How to pray

Happy Sunday,

How is everyone doing on this amazing Sunday? I am doing great. Woke up to the rain and a tad bit of a breeze. I took the pups for a walk and decided to light the fire and enjoy some writing time.

Seems fitting that today is Sunday and I chose the topic of prayer for my blog. What made me think about prayer? Well, a couple of things. One, I heard something on a TV show last night where someone whose husband was in the hospital and unconscious, said, “God, I’m not religious, and I’m not sure how to pray, so I’m just going to start pouring my heart out to you. Please God, help my husband.” The other reason I chose prayer, because it’s something we can all do, no matter what, no matter where, no matter, we can speak to God, the Universe, or maybe, just to ourselves.

In the tv program last night, the woman saying, I’m not religious, so I’m not sure how to pray. This gave me a “hmmm” moment. I began to wonder, how many of us don’t pray because we simply, don’t know how or where to start? I know the Bible gives us a base for prayer in Matthew 6:9, ‘pray then like this.’ Then it goes on to give examples of where to go from there.

Is the lord’s prayer something we need to mimic? Perhaps, but when we repeat just the lord’s prayer or any prayer for that matter, how are we getting to truly know God? How are we truly giving our trust to him if we only repeat a specific prayer? It is in my opinion to have a relationship with God, it has to go both ways. Meaning, we have the Bible, God’s letter to us, his message to us, but there’s so much more. Sure, we can simply open his word and read, however, what would happen if we spoke to our higher power and really expressed ourselves? How much more would be gain out of a relationship with God where we talk to him like we would a trusted loved one, even a friend?

“Be true to yourself. Make each day a masterpiece. Help others. Drink deeply from good books. Make friendship a fine art. Build a shelter against a rainy day. Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings, every day.”-John Wooden.

It’s like, if we pray, even if we don’t believe in a higher power, we are speaking our feelings, be it silently or out loud, our true feelings and beliefs are being spoken. Have you ever heard the saying, “I’m talking to myself to get expert advice?” Think about it, who better knows us then ourselves, except maybe our creator.

Prayer is our connection to getting to know ourselves better. We are clearing our minds, giving meaning to our feelings, and hopefully, feeling connected to God. When we pray it seems as though the signs for what to do or how to handle a situation become way more apparent. I believe that is God, or the Universe guiding me, but if you don’t believe in something or some higher power, that’s okay, because you are pouring your heart out and by just doing that, you are able to see more clearly the path you need to be on.

Do you ever find yourself praying or simply, talking out loud, dissecting every scenario for a situation? When you do this, are you able to make a better decision on the course you should be on? Are you able to see things clearer, maybe even see where you might be on the wrong path? For me, I believe it’s God directing me, but again, if you don’t believe in God, believe in you. Believe that when you really pour your feelings, struggles, hardships or whatever is going on in your life out loud, you begin to slowly gain a better perspective on things.

“Never stop praying! Focus and ignore all negativity around you and find a healing point through prayer. God hears the prayer of the righteous.”-unknown. You see, I think the wisdom in this is, when we pray, or just talk to ourselves if no higher power is present in one’s life, just the mere fact of talking things over with ourselves, this alone can help us focus on a given situation and ignore the negative that seems to be surrounding the world today. We begin to take ourselves out of the negative and focus on a solution. “I used to believe that prayer changes things, but now I know that prayer changes us, and we change things.”-Mother Teresa.

Can we make a difference in this world? I think so. Like Mother Teresa says, prayer changes us, and we then change the things around us. A domino effect.

I know when tragedy hits close to home, people turn to God. Funny, I used to wonder why is it that God is only relevant in your life now that difficulties are present. Then my “aha” moment hit. What difference does it make when we turn to God. He’s always there for whoever should call on his name. The door is always open, all we have to do is begin.

The relationship between someone and God is theirs and theirs alone. Prayer is between you and God, the Universe, Buddha or whatever power you believe in. No judgement needed, required or wanted, it’s something nobody can take from you, other than you. Prayer is a personal communication to whatever deity you have faith in.

Dear Lord, I don’t know how to do this, but I’m here and I pray for your help, guidance and understanding. Just start talking, the rest, it will come to you. I wish I had better guidance for those that don’t believe in a higher power, but I believe the same applies, just start talking. Talk, or write it down, whichever you decide is best, just pour out your thoughts, you never know how powerful your words will become to you.

“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a friend.”-Ellen White. Whether we believe in God or not, we are opening our hearts, we are giving our feelings permission to be present. We are working towards what the problem is and finding the solution, the answer, the path, and releasing ourselves from the bondage of holding onto something that causes us so much pain.

Prayer is also a wonderful way to stay in the present. It’s a great way to be mindful of the blessings in our lives. When we pray or talk out loud, hopefully we do this for the positives in our lives too. I’m thankful for another day of life. I’m thankful for my family, I’m thankful for the roof over my head and the grace that’s been given to me today. I’m grateful and I expect nothing in return, I’m just thankful.

How does one pray? It’s up to each individual. We are all given a belief system from the time we were born, whether we adhere to it or not, we have some basis of belief. Draw from that, then begin. If you believe in God, but don’t know how to pray, then maybe start with, “God, I’m not sure how to talk to you, but I’m here and I’m going to just start talking, please guide me.” If you aren’t a believer in a higher power, then maybe start out with, “I don’t believe anyone other than myself is listening, but I’m going to begin with talking about what comes to mind, and by the way, if there is a higher power, please guide me and if not, I hope to draw from my own life experiences and knowledge to figure this out, whatever it is that needs to be figured out.”

No matter what though, be grateful for today. Find something good in today. Gravitate towards positive and find the strength to walk away from the negative. Prayer can and is, a powerful tool in this thing called life.

Well guys, I hope you enjoyed the blog today. I hope it made sense and please don’t forget, until next time, Love Life++