Prayer [part2]

Prayer. We’re gonna talk about prayer today. In the first issue, you were told what prayer is, what responses you might get, etc. Now we’re gonna look at how to pray. We discussed this a bit in the first issue, but now we’re going to go deeper.

The 6 Senses. Humans have 6 senses: tasting, smelling, seeing, hearing, feeling, and humor. We’re going to use the usual 5 senses in this issue. You might be wondering, What does this have to do with praying? Well, it’s pretty weird, but it’ll help a lot. Keep reading to find out.

Intro. While some people may think this is the sin of all sins, I pray with my eyes open. I pray at night, after everything in the daytime has happened. And I can’t close my eyes. I HATE closing my eyes, even when I’m tired. But that’s okay. God wants you to pray in a way that makes you comfortable – even if you have to being hopping on one foot while you’re praying (but that’s probably not comfortable). I was investigating different ways to pray when I stumbled upon the fact that when we pray we close our eyes, stop listening to everything else, and keep very still. Why? Why not use our God-given senses to pray?

Seeing prayer. When we see someone we’ve seen before, we’ve recognized that person. A certain trigger pulls at the back of our brain, and we feel an emotion – hate, sympathy, love, etc. This emotion makes it much more comfortable to talk to a person face-to-face rather than through the phone or over the internet. So, if I can, I get a picture of the person I’m praying for, keep my eyes open, and stare at it while I’m praying. That way, I feel more like I’m praying for an actual person rather than praying for thin air or an email.
Hearing prayer. I keep prayer very personal. If I’m really going deep, I don’t let anyone hear – often I keep my prayers silent. God can hear them. Yet, if I’m all alone, I like to pray aloud, so I’m hearing my voice instead of my thoughts. This reassures me of the words I’m saying, how they would sound to God, etc.

Feeling prayer. Sometimes, when a lot of people are praying for one person, they put their hand on that special someone. They do this to show the person that they are really praying for them, that they care about that person. But they also do it so they can feel the person. This way, they don’t need to have their eyes open to see the person’s face. Human touch is a comforting thing.

Smelling prayer…? Here’s an interesting way to pray. If you have something that belongs to the person you’re praying for, you can smell it. Yeah, you heard me right. Take a big whiff. Every person smells different – they might smell like soap, sweat, peppermints, or strong perfume. This will help you if you don’t have a picture to look at. This triggers that same part of your brain that recognizes faces. If your aunt or grandmother gives you a rosebush to plant, or owns an apple tree, you can smell those things while you’re praying. Soon, you won’t be able to pass by a rose without thinking of your aunt that God healed.

Tasting prayer…? Okay, I’ll admit, this is getting pretty weird. This is one way of praying I don’t use. One woman I know of uses this method. If she’s praying for starving people in China, she and her kids eat a small bowl of rice while they’re praying. If they’re praying for someone in Japan, they eat some sushi or other kind of fish. If they’re praying for someone on an island, they eat fruit while they pray, so they can really experience what the person they’re praying for is feeling.

The beautiful outdoors. I love praying outside on a sunny day. It’s so beautiful, peaceful and quiet – I can heard the wind blowing through the trees, the scurrying of rabbits, the gentle clucking of ducks, and the soft murmuring of running water, or the quiet sound of horses grazing in a field. God made all this, and it makes prayer so much more enjoyable.

So just try it. Pick one or more of the above methods of praying. Try it. You’re bound to enjoy one of them, once you get the hang of it. It might take a while to get used to the strange methods, but they work.

An everyday prayer. Pray for a different person you know every day this week. Pray that they will be blessed, they will be shown God’s love, and they will overcome whatever possibly unknown obstacle they are facing.

How do YOU pray? Post it in the comments!
Please pray…Have any prayer requests? Post it in the comments!