Hope Mangiafico (00:00)
we just finished an episode on prayer and it got me thinking about how
How my prayer life has progressed, and just conversations that I have with people, that a lot of times our lives, including our prayer lives, only start to shift and pivot when we're in a deep dark hole and a deep dark place. And someone recently was talking to me. She was saying someone was like, Wow, I remember when four years ago.
I was so worried about you because you were in this dark pit, depressed, not will you know, just struggling to do everyday activities, struggling to do life, as we were talking about at the end of the episode. And it was in that pit though, she was surrounded by good people, but in that pit is when she finally came, like truly came to the father. Here I am, as we said at the end of our pad podcast. If you haven't listened to the episode, here I am.
And that was the first prayer that then set the rest of her life. And then that person just last week was like, Wow, look at you now.
It brought her tears telling me because when you're in that pit, you can't see the future, aka the life, because life is taken away from you. But praise the Lord that it's in the pits that our prayers can be so simple and start the trajectory of becoming who we were always meant to be. So if you feel like you're in a pit right now, just know I know it's true for myself, and I believe it's true for Nikki. In the darkest places is when we actually learned how to.
And became stronger through Christ.
Nikki Humphrey (01:47)
million percent true for me also. And it wasn't anything complicated because I didn't even know better.
Hope Mangiafico (01:54)
Exactly
exactly.
Nikki Humphrey (01:57)
It was out of it was a heart cry of desperation. Like,
Hope Mangiafico (02:01)
Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (02:01)
I can't do this anymore. Like I am done.
I need you to do s I need you to move. I need you to show me something. Cause I can't take it anymore, Lord.
Hope Mangiafico (02:11)
Yes. And you know, sometimes in the episode, Nikki, you were talking about which I think was so beautiful, you like reminded people, hey, if you're doing something in your prayer life prayer life right now, like don't you don't have to like pivot and change right now. But I will say that if you're feeling kind of stuck, but you're maybe you haven't found this podcast till now, and you felt like life was starting to be sucked out of you, I will guarantee you that it's in that
that darkness and that confusion that you're going to find him again because you naturally become more simplistic.
Nikki Humphrey (02:51)
Yes. And this popped in while you were talking, Hope.
I stated in the podcast how I used to be very ri rich ritualistic with my prayer life. And I thought I had to say these certain prayers in order to be in good graces with God. And as you were talking, Hope, I just just hit me. I was putting the my my faith in the prayers and not in God. I
Hope Mangiafico (03:18)
Exactly. Exactly.
Nikki Humphrey (03:21)
was giving the prayers more credit.
that they were going to do something almost like if it was like a magical incantation, like the prayers would only lock unlock my connection with God.
So for me, I'm not saying this is for everybody, it was blocking my connection with God
Hope Mangiafico (03:41)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (03:42)
because my faith was displaced.
Hope Mangiafico (03:44)
Well in the episode I talked about how the Lord tells me to pray or not pray for people and I think the root of why that started with the Father was that exact thing you're saying. I learned certain ways to pray, and when people would come to me, my faith was in the words coming out of my mouth. And so that's where I was challenged when he would tell me, No, there's only one place my faith can go.
I sure as heck am not doing anything. And I think that was the root of that. And it stretched me and taught me so much. My certain prayers that I learned in certain seasons mattered. It's like Nikki said in the episode when she was young and she read a little prayer book and she felt the peace. Reading a prayer will do something. But when it's time.
For you to level up. We talk about leveling up our armor and getting upgrades and everything when it's time.
That is when you're gonna start feeling some tension and likely he's gonna lead you to more simple ways.
We've come such a long ways, Nikki, when you think about since you and I started and we started with more I won't call them li virtualistic prayers, but like we had activities, if you will, to do. And they were very structured. That's probably the best way to say it. They were structured. But they got us started.
Nikki Humphrey (05:13)
The yes. And God moves through them.
Hope Mangiafico (05:16)
Yes.
Nikki Humphrey (05:17)
That's the thing. He uses all things for good. And we have to learn somehow. And these how we started, Hope and I was a great way to learn. It was like training wheels. It was like we talked about this on another podcast. When we did the 60-day challenge, there was some audio with it at first.
Hope Mangiafico (05:35)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (05:36)
And Hope and I were freaking out because it was only like the first couple of days or whatever that had audio. And we were like, how could we possibly do the 60-day challenge without this guide?
Like Hope said, God stretches you. He stretched us. And it was through that quietness of breaking away from the the ritual of this the audio with the sixty day challenge, that's when our world expanded. He was moving before, but he moved in a different way after.
Hope Mangiafico (06:07)
Yes. And it was so simple. It's like literally you're just laying there.
That's so interesting though. Expansion comes with simplicity. that's a word for us as humans.
Wow, it's really powerful.
And boy, I'm so grateful. I'm so glad. And I pray that if the person listened to the overflow, and maybe they'll go back and listen to the episode, or they listen to the episode. This episode was intended to be simple because as we said in the episode, like there's no formula and there was such an emphasis on what just the Lord has taught us and shown us through prayer.
Nikki and I, through entrepreneurship, through our Christian walk, we've tried the three ways to this, five hacks to that. And they may have worked for a moment, but as soon as you try to turn something into a formula, the grace that may have even been on it the beginning will eventually be removed because guess what it does? It puts God in a box.
Nikki Humphrey (07:10)
And for me, it was so great to talk about all these things, my prayer life, listening to Hope's prayer life out loud, because it's always gonna change. It's always
Hope Mangiafico (07:19)
Yeah.
Nikki Humphrey (07:20)
gonna evolve. So what we're talking about this today, the conversation that Hope and I had, I bet if we revisit this topic a year from now, it's gonna sound different. It's gonna look different. It's gonna be different. At least I hope it is.
Hope Mangiafico (07:35)
Exactly.
Nikki Humphrey (07:37)
I don't wanna keep staying the same.
Hope Mangiafico (07:40)
So good. The one thing I hope is the same as we continue to keep our contact points frequent with the Father, our touch points. But yes, you're right. We don't want to stay the same. The only thing about God that doesn't change is that He's always changing.
Nikki Humphrey (07:57)
And we don't have we don't have it all figured out, nor we will we ever have it figured out.
Hope Mangiafico (08:02)
Exactly, and I pray that this has helped people realize that and gave them permission to just I don't again I keep getting to w going back to the word life. To live life because he meets you in it.
