How is your prayer life?
In Yesterday’s sermon, Rev Jane reminded us that like Lent, Advent is a season of reflection and prayerfulness. This prompted me to ask, how is your prayer life?
I will let you in to a secret, well it is probably not that much of a secret, but I sometimes find prayer difficult and a bit of a struggle and I have a sneaky suspicion I am not alone with feeling like that!
I have several books on the subject, many claiming to make prayer simple, others giving great long explanations of prayer and the benefits a life of prayer brings. I even have books with prayers already written, just waiting for me to read them and bring them to life! I have to admit, sometimes I find these books useful, other times they leave me feeling like my prayers are inadequate and perhaps I should just give up with all this prayer lark, as I am obviously just not doing it right or enough!
During March of this year when the WHO announced that Coronavirus was now a pandemic, Google searches for prayer increased by around 50%, the figures were higher than would be expected for seasonal events such as Christmas and Easter. In a world of secularism, where we are being told that Churches are in decline, this statistic shows that even if only in times of crisis, our hearts, like magnets are drawn towards the God that created us.
As Christians we know that Prayer is something that we are called to do, but often we can find ourselves struggling. There are many passages in the Bible that give us glimpses into the prayer life of others, if you have time today, see how many you can find. There are stories of persistence, of answered prayers, people praying alone and together and many, many more. We read how Jesus took himself of to a quiet place to pray and how he asked his disciples to stay awake and pray for him, we even have the account of when the disciples asked Jesus to teach them how to pray and He gave them the Lord’s prayer.
There are so many tools, guides etc designed to help us to pray, but sometimes they can make things complicated and leave us feeing overwhelmed. Over the next few days, I am going to share some different ways to pray, in the hope that together we will feel more confident in our approach to prayer and grow deeper in our relationship with God.
To prepare for this, go back to my initial question and ask yourself – how is my prayer life?
I would like to leave you today with some scripture from Romans 8:26
In the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans.
Please be assured, that even when we do not know what to say, or how to say it, God is with us and He hears us
Amen