Another Way to Pray…

Prayers:

For most of us they are cries for help.

World-wide.

Just look at the prayer lists in any given church, upwards of 40 or more people each prayed for, probably on a daily basis, by loved ones, prayer-chains and whole religious communities, wanting God to fix things!

Our liturgical service gives over a whole segment to what are called ‘bidding’ prayers…

covering a wide variety of concerns to include:

The church, the clergy, the collective people that they may be faithful ministers and humble servants,

The state or country and its governing entities in the hopes of justice and peace,

The living that they may be delivered from any grief or trouble,

Those departed that they may rest in eternal peace,

and anything else not previously covered.

This formal form of entreaty is a gem, passed down by the ancient church;

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Silence is kept between each petition and the congregation can intercede as ‘bidden’ hence the name, Bidding Prayers.

In my personal prayer I too tend to lean heavily towards the supplication, the asking;

the-plead- and-beseech-form of crying out.

One morning this week I was pondering how many people in my family, community or the world spend their time giving thanks to God, or anyone for that matter?

How many of us complain, grumble, moan, rail at God when there’s trouble at mill? 

How many of us think to praise and fall on bended knee when life is going well?

I for one, in my life, am quick to find fault, slow to praise.

I must generate a lot of negative energy just by entering a room.

So it is with my prayer-life.  When all I do is dwell upon the darker aspects of my being I sink deeper into my gloom.

I feel myself growing more agitated, panic rises, breathing shallows until my heart feels as though it’s going to burst from my chest and my throat constricts.

I’ve decided that praying this way makes things worse.

Better to find my breath as I do at the start of every Yoga class.

To gently push thoughts from my mind and suspend myself in the living waters of God,

To stand quietly in God’s presence.

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Last week Hubs and I studied Psalm 100, not for the first time in my life but for the first time during this season of exploration into a more positive form of prayer,

and I discerned a truth, a treasure that makes my spirit soar.

‘Be joyful in the Lord, all you lands; serve the Lord with gladness and come before his presence with a song.

‘Know this: The Lord himself is God; he himself has made us, and we are his; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving; go into his courts with praise; give thanks to him and call upon his Name

‘For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his faithfulness endures from age to age.’

How about calling on his name with joy

because he is good?

Consider entering his gates with thanksgiving and a smile.

Singing in his presence.

Serving him with gladness.

For when I truly believe that the Lord, who is God, made me,

that I am his,

a sheep of his pasture,

and that his mercy is everlasting and his faithfulness is forever,

I will be like one who dreams. (Psalm126)

My mouth will be filled with laughter, trickling and bubbling like fizzy water that makes my nose twitch, my lips smile,

and utter joy will engulf me.

I will watch as this joy gushes and tumbles – like the water courses of Footlights after a summer rain – from my tongue and flows like the living water Jesus promised the Samaritan woman at the well.

And when I thank God for everything in my imperfect life

my woes will become the morning mist that vanishes with sunrise,

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and the rooms I enter will be suffused with positive energy.

Amen.

 

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