A few weeks ago, I talked about my prayer practices during our weekly Bible study and Rev Dawn said that would make a good DCE. Soon after that, this little writing was scheduled to open our new year.
This is a glimpse of my practice and not meant to be a “thou shalt do”, but I hope you find it helpful.
Prayer is a spiritual discipline of our faith so giving some “discipline” around it keeps us focused. In an earlier DCE I spoke about learning to pray five times per day; morning, breakfast, lunch, supper, and bedtime. In my world, those are “thank you” prayers to God.
I also do a morning practice. Each day I make myself a cup of coffee and sit down with my notebook to write my “morning page”. This journaling is a practice I learned from the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. She advises you to write for 30 minutes without stopping each morning. If you are interested in more information on that drop me a line. My prayer practice has more to do with the cover of the notebook.
I have a post-it-note taped on the cover of my notebook that lists church members. It includes staff, musicians, and people from my Bible study classes. I take a moment before I open my notebook to read each name and send love to each person. I visualize them sitting in a comfortable spot smiling. I have seen each of these people smile in my life so that is the image I hold. I imagine them feeling joy. If I know a certain person has a special need I linger on them a little longer and pray about that need. Rev Dawn and John got extra prayers as they put together our special services this Christmas season. Others had health issues of their own or loved ones that I added special prayers for.
I have a second post-it-note for prayers that are more immediate and temporary. Those sometimes come from our church prayer chain, Zoom prayer services, or even Facebook posts. For those, I send love but also pray for the specific need. Those post-it-notes get changed out as needs come and go.
Both these notes do not take a ton of prayer time. The key for me is that they are placed on the cover of a notebook that I use “mostly” without fail each day. You may not journal daily but have something else that you do “mostly” without fail each day. Consider connecting a time of prayer to that daily task. It becomes natural to see a name and imagine their smiling face in your mind’s eye. It is a prayer without words.
There are also times I go into “prayer warrior” mode. Some situations pull on my heart and I feel moved to surround them more actively in prayer. For those needs I set a one-hour timer on my phone. The alarm goes off, I stop what I am doing and pray hard, and then reset the timer for another hour. I may still think about them as I do my normal daily living, but each time the alarm goes off I am focused on nothing else but taking their need to God in prayer. A church friend going into surgery put me in prayer warrior mode recently, as did another church friend that had a fall. These are times I will reach out to the family and more closely track the situation. You cannot stay in warrior mode long, so it is good to hear the outcome of the issue. In the examples I gave both outcomes were positive in my perspective but in every case, I pray for God’s will and God’s peace to be present in any outcome.
I get caught in “what if” thinking sometimes around fears of something that has not yet happened. A wise counselor reminded me that “even if” those things happen, God is present. Now when I think a “what if” I quickly think “even if” and remember to pray.
Our last Bible study was called “Almost Christmas”, by Devega, McIntyre, Casperson, and Rawle. They gave this definition of prayer.
“Prayer, at its core, is an intentional attentiveness to God’s spirit, ‘as if the Lord were visibly present before your eyes,’ and a recognition that God is always with us, always speaking, always listening, and always ready to guide us along the way.”
We often say we are God’s hands and feet as we do God inspired work to help others. In prayer I believe we can call God’s spirit close and be the channel for God’s love to flow to each other. It is not as easy to explain, but I know I have felt the prayers others gave for me. I sensed a greater peace and love. I am guessing you have too. As we enter a new year, I hope you can be mindful of ways you can embrace the discipline of prayer more fully.
Beams and blessings to you each!
