Day 16 of Her New Beginning: 31 Days of Healing, Identity, Renewal and Purpose
Jeremiah 33:3 KJV
“Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
There are some things in a woman’s life that do not disappear suddenly. They fade quietly. Prayer can be one of them. Most women do not wake up one morning and decide, “From today onward, I am going to neglect my relationship with God.” Life simply becomes busy. Responsibilities multiply, people need us, work demands attention, family matters arise, and sometimes one problem seems to introduce us to another before it leaves.
We tell ourselves that when things settle down, we will return properly to prayer. When the pressure reduces, when the children become less demanding, when the financial situation improves, when this project is completed, then we will find our rhythm again. The problem is that life rarely volunteers to become quiet simply because we requested it. If communion with God is continually given whatever time remains after everything else has taken its share, eventually we may discover that very little remains.
This is why renewal must bring us back to the altar. I use the word altar deliberately because prayer is more than another good Christian habit. Throughout Scripture, the altar represented encounter, worship, surrender, sacrifice and remembrance. Abraham’s journey was marked by altars. Noah came out of the ark and built an altar. Jacob encountered God and built altars. The altar represented a place where a person met with God and responded to Him.
One of the most powerful pictures appears on Mount Carmel. Israel had wandered from God, and Elijah was calling the nation back. Yet before the fire fell, 1 Kings 18:30 tells us, “And he repaired the altar of the LORD that was broken down.”
I find the order significant. We often become excited about the fire, but Elijah first repaired the altar. We pray for fresh fire, fresh anointing, fresh encounters and greater spiritual power, but sometimes God is drawing our attention back to the place where the fire is supposed to burn. Before asking for another public manifestation, perhaps there is a private altar that needs attention.
When Prayer Becomes an Emergency Number
There is nothing wrong with bringing our needs to God. Jesus taught us to ask the Father for daily bread, and Scripture invites us to make our requests known unto Him. Yet prayer becomes much smaller than God intended when we approach Him only because something has gone wrong.
Without noticing it, our prayer life can become a spiritual emergency number. “Lord, provide. Lord, open this door. Lord, touch my child. Lord, fix this situation. Lord, change him. Lord, please speak to that woman.” Depending on the week, there may even be one or two people we would like God to speak to rather firmly!
We can smile about it, but there is something deeper here. God wants more than a relationship in which we appear mainly when we need His intervention. Sometimes I have entered prayer wanting God to change something around me and discovered that He wanted to address something within me. I wanted an answer, but He was touching my fear. I wanted the situation to change, but He was dealing with my impatience. I wanted somebody else corrected, and the Holy Spirit somehow turned the conversation toward me. Prayer can be wonderfully inconvenient like that.
The altar is therefore not only where circumstances change. It is where the woman praying is changed.
Hannah shows us this beautifully. She came before God in bitterness of soul and poured out her heart. Yet before Samuel was conceived, before the visible answer arrived, 1 Samuel 1:18 says that Hannah “went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.” Something had happened in the presence of God before anything happened in her circumstances.
There are moments when prayer changes your countenance before it changes your situation. You enter carrying something that feels enormous, but after spending time with God it no longer occupies the same amount of space inside you. The problem may still be there, but God has become bigger again in your consciousness.
The Woman Behind the Strong Woman
Many women become very good at functioning while spiritually tired. Everybody sees the dependable woman who encourages others, keeps things moving, remembers what everyone else forgot and somehow knows where the missing item is after the whole family has searched for it.
But who sees the woman underneath all that strength?
The altar gives her somewhere she does not have to perform. She can tell God, “I am tired.” She can admit, “I don’t know what to do.” She can bring disappointment without pretending it does not hurt. The woman everybody calls for advice can come before God and simply say, “Father, I need You.”
Jesus Himself protected this place. Luke 5:16 says, “And he withdrew himself into the wilderness, and prayed.” There were always people who needed Him, yet He withdrew. He intentionally stepped away from legitimate demands in order to commune with the Father. If Jesus made room for prayer while carrying His assignment, we should be careful about treating prayer as something we will do only after everything else is finished.
Everything else is rarely finished.
“Call Unto Me”
Jeremiah 33:3 reveals something beautiful about God’s heart. He does not say, “Impress Me.” He says, “Call unto me.” The Creator of heaven and earth invites us to approach Him, and then He promises, “I will answer thee.”
Prayer is therefore not a religious woman speaking spiritual words into empty space. Someone is listening. Someone knows her. Someone sees what she cannot see.
Then God adds, “and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” Prayer is not only a place of speaking; it is also a place of revelation. There are things we simply do not know, and that should bring relief rather than fear because we know the One who does.
Sometimes we have analysed a situation until even our analysis is exhausted. We have replayed conversations, imagined possible outcomes, spoken to friends and searched online until our phones practically know the whole story. Yet God still says, “Call unto me.”
There is wisdom that comes through communion. The Holy Spirit can bring something to your attention that you overlooked. He can give direction where there was confusion, expose something that looked harmless, place a person on your heart or awaken an idea you had never considered. Prayer does not make us less practical. It allows practical life to be influenced by divine wisdom.
Guarding the Fire
Leviticus 6:12 says, “And the fire upon the altar shall be burning in it; it shall not be put out.” The priest did not manufacture God’s fire, but he carried responsibility concerning the altar. In the same way, we cannot manufacture the presence of God, but we can steward our hunger and guard our attention.
Sometimes restoring the altar requires practical decisions. Perhaps you need to protect a particular time. Maybe you need to open your Bible before opening social media. Perhaps the phone needs to stay on the other side of the room because “I am only checking one message” has a mysterious ability to become thirty minutes of discovering what complete strangers are eating, wearing and arguing about.
Intimacy requires attention.
There will be days when prayer feels powerful and days when it feels ordinary. Do not measure your relationship with God only by dramatic feelings. Some mornings you may feel overwhelmed by His presence; on others you may simply read Scripture, pray faithfully and continue your day. Both matter. Relationship grows through consistency, not merely through spectacular moments.
Your New Beginning Needs an Altar
This journey is about a new beginning, but your new beginning needs a foundation. A new opportunity without communion with God can become another source of anxiety. A new relationship can become an idol. A growing platform can become dangerous if the public woman is increasing while the private woman is becoming empty.
Before asking God to enlarge everything around you, allow Him to deepen what is within you.
Jesus said in Matthew 6:6, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet.” There is something beautiful about having a history with God that nobody else sees. No audience, no applause and no need to sound impressive. Just a daughter and her Father.
Perhaps your altar has become weak. Do not waste another week condemning yourself. Come back. Your first prayer does not have to be impressive. It may simply be, “Father, I miss You.” Perhaps you need to say, “Lord, I became distracted,” or, “I don’t even know what to say, but I am here.”
Before you rebuild the dream, restore the altar. Before you ask for greater influence, deepen communion. Before you carry everybody again, spend time with the One who has been carrying you all along.
Prayer
Father, draw me back to the secret place. Where busyness, disappointment, distraction or weariness has weakened my prayer life, awaken hunger in me again. Forgive me for the times I have wanted Your hand while neglecting Your heart. Teach me to enjoy Your presence, hear Your voice and treasure Your Word. Repair every broken place at my altar and let fresh fire burn in my relationship with You. May everything I build publicly flow from the woman You are forming privately. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Today’s Declaration
My altar is being restored. I am returning to communion with God with a hungry and open heart. I will not allow busyness to consume the place that belongs to His presence. I will call upon the Lord, listen for His voice and build my life from fellowship with Him. My private life with God will strengthen my public life. Fresh hunger is awakening in me, and my new beginning will be rooted in His presence. I am a Wonder Model Woman.