Pearls: 5 Essentials for a Richer Prayer Life

By Donna Nabors

Imagine opening a jewelry box. As you carefully raise the lid, the most beautiful music you have ever heard begins to play. Peering inside, you see precious gemstones surrounding a polished strand of pearls against a black velvet lining. This isnt just any jewelry box. Its your spiritual jewelry box. Pearls are the foundational piece placed in our spiritual jewelry box. When you dont know what to pray, dont know how to pray, and dont even want to pray, you can open your jewelry box and pull out Pearls.

In the same way an oyster covers an irritant in its shell with a substance called nacre, producing a pearl, we can coat the issues in our lives with the nacre of prayer and also produce pearls. Pearls outlines five essentials for a richer prayer life, focusing on how Jesus words, it is better to give than to receive, relate to prayer. These words are often related to our money, our time, or our service. Pearls takes a step further and shows how giving to God through prayer in five areas enriches your prayer life and draws you into a closer relationship with Him.

Pearls is about praying. It provides a fresh look at a subject that will never grow old.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Apr 22, 2013
• ISBN: 9781449791582

Donna Nabors

Donna Nabors grew up in a Christian home, yet was unprepared for the real world. Through many struggles, she gained life experiences, drawing her closer to God through prayer. Donna and her husband live in the Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas area. She is passionate about helping women fill their spiritual jewelry box.

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Copyright © 2013 Donna Nabors.

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ISBN: 978-1-4497-9157-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9156-8 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4497-9158-2 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2013907094

WestBow Press rev. date: 04/18/2013

Table of Contents

Chapter 1   Dear God

Chapter 2   Praise

Chapter 3   Express Thanks

Chapter 4   Acknowledge

Chapter 5   Release

Chapter 6   Listen

Chapter 7   Wear Your Pearls

About the Author

To my mother, Shirley Wilson, the prayer warrior of our family. You have always provided an example of prayer to your daughters. Also to any woman who has ever struggled with prayer. I pray this book will help you in your journey to have a richer prayer life and relationship with God.

Chapter 1

Dear God

Dear God,

I don’t know where to begin. I’m exhausted.

I’m sorry. I’ve really messed up this time.

I want to spend more time with you.

If you can just do this, then I promise to do that.

No one understands.

Dear God, why? It’s not fair!

Any of these sound familiar? Have you ever offered up a similar prayer? At some point in my life, I have prayed each of the quick prayers above. We all struggle at times with, Where do I start, and how do I pray? Some people pray the Lord’s Prayer or a prayer they learned as a child. Some pray from a list of needs. Others recite memorized prayers. Those from the Catholic faith might turn to their rosary beads. What if you had prayer beads where you could turn? Or better yet, what if they were pearls?

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Katherine entered the hospital room to visit Grandma Irene early on Saturday morning. Irene had always been strong and independent taking care of everyone else, but now she lay in the hospital bed looking frail. Grandma Irene was also the prayer warrior of the family, and Katherine wanted to learn her secrets of prayer. Many times Katherine didn’t know where to turn. She wanted to seek God, but she just didn’t know what to say.

This morning she would ask Grandma Irene about prayer. Maybe Grandma would pass on some sort of secrets to help her. As they talked, Katherine shared her uncertainties and inhibitions about prayer. Before she left, Grandma Irene reached over into the drawer of the tray next to her bed and pulled out a strand of pearls. Katherine, these are for you, she said. These are my prayer pearls. Katherine took the strand of pearls that she remembered her grandmother wearing so often. They looked so ordinary. Her grandmother wasn’t raised in the Catholic faith, so she knew they weren’t a type of rosary. Why had she called them prayer pearls?

In the weeks to come, Grandma Irene’s health faded quickly. One Friday evening when Katherine came home from a friend’s house, her mom met her at the door to let her know they received a call that Grandma had passed away. Katherine ran to her room in tears. She wanted to pray, but the words didn’t come. The next morning her mom came into her room, handed her an envelope, and said, Before Grandma passed away, she wrote this letter and asked me to give it to you after she was gone. Katherine sat alone on her bed and opened the envelope. Grandma Irene had written her a letter explaining her prayer pearls:

My precious granddaughter,

You have probably placed the pearls I gave you in your jewelry box. Now I want you to open your jewelry box and think about a new one—your spiritual jewelry box. We each have a spiritual jewelry box designed for gemstones from God’s Word. You can physically wear the pearls I gave you, but my spiritual pearls that they represent provide five essentials for a richer prayer life. These pearls are the foundational piece to place in your spiritual jewelry box. They will guide you in your prayers when you don’t know what to pray, don’t know how to pray, or don’t even want to pray. These five essentials are represented by the acronym of a PEARL.

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Why a Pearl?

I never gave pearls a lot of thought previously, but in studying their history, I found some interesting information. For instance, in times past pearls were given as a tribute. They were prized for their beauty and magical powers. During the European expansion into the New World, the discovery of pearls in Central American waters added to Europe’s wealth; and until the early 1900’s, natural pearls were accessible only to the rich and famous. Pearls were considered the ultimate symbol of wealth and social standing. In fact, Roman women wore pearls to bed so they could be reminded of their wealth when they woke up in the morning. Since pearls were so highly regarded, a number of European countries even passed laws forbidding those outside of the nobility from wearing them.

Similar to these pearls of history, prayer is available only to nobility, royalty, the heirs of royalty, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ (Romans 8:17). That is us. Prayer is our communication with our Heavenly Father. As we pray, we should be reminded of our wealth in Christ just as those women of history were reminded of their wealth when wearing pearls.

Do you remember your worth to God upon waking? Our prayer life doesn’t represent our standing before God, but it does show a representation of our relationship with Him. What type of relationship with Him does your prayer life reflect?

What is a Pearl?

I also discovered that a pearl is a symbol of purity and perfection and is the only gem created by a living creature. Similarly, true prayer is only offered by living, spiritually born believers. A pearl forms when an irritant or foreign object becomes trapped in the shell of an oyster. The oyster senses the object, and to protect itself, it produces something called nacre. The object is then coated with many layers of this nacre until eventually it’s covered completely. Voila! A pearl is formed, and a thicker coating of the nacre results in a higher quality and durability of its surface.

This is a beautiful parallel illustration of prayer. When irritants or foreign objects enter our lives in the form of troubles, hardship, or just everyday life, we should instinctively coat them with prayer. Prayer is our coating of protection just like nacre in an oyster. The more we pray, the thicker the coating and the stronger our durability. If we coat the issues of our lives with prayer, they become pearls. When problems come our way, and we try to deal with them ourselves or ignore them, we get into trouble or develop more difficult problems; however, when we take things to God in prayer immediately, minute by minute, day by day, coating our needs with the nacre of prayer, we produce pearls in our life.

Types of Pearls

Pearls are produced in a wide variety of shapes and colors. In addition to what we normally imagine as round, they produce ovals, buttons, drops, and an infinite collection of other shapes. Beautiful ranges of natural colors are miraculously produced, including lavender, pink, plum, purple, cocoa, peach, and tangerine shades. Our prayers are also offered in a variety of shapes and colors. We don’t have to pray in a certain format. We might pray five minutes here and ten minutes there. We might pray for an hour or more. We might pray with our family, with our spouse, in a large group setting, at dinner, or in a Bible study. We offer many types of prayers. The most important thing is that we pray. A few years ago I began using a journal. I use it for prayer requests, scripture prayers, answers to prayer, recording ways God speaks to me, and scripture insights. If you take the time to record your prayers and God’s answers to your prayers, you will soon begin to see a strand of spiritual pearls developing that shines as a witness to others.

Most important is that we do pray and also how often we pray. We should develop day to day praying instead of crisis to crisis praying. Daily prayer is like manna was to the Israelites in the desert. God gave them manna every morning, and they were to collect enough for that day alone. They could not collect it in advance. Not only did they have to rely on God for the manna itself, but more significantly, it brought them to rely on God each day. They had to trust every day that He would provide.

We should rely on God, fellowship with Him, and look to Him for our provision each day. Daily prayer cannot be replaced by one long prayer time each week. You can’t store up prayers. The Israelites collecting manna in the wilderness serves as a great illustration of this principle. Meet with God every day as if you were collecting manna in the morning and then continually throughout the day.

O God, You are my God; Early I will seek You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).

From the rising of the sun to its going down The Lord’s name is to be praised (Psalm 113:3).

"This is the day the Lord has made; We will rejoice