Mrs. PIE
Welcome to ' Mrs. PIE' We are savoring life with inspiring conversations and teachings. I'm Shelley Jeffcoat, your guide in this journey of faith, innovation and inspiration.
Join me as we dive into faith-based teachings and exclusive interviews with global business leaders and entrepreneurs. My commitment to blending spiritual insight with leadership wisdom shapes every episode.
In our PIE (Proud. Inspired. Empowered) Podcasts, we explore a vibrant mix of lifestyle, business insights, spiritual growth, and engaging product discussions.
Ready for a journey that's as enlightening as it is uplifting? Hit subscribe and let's embark on this transformative path together.
Shelley Jeffcoat, CEO & Founder of LCM Group and Grace and Grit Media, is a dynamic Business and International Christian Woman Speaker, Founder of Come Out of the Wilderness Prayer Ministry, Author of the 'What’s My P.I.E' book series, and the engaging host of the 'Mrs PIE' podcast series.
Discover more at Grace and Grit Media, LCM Group, and Parade Deck Live TV.
Mrs. PIE
Developing a Disciplined Prayer Life: Beyond the Prayer Closet
Developing a disciplined prayer life is about building a genuine relationship with God that involves both speaking and listening, rather than depending on others to pray us through difficult seasons.
• Prayer requires both watching (discerning God's movement) and praying to avoid temptation
• Avoid being like hypocrites who pray to be seen by others rather than connecting with God
• The effectiveness of prayer is measured by its fruit, not how it sounds
• Create dedicated time for prayer after dismissing crowds or completing responsibilities
• Prayer is a two-way conversation - many struggle because they're not listening for God's response
• We have direct access to God through Christ and don't need intermediaries
• Prayer doesn't require elaborate practices - even brief, authentic conversations with God are effective
• When confessing to God, leave negativity behind before moving forward
• Simple check-ins with God throughout the day maintain your connection
• Jesus modeled stepping away from crowds to commune with the Father
Lord, I thank you that this day is going to be amazing. Thank you for the blessings of today and that everything we do today is going to be successful. We're going to be filled with joy, receiving all the good news and blessings. Remove any distractions and give us the most amazing day. We love you, amen.
Come join us at our virtual events monthly. Visit our website to learn more.
no-transcript this morning and I feel like I feel no. I know it's because of what I'm going to talk to you all about this morning. So, good morning everybody. If you're on Facebook, please, if you could share this video with our communities and your friends, your family, this is going to be a good one. They're all good ones, but this is a good one, whether you have a prayer life already or you're working to maintain or build one Again.
Speaker 1:I'm just grateful that we've come to see another Thursday. I can't believe the month of April is almost out of here y'all. So I'm praying that when you look back on this month, you'll be reminded just of how good God is, because some of us are coming through things that we didn't know how we were going to make it, and I'm just grateful for all of your testimonies. So, before we go far, lord, I just thank you for this morning and I thank you for what you're going to teach us this morning through your word, through your scripture, and encouraging us to have discipline with our prayer lives. We thank you, lord, that it is not about the noise or just showing up in ways that don't meet our needs with you, but really communing with you, hearing from you and speaking with you, amen. So when I was preparing this morning, you know, obviously I get up early, I have this kind of mapped out scriptures in my mind, all the things right.
Speaker 1:I'm using a technology because this is essentially a podcast, so it goes out on multiple platforms. It goes out on Facebook, on LinkedIn, youtube, parade Deck, all at the same time, and then it goes to the audio version, the audio streets. You know, later today or tomorrow, whatever. But there's a lot that happens behind the scenes, before I come to these podcasts, right Before I come to these teaching sessions, and there's a lot of prayer that happens not just today, obviously, but before I even step into this, before I sit down here.
Speaker 1:And I have a very strong prayer life and I know that a lot of people have. You know, there's some folks who are just not sure what a prayer life looks like. People get confused when they hear the scripture that talks about pray without ceasing, and it's not about you going to the wall or going into your closet and just constantly praying. It's not about a monologue. There is a discipline around it, and so I just want to encourage us this morning. I'm going to share just three scriptures to encourage us around our prayer life.
Speaker 1:But I'm I'm praying just, you know, quietly in my heart. It's just me speaking to my Lord and also allowing time for me to hear. I need to, I need to meditate, I need to hear what he's saying and I just. This is so. This is something that's like it's so important for us.
Speaker 1:We can get caught up in, you know, doom scrolling social media. You know we can get caught up in all and everything that's happening in our lives. We can also even get caught up in prayers, like you know those people, who people are like oh, you need to go to so-and-so and have her pray for you. You don't need to do that. You need to have a better relationship with the Lord and the presence of the Holy Spirit. You don't need to depend on someone else to pray you through.
Speaker 1:So one of the things that we're most proud of with this prayer ministry is that we're equipping you so that you can be the breakthrough and the blessing in your family through prayer right, so that you don't have to wait for a prayer line even though we have one right. We don't want you to be dependent on the tools. We want you to be dependent on God, right, dependent on the Holy Spirit showing up in your prayer. And then also for those who've been praying. You've been praying what we call donkey years in Jamaica. You've been praying for a long time for the same thing, over and over, and those prayers that it just seems like your prayers are. Oh my gosh, my prayer is just not being answered. And yet the Lord answered you along the way, but you missed it because it wasn't the answer that you wanted. So that's why it's also important that when we pray, we also followed up. We meditate, we listen. We're intentionally listening for the Lord, all right.
Speaker 1:So, all that said, I'm going to just look at the comments real quick to say good morning, dr Tracy. Yes, you can be the one to get a prayer through the Lord, exactly, you don't have to rely on just your friends. We want you to be dependent on the Holy Spirit. Much as I love y'all, don't depend on me. We're pushing you to be dependent on God, all right.
Speaker 1:So I have this scripture. I want to drop the first one and I'm just trying to copy it up on another screen, trying to grab it real quick. This is the first scripture here and this is coming out of Matthew 26, verse 41. I'm going to pull it up on the screen. And this one, again, is just talking about. We're talking about developing our prayer life. So, again, you might have a fantastic prayer life and you're like I don't need this, that's fine, this is going to be a reminder. Or maybe you're just like I don't even know what a prayer life is. It's having a discipline. It's a discipline and setting time, but again, it's.
Speaker 1:You know, just the little things. If you're on the job and you feel a sense of frustration, you know, step away, go in the bathroom for a second and just you and the Lord and just speak. You know, pray from your heart. Okay, all right. Matthew 26, ignore the typo watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. So there's two things that happens right, remember I said you know, in the same way that we pray, we also have to listen, right, speak and we have to listen. Matthew 26, 41 is saying there's two things. First is watch, right and pray. So those things work hand in hand. It says why so that you're not going to enter into temptation. You have to be able to discern and see where God is doing right. You have to be able to see how God is operating.
Speaker 1:And a lot of times and again maybe I'm just speaking for myself a lot of times we get caught up in the gossip pool or the. You know, you get kind of get caught up with your friends and your I vent. I have two friends that I work with, that that I vent to and because it's a sacred space for me, I can vent to them and, you know, just tell them how I feel, like I'm losing my mind, all the things right. But even in those situations I have to be very careful, I have to watch to make sure that that spirit of gossip doesn't take over or it doesn't become a negative. You know we're not speaking, we're not cursing ourselves or things like that. So I'm watching but I'm also praying. Lord, show me what you want me to do, even as a witness, in this situation.
Speaker 1:Right, when we finish that we always end on a positive, we lift each other up. But we pray, why? So we don't end up into any temptation. It says the spirit is, the spirit is willing, meaning our spirit, but our flesh is weak, y'all right, we can all admit to that. It's really easy to get whipped up into what's going on right in your life.
Speaker 1:So I'm gonna share one more scripture. This is now Matthew 6, verse five. I'm sorry it takes a couple of seconds for me to load it up in the stream yard. But Matthew 6, verse 5, another really good one. And this one says let me pull up on them, I'll put up on the Facebook screen. It says and when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. Okay, some of y'all are going to be mad, so just bear with me. Okay, for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. Okay, so there's two things. The first thing is thank you, holy Spirit. It's not just about praying in synagogues and street corners. This is about people who pray to be seen. This is very, very prevalent on TikTok. It's very prevalent on Facebook.
Speaker 1:It's prevalent in our churches, right, if you grew up in certain denominations, there's that one person they call to pray, or some of the prayer teams have taken, you know, taken on the form of acting out. Like you know, people are performing prayer. Now, right, how you know? How do you know someone's prayer isn't effective. Is the fruit? What happens after that? What you know?
Speaker 1:Prayer when you're praying, you're planting a seed, but what is the actual? What are you bearing from? What is the fruit? What is the actual reward? So I want to encourage what is the fruit? What is the actual reward? So I want to encourage you all to don't be like hypocrites, even when you go to the Lord. Y'all don't be a hypocrite, you know. Don't go to the Lord. You know and ask where you're going, and there's a way for me on different prayer ways, events or things that I am expected, the Lord shows me how to approach his throne. That's what we're doing right. We're going to him right, and so it's very, very important that you listen to what I'm saying. Okay, hear what I'm saying.
Speaker 1:So the first thing is, if you're a prayer ministry leader or you're praying at an event or you're leading an event, you have to know the way God has to show you how he wants you to bring that prayer community together, like when you're teaching, when you're encouraging, now and again. You know you don't have to have a title to do this, I'm just saying maybe you're the person in the family and it's it's a holiday and they count on you to pray, like literally, like let's not make it too complicated, okay, but even then, if you're the one that's been tasked to pray, you should have had a whole prayer before you started that prayer, right? So, lord, you know how do you want me to show up? What do you want me to say? You know, lord, use me as your vessel, speak to me. You actually go through that before you go out front For those of y'all who are, you know, on the social media spaces or you're at different events and you're being called up to pray again.
Speaker 1:You don't want to come off as hypocrite. I know when someone's prayer is just word, it might be fire, it might be. You know you feel excited. You know you're just like, yes, right, you know what I'm saying. Like you ever hear that some people pray? Like you know, I used to love listening to. I used to go Baptist church. We've gone through many denominations. I used to go to this Baptist church and there was this one lady and older lady and when listen, when she prayed, you felt like heaven came down Right and I would look around the room and you could see the fire falling and people are whipped up in the prayer, yeah, amen, and then, and then, and then, nothing happened. Right, they didn't. They all they did was they swallowed the words effective prayer, but they swallowed. They listened to the words of the prayer, but then, when the Lord was speaking to show them. These are some of the things now that you need to do in order to to have this be fruitful. Right, no one want they want to do work, ok, so so I don't want you to fall into.
Speaker 1:You sound good, your auntie sounds good, your grandma sounds good. You know, whenever I hear people say you know, I have, I have, I had. My mom has passed. I had a mother who prayed. She was also a minister. Prayer was a part of her lifestyle. Okay, but I never rested on expecting my mom to pray me through a storm. My mom taught me how to pray through a storm. You understand what I'm saying. So that's the difference.
Speaker 1:You are equipped to have this incredible, awesome relationship with the Lord where you go to him. You, you know, you one-on-one. You go to the Lord and you present your case, you present yourself, you present your problems. I mean, I talk to the Lord, you know. So my prayers might not sound, as you know as wonderful, as you know as the prayer leaders at your church. But when, when I'm on a in a one-on-one with the Lord, like it's a conversation, meaning that I'm speaking but I'm also listening, I'm hearing.
Speaker 1:So, again, we don't want to be like hypocrites, if you know, if you're, if you're praying for the same thing over and over again and you're doing it, and you know, because it feels good, it feels good to say when someone says, oh, you need to get so-and-so to pray with you, no, no, you have the same access that all of us have. Because of the blood of Jesus Christ, because of his sacrifice, we have access to that same throne. So I don't want you to fall into that mentality where you have to wait for somebody else or you fall into that. I saw somebody on TikTok and now you're following them because you're needing their prayers. No, we can pray for ourselves, all right.
Speaker 1:So there's one more scripture that I want to share with you. This is now another one from Matthew. Obviously, I was in Bible study in Matthew, right. Obviously you know where I was, all right. So this last one is Matthew 14. This is verse 23. And again, super, super important. Don't worry about the typos Focus All right, matthew 14, 23.
Speaker 1:And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone. So here's what I'm going to say about this one, and especially for those of you who are in leadership roles. Maybe you're leading an organization, you're leading a team, you're leading a ministry, whatever it is, but you're in a leadership role. I'm also going to say this is important for especially moms or caregivers. Okay, I want after you when it says after he had dismissed them.
Speaker 1:We're talking about Jesus after the crowds leave, after your kids go to bed, after you've done the work in the house, at the end of the evening or whatever that looks like, but after everything is over, and I make this a practice. So if I have guests come over, like after they leave, I, everything is over and I make this a practice. So if, if, if I have guests come over, like after they leave, I'm going up to pray. Right, it's really more about the discipline of you know of, of setting time for yourself to go to, to the Lord, and I I am positioning this as after something, after you've been around people. So what it looks like for me. I'm going to just be real. Practical is I told y'all I'm a corporate girlie.
Speaker 1:I go into the office on Wednesdays. I'm drained by the time I'm leaving, because it is very difficult. It's because it's very difficult for me because, one, I'm in meetings all day long or I'm working heads down. One, I'm in meetings all day long or I'm working heads down. So for me, when I leave that building, my after the crowd quote unquote is when I get in my car. After I left the building, I left all the things and I come in the car and I use that as a time for me to start speaking to the Lord about the day. Sometimes I'm whining, sometimes I'm just so grateful, thanking him, and I start to ask him to show me, replay the things, anything that I've missed, if there's anything that happened in the meetings or any conversations or anything that I. This is also when I use this time as an opportunity for me to do confession.
Speaker 1:Some of y'all don't do confession. You confess to the Lord. You don't need to confess to a man. Some of y'all don't do confession. You confess to the Lord, you don't need to confess to a man. I know y'all gonna come for me. You don't. You don't need. Your intercessor is Jesus and the Holy Spirit. You don't need a man.
Speaker 1:So I sit in the car and I start rolling out my confession. Lord, please forgive me for the thoughts and the deeds and the words that I said, and even being caught up in the negative. Lord, god, forgive me. Wipe the slate, because now what I'm doing is I don't want to come into agreement with anything that is negative or gossipy, or anything that's a doubt, anything like that, anything that takes me away from what the Lord told me about me. I don't want anything to do with it. So, after the crowd, I'm going to pull this back again because I'm trying to show you this in just a different context. Right, what we're looking at is Matthew 14, 23.
Speaker 1:After he dismissed the crowd, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was at, meaning he was still there. He was there for a time Now, in reality, right. So now in our natural lives, you know we don't, we're not spending hours in our car, but maybe you have a commute, you know? Instead of complaining about, ok, I've got this 90 minute commute and I don't want to go in and blah, blah, blah, use that time as your time to talk to the Lord. Don't use that time as a time to you know. Run down a list of all the woes and nays, right, maybe use 30 minutes of that time to just be, you know. Talk to him like, listen, lord.
Speaker 1:You know, sometimes, like like yesterday I was, I was on my way home and I felt like I just I just feel it's there's a lot of unrest and but there's also some really cool things that's happening and I'm grateful because I operate in very complex, ambiguous situation. I don't know why, but something that is a gift that the Lord, I know, gave me is one, I people trust me. Two, I'm credible. And three, I'm a hard worker. And he, he will drop me in the middle of the most ambiguous situations and show me all of the solutions all at the same time. But when I'm, uh, when I'm in the middle of it, I need time for me and him to be like are you sure? And you know all the things? Are you sure? Is this what you're thinking? Is that what?
Speaker 1:And so if I'm not careful, I will start to listen and respond to everything chaotic and negative, and I will start to do that. I'll start chewing and eating all of the negative news. I will start to do that. I'm human, right, I'll start to take that in. So what I do is I start to.
Speaker 1:When I get in my car, I purge those things from me immediately and I start to confess and I leave it in my car. By the time I get home, all of all them things are in the car and then in my spiritual mind I don't, don't laugh, don't like don't laugh at me, okay, but in my spiritual, spiritual mind, when I pull into my house, when I park my car in my garage, okay, when I step out of the car, there's a group of angels that go in and they set the whole thing on fire, meaning they burn off anything. So I leave that stuff, meaning I don't bring it into my household. My foot, my next step is outside of anything negative. I leave that stuff there, I don't bring it back, okay, and that's what I do. So that's again separating.
Speaker 1:You got to give yourself time to separate from whatever the situation is. So again, just reminding you if you're driving into an office, use that, use your commute time to do that. If you're not physically driving into an office, you know, make it up. If you're someone who works from home, then maybe your practice is when you close it. When you finish the day, you close your laptop, you turn off the lights and you go outside for a few minutes and you start talking to the Lord. The idea is you have to have some kind of discipline where you're unloading to him more than you're unloading to others. The more that I unload to the Lord, the more I see his perspective and I'm not whipped up in what other people say. Your friends and your family members can cause you to do some crazy things. Okay, because they want to defend you, but sometimes that's not the right answer. So again, having that very consistent prayer life.
Speaker 1:Now, notice, I'm going to just say this and then I'm going to do prayer. And then, you know, again I keep saying don't be mad. Notice, I've said nothing about your beautiful prayer closets. Okay, and again, I've watched so many people get stuck in their prayer closets and if you're in your prayer closet and you're in there praying, I pray for you. Know, I've been praying for three days and 12 months.
Speaker 1:Listen, I can say a prayer in two minutes and get the answer that I need. It's not, it's not about, it's really what's on your heart. The truth is, the Lord knows what's on your heart and he wants to give you the desires of your heart. What is missing is that you ain't listening right, so it's not creating like we're making it so difficult to speak to the Lord so that so many people now are saying that they're not hearing from God. And God is talking all day long. If you just listen right, so I'm not a fan, if you will, of putting in what's now become religious practices of a prayer life where it put it like this If you and I are friends right, you and I are friends you're just going to text or call when you need me. And then not only do you text or call when you need me. I'm assuming that you also want to hear how I'm doing.
Speaker 1:Sometimes it's just a check in how are you doing, but it's not okay. Every day at 3 pm I'm going to go here and I'm going to go into this room and then I'm going to sit in that room for 12 hours and I'm not going to leave until I get an answer, because I'm beating down heaven's door. No, sometimes when you go in that room, you're speaking to yourself, the reason your prayers aren't getting answered is because you're not listening when God's talking to you. He heard you the first two minutes of your prayer. But because we've been, a lot of us have been trained right that we have to pray without ceasing, and we've taken that out of context. So you know beautiful prayer classes, but if you're still struggling with the same thing over and over again, then that means that your prayer itself is not effective. It's not the room, it's not how you look, it's not the time of day, it's none of that. It's not real. Your prayer is not effective. That's why having a prayer life and the habit and discipline is so important.
Speaker 1:All right, all right, I've said a lot. Um, I hope that I hope this helped y'all. It definitely helps me. Uh, this is a, a. You know we're, we're doing life together, okay, uh, and so I? My intention is really to help all of us. Just, just, I don't know. I just feel like, like I said, I started out by saying I was so fidgety Like I couldn't. I couldn't, I didn't feel settled coming on this morning, because this is a tough one.
Speaker 1:Everyone is trying to seek, seek God and we're all wanting to hear from the Lord about specific again. I'm maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but there's some things where I'm like I'm gonna need you to go faster, lord. I need you to operate faster. You see what's happening here and that in itself is a prayer. When I say that to him, lord, I need you to help me here. That's an actual prayer, right, but I want us to also come into the discipline of listening, of listening.
Speaker 1:So, lord, I just thank you for all that you said this morning. We thank you for the scriptures and the words that you provided to back it up and that you know we don't want to be hypocrites, just, you know repeating words or doing things, you know going through the motions. We want. We want to have a real, authentic relationship with you, a real prayer life, and I thank you, lord, that you're reminding us that we don't need to go through any man, woman, boy or girl to access your kingdom, that we just need to come to you, holy Spirit. I thank you that you'll even encourage us and light that fire again for those who have felt like they're not hearing from you, or that you'll speak to us, and we thank you for reminding us that we have this access because of the blood of Jesus Christ. I thank you for your awesomeness. You're such a good father.
Speaker 1:Father, I pray that you'll bless every person under the sound of my voice, that you'll just restore them Everything that's been taken or lost, whether it's even peace or finances or comfort, anything that they're standing in need of. That, lord, not only have you already answered, but would you just show them again, would you just remind them of what the answer was? If there's anyone who's mistaken your voice for something else, when it truly was you speaking, would you speak to them again in the way that you have defined it? Thank you, lord, because you are so good. Thank you that this day is going to be an amazing one. Thank you for the blessings of today and that every one of us, everything that we do today, is going to be successful. We're not going to be tired or depressed or feel any emptiness or loneliness. We're going to be filled with joy.
Speaker 1:Today we are excited about the day. We're receiving all the good news and blessings. Today we thank you for our families, our friends, our colleagues. Lord, god, we even pray over those who we work with. That you'll bring peace into the work life. Lord, god, lord, in every situation, I ask that you'll remove any distraction, whether it's a people, a place or a thing, lord God, anything that's causing us to be separated from you in any way, and just give us the most amazing day of joy. Thank you, lord. You are so amazing. We love you, amen, amen, see. That's my whole prayer. Lord, you are so amazing. We love you, amen, amen, see. That's my whole prayer.
Speaker 1:Lord, sometimes my whole prayer is you are so amazing, I don't want anything, I just wanted to tell you. Or sometimes my prayer is like I'll just check in. Hey, jesus, how's your day going? I mean, we're making it too complicated. This is a relationship, right? Don't you want to have a relationship with someone who's like, cares about you? You know who's asking how you're doing. You know how. I know what Jesus wants me to do, because I ask him hey, lord, how are you doing? How was your day? What would you like me to do today? How do you see this working out? I saw you today.
Speaker 1:Sometimes my prayer is like oh, jesus, I thank you, I saw you today. Then I start to list it up I saw you and taking me safely. I saw you in the smile on this child's face. I heard you, I heard you. I heard your laughter. I just started to, but again I have a relationship right. Holy spirit, I thank you, you're so good. Thank you for your coaching. I heard you when you were telling me not to listen to so-and-so, thank you for urging me to.
Speaker 1:You know, giving me that nudge to go. He gave me a nudge to go into a whole room yesterday. I had no intention, but that one nudge because I was obedient and I knew that it was him speaking. It again made no sense. It was you need to get up, you need to go in that room, you need to go get some water. Why I didn't? I didn't. Okay, lord, let me pray about it. No, I know his voice. So by being obedient, watch and pray. I responded to that. I went into that room and y'all, I made an incredible connection. So I don't want any of us to miss that right. I don't want it to miss it. And that is actual. That is prayer right. All right, I love y'all. Jesus loves you more. I hope to see you next week. Have an amazing rest of your Thursday, Don't forget. We've got a prayer line. Call us if you need us, and God bless you. Bye-bye.