Cheryl Yasayko

Cheryl is a teacher of 24 years and has taught in the U.S.A., Canada and Japan. During the past 22 years, she has served in a variety of Christian ministries, including women’s shelter outreach, street ministry, inner-city children’s outreach, as well as motivational speaking and leading various Bible studies. She is passionate about leading people to Christ and discipling others in the faith. Cheryl enjoys spending time in nature, hiking and travelling. Originally from Canada, (as seen in her beautiful snowy picture) Cheryl currently resides with her husband in Newberg, Oregon.

  • Prayer, Spiritual Rhythms

    Connecting with God in Prayer

    • by

    I love the ocean. I love everything about the ocean, watching the rolling waves and how they repetitively reach for the shore, inhaling the salty sea air, listening to the seagulls above. Part way through my morning walk while on vacation, I would always stop to sit on the sand and lean against a beached log to soak it all in. I love admiring the LORD’s handiwork in nature as I rest in all that He has created around me. No matter where I am in the world, I always like to walk to the edge of the ocean and put my hand into the water. This makes me feel as though I am connecting myself to the Pacific Ocean which is home. As I focus in on the repetitive lapping of the waves, I watch how they continually roll up and reach for the shore, over and over again. It is a reminder of how God is always reaching out to us. In order to connect with God, we too, have to reach back out to Him. One of the best ways we can reach out and connect with our Heavenly Father is through the act of prayer.

    Prayer is an incredibly powerful force and this divine privilege is available to us. Prayer connects us directly to God, making it possible for us to have a deep and personal relationship with Him. Prayer is one of the most important aspects of our daily Christian walk. As we look at Jesus’ life, we can see that He was a great man of prayer and had a very strong relationship with the Father through prayer. The Bible shows us how Jesus prayed passionately to the Father as He could be seen offering up “prayers and petitions” with “fervent cries and tears” (Hebrews 5:7 NIV). Jesus being ‘God in the flesh’, nevertheless, saw the importance of prayer while He walked on this earth. Knowing this importance, Jesus calls us to pray as well and gives us examples of how to pray (Matthew 6:5-13).

    During a conversation with a good friend some time ago, I remember her sharing how she had heard a woman speaking on the importance of daily prayer. The speaker had told her audience if a person were to pray for 30 minutes a day for six months, their life would be radically different compared to a six-month period without daily prayer. This really caught my attention. I have never forgotten those words of the speaker. It made me think that if I were not in daily prayer with the Father, I was somehow shortchanging myself. I concluded that without regular prayer, I would not be able to completely fulfill the plans which God has for me.

    At first, I thought 30 minutes of prayer a day to be a fairly large segment of the day, especially if one’s days are busy. However, as with making the time to read God’s Word daily, making the time to pray daily started out as a process for me. As part of my daily routine, after reading God’s Word in the morning, I make time to pray as well to make sure that I am connecting with the LORD on an intimate, personal level. This was definitely a process for me. I began with 10 minutes of prayer a day. Then, just as I had increased my daily Bible reading over time, I soon increased my daily prayer time to what worked well for my lifestyle. If you haven’t done so already, I encourage you my friend to try and find a daily rhythm that works for you to ensure you have a quality prayer time with your Heavenly Father.

    There are so many resources available to us about the power of prayer. One article I found to be very informative was “The Importance of Prayer: 10 Reasons Why We Pray” (Reece, A., 2024). I would like to share some of what I learned as follows.

    Prayer can bring us closer to God. It builds and strengthens our relationship with the LORD. I once remember reading that God’s greatest desire is to have a deep and intimate relationship with each one of us, His beloved creation. If you haven’t already done so, you can try welcoming God into every part of your life through prayer. Sound exciting? It is! It’s an incredible journey and something so wonderful to wake up to every morning. As we take the time and reach out to our Heavenly Father with an open and sincere heart, we can share everything with Him, including all our thoughts, feelings, heartaches, hopes and dreams. The LORD assures us that if we prayerfully reach out to Him, He will be there listening to us as His Word says, “Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you” (Jeremiah 29:12 NIV). What an amazing and wonderful promise!

    Prayer can increase our faith and give us hope. As we pray and ask for God’s intervention regarding our circumstances, we are letting go of what we are in control of and allowing God Almighty to step in and be in the center of things. Letting go and trusting God, helps to build our faith as it exercises and develops our ‘faith muscle’, so to speak. God knows the future, we don’t. He also knows what is best for us. Therefore, letting go of things gives God the complete control of whatever our situation may be. As a result, we can simply rest in His care and feel hopeful regarding our situation, as the LORD promises us “Those who hope in Me will not be disappointed” (Isaiah 49:23 NIV).

    Prayer can give us a sense of true peace. When partnering with the LORD in prayer, we can keep in mind that we are never on our own. When we pray and surrender our circumstances to Him, we experience His divine, supernatural peace. This peace holds us steadfast and protects us from wavering, no matter what our situation may be. God promises that because of prayer, His peace which “transcends all understanding” will “guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7 NIV). Also, a little food for thought, it is a well-known fact that people who pray regularly tend to be less anxious and more content with their lives.

    Prayer brings us closer to God and glorifies Him, saves lives and transforms lives, equips us and strengthens us, increases our faith and removes obstacles, guides our path and shows us the way, anchors us in rough seas and brings us peace, heals us and renews us, brings us freedom and blesses us with joy. Prayer is the solution to every one of life’s problems.

    To help make prayer a part of my daily routine, I found that it made things easier if I committed to a regular prayer time each day. Soon, I found that the more I prayed, the easier praying everyday became, and with time, daily prayer became a habit. Also, the more time we spend with the LORD in prayer, the better we get to know our Heavenly Father.

    I like to begin the day with prayer and then pray throughout the day as opportunities present themselves. I choose to pray in the morning so that I can ask God to be over all the details of my day. A day when I have asked God to be over every detail of the day, as compared to a day when I did not ask this, made for two very different days. By asking the LORD to be over all the details, I found that things run so much more smoothly, efficiently and joyfully.

    Using a prayer journal for my prayer time is also very helpful. Jotting down prayers can help me to stay focused. Furthermore, if I have an intruding thought during my prayer time, e.g., remembering to make a doctor’s appointment, etc., I can quickly jot it down on a back page of my prayer journal and attend to it when I am finished with my morning quiet time. Keeping a prayer journal enables me to check off answered prayers as well which is so encouraging. This helps to increase my faith and acts as a reminder to thank the LORD for what He has done in my life and the lives of others.

    We can all feel very busy at times. However, I never want life’s busyness to keep me too busy to spend time with the LORD. It is good to be mindful that spending time with God in prayer is a way of honoring our LORD with our time. It also helps to build our eternal relationship with Him. Let us be encouraged that when we pray, God hears every one of our prayers. He never ignores one of His children’s pleas as His Word says, “And my God will meet all your needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19 NIV).

    My dear friend, I want to encourage you today to examine the days entrusted to you. Take a few minutes to ask yourself where you think you can consistently set aside time to be with God in prayer each day. This will ensure that you are connecting with the LORD on a deep and personal level. Your first step might be merely reaching out to God and telling Him that you need help with how to pray or making time to connect with Him daily.

    Wherever you are in your faith walk my friend, be assured that God is always there for you. All you need to do is reach back out prayerfully in order to connect with Him.

    My heartfelt prayer for you is that you find the time each day in this busy world to set all things aside and enjoy a quality, quiet time with the LORD, prayerfully connecting with your Heavenly Father and strengthening your eternal relationship with Him.

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  • In The Word

    Finding Renewal Through God’s Word

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    The other day I went for a walk and was enjoying the beauty of the new spring season. Everything seemed to be blooming at once and there was so much color all around. A large patch of green clovers soon caught my eye. I bent down and I picked up one of the emerald gems to get a closer look. I marveled at the lush leaves and the pattern of circular white lines sketched on each leaf. Even though it was merely a clover, I still found it to be a little treasure of nature. 

    When I got home, I was shocked to see that my little clover had wilted. All its leaves were curled inwards and it was drooping over sadly. I thought, What have I done to this lovely little piece of God’s handiwork? Feeling dismayed, I placed the little dying plant in a glass of water. Later that day, sitting on the window sill, the little clover caught my eye. To my amazement, it was standing tall and strong with its leaves fully opened! It had been revived because it was connected to its vital life source once again. 

    If you think about yourself for a moment, what would start to happen to you physically if you went without food for days on end? You would begin to run out of energy, become weak and eventually begin to starve. Then if the starvation was prolonged indefinitely, it would eventually lead to physical death. We too, like the little clover, need continual sustenance to survive. 

    Looking at this from a spiritual perspective, if we go without spiritual sustenance for a long period of time, we too are going to wilt as our spiritual lives suffer. We require our ‘daily’ bread which is attained by reading or ‘feeding’ on God’s Word every day. Jesus said, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry” (John 6:35 NIV). The Bible provides spiritual nourishment and if we are not feeding ourselves properly, we become disconnected from God, start to wilt, and eventually die spiritually, so to speak.

    God never intended for our spiritual lives to be disconnected from Him.  He longs for us to be in relationship with Him and eagerly pursues connection with us. Remember how in the cool of the day in the Garden of Eden, God came looking for Adam and Eve in order to have fellowship with them? He loved them deeply as they were His creation and He longed to spend time with them. The LORD, our Creator, also longs to have this very same deep and intimate love relationship with each of us, His beloved creation.

    The LORD has plans for each one of us, plans that He had before we were even born. How can we know those plans if we are not in His Word? (and daily prayer, but that is another article). By spending time in the Word, we can experience God speaking directly to us on particular issues as the Word of God is “alive and active” (Hebrews 4:12 NIV). 

    Have you ever come across a certain scripture and felt God was speaking directly to you? I find this especially to be the case when I am in the Word daily. It’s very exciting to experience the LORD Almighty, Creator of the universe, speaking directly through His Word. The LORD speaks to us and we speak prayerfully back to Him. This is the most important relationship for which we have all been created. 

    The Bible also equips us and guides us. It strengthens us and comforts us. It heals us and brings us peace. It is a love letter from God, revealing to us His heart and character. It is a weapon against the enemy. It is the answer to all of life’s questions. It is the solution to all of life’s problems. In essence, the Bible is our driver’s manual for life as all Scripture is “God-breathed” (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV).

    There were many years as a Christian when I did not take the time to read the Bible every day. Or if I did, it was sporadic, or only for a season. I finally realized that I was missing out on God’s best for me. My spiritual life was going nowhere and it was as though I was spiritually dead. When the tough times hit, I was not securely anchored, instead I was like a hopeless little ship cast out to sea, all too often consumed by the raging waves of life.

    I made a commitment to myself to read the Bible every day. At first, it was a challenge to be consistent, so I decided to start out simply. I went online and found the perfect Bible. It had a soft cover and comfort print which is easy on the eyes. I even found it in my favorite color, pink! I also found Bible highlighters in pink which are perfect for highlighting scripture. For me, it was helpful to be able to highlight Scripture, jot notes in the margins, flip back and forth between different books of the Bible, and develop a mental map of my Bible. These little personal details made my whole experience all the more enjoyable.

    In the beginning, I would only read one or two verses from the Book of Psalms, and highlight anything that really spoke to me. Over time, I was able to increase my reading to other books of the Bible, and before I knew it, I was reading a chapter or two at a time! 

    Now, first thing in the morning, after I grab my coffee (and before I reach for my phone and its endless distractions), I make time to cozy up with God and my Bible. It is a rhythm that allows me to connect with my Heavenly Father and keep on growing.

    There are lots of different reading plans out there that can help you work your way through specific books of the Bible or even the entire Bible! I have chosen to read my Bible first thing in the morning because, in doing so, I find that I can be equipped and blessed with God’s awesome Word for the day ahead. Whatever time you pick, it’s important to find something that you can do consistently that works for you.

    So friend, today I want to invite you to take stock of your daily and weekly rhythms. Where can you intentionally set aside time with God each day to be filled with the truth of His love? What are some simple things you could do to help yourself get into His Word and be spiritually fed so you can grow strong, blooming and flourishing into the godly woman whom God is creating you to be? Your first step might be just talking a spring walk with the Lord and asking Him how you can grow in your relationship with Him. Wherever you are in your faith journey, God is faithful to guide you closer to Him—all you have to do is ask!

    As I carry on with my own spring walks, I will continue to admire the beautiful spring flowers and new life and be reminded of the beauty of God’s wonderful creation and how it is designed to be sustained by Him. I am grateful for His Word that reminds us of His love, so that we too, can be sustained in our faith and live out the abundant life to which He has called each one of us. “My words……are life to those who find them and health to one’s whole body” (Proverbs 4:20-22 NIV).

    It is my prayer that today you will make plans to spend time in God’s Word. May it be the first step to an intentional practice that will sustain and nourish you spiritually all the days of your life. The more time you spend with the LORD each day, the richer your life will be in Him!

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