagers, God encounters for her grown children, or the future of her newborn.
It’s the teacher who comes to the classroom ten minutes early every morning to pray over the seats that will soon be filled by young bodies. She prays for faces and names as they come to mind. She breaks down walls and prays for the opening of the gates of heaven.
It’s the public servant who prays for the people who will walk through her aisle, sit at her table, pass by her desk, or sit across the little office with the framed photos on the walls. She prays for the anointing of the Lord, the movement of the Spirit of freedom, and encounters with Jesus in this space where she has been called to serve.
Powerful Prayers for Your Sphere of Influence
It’s the wife who won’t give up praying for her husband, even though he shows no interest in the things of God.
It’s the friend who keeps reaching out, who won’t stop praying for that childhood friend who is lost and searching.
I ask myself as the rain streams down: Are you really laboring in prayer for those you are called to love?
Or are you overlooking the most important part of your calling?
Because praying for the people God has placed in your path breaks captives free. It breaks up fallow ground. It makes a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert.
I commit to being a woman of passionate prayer for my children as the little one sleeps and heaven pours down all around me. Ultimately, this kind of prayer holds the power to change lives, and my life will be changed as well.
As I encounter the heart of the Father for my kids, I come to know him more. I carry his love upon me in a more evident way. And with the rain on a humid summer day, the gates of heaven might just open wide.
A Free Devotional Guide to Help You to Pray Powerful Prayers:
Do you want to be more deliberate in the way you interact with the people God has put in your life? Do you want to carry Christ to the world around you and be more passionate as you pray for others?
Check out my online devotional Change Your World through Prayer. You will find prayer lists, Bible-based prayer guides, and fresh ideas to help you pray for the people you care about. This is a practical tool to help you fall more deeply in love with Jesus as you pray.
Click here, and I will send this free resource to your email inbox. 
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Calling all moms and daughters!
Additionally, my teen daughter, Bekah, and I are passionate about helping moms and daughters grow closer while connecting with God. We have written two mother-daughter devotionals together. Girl to Girl: 60 Mother-Daughter Devotions for a Closer Relationship and Deeper Faith is written for girls ages 7-12. It includes 60 devotions with Scripture, conversation starters, and a shared journaling section after each devotion.
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