Thursday, September 16, 2010

Prayer and Mornings

Several evenings ago,at our church, we had our first class on prayer.
There are two different types of prayer: formal and informal.
Formal is more the memorized or book read prayers that basically are considered worship of God.
Informal prayers are like conversations where you talk to God and he in turn talks back to you.
I fall more into the second group then the first.I have never really been a formal prayer person,although I do spend some time everyday in formal prayer,I tend to find my self sliding into informal prayer rather quickly.
We also talked about prayer times and how we need to make time to not only ask for things but wait for God to answer us.
Up until today I had thought of how little prayer time I spend in the morning on days I work,but I learned something very interesting about myself and that is that I really spend more time in prayer then I realize.
This morning I awoke at 5 am and spent time saying the Jesus prayer until I dozed off.Then when my alarm sounded I pressed the snooze button and actually prayed for about 10 minutes,remembering those in need,my day ahead and my fears.
When I got up I spent another 5 minutes sitting on the sofa thanking God for all he has done for me by just allowing me to be alive and the beauty of the world around me,how lucky I was to be here to enjoy such loveliness.
After spending time in the bathroom preparing my self for the day ahead I then sat on the sofa for another 10 minutes and went over some issues between God and myself and has I was driving to work caught myself,on and off, in thoughts and prayers.
So I guess I spend more time with God on my work days then I thought I did.
Now weather or not its quality time I'm not sure,but I do know it certainly surprised me as I added up all the minutes.
Maybe I'm not as off the mark has I thought I was and now I just need to work on the receiving part of the conversation.
Being an out going person I tend to feel like I have to do all the talking and not so much listening.
I think this is a need,on my part,to be in control and listening requires more submission and less control.
something to work on.

No comments: