I'm 54 years old, and I've been a woman of faith my entire life.
But what I discovered eighteen months ago...
Changed the way I pray forever.
And if you stay with me for the next few minutes...
It's going to change yours too.
And I want to say this upfront.
It doesn't matter if you're a man or a woman, young or old, rich or struggling.
If you've ever felt like God wasn't hearing your prayers specifically...
What I'm about to share was made for you.
You see, I grew up in a small Baptist church in rural Tennessee.
My mama had us there every Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night without fail.
The Bible wasn't just a book in our house.
It was the foundation that everything was built on.
I carried that faith into adulthood.
I tithed faithfully.
Volunteered at the church.
Prayed every single morning before my feet hit the floor.
For over thirty years.
And yet no matter how faithfully I prayed...
My financial situation never moved.
Now I want to be careful here, because I know how that sounds.
I never stopped believing God could do it.
I never stopped showing up.
But I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a quiet part of me that wondered...
Why God seemed to be moving in everyone else's life but mine.
I never said that out loud.
Not to my pastor.
Not to my prayer group.
Certainly not at church.
Because saying it out loud felt like a confession of weak faith.
And the last thing I wanted was to dishonor God after everything He'd brought me through.
So I kept praying.
And kept struggling.
Kept feeling like my prayers were hitting the ceiling and falling right back down.
Until the night I found my mother's old church hymnal after she passed.
And tucked inside the back cover was a handwritten note from her choir director...