What is Prayer?
Seems an easy enough question, but when we get down to it, “IT” becomes something that is harder to define than we would think.
On all saint’s weekend this is what our later looked like at church. We lit candles as an act of living prayer for those we have lost in the past year. We pray aloud for those who gave their lives in the military, and for leaders of the church. We named aloud the names of saints in our lives. We even have a pumpkin on the alter with the names of every family in our congregation as an act of prayer for the saints in our church family that are still here with us.
I have heard prayer referred to as “Holy Leisure”. I have practiced silence, drawing, walking and even napping (it’s not as hard as you would think) as forms of prayer.
But I want to know how and what prayer is to you.
But is this this thing that we call prayer? Why pray? What does this mean? How Do you pray? What do you pray? When do you pray? How do you feel after you pray?
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6 Responses
I usually pray when I’m running to keep me going strong,I pray when I see something really pretty like a sunset or newly fallen snow, and then I also pray at night in scilence. I like to journal my prayers so i can look back at my past prayers and see how God has answered them, and then also it helps me finish a prayer before I fall asleep! I love talking to God like a friend;a freind i can tell anything and everything and trust that He will take care of it. When i’m upset, stressed, or hurt and I pray and then I feel better. I get the sense that God’s in control and everything is in His hands. Prayer is very important to me I always look forward to my time of prayer and time spent with God each day.
I pray when ever I take a test or I need help. I also pray whenever something good happens in my life. Like Carlee I journal my prayers. I usually pray for help, guidance, and protection. When I pray about something I know Gods going to take care of it. After praying I feel less woried about whatever it is I prayed about because I know Gods going to take care of it. I like to pray because it allows me to talk to God, share whats on my mind, or even tell God how I feel when I feel knowone else will listen.
I don’t know about napping…haha. Why pray? Because it’s a way of opening up to God and being like “here’s whats bothering me or what’s on my mind-I can’t handle this alone, please help me!” I look at praying as a way of strengthening my relationship with God too. It’s like- claiming to be a Christian is not enough to have a relationship, you have to act and show it through your works ie praying. Analogy! You can’t claim to be friends with someone and not take time to call them and see what’s going on. That call to your friend is like praying to God every night. When pray? I pray whenever I want. Every night, and before tests, games, something big etc. I journal like Carlee and Amber and I see how God works. It may not always be the desired result but I remind myself that he sees the big picture and it will all work out. When I pray I feel so much better because it’s like removing a gigantic weight off my chest. I relax, feeling like since I’ve given it to God he will help me take care of it before I know it.
Prayer to me is a time that i can get away and just talk to the one who knows everything thats going on in my life and the way i feel. It is also a time that i can tell god who needs help and who needs a little bit of extra attetion. All that is prayer.
I pray whenever and whereever…It doesnt matter what I’m doing I probably am doing a 30 sec prayer. It might not be the “typical” prayer. I see prayer as just me talking to a friend…my Best friend that no one else can replace and is always right there next to me. I do ALOT of praying when Im running, Its when Im alone the most and alot of times my friends dont like running with me because they dont like my pace. But, I see this as more of a blessing because I have a hard time pulling myself away from things sometimes to go pray. With running God has forced an alone time into my life and I can’t thank him enough. Praying always seems to take some wieght off my shoulders. Because now I’ve admitted something to two people, myself and God. I try to journal but sometimes it is really difficult because I have a hard time writing something and knowing I will probably be the only one to ever read it. So Im still working on that one. 🙂