Cheri Fuller - A Busy Womans Guide to Prayer: Forget the Guilt and Find the Gift

a busy
womans
guide to
prayer

ALSO BY CHERI FULLER

A Fresh Vision of Jesus

The One Year Book of Praying Through the Bible

Fearless: Building a Faith That Overcomes Your Fear

Raising Motivated Kids

Talkers, Watchers & Doers: Unlocking Your Childs Learning Potential

School Starts at Home

The Mom Youre Meant to Be: Loving Your Kids While Leaning on God

The Fragrance of Kindness: Giving the Gift of Encouragement

When Mothers Pray

When Children Pray

When Families Pray

When Teens Pray

When Couples Pray

Opening Your Childs Spiritual Windows

Opening Your Childs Nine Learning Windows

Quiet Whispers from Gods Heart for Women

Christmas Treasures of the Heart

Motherhood 101

How to Grow a Young Music Lover

Extraordinary Kids:

Nurturing and Championing Your Child with Special Needs, Co-authored with Louise Tucker Jones

My Wish for You: Blessings for Daughters, Co-authored with Sandra Aldrich

365 Ways to Develop Your Childs Values

365 Ways to Build Your Childs Self-Esteem

365 Ways to Help Your Child Learn & Achieve

Teaching Your Child to Write

Helping Your Child Succeed in Public School

21 Days to Helping Your Child Learn

Home Business Happiness

a busy
womans
guide to
prayer

forget the guilt and find the gift

cheri fuller

A BUSY WOMANS GUIDE TO PRAYER

Copyright 2005 by Cheri Fuller.

Published by Integrity Publishers, a division of Integrity Media, Inc., 5250 Virginia Way, Suite 110, Brentwood, TN 37027.

HELPING PEOPLE WORLDWIDE EXPERIENCE the MANIFEST PRESENCE of GOD.

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any otherexcept for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published in association with the literary agency of Alive Communications, Inc., 7680 Goddard Street, Suite 200, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80920.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT). Copyright 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.

Other Scripture quotations are taken from the following sources: The Amplified Bible (AMP), New Testament. Copyright 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Amplified Bible (AMP), Old Testament. Copyright 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The Message (MSG) by Eugene H. Peterson. Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. All rights reserved. The New American Standard Bible (NASB). Copyright 1960, 1062, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. The Authorized King James Version of the Bible (KJV). The Holy Bible, New International Version (NIV). Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. The Living Bible (TLB). Copyright 1971 by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. The New King James Version (NKJV). Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover Design: Brand Navigation, LLCDeAnna Pierce, Bill Chiaravalle,
www.brandnavigation.com
Author Cover Photograph: David Fitzgerald
Cover Image: Stephen Gardner, Pixelworks Studio
Interior Design: Inside Out Design & Typesetting

Names and details in some of the authors anecdotes and illustrations may have been changed to protect the subjects privacy.

The title of this book was inspired by the authors article, A Busy Womans Guide to PrayerNo Matter How Packed Your Daily Planner Is! in Todays Christian Woman, March/April 2004, and a portion of chapter 11, Praying for Your Enemies, first appeared as Who, Me? Pray for Her? in the magazines November/December 2001 issue.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fuller Cheri.
A busy womans guide to prayer / by Cheri Fuller.
p. cm.

Summary: Readers will experience the power of having a vibrant life of prayer, a relationship with God, and discover creative ideas to weave prayer into the fabric of their dayProvided by publisher.
ISBN 1-59145-321-6 (tradepaper)

1. Christian womenReligious life. 2. PrayerChristianity. I. Title.
BV4527.F843 2005
248.3'2'082dc22

20050173458

Printed in the United States of America
05 06 07 08 DPS 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Dedicated to our beloved Mimi, Joan Fuller.
Though she stays busy caring for others
in her community of Pawhuska, Oklahoma,
shes a faithful, praying woman
and the most fun grandma and mother I know.
You have blessed us all!

Contents

8. Getting Out of the Box:
Finding Your Spiritual Pathway

11. Praying for Your Enemies:
The Clean-Slate Principle

I am especially grateful to Holmes, my praying-without-ceasing husband, for his support, prayers, and love not only as I wrote this book but in our thirty-five years of marriage together. I love you.

To our sons and daughter and their spouses: Justin and Tiff, Chris and Maggie, Ali and Hans, and to our five grandchildren: Caitlin, Caleb, Noah, Josephine, and Luke, thank you for your prayers for us. You light up our lives, and it gives us much joy to pray for you and see your lives unfold!

I am so grateful for the intercessors, that cloud of witnesses who surround us and have graced us with their wisdom through the ages. From them I have gained much insight for my own prayer life and for this book, especially Flo Perkins, Andrew Murray, O. Hallesby, E. M. Bounds, Oswald Chambers, Derek Prince, Corrie ten Boom, Catherine Marshall, Amy Carmichael, Henri Nouwen, and others.

Heartfelt thanks to my prayer partners who have prayed for the writing of this book and for our family with such love and faithfulness: Patty Johnson, Peggy and Earl Stewart, Jo Hayes, Janet Page, Mimi, Lynn, Dru Fuller, Betsy West, Anne Denmark, Melanie Hemry; and to fellow moms in our communitys military support group: Ruthie Gardosik, Cecilia Martin, Lucy Trotman, and Jeanne Fell. I appreciate you more than you could know.

Thanks to Joey Paul and Integrity Publishers for your belief in this message and your partnership with me. To Lee Hough, my literary agent, for your encouragement and representation.

And to all the women Ive spoken to at retreats and conferences who have told me about the struggles and joys of their prayer lives; what youve shared has helped shape this book. To Speak Up, and to Carol and Gene Kent, dear friends who represent me so well in my ministry.

To each, please accept my heartfelt gratitude.

PART ONE
A Fresh Look at Prayer

A Mary Heart with a Martha Schedule

The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying....The prayer of the feeblest saint on earth who keeps right with Godparalyzes the darknessthats why he tries to keep our minds fussy