A month ago I put out my first reader survey. I wanted to see what you, as readers, were going through, what you enjoyed reading, and how I could help you the most. As you know by now, God laid upon my heart a few years ago that people in our churches needed to be more transparent in their walk with God. I found this true in my life and therefore, the book Being Transparent was born! I was delighted to find out that the blogs you enjoyed the most had to do with being transparent. This is an answer to prayer because I truly desire transparency for each and every one of you!

The biggest challenge you are facing at this time is not enough time. This has also been on my mind a lot lately due to my struggling to get so much done in so little time. I fear we are making time, schedules, and busyness an idol in our society. We love doing things with other, putting our kids in activities, and have a fear of missing out if we say no to something. We need to learn how to breathe, we need to learn how to be human “beings’ and not human “doings”, and we need to learn how to say “no”.

The biggest spiritual challenge had a tie between prayer and reading Bible/doing devotions. I suppose some can put these two into the same category. I, however, chose to keep them separate because there are times in my life where I feel I can read my Bible pretty regularly and still struggle with praying. Here’s the thing. I think we need to make a mind shift on our prayer time and devotional life. You make time to hang out with your friends. If you believe God to be who He is, act like it. Hang out with Him. Invite Him into your home!

I had so much fun reading the results. Thank you so much for your participation. It was encouraging to know you are on this journey with me, that you still struggle as I do, and that you are okay reading about my imperfections. Thank you for allowing me to be vulnerable. Thank you for allowing me to use this platform as a form of prayer for you and me. Thank you for desiring to be transparent.

I’m praying for a personal revival for you. I’m praying that God will ignite your heart with passion and a desire to share Him with others. Please be praying for me, too, as I’m in the middle of writing the next book. Please continue to pray for our summer online Bible study on Being Transparent. Not signed up? Sign up here!

If you missed the survey and would still like to participate, I’d love to hear from you, too! Click here.

© 2016 Susan M. Sims

Follow me on Twitter or Facebook.