Matt Jones' Random Acts of Verbiage

In Bible Study we have been talking about prayer. We decided to do a “Prayer Triathlon” where we did prayer in ways that we may not normally do. It was “designed” to take us out of our comfort zone and hopefully experience God in a different and meaningful way. We did prayer through scripture, written prayer, and communal prayer. We did each “event” for 20 minutes which I thought was perfect. Often in communal prayer it feels like we try and rush through it so we can get on to the next thing. Setting a specific length helped us relax and just pray what we needed to pray. I thought I would post my written prayer. I have never written my prayers, ever. This is a first attempt that was good for me, I think it helped me stay focused on God instead of having my thoughts all over the place. Be kind, my heart is on my sleeve for this one! It is kind of a streaming of consciousness thing. I hope it is an encouragement to you to try something new to bring you closer to God.

God, this is a time to write our prayers to You. This is difficult for me as I don’t write very often, but I suppose it is good to get some thoughts down on paper. Prayer has always been difficult for me as I get distracted easily. This is good because it helps me focus on You. God I just pray that you would send Your Spirit to guide me. I mess up so often and You are so gracious to me in my failures. While I have gone astray you have still given greatly to me, much more than I deserve. You truly are bigger than anything I could imagine and yet You walk along side me every second and never leave me. Even if I have strayed from your will, you are still there to help me back when ever I realize my misstep. I pray that you would give me the courage to live the life you have given to me and not try to be anything apart from You, deceiving myself into thinking I have done anything of my own cognition or apart from You. You have given much - all praise and glory are Yours and Yours alone. I pray that you would grant wisdom to those making tough decisions, courage to those feeling scared, strength to those feeling weak, peace to those feeling anxious, rest to those feeling tired and that we would recognize You as the one who bestows these gifts to the ungrateful and undeserving, myself included. Thank you for sending Your Spirit. Amen.

Shalom