Thoughts on Prayer (1)

From time to time I will post some thoughts on prayer and observations on praying.  I have just packed away the materials from our prayer space, and felt really moved to share the experience of the time I have just spent in prayer as part of Prayer For The City Glasgow.

For some weeks now personally I have been under heavy spiritual attack, and have very much been learning the lessons that the apostle Peter extols us to learn about rejoicing in suffering!  I have to say that for the majority of time over the last weeks I have remained positive and sought to rejoice in all things.  I have had some amazing support from family & friends, which has enabled me to keep focussed on God.  However, the last couple of days have been a real struggle.  I have found myself becoming frustrated and hardened to my situation.  This is a dangerous place to be.  To harden oneself is often a way of trying to protect from further hurt.  However, my experience is that ultimately God will break through the heardened heart, but the harder we allow ourselves to become, the more painful it can be when God has to break through. 

So it is in this context in which I came to today's prayer space. 

I'll be honest, to start with it was kind of like going through the motions.  Almost like praying by numbers!  I knew the formula so stuck to it! 

Then, bang. 

We all stopped praying out loud.  We just sat there. 

I wish I could have bottled the feelings, the atmosphere, the power of those next moments.  I have no idea how long we sat there for, probably about 30 minutes. 

In silence.  

I was able to stop the noise of my head, and let God in.  I was able to release the burdens that I have been carrying.  I was able to allow Him to soften my heart. 

As we sat in slience God spoke very clearly to me. He confirmed to me that He is still in control.

Now that wasn't the best bit!!

The best bit was the fact that sitting in that room with 6 others just sitting in the stillness, in the presence of God, we were connected.  We were each experiencing the power and presence of the Father. 

In those moments, I tried to capture what was happening:

"The power and the presence of God is at work.  Intense.  This is a family that roots itself in prayer.

Healing.  Restoring.  Forgiving.  Releasing.  Empowering.  Redemptive.  Freeing."

All of these things were happening in those moments.  After the silence we prayed.  Tears flowed.  Children laughed. We all smiled.

I really want to make sure that I embrace emotion in prayer.  We so often try to take emotion out of prayer, and I think that in doing so we are robbing ourselves of something very precious, honesty with the Father.

One of the group said this about how she felt during this time:

"It's like He's talking to you"

WOW!!  God was talking!  And amazingly, we were listening!

We have little prayer cards that we can send to people we pray for, and at the bottom of this there is a quote from St Augustine which says this:

"True, whole prayer is nothing but love."

Today, I have experienced this.  I embraced the love of God.  A love which is boundless.  It knows no end. 

It is Healing.
It is Restoring.
It is Forgiving.
It is Releasing.
It is Empowering.
It is Redemptive.
It is Freeing.

This was my experience of prayer today.  It's not always like that.  But today it was.  I thank God for it.

I pray that we embrace prayer as love, and see it's power in our lives in new and amazing ways each day, each hour and each minute of our lives.