Prayers for the otherwise engaged….

I don’t know about you, but I used to dread sermons on personal prayer. I mean not as the listener, but as the author of the sermon. You see I can’t preach a sermon that I don’t believe in, nor can I preach a sermon until I am convicted by the message and I’ve done something about it. So sermons about prayer used to cause me a bit of a headache. Over the years I’ve read some really good books no prayer, on the necessity to pray, BUT one things would always cause me a problem… actually praying – why because of my wandering mind!

Picture the scene, mug of tea in hand, bible study finished, now its time to pray and all I can think of is shopping lists, chores, work, fluffy bunnies and the slight pain in my right leg – distractions all around me and to be honest, the result, was always short distracted prayers that appeased my conscious but felt really like a fleeting conversation.

This was until I decided to write my prayers down! Not polished finished prayers with neat handwriting but whatever is in my head and all the things I need to pray for the day and all the people I am committed to pray for. Consequently I have journal after journal of scrawled prayers…most illegible, but blissfully clear to the creator. I have to say, this simple act of writing, has changed my prayer life radically. When I now say to someone I’ll pray for you, I do, and not in a quick fleeting way, but in real in depth prayers. When I look ahead to the day and the tasks, I pray through each one, often the same prayer, Lord make me effective and efficient, help to be the person you have called me to be for such a time as this.

So if you like me struggle with prayer, my encouragement to you, is to grab a pen and paper and start writing, letting the thoughts of your mind and the meditations of your heart adorn the pages, so that our creator, the Lord almighty can hear from you more!