Like Shoes, a Girl Can Never Have Too Many Devotionals…
Friends! Do you love switching devotionals from time to time, or do you stick with the same one and read it thru’ over and over? I do a little of both.
Recently, a new devotional came across my email and I quickly ordered it as I’m familiar with the author. She’s a young mom, who’s wise beyond her years. She’s a PK and a MK, PLUS she and her husband have three children! (A couple of Christmases ago, I ordered another one of her books for our daughters-in-love which I’ll also tell you about at the end of this post.)
The devotional we’ll be talking about today is: Prayers of Rest: Daily Prompts to Slow Down and Hear God’s Voice by Asheritah CiuCiu
The book spun off of a prayer group Asheritah calls her “online community.” Early into the 2020 pandemic, she was feeling overwhelmed. She invited these gals to join her for a “live prayer call each morning.” Dozens of women joined her, “then women from all over the world joined together for eight weeks.”
Soon the daily calls blossomed into a weekly prayer podcast which Asheritah calls “Prayers of Rest.” It wasn’t long before women from over 100 countries were listening!
These women used a simple-to-remember format. Since they were seeking rest in their lives thru’ prayer, they used the acronym “REST” as their guide:
R - Recite God’s goodness
E - Express our neediness
S - Seek His stillness
T - Trust His faithfulness
This book was born from these prayer sessions. You, my friend, will LOVE it. Each day’s entry is short and sweet, all on one page, beginning with a Scripture, followed by four short prayers (one for each letter in “rest” - see above.)
Asheritah also includes Scripture for further insight into the day’s topic. They’re included at the bottom of each page. You could go so far as to say Asheritah is our personal prayer coach!
So let’s talk about the topics—you won’t believe what all’s included. When I first got the book, I just dove in and started from the beginning. Check out what’s in store for us readers:
The very first section is called, “Finding Quiet Rest.” That really appealed to me, so I read thru’ all of them.
The next section is called “Praying Like Jesus.” I also wanted to learn about that, so I kept plugging along, really loving the brief but beautiful structure.
One day, I decided to look at the Table of Contents. (Novel idea!) I noticed there are sections on:
“Psalms: Prayers for Every Emotion” (Trust me, Asheritah covers EVERY emotion you could possibly think of!)
“Prayers for Others,”
“Prayers for Myself,” and
“Prayers for Every Moment.” The ones for “Every Moment” are extra neat because they cover: Calendar Time, Time of Day, Anytime, and Seasons.
Next up is “House Prayers”—this reminds me of Carol McLeod’s book, Rooms of a Mother’s Heart, where Carol takes us thru’ all the rooms in the house, showing us ways to pray regarding our families. (Click here for my review of that book.).
There are four more sections in Prayers of Rest which I’ll not disclose to keep you guessing and hopefully marching to the bookstore for this book. But, I will tell you our author even includes a prayer time page for every single book in the Bible! I declare, this book is worth its weight in GOLD.
I suppose I was drawn to this book because I never quite feel like I have a good handle on prayer, especially praying out loud. Years ago when my friend, Jane Chilton, asked me to be a facilitator for her in her Bible study at Southeast, I took a few days to pray about the opportunity. Then I profoundly proclaimed (LOL) I’d be delighted to be a facilitator, however I was NOT going to pray out loud! Rest assured any time you tell the Lord what you’re NOT going to do, you’ll find yourself doing that exact thing.
Right when my book came out, in November of 2018, sweet Rachel Platt invited me to come on her show. I was not about to go on the air solo, so I begged Jane to go with me. We had a blast, even tho’ we were scared to death.
Jane often reminds me I’m forever indebted to her because she didn’t want to go on live tv either. She even brought one of her famous pound cakes for Rachel and crew members to perhaps appease them should we blow the clip! (Thank you, Lord!) That little experience majorly enhanced our prayer lives!
But still, I’m not wild about public prayer and forever second guess myself. My friend, Liz Curtis Higgs, is phenomenal at this very feat. If you aren’t watching her FB posts on Monday, called “Rise and Shine”, try one. They’re LIVE at 8:00 a.m. EST, but if you miss it, they’re available to watch any time.
Liz’ posts are usually less than 10 minutes long. Watch how she prays. Her prayers are heartfelt and delightful. Liz often says she loves to pray. I keep praying she’ll rub off on me!
Finally, here’s the cover of the book I mentioned earlier that I gave our daughters-in-love. It’s a fabulous book too and includes delicious recipes!
I also loved discovering Asheritah has written a Bible study on Colossians. Here’s the cover:
Friends, I pray we can claim the words of Psalm 62, thanks to Asheritah’s gifted writing of prayers and her goal for all of us readers:
Now you know how we like to close!!! Run, don’t walk, to your nearest bookstore and snag Prayers of Rest: Daily Prompts to Slow Down and Hear God’s Voice. You’ll be the beneficiary of some beautiful prayers and will learn praying may not quite be so hard after all!
‘Til next time!
Disclosure of Material Connection: Some of the links in the page above are “affiliate links.”