It never used to bother me much, but now, one of the most yucky feelings in the world to me is pretending to be someone I'm not. So a few years ago (after a lifetime of considering myself a Christian), I decided that I didn't want to just be someone who talked about prayer - I wanted to actually practice it regularly. Yikes. And so began a beautiful, weird journey of trying to unlearn and relearn how to pray. Here's one of the things I found: even after many years of theoretically knowing how to pray, it's somehow still a pretty difficult thing to do. I don't mean that it's complicated - it's really rather simple in theory. But somehow, it's...hard. That's why the majority of us would rather just comment 'praying for you!' instead of actually sitting down to pray. Since discovering that prayer was in fact not as easy as I was promised it was, I searched high and low for some resources to help me re-learn. One of the best gifts I discovered was the words of others! - prayers and liturgies from Christians who had gone before me. And wow, I was so skeptical at first. Because obviously if I'm not praying my own words and thoughts, my prayers must not be sincere and personal, right? (I perhaps will call this belief out as a result of the nondenominational-skeptical of all tradition-anything that didn't originate in my brain must be less true-individualist uncatholic Christianity I came to believe over the years...which is not actually Christianity at all!) Jeez, I couldn't have been more wrong. My prayer time was absolutely wrecked (in the best way). Trust me, I'm still no expert when it comes to prayer. (And thankfully, I don't have to be!) But over the last five years or so, I've been able to slow down and learn so much about having conversations with God. Prayer has brought me peace in the midst of anxiety, joy in the midst of trials, and a sense of being anchored in the middle of change. Prayer is it, ya'll. Prayers doesn't require any fancy words, any particular body position, special status, or otherwise. Of course, what worked for me in reconstructing my faith in my mind-20s, may not strike a chord with you. But in the last five years, prayer has totally transformed my mind, heart, and life. So, if you've been able to relate to anything I've said about prayer - here are some of the resources that have helped me re-learn how to pray.
This app has been revolutionary in my life in teaching me that prayer is, at its core, a practice of slowing down to just be in God's presence. Prayer isn't just a lot of talking and feeling like your words are hitting the ceiling - prayer is more like a state of being. These guided meditations have taught me how to breathe, chew on Scripture, and zero in to the Spirit. They're ~15 minute chunks of podcast that you can find on pretty much any podcast platform or on their app. I rave about slō to anyone who will listen - it's a fantastic resource to help you connect with God through stillness in your everyday life.
This book was written in 2010 as an updated universal prayer guide to unite believers across the world around common prayers rooted in the traditions of global Christianity. This book includes prayers, scripture readings, and songs (from every denomination and culture) dated for every day of the year. I love especially that it provides centering thoughts around significant dates and Christian heroes in church history, as well as important historic dates in the struggle for freedom and justice. This was one of the places I started on my journey to restructure my prayer time with God, and I am on my third year of cycling through this book. It's phenomenal, and helps me expand my narrow lens of Christianity to give me a global perspective (which we all desperately need).
3. Nature
Honestly, being outside in creation is one of my best suggestions to anyone wanting to re-learn how to pray. Something special happens when we slow down to take time to be with nature. Undoubtedly, science affirms that getting outside has a host of benefits for your body and soul. Nothing complicated to write about here - let the sounds of creation do the heavy lifting. We can learn so much from nature and the peace and stillness of water, trees, and birds who are free to just be unhurried with God.
4. The Psalms! Praying through the psalms has been pretty transformative for me over the last few years. Of course, some Psalms are a little easier to pray than others - but this book of poetry really is a masterclass in re-learning how to pray. Did you know that the majority of the Psalms are actually prayers of lament/complaint? When was the last time you complained to God honestly instead of praying flowery cliches about your awful, gut-wrenching situation? The Psalms teach us that we don't have to pray 'politically correct' [or even theologically correct!!] prayers. God can handle our gut honesty - in fact, He wants it. He answers when His people cry out. Pray through the Psalms. It's what Jesus did. It might just wreck everything you think you know about God.
5. Other books of prayers
In my journey of learning to use others' words to God to help form my own, I've come across some lovely books of prayers that have helped center me and shape me in my prayer time. Here are a few favorites:
For Parents: Praying the Scriptures for Your Children
For kids: Little Prayers for Ordinary Days
6. A good ol' paper and pen Writing down my prayers to God and being able to see, read, and look back on them through seasons of life has been such a gift. This is just one of my tried and true ways to pray - there's something about the physical act of writing out words to God that is special to me. Often it's just chicken scratch, but the opportunity to be creative and artistic is a welcome deviation from the norm for me to pray, too. Grab a good journal and make it your book of prayers!
Henri Nouwen once said, "The only way to pray is to pray, and the way to pray well is to pray much."
Let's get to it :)
Comments