From Awkward To Aligned

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You're listening to my Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1299.

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Today's Devo is called From Awkward to Aligned.

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Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven.

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This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Good morning, everybody and happy Thursday. Welcome to another episode of My Morning Devotional Podcast. Today you have again Richelle Alessi and Jackie Roman. And we're going to continue the theme of prayer. And today is going to be fun because she has something a little more practical. And these are almost like the steps that you can take to make prayer more real in your life and for you to feel like you're doing it right, there's not a perfect way. But she has some incredible tools to help you just feel more confident in your prayer life. And I hope that this continues to bless you. So, Miss Jackie, take it away. Good morning, everyone. Thank you for having me again, Rachelle. And today I wanted to talk about marriage and praying together. And I don't want to exclude all of those who are not married yet, because I feel like this is something that is important for you to learn now so that when you get married, you are well equipped to be able to do this with your husband and to pray together.

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But speaking of praying together, you know, we've talked to a lot of couples and we say, you know, how often do you pray together?

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How is your prayer life together? And they look at us with a strange look, like, what do you mean, praying out loud together? That's just strange. How is it that the person you are the most intimate with and you share everything with still the person that you feel the most awkward with when you pray together and are intimidated by it? Maybe we just don't want to disappoint them with the simplicity of how we pray or we think that they're going to think differently of us when they hear the words that are coming out of our mouth. But honestly, the most powerful thing we can be as a married couple is unified, and not just in our thoughts and actions, but in prayer. Unity in prayer brings about unity in all other things we see. In Matthew 18, 19, 20, it says, Again, I tell you that if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven for where two or three gather in my name, I am there with them. Jonathan and I started a routine in the mornings that has greatly impacted us. Rachelle. We've been waking up early and walking, and yes, it's because, you know, we want to be healthy. But more than that, it was to be unified. There was a season in our life where we needed breakthrough, and the only way we knew that this was going to be happening was if we seek God together.

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So even when we were exhausted in the morning, we would get up and walk around the neighborhood and pray. The first thing we would do felt like it was a little bit cheesy, but is we would hold hands, and it was really a symbol that we were in this together.

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Sometimes we would start immediately praying out loud because that's just how we felt. Sometimes we would walk for a little bit in silence and then pray, probably because we were still trying to wake up. And sometimes we were just discouraged that morning. And what we would do is we would turn on worship. And really it was just to remind ourselves of our purpose in life. And that is to bring him glory and bring glory to his name. Eventually, one of us would start praying, thanking God for the privilege of waking up that morning and seeing a new day, thanking him for the many blessings that he had already given us. Like the scripture says, you know, know, count your many blessings, name them one by one. Yes. Then we would start praying for others. He would pray for someone, then I would pray for someone else. And we would continue covering others in prayer.

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We found that sometimes when you're in the most need is when you need to intercede for others. So that's what we did.

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We can become so selfish in our thoughts and consumed with our lack. But time and time again, God shows us that we're not just here for us, but to be a blessing to others. In

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21, it says, Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me. We would pray for our family and each other, and at the end of our walks, we would then bring our petition to God. We would tell him how we felt because, honestly, he can handle it. We would then end our prayers with our dedication to him and submitting to his will over everything in our lives. It didn't matter what we were going through. We just said, God, let your will be done, because that's all we want.

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We weren't praying with big words or trying to be perfect to impress each other. We were just being open and vulnerable with God. And that's what made it perfect. You know, Rochelle I'd be lying if I said it was always easy, but honestly, by the time we got home, we just felt so good. We were ready to conquer the day together.

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And when you're praying together, we found that we don't have the time or space to be angry or petty. So it changed that in us. We couldn't hold anger from what happened the day before or even that morning if one of us woke up a little bit off. We didn't have time for that. We just dove right into prayer. And at the end of it, we were refocused. We were connected in a spiritual level and in a physical level. We would then send messages to people with prayers that we were believing for over their lives. And our unity in prayer had increased our faith, and we were able to encourage each other and others spiritually. It also opened us up to hear from God more clearly. When sometimes we felt like there was a disconnect and all we heard was silence, we were able to connect with God again and hear from him. And honestly, this is how God designed marriage to be. He meant for us to be his representation here on earth of what his relationship with his bride and his son looks like. And you know what? Tomorrow we'll talk about that a little bit more. So, guys, don't let awkwardness and intimidation win in your marriage.

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Just start your prayer time. Doesn't have to look like ours by walking, but what can you guys do to consistently separate a time together? Be creative and don't let excuses be what holds you back. Also, don't wait for your spouse to initiate your prayer life together. If you're the one that's feeling the push, initiate it. What a great change you will see in your marriage. Unity is a powerful tool that will help you go from good to great in your marriage. I love that. And so I encourage you guys today to pray with your spouse. And if you're not married, still follow these steps. Still follow the steps of intentional time, of finding a time in the morning. Maybe it's finding a place that you go and you say, this is the 30 minutes that I'm going to spend with the Lord. You said, start by telling the Lord what you feel. He's not intimidated. Start by doing that. And I promise you that you will feel something different when you do that. And don't make any excuses. Just do it. Just do it.

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Yes. Can you pray us out? Yes, definitely. Lord, I thank you, Father, because we don't have to feel awkward anymore. We can just be aligned with you by being open and being ourselves. Lord, I thank you for the simplicity you allow us to have in prayer with you, because all you want, all you're yearning for is time with us.

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And we commit to giving that time to you and just to being open before you and presenting our lives to you so that you can do with it as you will. Father, we commit to praying together with our spouse and being aligned and being unified because that's how you would want us to be. We commit to praying for others so that they can also get a blessing from our prayer life. And we thank you, Jesus, because even though it might be hard sometimes and we might feel awkward, you're gonna see us through this and you're going to make our prayer life an amazing one because all we're doing is really connecting with our Heavenly Father who loves us so much. I thank you that you experience accept us just as we are. We don't have to be perfect, we don't have to say the perfect words. But you hear our love and you in turn reciprocate that love back to us. We thank you for the day that's to come and the victories we're going to have in it.

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In your son's name we pray. Amen. Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.