Creative prayer - 19 ideas to help you pray
Posted by Anne Witton on Monday, July 21, 2014 Under: Prayer
Recently, I've been inspired by the power of prayer and challenged to pray more. If we're honest, we all find it difficult to pray sometimes - whether that's because we're wrestling with doubts, going through a time of great pain, or just getting distracted by work, family, household chores, TV or iPhone apps.
Over the years, I've been making a list of ideas to help me pray and one evening at housegroup we all shared things that we found helpful. I hope you find them helpful too.
[This blog post was originally published on my photography website - www.annewitton.org.uk]
- Write prayers down
- In a journal
- In an email
- In a text - Make lists of things to pray for (and think about how you can practically help as well)
- Make a 'timetable' of topics and people to pray for each day / week / month
- Have a 'prayer board' on the wall in your house to pin prayer requests to
- Use the church directory / address book if you have one to make sure that you're praying for people that aren't necessarily in your close circle of friends
- Text verses to encourage people and let them know you're praying for them
- Use the Bible to pray - pray verses over people
- Get into prayer habits - associate prayers with places. (For example, one friend always prays when going over a particular bridge in Newcastle). Have a special place where you go to pray on a regular basis.
- Use a daily template - perhaps liturgy or a prayer book
- Meet with others to pray in triplets or 'prayer squares'
- Pray spontaneously with people when you meet up with them rather than waiting until later
- Have people that you are accountable to about your prayer life, who will ask you on a regular basis how it's going
- Go for a run / walk / swim and pray while you are doing it
- Have a 'prayer party' with drinks and nibbles where you each have a wine glass filled with prayer requests on bits of paper. As you mingle around, you take a prayer request out of someone's glass and pray briefly for them before moving on to the next person.
- Have a thanksgiving dinner and encourage people to share with others about what they're thankful to God for. Pray between courses.
- Have a pack of cards and stick the photo of a friend / leader / mission partner on each card. Each day, take one of the cards and pray for that person.
- Run a prayer 'treasure hunt'. If you live with someone else, get them to hide prayer requests round the house and then pray for each of them as you find them.
- If you share a house with other Christians or have a communal area, make little pigeon holes / envelopes where people can leave their prayer requests. Each day, take a prayer request and pray for that person throughout the day.
- Be creative in your prayer - paint a picture, make a model or draw a diagram
[This blog post was originally published on my photography website - www.annewitton.org.uk]
In : Prayer
Tags: prayer creativity faith
