After Having Coffee With God: Preparing for Your Answered Prayers

By Yolanda Pounds

When was the last time you prayed? Where were you and what did you say? Most importantly, what’s been holding you back from offering up your thanks and needs to the Lord? 

In After Having Coffee with God: Preparing for Your Answered Prayers, Yolanda Pounds guides readers through not only the process of approa

• Language: English
• Publisher: Purposely Created Publishing Group
• Release date: Feb 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781947054554

Book preview

img4.jpg Introduction

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How do you think we should pray to God? Thou heavenly father, this is thine child, whither shall I go? Must we be eloquent like the deacons, pastors, and first ladies of our local churches, full of scriptures and fast-talking?

I found out that talking to God is like having coffee and crumpets with a friend. After all, He is easy to talk to and He is the best listener. He is concerned about all of the details in our lives and He reads between the lines to interpret what we really mean, how we really feel, and what we are unable to say.

Coffee with God came to me during a time when my girlfriends and I committed to pray from 4:45 to 6 each morning. A group of five other ladies and I did a tag team prayer, with each pairing praying for fifteen minutes. We limited the sessions because everyone had to leave home at varied times, but we knew that having a consistent prayer time was essential in commanding our day. Sometimes, the Holy img4.jpg Spirit would completely take over and we would go beyond our allotted time, but that was okay— somehow, the Lord always gave that time back to us! Whether it was through getting us out of the house at relatively the same time or easing the traffic flow, He slowed down time for us. I think He was pleased to hear from us. Starting our day with Him put a little pep in our step too and set the tone for a wonderful day. This went on for twenty-one days, as we developed a comfortable dialogue with God.

When Noelle and I would pray, we would be so relaxed with our flow that, one day, I told her that I visualized us sitting around a table, talking to God with coffee cups, fresh-baked muffins, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers in front of us. God looked on with His arms folded, smiling and nodding at our conversation. We weren’t asking Him for anything; we were merely unloading all of our cares, concerns, hopes, and dreams, and lifting each other up through prayer.

My overall purpose in writing this book is to share what I have learned about prayer and what could happen after prayer. When you are new to the faith, praying may seem foreign. You really do not know where to start, what to say, or what to expect once you are done.

img5.jpg When you are growing in your faith, prayer can still be intimidating, because sometimes, when you ask God for more faith, He gives you more tests. You learn that just because you prayed today doesn’t necessarily mean that your hopes and desires will manifest immediately. What I have found to be the most challenging thing about prayer is waiting for your prayers to be answered. During those times, remember that God may be preparing you for what you are asked for or for His purpose.

During my season of growth, I found coffee with God to be the most refreshing thing I could do and it made me feel close to Him. This became especially true when He answered me. My hope is that, as you read through the pages of this book, you will become more comfortable with prayer and realize that prayer itself is easy; preparing for answered prayer is sometimes hard.

img5.jpg Chapter 1

Coffee, Crumpets, and More

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Some people can’t dream of starting their day without their morning coffee (maybe even two or three cups of it). Well, imagine applying the same effort and urgency when it comes to talking to God.

Prayer sets the tone for your day. Waking up with a spirit of thanksgiving instead of mumbling and complaining truly gets your day off to a good start. We all suffer from Blue Mondays but what about Tuesdays? We can’t go through the entire week dreading every day until Friday.

Lord knows that, with everything going on in the world today, we must thank God for keeping us from dangers, seen and unseen, and we must ask for that same covering for the day ahead. I realize that it can be difficult to know just what to say to Him as well as setting aside the time to say it.

My pastor, Reverend James T. Meeks, taught us how to break down the Lord’s Prayer and personalize img5.jpg it. Each part has special significance and covers everything you need to ask of God. When you break it down further into smaller parts, it is easier to put the verses into your own words.

• Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name: This acknowledges God as our Father, Lord and Savior, giving Him first place in our lives and recalling everything He is to us. For instance, omnipotent, omniscient, and sovereign.

• Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven: This proclaims Him Savior and Lord, Ruler of all. It shows that we have surrendered and invites Him to take charge over all of our affairs. We ask that, not our will, but His will be done in our lives

• Give us this day, our daily bread: Bread is the provision we need to get through each day, whatever that may be. He told us to worry for nothing and that He will take care of all things—what we shall eat, drink, and what we shall wear. His mercy is new each day, His grace is sufficient.

• And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors: This is our personal confession, as img5.jpg well as our acceptance of forgiving others. Now is the time to acknowledge all of our sins before God and to ask for forgiveness for our disobedience toward Him. We must also seek forgiveness from those we hurt and forgive them for hurting us as well.

• And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil: This admits that our flesh is weak and that we need God to deliver us from all temptation. We must admit our weaknesses and ask God for his guidance.

• For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever, Amen: More praise and proclamation of who He is. Declare that He will reign forever and ever.

Now, that prayer is complete and saying it aloud only takes two minutes to acknowledge, confess, and thank an Awesome God. We spend hours talking to our friends on the phone. As a matter of fact, we repeat the same ol’ story about Fred(a) or what Fred(a) said while preparing for the next episode to be shared about what Fred(a) has done know.

God deserves more than that. We go to church on Sunday and sing Jesus Can Work It Out, when we haven’t talked to Him about the problems we want img5.jpg Him to work out. Oh, He already knows? Well, He still wants to hear from you! You see, when you start having coffee with God, you’ll see that He is a lot like you. Who wants someone to come to them only when they need something?

Make it a point to talk