Signature Prayer Challenge

Before we kick off our annual goal series (starts tomorrow!!), I wanted to share something we will be kicking off the New Year with–The Signature Challenge. 

In October, I had a big revelation while talking with my life coach, Diana. So many times I turn to prayer in panicked moments. It’s reactionary praying. We attempt to slap Phil. 4:6 on a panic attack and the thing is, it doesn’t really work like that. It can cause us to assume that maybe God lied when He said He’d bring peace. Verses like Isaiah 26:3, “You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you,” feel outdated, or at the very least, not meant for a worrier like me. 

In our conversation, I made the commitment to start praying for the thing that seemed to instigate the majority of my negative thoughts: my health. It’s the thing the enemy has used time and time again to distract me. 

But this commitment was different. I wasn’t committing to pray when those negative thoughts struck, because let’s be honest, when you’re panicked about something, as much as we want it to be, prayer isn’t always our first response. I committed to praying proactively about my thoughts. This meant starting the day with a positive approach and getting aware of my triggers. The result was some of the most powerful growth I’ve had in this area of my life ever. When triggers hit, I was so aware of the truth that I was able to squash the majority of those thoughts before they sprouted wings into full overwhelm. 

So, with that in mind, I created the Signature Challenge:

1. Identify an area of change you want to make in your life. 

It could be the thing that instigates your greatest fears or negative thoughts. It could also be something tied to the goal you want to make happen this year. 

• Maybe you want to change the way you eat but can’t say no when you see certain treats. 
• May you want to speak kinder to your husband but the default for so long has been criticizing. 
• Maybe you want to write a book but get paralyzed by fear every time you open your computer. 
• Maybe you want to stop yelling at your kids but always blow up when something specific happens. 

2. Imagine what these things could look like if you included God in them. 

This seems like a throw-away step, but it’s really not. If you are a believer, Christ lives in you. You’re capable of far more than you realize. Spend some time dwelling on that now so you don’t walk into this challenge doubting it could actually make a difference. This isn’t simply about positive thinking. This is about thoughtfully inviting God into situations where normally we’d be completely panicked. Maybe that’s just me? This doesn’t mean we can’t cry out to God when we’re completely overwhelmed, but our prayer life should be so much more than that! Honestly, I think we’d be floored to see what is possible to experience in prayer when WE enter into it differently. 

3. Spend 31 days writing out a prayer for your one thing (your signature thing, if you will 😉) every morning in a proactive way. 

What would it look like to pray for your greatest fear when you’re not already in fight or flight mode? There’s tons of science backing the idea of making decisions before the moment you need to make them, because when we’re in the moment, so often we let the enemies’ lies ring louder than truth. Start your day with truth so your ears are tuned to something completely different and can more easily recognize the dissonance of lies.

If you’ve got our Signature Prayer Journal it makes the perfect companion to this challenge since it’s got 29 pages to write out prayers per month. They are still available if you want to grab one here or just grab any old notebook that you will actually want to use!

Are you joining the challenge? Tell me in the comments below!