I’ve never been that good at praying.
I see the value in spending time before God in prayer but it has never been my forte. Spending time in God’s word has always been the most fruitful spiritual discipline for me. I love God’s word and reading it has even moved me to tears. When it comes to praying, though, my time hasn’t been as fruitful.
For a lot of people prayer comes as naturally as breathing. I am very envious of those people because, more often than not, prayer is a struggle for me.
I’ve fallen asleep while praying.
I’ve rushed through my prayers to play video games.
I’ve lost track of what I was praying and decided to quit before I got too much further behind.
Recently, though, a lot of my friends and coworkers have been exploring different ways of praying. I grew up in a Baptist tradition so I didn’t experience a lot of liturgy or set prayers. My friends, though, have been exploring liturgy and set prayers and their influence has rubbed off on me.
So instead of the most recent Star Wars novel sitting by my bed, I’ve got an Eastern Orthodox Book of Prayer. I’ve been going through some of the prayers this week and I’m enjoying the added structure to my prayer life. I’ve always liked rules and set prayers provide some structure that I didn’t realize my prayer life was missing.
I’m excited for this new experience and I hope that it produces some fruit in my life. Even if it doesn’t produce a lot fruit at least I get to read a prayer book with names that remind me of 300.
What has benefitted your prayer life?
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