Move steadily toward entering the fullness of renewal by making a daily act of will to set time aside to spend with God in prayer and reflection.
- To repent for past distractions and sins, to ask for and grant forgiveness, and to carve out a special time each day that is a sacred appointment with your loving God.
Jesus was a man of prayer. He prayed alone, with his friends, and in huge crowds. Jesus lived and prayed on purpose.
Whenever you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray…
Matthew 6:6
At its heart, prayer is a conversation with God. When you pray, you offer God the thoughts of your mind, the feelings of your heart, and the hopes of your soul.
- God offers you a listening presence that takes all you give and holds it with love and mercy.
- Because prayer is a conversation, it has two distinct parts, talking and listening.
The most transforming conversations are those between people who care about and love each other.
- In those “soul conversations, each person has enough love and respect for the other to allow the other time to speak, to pour out what fills them.
- Each conversation brings the two participants closer together, into a more intimate relationship of trust. Prayer is like that.
- If you spend all of your prayer time complaining, asking for favors, and bargaining in the face of crises, you lose a precious opportunity to come to know God, to build a relationship of trust and intimacy.
Re-source: Reflection
serious thought or consideration
Listen for the still, small voice
Ask yourself, “What am I to listen for when I pray?”
Listen for the beat of you heart, the sigh of your breath.
Listen for the calming of your pulse, the easing of your muscles.
Listen for the feeling of gentle-kindness, the welcome of a friends.
Listen for the still, small voice within – deep within.
A voice that offers peace, not condemnation; a voice that offer clarity and the desire of contrition.
A voice that offers a future, an understanding of the past; hope, the energy to live on purpose.
Prayer is your time for intimate conversation with God.
Listen.
Sit in a comfortable chair. Keep your legs and arms uncrossed, relaxed and at ease. Close your eyes. Breathe in through your nose, from your abdomen, as you feel your chest rise and your abdomen drawn in. When you can breathe in no further air, hold that breath for a moment or two. Breathe out through your mouth so that you can hear the air gently escape, and feel your chest lower and your abdomen extend. Continue to breathe in this way for two to five minutes. As you are breathing, become aware of the quite within you, your shoulders relaxing, your mind clearing. When you are finished, begin your day’s reflection and prayer.
God’s grace is generously offered to you each and every day, a thousandfold. Reflect on how well you have responded to that grace and what fruit it is bearing in your life.
craving and resource from “Habits of the Soul” – Learning to Live on Purpose – by Linda Perrone Rooney
