Asheritah CiuCiu is a wife, mom, podcaster, writer, and author of the new book “Prayers of Rest: Daily Prompts to Slow Down and Hear God’s Voice.” She joins me on the podcast today to inspire us with the understanding that prayer is not a drudgery, it is not a task to check off the list, it is not a burden that we “have” to do, but rather is a peaceful, restful, life-giving gift to our souls. May you walk away from this episode encouraged and built up to grow in your own prayer life with the Lord!
What we Chat about in This Episode
~Asheritah’s newest book, Prayers of Rest, what led her to write it, and what readers can expect
~Prayer as *the* work, the all-important foundation for everything else we do, but not viewing it as work
~Viewing prayer as rest and peace and joy
~The prayers of REST (Recite God’s goodness, Express your neediness, Seek His stillness, Trust His faithfulness) prayer model, what it is, and how and why to follow it
~Learning how to pray by actually praying, rather than just reading about prayer
~God’s still, small voice; why it’s important and why we need to mute all the noise coming at us so we can hear His voice and have it change our lives
~Going to God and being gut-level honest about how we’re truly feeling deep down – the importance of sharing the good, the bad, and the ugly with the Lord
~The power of knowing that we are fully known and fully loved by God
~The loving Father’s willingness to again and again welcome us and renew us in the midst of our repeated struggles day by day; the impact this resting in God’s presence has on how we lovingly and humbly view others
~Understanding that the Lord does not call us to hustle our way into His kingdom, but to instead take on His yoke that is easy and His burden that is light
~Dealing with distractions while you are praying
~How God uses prayer to first change us before He uses it to change the things going on around us; how this does away with that question of, “Why should I pray when God already knows everything anyway?”
~Prayerlessness as an act of unbelief; stopping this belief that prayer is our last resort
~God does know, and He wants us to bring our issues to Him first
~The gift that not only does God give us the gift of answered prayer, but that He gives us the ultimate gift of Himself
~The sweet, beautiful, restful, life-giving, soul-shaping nature of prayer
~Having prayer be a rhythm of your day; the fact that it doesn’t have to be a rigid, long, drawn out thing, but can be a part of the rhythms of our days
~And more!
Resources Mentioned
Offer for a free audiobook and 30 day trial from Audible: www.audibletrial.com/HomeandHearth
Asheritah’s new book on prayer
Gentle and Lowly: The Heart of Christ for Sinners and Sufferers
Inspiring Quotes from Asheritah:
“Prayer is the work, but prayer is also rest. Over the past 2 years especially, we have been attempting to numb ourselves with 101 distractions in order to deal with that feeling that we know something is missing in our lives. We’re trying to find rest, peace, and joy, but that is found in the presence of God and in prayer, not in all of the bandaids we attempt to put on our hurts and our needs.”
“We learn how to pray not ultimately by hearing a sermon on prayer or reading a book on prayer. We ultimately learn about prayer by actually praying.”
“Prayer is our coming into God’s presence and experiencing His rest in a day-to-day, sustaining way. It’s about unburdening ourselves in His presence and just resting in the goodness of Who He is. That being still with Him is where I find my rest.”
“There are so many sounds and voices and noises coming at us every day – the endless scrolling on our phones, the podcasts, the music, the kids, the lies, the million other things – that it becomes nearly impossible for us to hear the still, small voice of God. But I don’t want that to be the case for me. I want to tune my heart to recognize the still, small voice of God in the quiet if I am ever going to hear it in the noise. Because that is what I most need – I need His voice, His leading, and His direction for every area of my life. I don’t want to parent alone, I want to parent with the still, small voice of God guiding my way.”
“If we do not remind our own hearts and souls, if we do not teach our children, how God has worked and moved in our own lives, we will forget. And so will they. We need to reframe our perspective from the hard things surrounding us and all that is going on to instead reciting and remembering God’s goodness, what He has done, and Who He is.”
“In many of the Psalms, what we see is a gut-level honesty from the Psalmist, a refusal to try to wear a mask before the Lord, but to instead lay everything out, express it to Him, because He is THE safe person We struggle with gossip because we are telling other people about the problems that we have instead of telling God. It is a beautiful thing to be honest with God in prayer. He can take the anger, the rage, the sinful attitudes, all of it and can help us work through it. He just wants us to bring in to Him in prayer.”
“It is a game-changer in our prayer life when we share with God with all of our concerns and struggles but then also take time to ask God what He wants to say to us. We need to be still before the God of the universe Who has forgiven and cleansed us, Who holds us in His arms completely known and loved, and helps us work through the struggles of life. This is transformative – it literally forms our souls into the pattern of Jesus when we do this.”
“It is the Spirit of God Who changes hearts. It is the Spirit of God who breaks chains of generational sins. It is the Spirit of God who renews our minds. This is where that transformation happens – in the presence of the Spirit of God as we spend time with Him.”
“You cannot will your way into looking more like Jesus Christ. It is in spending time with Him that our affections are renewed and changed. That happens when we are with Him. That is the key.”
“Prayer does not have to be that task on our to-do lists that we just check off because that is ‘what good Christians do’. Instead, prayer can be this beautiful interaction with the God of the universe who cares so tenderly and so deeply for us.”
“Prayer is the sweetest thing. It is God’s gift to us. I just want everyone to experience this sweetness, this beautiful, restful, soul-shaping, life-giving experience that is available to us the more we pray.”
“I want to experience rest in God’s presence now, even if it is just in 5 or 10 minute segments. I don’t want to wait until I have copious amounts of time to spend time with Jesus. Time with Jesus is never time wasted.”
Where You Can Find Asheritah Online
Website – Asheritah.com, PrayersofRest.com
Instagram – @asheritah
Facebook – Finding Joy in His Word with Asheritah
Podcast – Prayers of Rest
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