| Author | Message | ||
| Sara Registered user Username: Sara Post Number: 29 Registered: 5-2007 |
Has prayer changed since leaving SDA, or even before you left? Prayer used to start with, "Our dear kind heavenly father, (said in one breath, no pauses)we ask......and end with, "in jesus name we pray amen", (also with one breath, no pauses.) Prayer is very different for me now, and still changing as I know Him more. Im just really beginning to be honest in talk (prayer) with God. Old habits of scipted prayer and gimme prayer are hard to break! Last night was a really different sense of prayer. Streching the boundaries of what prayer means and feels like for me now. I wanted to try to give an example. I was talking with a couple friends. We were meeting for a praise music gig and had arrived early. The conversations between three went something like this.... "Hey, is anyone else coming?"... "I heard Jesus is" "Well, actually He is already here--points to self.. "Yea, I was just talking to Him a minute ago" "He said to tell you Hi, greet you with a kiss  !" "He is excited about tonight" "yeah, me too" "Yeah, he saw a bunch of weak people, and decided to come on down." ...laughter all around ..."we wont be weak for long" "nope" etc. etc. I was light banter, slighty irreverant, but somehow not, and it felt so real, and it was real. I couldn't help but contrast that whole conversation with the old concept of prayer. The conversation WAS prayer, the whole thing, because Jesus was brought into the communication. Thats a unusual example, but it made me realize how much the "idea" of praying has changed, just like so many other things. How is your prayer life changing, or is it? Sara | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 4062 Registered: 3-2004  |
Sara, You read the prayer I learned from my 12 step group. That is where I really learned to be honest with God. I can now pray with people I do not know because they need a prayer. I can talk about prayer with others. Every thing has changed since Jesus and I became very good friends. He is more than a friend. He is my Savior. Diana | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 1182 Registered: 9-2006  |
Sara, I don't think it has changed with Adventist, at least the ones I know, they start and end with the same thing you said. River | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 6420 Registered: 12-2003  |
Interesting question, Sara. I find I pray more. When I started teaching at Arrowhead Christian Academy shortly after we left Adventism, I realized soon that teaching as a secure Christ-follower was different from how i taught as an Adventist. While I had always prayed about my teaching and about my students, I had never prayed much in the classroom. At ACA, however, I began praying "on my feet", so to speak, sometimes praying simultaneously with talking, asking God to give me words to say and to make sure whatever He wanted said, was said. I also prayed on the spot (in my head, of course) if discipline problems arose, and another thing I'd never thought to do as an Adventist was to sit at my desk while the kids were journaling and pray for each one by name while they wrote. I'm also praying for different things than I used to. I pray often that He'll hold me in truth and reality. I pray that He will be all I need, and I find He reminds me to literally praise Him, sometimes reciting verses of praise (such as 1 Timothy 1:17) when I feel down or overwhelmed. I'm finding that God asks me not so much to pray that I'll feel better, but He asks me to trust Hm and to praise Him. My prayers are, as you said, Sara, more honest, and I'm more aware that He wants to glorify Himself, not "please" me. I am most at peace when I am submitting to Him for His will to be done. It's hard to explain, actually. But prayer has become a part of submitting, and submitting is more and more becoming my personal issue before God. It's so interesting how God changes us and our relating to Him as time goes on! Colleen |
