Prayer............

Prayer is the heart of relationship with God. Through prayer we deaw close to Him; we listen to Him; we share our desires and our concern for others. It's like having a heart to heart discussion with your best friend. Jesus addressed God as 'Abba' or 'Daddy'. Too often our model for prayer has been the presentation of a shopping list to God with the adding on the end "according to your will", we sometimes almost fear talking to Him in case He has something that He asks of us.

Richard Foster says in his book "Prayer", "Real prayer comes not from gritting our teeth, but from falling in love." And so, real prayer comes from an intimate relationship with God. A developing, actively engaged relationship with our Heavenly Father, not a casual fling, but a real intentional, itimate relationship.

It's been interesting over the past few weeks as I have been praying for a few different friends. Why is it that some people I have been praying for have had their prayer answered, yet others are not.........or so it would seem to them. It is devestating when we feel that we haven't seen the answer to our prayer, or perhaps seen it answered in the way that we want. But we have to believe that God has our best interests at heart, He knows what is in the future for us and He is in control.

In my quiet times I have been looking at different spiritual disciplines and so I offer this as a way to pray this week, I'm going to certainly try it.

Soaking prayer......................
The emphasis is on rest, as opposed to striving, in prayer. You lie or sit in a comfortable position and use softly playing, intimate worship music to help you quiet your soul and draw near to God. It may take a while for the quietning to happen and an awareness of God's presence to develop, so it's often helpful to 'soak' for 30-60 minutes. "With simplicity of heart we allow ourselves to be gathered up ointo the arms of the Father and let him sing his love song over us." (Richard Foster, Prayer)

Blessings on the journey...............................Love Kylie xxx

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