Tuesday, 13 January 2009
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Writing My Prayers is Not Wrong
Guest post by rebelwithcause
For the past couple of days I've been wondering about how to pray to God. I'm a writer, so I tend to communicate a tad bit better through a pen and paper. So, I solicited the help of my prayer partner as well as my own prayers in seeking God on this matter. What is most acceptable to Him? Sometimes I feel like writing out my prayers can be a cop out. Like I don't feel like talking today, Lord, so I'll just write instead. But we're supposed to sacrifice our feelings for God. If I didn't do a lot of things because of the way that I felt then I would NEVER do anything. I feel more comfortable writing because it's what I do. Is God pleased with that? I'm reminded of the scripture that says, "death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit." Even in James, it says that even the greatest most powerful horse is controlled by a tiny bit in its mouth. So if what we say has so much power then why NOT pray out loud? Especially when they word of God encourages us to speak those things that are not as though they are (Romans 4:17).
So what does that mean? I think that sometimes God will answer prayers with answers that leave us even more confused than when we first asked the question. For instance,
Me: God should I turn left or right?
God: Go the way in which I have told you.
Me: HUH?!Sometimes the answers to our most complex questions are as simple as yes or no and most of the time, they are right in front of our faces.
I prayed this prayer about whether or not to pray out loud or write out my prayers and signed onto Revelife. The question of the day just so happened to be "How do you approach God?" and God spoke to me through that blog:
"I think the key to not become unbalanced is to come to God with our whole selves, that is, our heart, our minds, our bodies, our spirits. Every part of us that we know how to use, we ought to use to worship God with. Deut 6:5 says that we ought to worship God with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength."
~mo_chic_for_jesusI love to write. I'm a journalism major, a poet, and an author. That's what I do and God is using my writing to further my ministry. But do I only use this outlet to speak to Him?
"No" – His answer was as simple as that. "Writing to me is good, praying out loud is good, meditating is good, reciting scriptures is great. But I want ALL of you. Not just 1/4. So if that means you are laid prostrate with a journal and a pen in one hand, iPod in the other, writing a poem and singing praise and worship songs then that's what I want. I want your heart, your mind, your soul and ALL of your strength." I give it all to you, oh God! I surrender!
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- From: rebelwithcause
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Comments (49)
I love writing or typing out my prayers. It is easier to stay focused and you get everything out that you want to get out. It works wonders!
I am starting to find out that writing how I feel is becoming 10 times better than saying, ESPECIALLY in those times when I don't know what to say. Then I love seing my progression from one old prayer to the next, and seeing my growth or what I am still dealing with, and prayers answered.
Awesome post ;) I will continue to do it
Oh yea: I also read aloud at times, and that helps get a convo going sometimes when It' s hard to.
I'm so glad that post blessed you!
I personally write my prayers most of the time, because I have a really hard time just sitting still and praying, and writing helps me keep my thoughts focused, and it gives me a tactile thing to do (I'm very tactile) to keep me on task. It also forces me to be more deliberate, thoughtful, and disciplined about what I am praying, because it is slower, much slower than I could simply say or think.
I also pray in toungues, in English silently and aloud, sing worship songs, write poetry, dance, paint, draw, etc. There are so many different kinds of ways to communicate to God, some of them don't even use words. The Bible even talks about "groanings" which are too deep for words.
But the most consistent thing I do is to write out my prayers, I rarely deviate from that in my daily quiet time. I get frustrated with it sometimes, because it seems so ineffecient, but, for now, I just don't have the focus to be able to sit and pray, unless there's a heavy anointing.
Longest. Reply. Ever.
Writers should communicate in the way best suited for them. It doesn't matter if you even find a way to send text messages to God. It's all prayer.
If you think about it, writing out your prayers helps you think about them more and develop them. It takes half a second to think a prayer, a few minutes to write out those same words and by then you'll be adding more.
a ton of prayers were written in the form of poetry in the torah. I write a lot of my prayers out, its a lot easier at times.
It's cool that so many others write their prayers out too! It helps me focus and I communicate better on paper. It's also cool to be able to go back and read them and see what I was praying about previously and the awesome things God has done in my life since then!
I write quite a few of my prayers out, as I also realize that when God's speaking to me, I don't want to forget what He is saying to me...sometimes it could be as big as what he wants me to do next, or as little as Him saying "I Love You" which is a big deal to me...so I write that down! But I'm like you...WRITING is my thing-I'm a communications major, editor of the paper, author, and so is MUSIC-I sing and write music...so often I will sit there with music on, writing while it's playing, or I'll write songs as devotion to God...it's amazing how many different ways there are to pray...and GOd hears ALL of them-why? Because they come from the HEART! So I say whatever is in your heart, thats what you do! Great post!
I also love writing out my prayers. God has given me the love to write and a gift, I love using it to communicate with Him and it also gives me the opportunity to revisit. Today I was able to bless a co-worker with a copy of a prayer that I had personalized for her. I prayed that the armor of God be placed on her piece by piece. Had I not written that prayer, I could not have shared it with her when she needed the extra encouragement. Look at the book of Psalms - it is like a prayer and praise book that David wrote.
Speaking to God doesn't just mean audible words that come from our lips. The mute speak to the Lord just as loudly or as quietly as one who has the ability to speak. We speak from our hearts! Speak, shout, write, draw, dance ... praises to the Lord!
Bless you sweetie!
David wrote the psalms, which are prayers to God. I wouldn't call those cop outs. I write my prayers sometimes to keep from pointless repitition and to express deeper issues. It also helps me keep track of my thoughts, keep from distraction, and serves as a log of prayers to look back over and see what God has done for me.
I agree we need to surrender our all to God- and I hope all Christians strive to do so more and more in life.
I'm a writer as well. I call writing "home," and it's simply what I do. I can definitely relate. I do think that it's important that we have on-going dialogues with God in our life.. wherever we may be. However, I definitely write my prayers A LOT. It helps organize my thoughts, what I want to say. For some reason it flows much, much better and overall.. I'm able to communicate better through writing. And like you, I find nothing wrong with this. If we have this sort of gift, it's probably best used to communicate with our Savior better.
Best wishes
"I want your heart, your mind, your soul and ALL of your strength."
Was it just me, or did that sound more like a zombie than God?
I don't think it really matters how you pray, if that's what you want to do. Considering there are people out there who can't speak (for whatever reason), it would be rather cruel for God to create people like that and then declare that the only "right" way to pray was through speech.
To me, writing out your prayers is a wonderful way to go back, in the future, and see what God has truly done in your life, OR what YOU have done for HIM! This is an excellent post!!! LOVE it!
Anything that will draw us closer to God is always a good thing.
I write a lot of prayers in conjunction with what God is showing me in Scripture and then the real beauty of that is you can look back and see how God has answered. However, I do think there is something to be said for the spoken word as well.
We have to remember that God is not critiquing us on how we phrase something or on our grammar, but rather He is looking at our hearts. We can write or say the most perfectly sounding prayers, but God will disregard them if our hearts are not right before Him.
Writing a personal prayer can be a wonderful way to communicate with a loving Father in Heaven and feel His Spirit. However, I don't do it regularly because my heart-felt communion and feelings cannot be written as well as they can be spoken.
Also, with few exceptions, I do not think it is a good idea to read a written prayer in public, say in a congregation or class. In those situations we need to give the Holy Spirit full opportunity to inspire us to speak in behalf of all those for whom and with whom we are praying.
Blessings as you search out what it means to give Him ALL of you! Great post-
Writing prayers is good because you can go back later and look at how He answered them. You will be surprised.
I love this.
@LadyLibellule@xanga - That's biblical. Deuteronomy 6:5.
I thank everyone for their comments. I think what I was saying, however, was not that ALL people should speak out loud when they pray. But that I felt like God was charging me to speak out loud when I pray. That He was trying to develop my prayer life and since this post was posted (about a week) I have seen tremendous growth in my prayer life. Through writing as well as speaking them out loud.
I do charge all those who said something about people who are mute praying to read the Word of God and find out how much he talks about the power of the tongue. Being mute is a whole different level. They "speak" in a different way. So of course this does not apply to them in a literal sense.
I definitely believe in all forms of prayer. Written, spoken, I even have "emailed" Jesus a few times. Strangely enough, a couple of times when all I had in the address section was "Jesus" it still went through, no email came back to say it couldn't be sent.
Amen!! Thank you for writing this; it really blessed me! I'm an English major (or so my college says, anyway), but really, I just love reading and writing, and have since I was a little kid (started reading at 2). Writing is how I do EVERYTHING...and yet, I'm supposed to pray to God out loud? Why do that if my gift is in writing? I'm seen more results with writing my prayers out than I have in 2 years of speaking them.
God bless you!
Writing prayers is what I love to do as well. They feel so beautiful and for me I feel it is the best way to focus myself solely upon Him.... I want to try now to focus more on meditation as well as praying out loud =)
But I do believe that everyone has that one particular way of praying to the Lord which is completely between themselves and Him....
blessings
ultra
I used to have whole books I had filled with my prayers. I found it a great way to pray.
Not only to pray, but to have record of how God has worked in my life.
It was always fun and encouraging to go back and read those prayers, and circle the ones that had be answered.
I think like most things with God, it is the authenticity of the expressions of our heart that God is interested in.
Wait, where does it say we're supposed to sacrifice our feelings for God? Actually, when does God say that's what he wants from us?