Writing Out Your Prayers

As I continue down this road of discovery in prayer I am trying new things, and finding new experiences to enhance my prayer life.

This week while reading Bill Hybel's "To Busy Not To Pray" I pondered his idea of writing our your prayers... actually writing down a conversation you have with God. It sounds like a good idea, but I found it very difficult to do, and actually failed at incorporating it into my prayer time. It just felt too stilted for me.

However, the next day, instead of writing out my prayer I simply sat for a while and wrote out a list of things to pray for. How many times do we sit down to pray and about a minute in get stuck on what to talk to God about next?  I know that's one of the struggles I had, and sitting and writing out prayers hadn't helped, but as I sat and started with my family I realised that if I wrote down each name of each person in my family I could think of things to write next to each name that I could commit to prayer.  Then I wrote a title "Church" and sit was easy to put down those with big health issues that we knew about... but again it was easy to list the name of every young adult and every youth and I could think of things straight away to write down for each person.  Then I went wider than my youth and young adults and was writing down names of all different types of people in my church and each time I could list 3 things I could commit to pray for.

Then I wrote the title "Me" - and again I could succinctly list many things I need prayer for.  Then I made a title "Thankfulness" and though I slowed a little, I considered many things in my life I am thankful for God for (in hindsight maybe starting with Thankfulness is a better idea).

After this I bowed my head and prayed through this entire page of notes I had just made (starting with Thankfulness) - and by the end I was worshipping God for His greatness and the contentment I was feeling from handing so much to Him.

Praise came easy after such a thought out process of coming to God in prayer.  Though writing my prayers out didn't quite work for me, this process of listing names totally revolutionised my prayer time.

If your prayer times are dry, try something new - something completely different... if the first thing doesn't work don't give up, because God wants you to connect to Him in prayer and so you will find a way to do it effectively.