Joyce Meyer: Promises for Your Everyday Life - a Daily DevotionalSample

Simplify Your Prayers I've learned that simple, heartfelt, full-of-faith prayers always get God's attention. Unfortunately, we often overlook this and turn our prayers into a big show. We have to beware of talking to impress ourselves when we're praying. Sometimes I think we just want to sound eloquent. We want to impress God with our phrases and sound holy. But God just wants to have a little chat with us. He wants us to talk to Him like we would a friend, not with a different tone of voice. If we don't speak Elizabethan English during the day, we don't need to use it when we pray. We also don't have to pray for hours on end. It's good to schedule prayer time, but we should just pray until we're finished and then go about our business until the next time we feel the need to pray some more. The only way prayer will ever be satisfying is if you simply use it as an opportunity to get God's help and involve Him in everything you do. He's not here to be impressed...He's here to live life with you. Don't perform. Just invite Him in. Prayer Starter: Holy Spirit, don't let me turn prayer into a performance! I don't want to overdo it and try and pray too long just to impress You. I want to invite You, as my closest friend, into every aspect of my life.