Meet Sydney: A Teenage Prayer Warrior

This Warrior Wednesday I’m excited to introduce you to a fellow prayer warrior and blogger friend of mine named Sydney. I (Joy) have been following Sydney’s thought-provoking and fun blog for years now (you can check it out here: Squid’s Cup of Tea), and am thrilled to have her sharing her heart on prayer with us today. Thank you, Sydney!

This is Part 1 of our interview with Sydney, so stay tuned for next week’s Warrior Wednesday highlight.

Interview with Sydney

Q. Why do you pray?

Sydney: This is a really difficult question.  I pray so many different prayers for so many different reasons… Let’s see if I can cover how/why in the same question…

Disclaimer, these are my own categories that I’ve drawn from my own spiritual journey, not set in stone theological standards.  Feel free to come up with your own categories, if you so please, but I hope these help.

Panicked Prayer: 

I often pray because I get lonely, anxious, manipulative, etc. and I know I shouldn’t be. I’ve tried some things and heard about others, but nothing else works.  Prayer is the only thing that takes the pressure off of me to have everything under control.  It’s my lifeline, my hotline, and my emergency contact info.  When I’m stressed out, freaked out, or completely undone, panicked prayer to The One in control of my life is the only thing that brings me peace.  After years of this, I don’t get too unstrung, but I would get worse if I didn’t pray.  

Passionate Prayer: 

This usually involves me bawling my eyes out because I’m in awe of God and just can’t fathom His incredible grace, love, foresight, and/or sacrifice.  I’m thanking Him for whatever it is that He showed me, and these times of prayer draw me deeper into His love, strengthening my faith.  It’s the bonding time between me and the Love of my life.  

Intercessory Prayer:

This is what a lot of people think of when they think of prayer.  It’s lifting others up to our Heavenly Father because they need it.  “Pray for those who persecute you” refers to this type of prayer.  I like it because it makes me acknowledge God’s sovereignty and my helplessness.  “Please heal this person because You can, and we can’t” is a typical sentiment.  Why do we pray this way?  Because God tells us to in the Bible, because He does answer it in His time, and because it is a great selfless exercise.  Also, you can’t hate someone you pray for… it just doesn’t work.  You want a relationship to mend?  Make sure your heart isn’t the problem first, and a great way to accomplish that is to pray for the other person(people).

Constant Prayer:

In Philippians, we are told to constantly pray.  That seems a little impractical (I need my eyes open to drive!!) until we realize that we think about a lot of things and talk to ourselves constantly, right?  What if we used that brain power to talk to God instead?  Every time something happens, talk to God about it. I think of it like texting.  We spam people we care about, right?  We want to talk to them so badly that we don’t care whether or not they’re ignoring us.  The great thing is, God is always listening, and constant spamming is something He cherishes.  

Whether it’s a crazy driver who just cut you off, “God, please protect those ahead of me from this driver, and thank you for protecting me just now,” or seeing a beautiful sunrise, “Wow, God, your creation is beautiful!  Thank you for giving me this sunrise!” God loves when we thank Him for the little things, or when we trust His provision and actually tell Him that.

Sometimes, at the end of the day, I like to thank God for as many things/people/happenings as I can think of.  It’s a great way to get in a good mood (can’t be angry and thankful at the same time!) and a good way to fall asleep. 🙂

Q. How different do you think your life would be today if you had never prayed to God?

Sydney: Eek!  I don’t even want to think about that!  Everything about me would be different and worse.  Prayer is the way we grow in our faith and become mature Christians.  If I never prayed, it would be as bad as never eating.  I would be starving emotionally and spiritually.  I would be anxiety-ridden, manipulative, and horribly mean.  Without the peace that I get from panicked and constant prayer, the love I receive in passionate prayer, and the blessings I receive when others engage in intercessory prayer on my behalf, my life would be a mess.  Have you ever seen a toddler scribble as hard as he can on a piece of paper?  That, compared to a love letter carefully crafted and written by a teenager, would be my life as compared to what God has made from my mistakes when I let Him take charge.  I can only relinquish that control, though, when I pray.

Love,
Your sister in Christ,

Sydney

~ About Sydney ~ 

I am a 17-year-old female Floridian homeschooled-since-birth saved from an eternity in hell by Yeshua’s death on the cross. I’m a fighter for truth and free speech, even if I disagree with what it is used for. I am a lover of the Bible, people, birding, spiders, chess, superheroes, physics, math, libraries, music, worshipping, the Oxford comma, proper capitalization, proper punctuation, proper spelling, and photography.