I’m a firm believer that prayer shouldn’t be frustrating or a source of shame or insecurity…but just because we believe that doesn’t always make it so. I’m well aware that our feelings about prayer can come with more baggage than a jumbo jet. That’s why I created a fun prayer personality quiz to help you uncover your own unique design so that you can work with the way God made you rather than against it! (Click here to take the quiz now).
If you’d like to know more about why I created this quiz and how you can use the results to revolutionize your prayer life read on…
My youth pastor was a big, burly Cajun with a mop of black, curly hair and a personality that was bigger than the entire state of Louisiana. He was loud, bold, and very Pentecostal. His passion for God was unmatched and obvious. And honestly, inspirational.
After I graduated from high school, I worked at my church office and I remember hearing his voice carrying through several closed doors and booming over worship music as he prayed over the lunch hour. As a teenager, I remember trying to model my own prayer style after him. I tried shouting, stomping, and pacing when I prayed, but no matter how many times I tried it, I just never liked doing those things. It just felt wrong on me. But I thought that was the way good Christians prayed.
“I thought that was the way good Christians prayed.”
To be clear, I don’t think my youth pastor ever meant to make any of us feel like we were inferior if we didn’t shout our prayers, but that was the feeling I walked away with. A sense of shame and that somehow I wasn’t doing it right. I started to believe that something must be fundamentally wrong with me because I really didn’t want to shout during prayer. I wondered, Why doesn’t my love for God make me want to shout?
Fast forward a couple of decades, and I realized one day that I don’t like shouting. Period. If this seems like a funny revelation to you, you’re right, it is. And yet it was like God flipped the switch on a huge light bulb over my head that day. If I don’t like shouting in my regular, everyday life, why should I feel like shouting in prayer was some type of indicator of my love for God?
If you’ve been around Christians and church for any amount of time you’ve likely picked up some beliefs about prayer. The proper way to do it, when to do it, etc. Maybe you’ve felt pressure to conform to someone else’s idea of what a good pray-er looks or sounds like (or maybe even your own ideas) and it’s all felt unattainable and just wrong.
Take a deep breath.
“Maybe you were designed for a completely different approach to prayer.”
Maybe it’s felt wrong because you’ve been trying to fit into someone else’s mold when God designed you to function in a completely different one. What if I told you you can stop the cycle that leaves you feeling like a failure every time you pray and consider that maybe, just maybe, you were designed for a completely different approach to prayer?
I don’t believe God designed us all so uniquely and then somehow expects us all to worship and pray in exactly the same way. But that’s often what we think and how we approach prayer. It seems like there’s a one-size-fits-all model, but there’s so much variety within the body of Christ.
“The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit…But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part!”
— 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, 18-19
We know that God has crafted each of us with unique quirks, traits, and designs, and that it all brings glory to him. Mountains, rivers, and flowers all bring glory to God in specific and distinctive ways. Why should it be any different with us? Why shouldn’t our approach to prayer reflect that?
My hope is that as we grow and mature that we develop an appreciation and understanding for the way God has wired us and we can stop fighting against our design and learn to maximize our gifts and compensate for our weaknesses in meaningful and helpful ways. That’s what this quiz and upcoming blog series is all about. We’re not reinventing prayer, we’re just identifying the ways that our unique, God-given personalities thrive and tricks that will help us actually pray—and enjoy it!
That’s why I created this prayer personality quiz.
We’ll spend the next couple of months on the blog exploring each personality type in depth and uncover how knowing your unique personality can help your prayer life grow. We’ll also explore each type’s pitfalls and weaknesses and explore ways to compensate for them.
If you’ve often wondered, What’s wrong with me?! Why don’t I enjoy praying? I’d like you to consider that maybe there’s nothing wrong with you, maybe you’ve just had the wrong approach! Discover your prayer personality today and finally start having the conversations with God you’ve always wanted.
Take the Quiz Now!
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How to Revolutionize the Way You Read Your Bible with One Simple Question
Erica Barthalow April 27, 2022 Bible study, Bible, Bible reading, Scripture, praying scripture, Jesus, God, love of God
Republished with permission from Blogs.crossmap.com, featuring inspiring Bible verses about prayer.
