If you’ve ever struggled with prayer, be blessed by my friend, Alisa Nicaud from Flourishing Today, as she shares her heart, and her prayers, here at the Well:

Do you ever feel like you don’t know what to pray? Or maybe you feel like your prayers are useless and instead of reaching up to heaven— like a deflating balloon they lose air and plummet to the ground. Friend, we all feel this way sometimes. I think if we are all being honest, our prayer life can get a little dry, leaving us feeling disconnected from God and unqualified to pray for someone who needs it. It can be intimidating. Scary even. Especially when you’re leading a small group. You’re supposed to be the leader, right?

As I sat in church listening to my pastor preach, I knew I should be leading a small group. “The harvest was plenty, but the workers were few.” So as soon as the service ended, I rushed over to the table and signed up to lead. Several days later, the realization hit me, “I’m going to have to pray in front of these people!” I’d love to say that I was excited, but the truth is, I was extremely anxious.

What if I didn’t know what to say?

What if I prayed wrong? (Is that even possible?)

Would they think I was a bad leader?

Insecure thoughts raced through my mind as I considered the task before me. Of course, once the group began and I finished praying my first simple prayer, the fear subsided and it no longer plagued me.

That was nearly 10 years ago. Although prayer has become one of my passions, there are still times when insecurity tries to rear its ugly head. Except now rather than being intimidated by praying, the enemy tries to convince me that my prayers either won’t work or that I will declare something and it won’t come to pass.

Why is that? Why does the enemy try so hard to stop us from praying? Prayer is powerful. God knows it. The enemy knows it. Usually the only ones who don’t know (or perhaps forget) are us! Yet believing is the central key to powerful prayers. Let’s take a moment to dissect James 5:16 to see what the Bible says about prayer.

Visit Alisa at Flourishing Today and continue reading how to pray powerful, effective prayers.

Running on empty? Ready to chase your dreams or start a new chapter in your life, but you can’t see beyond your limited resources? Out of energy, out of money, out of hope. Sometimes we just feel like our resources have run out on us and we have no way forward.

In 2 Kings 4:1-7 we meet a woman in such a dire place. She’s a widow with debts she cannot pay. In those times, there was no option of bankruptcy. If you couldn’t pay, the law allowed the creditor to make you or your children indentured servants to fulfill the debt. She has no money to pay her creditors, so they’re coming to take her sons as payment.

Imagine the grief and sorrow of losing a spouse, coupled with the desperation of not having any means to support yourself and your children. This woman wanted to provide for her sons and keep them out of slavery, yet here she was facing the next visit by her creditors who would surely take away her sons, and with them, her chance at any kind of future.

Discover how this widow and you can trust God in the midst of dire circumstances by visiting KathrynShirey.com.