We Launched Our NEW Weekly Prayer Podcast!

Hello there!

Prayer is very important to us here at the CWP. It's been woven into the foundation of every direction we've taken and decision that's made. Even the disappointment to cease publication in 2009 was a crushing answer to prayer.

Some of my earliest memories are summer days talking to God. It was as easy as breathing, but I never called it prayer. It's just what I did.

When I asked about prayer as a child, my mom taught me "Now I lay me down to sleep..." for bedtime. It never occurred to me how disturbing it might be for children until I stumbled on Tim Hawkins comedy skit a few years ago. Oops.

My grandmother rounded out my prayers with the 23rd Psalm and Lord's Prayer after my grandfather died in 1983. She needed to be reminded of God's presence in her grief. What better way for her to remember than to teach me?

My co-founder, Elizabeth, and I have always been praying for something as long as I can remember. It might have started when we read Hind's Feet in High Places by Hannah Hurnard. But we also took a prayer journaling course together. A reader gifted it to us shortly after we launched the magazine.

For me though, I learned how powerful prayer can be when my Tuesday morning ladies' Bible study worked through What Happens When Women Pray by Evelyn Christenson way back in 1999. Until then, I'd pray whenever, about whatever, and move on with my day. Mrs. Christenson blew my mind with her simple structure and extensive list of answers. Then I saw what it did in my own life and the others who read it with me. I made Liz and every women I knew read it.

I'm not sure when we began adding a prayer to each issue, but I have tons of them in the archives. I know Liz usually wrote the first draft then I rearranged, added, and polished it until it felt "right." It's interesting to try and remember what was going on in our personal lives when I read through the archives.

There were no podcasts in our last season of publication. While our monthly prayer is powerful, I wondered what it might be like to pray aloud with our readers. As I kicked around ideas for the reboot, I knew we needed a prayer podcast. Short, simple, heartfelt, and weekly.

Today, I bring you the Prayers of Hope podcast. Each week, I'll offer a glimpse into my quiet moments with God. You'll get to experience how I pray for you, our dear reader, in whatever season of life or situation you find yourself. I invite you on this new journey with us.

You can find the very first episode here: The Heart of Our Prayers: women in all seasons.

I'll share new episodes every Wednesday. I look forward to praying with you each week!

With love,
Janel Guevara
CWP Editor-in-Chief and Publisher

P.S. You can also sign up for Our Prayer Circle on our Resource Page. Once a month we send out an email with praise, concerns, needs, upcoming projects, and so much more. If you consider prayer a mission, we'd love for you to join.

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