Having come from a non-liturgical church background, we scorned the use of prayer books and written prayers. Not spontaneous. It ounded weird use prayer prompts,
But I found that I never had the same feelings about from conversation prompts I found in books or with the cards from the old game UNO. In fact I used them a great deal to stimulate family conversations and to move onto deeper subjects. The prompts give me questions to ask and discuss. I am pleasantly surprised at the insights I receive from those conversations.
With the increased call to pray, I wanted to have prayer books. I sought them out. I even bought one on ebay,just to have a prayer books. As I read through some of the prayers I was impressed with how much they reflected and incorporated scripture.
As the pastor talked, I noted when he mentioned patterns of prayer and through PRAY! magazine I discovered prayer cards that Ialso use to direct my prayers on specific issues.
I do not use the lists like a robot or a prayer wheel. I use them because there is no need tore-invent the wheel. The patterns, thoughts and examples exist and abound. Christ Himself gave us the Lord's Prayer, and I have discovered and enjoyed the thoughts of others on how they use that prayer as a pattern to one's prayer time.
Recently I S-L-O-W-L-Y read the Psalms and realized, oh ... is that how one praisesGod! I actually found myself writing out some praises of my own echoingthe Psalms. Praise that simply flowed.Astounding. Me flowing with praise in words. Yes, I always appreciated and wondered at God's abundance, but not that way.
I have always wondered HOW Daniel could pray three times a day. But as I write this I realize, with God's blessings, Daniel had plenty for which to praise God, and of course as a leader, plenty of topics on which to seek His wisdom. Now I guess need to sit down and study whatever in recorded of Daniel's prayers to gain insight into the patterns and prompts his prayers provide.
God does not leave us without resources or the means to do what He commands, I just need to look around and see what He had provided.
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