Prayer Question
I received an email from a blog reader today and I thought I’d share the question and my response here. Thought it might be helpful for more than just this one guy. The question was: “My prayer life is really screwed-up. I was taught that a prayer life is a dialogue with God, through Jesus, about how to grow closer, gain insight and follow Christ. My prayers are rantings, raving, and venting about stupid and ridiculous things. Where did I go wrong?”
My response was pretty basic and doesn’t cover everything, but here’s what I suggested: “Thanks for the email. The fact that you are concerned about this shows that you care. There is a way to dialogue with God, but there’s not only one way. You have to find your own way to pray. I recommend finding some solid books on prayer, talking to a priest, listening to CDs/mp3s on the topic, etc.
Start with this, to get back into the swing of properly ordered prayer… A.C.T.S. is an acronym to structure your prayer. It may help.
- Adoration – Adoring God.
- Contrition – Showing remorse for your sins against God.
- Thanksgiving – Giving thanks for anything and everything.
- Supplication – Asking God for things/requests that you need/want.
You can also spend time, not only in contemplative prayer, but in meditation, journaling, sitting in silence, repetitive prayer, spending time in Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, etc.
All the best. Keep trying!”
TrueMan up!
I came on this page after I had searched for something. First, love the page. Ran down the headings and came to the one wondering where they had gone wrong on prayer. Prayer had become a place of venting and ranting….that can be all of us. Maybe he just needs to sit and listen. We dont have to have all the right words or thoughts because God’s Word says his Spirit will intervene when we do not know what or how to pray. So just sit and be one with the Spirit and let Him guide.
My son prepares to graduate this year. I have a prayer chair that has seen me struggle in the same manner. As I was reading in Phillipians the other day, God reminded me that we make matters so much harder than we should. Paul wrote to the Phillipians “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ…”. Phil. 1:9-11 I sit in my prayer chair to set my husband, children, friends, church…. at the feet of my Father and try to figure out what to pray. If I just pray God’s Word above in my life and that of those around me – Wow, can you imagine. That the love of God would abound more and more, and that out of our love and desire for obedience we would be filled with His knowledge and insight – we would all make better decisions, treat people differenly, handle crisis calmly. We would see that God desires the “best” for us and nothing less. So, I so appreciate this individual’s transparency and can empathize with the struggle.