Change Your Life

Saturday, my daughter and I were blessed to be able to attend a women's conference called Change Your Life. The guest speaker was Becky Tirabassi. Have any of you ever seen this woman? She's no bigger than a minute and flits all over the stage like a hummingbird. I figured out quickly that's how that woman stays so tiny too. Wow! And she has so much enthusiasm and energy and motivation to share! It was truly a blessing to spend a morning being inspired by her.

The conference was entitled Change Your Life and I wasn't really sure what all to expect. Was she going to tell us how to lose weight? Was she going to finally give me the key to getting organized? Was she going to impart the secrets of finding more time and energy? Her bio said she is an author, life coach, and speaker who lives and teaches a balanced approach to the physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental aspects of life. If there is anything I need, it is a balanced life. You'd think as much time as I spend running in my hamster wheel, I'd be a whole lot thinner than I am.

So what did she teach us? She taught us about prayer. For the last 25 years, Becky has spent an hour a day, every day, praying and reading her Bible. She said an aerobics class lasted an hour so she thought well, why not spend an hour a day with the Lord too. Here are some notes I took from her 3 sessions of talks.

*Written prayer is pen and paper on a focal point and involves more of the senses.
*I will does not equal I will try.
*Make an appointment with the King and keep it!
*The devil's greatest tool is to keep the believer from praying.
*Prayer is a habit that has to be formed.
*Plan your appointment one day ahead. It does not necessarily have to be the same time every day. Write down your start time. If you're interrupted, put down the time, so you can finish your hour later in the day.
*God talks to us through His living Word the Bible.
*When you open the Word of God, you don't talk back.
*All Scripture is not about me, but all Scripture is for me.
*Read the Bible regularly to know God's viewpoint.
*You will hear from God through His Son Jesus.
*God talks through His Holy Spirit; counselor, teacher, and truth-teller.
*You're as full of the Holy Spirit as you want to be.
*Prayerlessness is a recipe for disaster.
*Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth.
*He waits to be wanted.
*Prayer is a conversation between two people who love each other.
*Tell God, "I can't. You can. I'll let you.".
*It takes 90 days to build a habit.
*Prayer brings emotion to the surface.

Becky had four parts to prayer that spelled out PART.
P=Praise A=Admit R=Request T=Thanksgiving
Her time in reading Scripture included:
L=Listening M=Message N=New Testament O=Old Testament P=Proverbs
Every day she reads a chapter of the New Testament and one of the Old Testament and one of Proverbs, so that she reads through the whole Bible in one year. She listens to what it has to say and looks for the message for her in that passage. She journals her prayers and the things God tells her to do. She has pages of prayer requests so that she doesn't forget anyone she promised to pray for, and also she can record the answers to those prayers as they come. She journals her sins as she admits them to God and looks for patterns in repeat sins.

Out of the 450 women at this conference, I am estimating at least half of them stood and made a commitment to pray an hour a day for the rest of their lives. I am thinking if a woman prays an hour a day every day for the rest of her life, it will not only change her life in every way, but will change her family and her church and her community. I wish you all could have come to this conference too. I hope my notes give you something to think about. If you get a chance to go hear Becky Tirabassi at a Women of Faith Conference or anywhere else, do it. Check out her website www.changeyourlifedaily.com . But most important of all, spend some daily time talking to God and listening to His answers. Let the romance begin!