Have you ever just thought.. oh my god what the heck am i supposed to do when i pray? cause honestly when i ATTEMPT to do a prayer i just shut down thinking that i am just talking to myself all alone cause gah no one is going to respond? i ONLY ever do it as iv said before that i do it when i am backed into a corner all by myself needing a super or extra type of help in my life or in someone elses life.. i find prayer sometimes over exagerated? as in some of those people who just pray and pray and pray over such a small topic but draggg it out over several minutes and the rest of us just are sitting there dieng inside saying wow when is this going to end? I think that we can all agree that we were told to pray everynight before bedtime? quick prayer? i know that i had to say "now alay me down to sleep i pray the lord my sould to keep if i die before i wake i pray the lord my sould to take" and eventually i stopped once my mom stopped making me. but once that happened its seems as i never prayed again? i used to take advantage of such a short little rhym that i was forced to say but look at such a deep message is in that one little sentece that is more then a giantnovel some people make in church.. praying is something that is a confusion.
comment? answer? respond? have fun
Prayer tends to be a very personal thing. Some people use a lot of words because they are wordy. Others use few words because they are more succinct.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to be totally honest here and say that there are times my mind starts to wonder when I hear someone who is particularly wordy. However, there are times when something is on my mind and I use that time to pray about whatever is on my mind.
It probably does feel like you are talking to yourself at first, but as your faith grows, prayer becomes a more dynamic thing. The times that you feel like you need to pray are the times when you pray best. So if you feel the need to pray more often because you are trying to be more like Jesus, then you pray better.
As for me, there are times when I don't have words. I'm thinking more of images and feelings about it. Things that I can't really put into words, but they are still prayers. Start small, like one thing that made you happy today and one thing that made you sad/mad/whatever. Say thanks for the happy and ask for help with the sad/mad/etc. Try it for two weeks and see if anything changes.
Andrea is right - prayer is personal, so make it personal for you. Be yourself! Don't make it a chore. Don't make it systematic or assign a certain time of day to pray if it doesn't help you. Honestly, I rarely pray before I go to bed, more than giving God thanks for the day, asking for a good night's rest and what not. I save my "deeper" prayers for first thing in the morning b/c that works for me. Some people prefer to save those for bedtime and that's cool...it's a personal thing. Do what works for you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't feel like you have to do it all at once. Pray several times a day about different things rather than try to remember 15 different things for one prayer.
Don't feel like you have to live up to anyone's standards when you pray. Don't put so much stock into what other people think and do - although yes, I do think many people tend to mask their own insecurities through "wordy" prayers. Still, don't let that be a roadblock from getting to know God a little better!
Remember, there is no such thing as a "bad" prayer....prayers are either honest prayers or disingenuous prayers. Personally I think you're a pretty darn honest guy and I think you probably have a real gift for prayer if you choose to discover it!