This morning as I opened my email inbox up popped an email from Pinterest showing different ways to pray – sitting down, standing up with your head bowed, while walking, or kneeling, with your hands up reaching to the skies, bowing or prostrate, and a whole raft of other ways. Each picture shown was linked to a different bible passage – sitting down:1 Chronicles 17:25-27; standing up: Mark 11:25; and so on.
It made me pause and reflect on my own prayer life. Had I got into a rut? Was I guilty of sticking to easy prayer and what was familiar?
1Thessalonians 5:16-18 reminds us: “Be joyful always, pray at all times, be thankful in all circumstances. This is what God wants from you in your life in union with Jesus Christ”.
When we think of ‘justice’, we tend to think of doing wrong, or having wrong done to us, and criminal justice which goes through the court system. But what about doing wrong by God? What about prayer and whether we are doing justice to our prayer life and our relationship with God. Looking at the email I had received I realised that I maybe wasn’t doing Him justice at all!
How do you go to God? Do you always kneel, or sit when you speak to God? Has your prayer life become narrow and stunted, preferring to stick to the same few subjects that you take to Him?
Sometimes we need reminding of the many ways we can meet with God. Maybe it is time for a review – a pause, time for a ‘clear out’, a refresh, maybe even starting again!
Recently, through a variety of reasons, none of which were excusable, I had got into bad habits, praying for just a few things that I needed help with. I needed reminding, “Be persistent in prayer, and keep alert as you pray, giving thanks to God”. Colossians 4:2
Stop, breathe, order your thoughts. Use whatever resources you have to help you. Make some notes, use objects around you, use the season or the day ahead and behind you. Maybe a poem or a hymn may inspire you and trigger your thoughts.
Whether you pray kneeling by your bed, or jogging in the park, do it justice. I urge you to stop and think rather than launching straight into your prayers. You owe it to yourself, as well as God to make a change and do it justice.
And remember, “For this reason I tell you: when you pray and ask for something, believe that you have received it, and you will be given whatever you ask for”. Mark 11:24
Lord,
I’m sorry for the way I often come to you,
In a rush, no time, without preparation.
Without justice to its importance.
Help me to use the tools around me to guide my thoughts.
Keep my prayers anew and fresh,
Keep my prayers purposeful,
And most of all help me to grow my faith through talking with you.
Amen.
Kathy Shaw
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