My Inspiration For Writing The “Road To Relationship” Series
By: Riley Martin
Author of Road to Relationship: Praying the Word
10 min read
Writing leaves a legacy beyond your own life. It tells a story beyond your generation. It is a communication tool that continues long after you’re gone.
There are two answers to the question, “Why did you write Road to Relationship?” The first is a practical one. Upon speaking with youth, young adults, new disciples, and those growing deeper in their faith, the two most common questions I receive are “How should I pray?” and “How should I start reading the Bible.” The “Road to Relationship” series seeks to respond to those questions. The word of God is life. It contains powerful prayed prayers from God fearing men and women throughout history. Why not pray the word? Why not pattern our prayers from Daniel, David, Moses, and Esther? Why not learn something from Paul, Peter, James, and John? Why wouldn’t we heed to the words of Jesus to His disciples, “But when you pray…” The word of God teaches us how to pray. The Road to Relationship series walks through every scripture you can pray from Genesis to Revelation. It uses the life of Biblical characters to pattern personalprayers. It shows the humanity of every story and allows us to relate. God’s word is life. So why wouldn’t we speak that life over ourselves?
The desire for others to grow deeper in their relationship with Christ was the bases of the publication. I wanted an inspired, yet extremely practical guide to praying through the word of God. So,while I pray the information and insights in R2R (Road to Relationship) take you deeper, the goal is that you don’t just read this book, but actually pray the prayers from the word.
Giving to others has always given me life, but the true starting place for R2R came out of my own devotion. In this article, I will tell my story. Storytelling is the best form of communication, so don’t be afraid to tell your story. You have a story and a testimony. People can and will relate to your testimony. And I hope this narrative gives you inspiration to share your story.
During high school, I fell in love with prayer. I grew up in a church that practiced 24-hour prayer. As soon as I got my drivers license, the church became an every daystop. Throughout my quest to strengthen my prayer life, I would listen to others pray and fashion my prayers off the principles of elders and prayer warriors. I once heard my youth pastor quote a scripture during his prayer. That week I decided, I want to learn scriptures that I can pray every day. My mom had my siblings and I pray on our armor (Ephesians 6) every morning before school. That was one scriptural pattern of prayer I already knew. My study led to a theme prayer pattern each year that I would pray daily. Prayer patterns like Psalms 23, the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:33, Isaiah 11:2, the Fruit of the Spirit, the gifts of the Spirit, the Prayer of Jabez, the Tabernacle Prayer, Psalms 119, Philippians 4:8, and currently for 2022, Proverbs 16:9. These “routine prayers” were in addition to my circumstantial prayers. It was not the only prayers I would pray, however, no matter what that day looked like, I knew God was in control because I began with praying the word.
Flash forward to 2021. I was in yet another season of commitment to God. As usual, seasons of commitment begin with brokenness. God always leads me to commit to deeper relationship in a season of brokenness. As I walked through this season of seeking the voice of God, He brought me back to the word once again. This time, I was going to pray through the entireword of God, from Genesis to Revelation. It began as a my devotion time, but God then told me to write down the prayers I was praying. I would pray from 8 to 9, then write from 9 to 10. After one year, I reviewed my writings and found that I had over 300 pages. God had worked through my devotions to produce a tool that others could use.
R2R is a book of prayers taken from the word of God. The prayers of the Bible can be molded to your prayer life. The scripture gives life. As Bishop Gleason writes in the foreword, these prayers “are ready to go and easy to use. Why not pray the Word? It’s prayers are already anointed, chosen, and blessed by God.”
