Prayer is powerful.  A secret weapon we sometimes forget to tap into.  The world we navigate swirls and demands our attention.  Our minds race.  Our thoughts are scattered.  We may know that prayer is our best step toward perspective and peace, but in whirlwind or wilderness seasons of life, sometimes we desperately need a clear, simple path to draw us into much needed dialogue with the LORD.

This year of 2020 has been the very definition of uncertainty.  Pressure.  Concern. Unanswered questions.  Division.  Fear. Isolation. Confusion. Discouragement.  We can lose the motivation or inclination to reach for help – even to tap into the known resource of prayer!  In this place, I discovered The Prayer MAP Devotional by Donna K. Maltese.

This beautiful little book lays out a simple, easy-to-follow journey through any given week.  I love that although there is a meaningful devotional to kick off each week, followed by a Bible verse, devotional message, and thought-provoking question for each weekday, there are no dates!  When real life swirls and I miss a few days, I never feel like I am “behind.”  I simply open the book again and pick up where I left off.

Between each week’s set of devotional pages, there is a wonderful two-page spread displaying prompts to create my own PRAYER MAP with space to fill in the burdens or praises on my heart!  The open-box headings are the perfect nudges I need to help me sort through the swirl in my head.  It is then so easy to record (and therefore PRAY about) specific concerns I want to lay out before the LORD and welcome His perspective, comfort, guidance, or help.

I love that I can choose to position my weekly PRAYER MAP at the beginning or at the end of each week.  If I want to trace the growth of my prayer journey or more easily identify answers to those prayers, there is a place to record the date on these PRAYER MAP pages only.

For those who appreciate pretty aesthetics the way I do, the hard cover of this beautiful devotional book is a soft butter-yellow, a subtle tone-on-tone floral, accented with bright pink blossoms and purple berries, and whimsical dots to represent the path of the tiny watercolor butterflies included in the design.  The interior pages continue to same attractive pattern, accented with soft pink and green.  There is a perky bright pink ribbon in the binding as well that is perfect for keeping my place as I work my way through the book.

Donna K. Maltese has done a fantastic job of bringing each day’s Scripture into practical light, offering timely insights, but leaving plenty of room for my own heart to respond to GOD’s Words each day.  She has also grouped the Bible verses and devotional thoughts into weekly themes on which my thoughts can linger, process, and grow over the course of seven days, adding prayer items to my PRAYER MAP as I go.

The day I retrieved this new treasure from our mailbox and opened its package, my daughter’s eyes grew big with delight.  She was days from moving onto campus to begin her freshman year of college.  She is eager to have wonderful helps to keep her grounded in GOD’s truth and in regular dialogue with Him while life finds solid ground again.  It will be my pleasure to pass on The Prayer MAP Devotional to her!  There is no greater gift I could give her as she steps bravely into this new chapter of her life.

If you think The Prayer MAP Devotional by Donna K. Maltese could help set a course for your own prayer journey, it is published by Barbour Publishing, and is available wherever books are sold!

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power

and produces wonderful results.

James 5:16 (NLT)

I received a complimentary copy of this book from Barbour Publishing and was under no obligation to post a review.

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