- Sheila Walsh asked herFacebook followers about prayer.

Hundreds of responses flooded in.

Many of them spoke aboutstruggles and challenges.

And they were ones thatSheila knew about first hand.

(air whooshes)

(gentle music)- If you're like me,

you might find prayer alittle bit intimidating.

- [Narrator] Sheila Walsh is well known

as a conference speaker

and the co-host of Life Todaywith James and Betty Robison.

She believes prayers areour most powerful tool,

but it's often challenging.

- We know instinctivelythat prayer is important,

but we struggle to pray.

And then we feel guilty andwonder what is wrong with us.

- [Narrator] A prolificbest-selling author,

Sheila offer's practicalkeys to a vibrant prayer life

in her new book, "Praying Women."

She says prayer isn't abouthaving the right words,

but the right heart.

- Well Sheila Walsh is here with us now

and we welcome you home. (laughs)

- Thank you, alwaysfeels like coming home.

- It does.

It's wonderful to have you here.

- Thank you.

- Tell us a little bit aboutthis sort of questionnaire

that you did on Facebook.

Were you surprised at theanswers or did you expect that?

- Yes and no.

I mean some of the answersare completely related to.

You know people said, "I get bored.

I get distracted,

You know I'm halfway through

and I'm like."- Mind wise, yeah.

- "Did I defrost the chicken for dinner?"

(Terry laughs)

But some are more intense, things like,

why would I pray because God already knows

what he's gonna do?

Or I prayed and prayed for my child

and God did not answer inany way that made sense.

So I found a lot of women havejust walked away from prayer.

- Yeah.

Well people in general I think.

But yes, women are sortof the prayer warriors

of the family, of the community.

So I think it is confusing to people.

Are we looking for Godto give us what we want

and then when he doesn't, we don't get it?

- You know I think it's notunderstanding our relationship.

I don't know how 2019 was for you.

For our family it was a hard year.

It was like a year of spiritual warfare.

But for two years this word, prayer,

has been in my heart and in my spirit.

And 2020 is gonna be the year of prayer.

It's gonna be the yearwhen God's daughters

get down on their knees,and the battle is not over,

the battle is just beginning.

I believe we're gonnasee breakthrough in 2020

that we have not seen in a long time.

- So you talked a little bit about 2019

being difficult for your family.

I think when people speak andteach publicly like you do,

everybody just assumes youhave a vibrant prayer life

and you've got it all togetherand you're in your closet,

(chuckles) warring for your needs.

But you too struggle with these things.

- I tried the whole, havinga prayer closet thing,

(Terry laughs)

but I fell asleep becauseit was really comfortable.

I put a blanket in there and a pillow.

And it was a disaster.

But what I found out was,

God is not looking for a Holy place.

Because of Jesus, we are the Holy place.

- [Terry] Yes.

- So for me, I've takenprayer off my to-do-list,

and it's my who I am list

from the minute I get up in the morning.

And one of the greatestthings I've learned, Terry,

is to process your painin the presence of God.

You know when we hurt andwhen we don't get an answer,

so often we walk away.

But I've learned that whenyou can bring everything

that's going on, you getto tell God the truth.

- Yeah.

But what do you do inthose moments, Sheila?

Cause this is where Ithink people get thrown.

When you have a need and you're not--

You talked about notunderstanding the process

or the relationship.

Well God uses those things.

I'm not saying he causes them,

but he uses those things to shape us.

So what shouldn't our attitudebe when we are struggling,

when we're having a 2019 and it's awful?

- You know, Christ wasthe most beautiful example

of what to do.

When you think of hisprayer in Gethsemane,

he prayed so intensely, in suchagony, that drops of blood.

And Luke's the onlyone that tells us that,

cause he's the doctor

and he realizes the significance of that.

So Jesus didn't pretendthat this is great.

He said if it's possible then,

then he moved on to notmy will but your will.

But it's only if you tellGod the whole truth first.

It's like you empty out your suffering,

and it makes more space for grace.

- You also talk in the book,a lot about you using Psalms

as sort of the structure,

the guideline for when you're praying.

How do you do that?

What does that look like?

- That's been revolutionary for me.

I mean the Psalms were given by God

to the people of God to pray back to God.

- [Terry] Yes.

- I mean, I look back atall the early church fathers

like Athanasius or Augustine.

They said Psalms area spiritual gymnasium.

So what I do, like I'll take Psalm 23.

And I'll pray, "The Lord is my shepherd."

And I'll stop there andI'll say, "Lord, thank you.

You're gonna shepherdme through this day."

And whole way throughthe Psalm, I'll pause.

You know, "Even though I walkthrough the valley of darkest

shadow of death.

Lord, I've got a friend rightnow who has a brain tumor.

So right now I pause, and Ibring Brent brent before you,

and I ask for your healing touch."

You know some days youwonder, "Are my prayers

not that great?"

- [Terry] Hitting the wall, yeah. (laughs)

- But if you're praying the world of God,

you're praying with power.

So I used the Psalms.

I pray a Psalms every single day.

- Yeah.

Praying the word of God back to God,

really makes a difference.

"A lifetime is not too long to pray."

That's one of the quotes that you have.

What do you mean when you say that?

- When I was just a weegirl growing up in Scotland,

I went every Tuesday night with my mom

to the prayer meeting.

Now, it's a small church, 20 people.

But there's one man, Angus,prayed with tears pouring

down his cheeks for his wife.

And I asked my mom, "Howlong's Angus been doing that?"

And she said 40 years.

And then one time Angustook my brother and I

up in a little plane

to the place way up in the North Highlands

where he'd grown up.

And I remember sittingin this little church

and saying to him, "Angus,can I ask you a question?

Do you wonder why Godhasn't answered your prayer

for your wife?"

And he's paused for a minute, and he said,

"Well, he's never failed me yet, lass.

I don't think he'll start now."

What he would not know,

was it was at his memorial service

that his wife gave her life to Christ.

And he wouldn't knowthat til two years later

when she came home.

So a lifetime is not too long to pray.

- Is there a right or a wrong way to pray?

- Nope.

- Because it changes withwhat your need is, doesn't it?

- Because prayer, it's like..

I love what John Bunyan said.

Better to have a heart with no words

than words with no heart.

God is not looking for our perfection.

He just wants our presence.

- And when we do whatyou're talking about,

which is walking throughthe moment to moment

day with him,

it becomes prayer is more conversation,

pleading probably whenwe're in those valley places

where our hearts arejust ripped and crying.

But it all makes sense whenyou have the conversation

on a day to day basis.

- And we use the word of Godagainst the lies of the enemy

that you're not enough,you'll never be enough,

nobody loves you.

We use the word of God as weapon.

- But we've gotta knowit to use it like that,

because you need it in the moment.

So are we in the word enough?

And no just in it, arewe putting it in us?

There's a differencebetween those two things.

- That's so true, Terry.

I mean, you can read theBible, you can study the Bible.

But unless you know howto apply it to your life,

you're not changed.

But it's God love letter to us.

- Amen.

And we need to use it.

You've got some events coming up

in your life.

Tell us about those.

- Well, next Wednesday--- [Terry] Coming up quickly!

(both laugh)

- at Prestonwood Baptist,

which is my church,

we're gonna do a live simulcast

- [Terry] Wonderful.- where I'm gonna share

message from the book, but also...

premier my new worship album.

- [Terry] Awesome.And you can go to

prayingwomenlive.com and sign up.

But on the day after Valentine's,

we have a thing called She Loves Out Loud.

And we're gathering a millionwomen across America to pray.

When God's daughtersgo down on their knees,

the battle is not over,it is just beginning.

- Absolutely.

I wanna mention, Sheila'sbook is for all of us.

You can find out moreabout her simulcast event

by going to CBN.com.

If you're looking toenergize your prayer life,

be sure to get this.

It's called "Praying Women: How to Pray

When You Don't Know What to Say,"

and it's available in stores nationwide.

And once more, tell us howwe get the info on the event

coming up, it's praying with--

- Shelovesoutloud.org

and prayingwomenlive.com.

And it's free, but you can sign in.

- Awesome.

Thank you so much.- Thanks, Terry.

- You're always doing stuffthat matters. (laughs)