I was not raised in a Christian home, so growing in my faith came with a lot of transformation and breakthrough. I had a few detours over the years, but I always found myself right back where I felt most at peace – pursuing Jesus.

In adulthood, I started to allow my faith to take over and it became my way of life. I let go of who I was without Jesus, and walked into what He had for me in my new life with Him. This led to me meeting my husband, Sean, in Hillside’s Young Adults Ministry in 2018. We started dating the following year, went on mission trips with our global partners in 2019 (Kenya for me and India for him), got engaged in 2020, married in 2021, and had our son, Rory, in 2022.God has been so good and faithful over the years, but prayer has been such a huge part of my journey.

I’ve always known that prayer is important, but because of my upbringing, I didn’t always feel comfortable praying personal prayers. I felt as though I didn’t know enough to be on “that” level with Jesus. Silly, I know.

My prayer life completely changed when we had Rory prematurely in 2022, and it was the first time in my life that I didn’t feel in control. I was forced to surrender everything I had to Jesus in those long six weeks of NICU life, and in doing so, I had never felt as close to Him as I did then.Once our son came home from the hospital, my motherly instincts kicked in and I had my “control back.” I started to unintentionally put my prayer life on the back burner. However, it was once we settled back into our new norm of parenthood and got plugged back into the church that I felt like something major was missing. I felt very convicted in my prayer life and started to notice that I was walking the lines of being lukewarm in that area.When I told a friend how I was feeling, she that I watch the movie “War Room,” starring Priscilla Shirer, and after doing so, I knew that my prayer life – and life itself – wouldn’t be the same moving forward. In the movie, one of the characters says, “in order to stand up and fight the enemy, you need to get on your knees and pray,” and this was life-altering.

Although I didn’t fully resonate with the storyline in the film, I felt a deep need to build my own “War Room” just as she did, where I could go to “spiritual war” for the things and people in my life that are valuable. I didn’t feel like any space in our house felt “right” for my war room because I didn’t want to be limited to a certain area to pray, so I thought, why not make it portable?

And so I did… My prayer journal is my portable War Room and it goes with me most places. What started off as a normal journal I found on Amazon has now transformed into a well-loved tangible representation of my prayer life. There are post-it notes, stickers, scratch paper prayers I did on the go, doodles, highlights, colorful writing, notes from others, etc. Every emotion fills that journal now and I wouldn’t have it any other way.In the film, the woman with the War Room has different pages on her walls for the various person and things she is praying for, so I adopted this method for my Bible. I made individual tabs for my prayer categories, including: praise; confess; daily prayers; weekly prayers; bold prayers; urgent prayers; my husband, Sean; our son, Rory; for Hillside; for Kenya; for our pastors; for finances; for our community; for family; and interceding prayers.I have noticed significant changes in my prayer life. It has been life-giving for me to write down specific things to pray for instead of praying generically like I used to. It’s made me feel more aware of where my heart is daily. My prayer journal has opened my eyes to how much of a privilege it is to pray for whatever and whenever I want to. Having access to our Savior throughout my days has given me new eyes to see that even the little things are some of the biggest answered prayers.It’s been refreshing to know that Jesus doesn’t need my ability to pray, He just needs my availability. 

“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” Matthew 6:6

By: Katie Hill

Katie Hill serves as a facilitator for Moms in Christ, has facilitated tables for Rooted, serves at the info booth and up in Super Squad on Sundays. In her free time, she loves reading and spending time with her family.