Life audio. Hi, from the Salvation Army. You're listening to Words of Life. Hey, and welcome back to Words of Life. Back in June of last year, we made a new friend and had her on the show: author, podcaster, and speaker, Rachel Wojow.
And starting today, she'll be joining us again for the next four weeks to talk about the power of prayer and praying through life's difficult battles.
So, if you're in a really difficult season right now, but you are still showing up, you are still praying, but you're starting to wonder if it's working, these next few weeks are for you. What I believe the crux of the power of prayer is is not who we are, but who God is, and allowing ourselves to be infused with the strength that He offers to give us. Whatever you're going through today, listener, no matter how difficult, God's love is with you, and He is for you. Listeners, we are so excited to once again have our friend Rachel Wojow back on the show. Rachel, thank you so much for hanging out with us again.
My privilege. Thank you for having me. For any listeners who didn't hear your last series that we had, which actually aired last year, June to July, would you please just introduce yourself? Who is Rachel? Sure.
Well, I most of the time am sitting crisscrossed applesauce in a beanbag chair, surrounded by a bunch of kids. If the truth is known, but I am an author, podcaster, speaker. I appreciate the topic of prayer deeply and have really honed it in on the topics of prayer and perseverance for the last few years. I have a house full of kiddos that are. In and out of the nest as we speak.
Two married, two currently in college, and two currently in high school.
So we may as well put a revolving door on the front of the house, right? And so my husband. Is a hardworking man who just supports a ministry in so many ways. If he didn't do what he does, then I couldn't do what I do, and we're just honored to be able to take a few words, throw them on paper, and pray that the Lord uses them to minister to people.
Well, since we saw you last, you have now released your, I believe, third book. What inspired you to write another book? What inspired you to write this one in particular? Yeah.
So I love that book, Desperate Prayers. Honestly, it is kind of my heart on paper. But as I produced that book and and started to get it out in the wild, I realized that one of the hardest things for me, as as a mom of a special needs child who was suffering, gradually losing her abilities over the course of twenty two years, there were seasons where I could not read. A long chapter. I could not sit and focus on something for twelve to fifteen minutes, and so as much as I love that book and it truly is my heart, I wanted to give those people who are in seasons where they cannot focus for very long just really strong, bite-sized encouragement, and that was the goal of producing "Praying Through Life's Battles." When you're in the thick of it, it can be so hard.
To really focus for long periods of time, or even find the time to focus, you know, to have to read a whole chapter at once, which only takes 12 to 15 minutes. But we all know sometimes getting that amount of time is a challenge.
So that really was the heart behind writing, praying through life's battles, was to take the prayers, make them bite-sized, take strong, deep encouragement, and make it bite-sized. One of the things that you kind of start out in the book is talking about having a life verse, or just having verses that really you know speak to you and kind of shape you. Why does the verse in First Samuel, "The battle is the Lord," speak so deeply to you? Yeah.
When my Taylor was just a little girl and still had her words, she eventually lost her communication skills and vocabulary between the ages of six and nine. She lost it, but at age four, she could still speak. She had many things that were her own little language, and her Sunday school teacher really believed in her. And one day after church, my husband and I went to pick her up, and her teacher said, "Taylor." What's your verse for today? And I just stood there, you know, thinking the child memorized a verse.
Are you serious? And sure enough, she just spouted out, "The battle is the Lord's." And we didn't even have her diagnosis at that point, so for her to have memorized a verse and be able to carry those words, "The battle is the Lord's," and remind myself of it over and over again was just really critical. Twenty-two years is a long time—a long time to face daily battles—and so I hope that that encourages someone that you can take. A few words that really speak volumes from God's word, and apply them to your life. That's why that verse is so special to me.
I love that. You had talked about Taylor's journey last time you were with us as well, and of course, you've spoken about it a lot on your podcast. But how did her life change the way that you personally understood prayer? Yeah, I think that initially, when you receive a diagnosis for your child that's terminal. You get pretty angry at God.
If I'm just going to be honest, you get mad at God, and I realized that God can handle our emotions. He can handle our anger, our frustration, when we take it to Him. We're better off than when we keep it to ourselves, and so that open communication—whether you feel like you have words that are maybe honoring to him or not—to still take that communication to him is so important. And if you think about it, as parents, when our kids are mad at us, we don't want them to just go sulk in their room. We want that open communication.
We want to be able to hear their frustrations and feelings, and our Heavenly Father is the same. And so, I think initially, that really was my motivation to. To just pray and be honest with God, but then the relationship grew, and I'm so thankful that it did. I realized that it doesn't have to stop there. It really doesn't have to end with just taking your frustrations to Him.
You can have that open communication all the time, and it's available to you.
So that's pretty amazing. Just learning that God would rather hear about your bad day, as not hear from you at all, was really important for me. And so, as I began to open up that prayer communication, I think that was the very first thing that I kind of learned in the hard places. Shortly after Taylor's passing, we say in the Salvation Army was promoted to glory. I love that.
And people would say to you that they were sorry that she lost her battle. Yeah.
How did her life teach you what victory truly looks like? Yeah, I. Really believe that heaven is just something we can't even wrap our minds around fully, right? We just don't understand it on this side. But I think her life and and looking at lost her battle.
I really believe that she actually won the battle at that point because God took her. Human flesh and said enough. We're going to give you a better body, and we're going to give you, you know, a heavenly body. And so her spirit and her soul have have now experienced the ultimate glory, as you would say, promoted to glory. And I I really think that looking at her life, victory in Christ.
Is yes, we have daily battles to face here on this earth, but you know, so many of us were like, yeah, we're trusting God for eternal salvation. We believe that He's going to take us home to heaven, but then we don't trust Him for everyday solutions. We just kind of. You know, bank on the victory in heaven, and I think Taylor's life taught me that we could begin to live in victory in the here and now, and not that it's easy. I mean, if I told you all the things, the details that are happening in our lives just this week, me and my family, you would just be shocked.
Probably, I haven't really divulged the last. The last two weeks of what's happened in our family's life, too much because I'm like, wow, we got this book coming out, praying through life's battles. Should we not have expected a few battles, you know, along the way? And so, learning to position ourselves that we're we're living from the victory that Jesus has already won the war, instead of. Fighting for the victory, I think that perspective is really important.
So, the first section in the book is called "For the Weary." Why did you feel that this section needed to come first? Yeah, that's a great question. I think because most of us. The first emotion, the first physical, mental, spiritual fatigue, is that thing that we feel like we're just. Tired of it, you know.
You're tired of back pain. You're tired of doctor visits. You're tired of scans. You're tired of addiction. You're tired of whatever it is.
You really are just sick and tired of it. And so I feel like the for the weary section is just saying, okay. I am tired of this, but this doesn't have to be where I stay. And so, when we look at the fatigue, I think addressing that first is important because most of us are kind of in that place in some way, shape, or form. Yeah, for someone walking through a difficult season right now, just to a listener out there.
What would you want to remind them about God and about the power of prayer? Yeah, just reach out to Him. Just reach out to Him. I really believe that there is power not because of who we are, but because of who God is, and when we open ourselves up to what He not only can do for us, but more importantly, who He can be. For us, I mean that really is what I believe the crux of the power of prayer is: is not who we are, but who God is, and allowing ourselves to be infused with the strength that He offers to give us.
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These are the words. These are the words. These are the words of life. These are the words. These are the words.
These are the words of life. These are the words of life. Thanks so much for listening to Words of Life. We want to thank the team at Life Audio for their partnership with us on the show. Visit lifeaudio dot com, where you'll find dozens of other faith centered podcasts in their network.
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