I remember a talk with an investigator
of the church about prayers. He sometimes had a hard time to pray out
loud with the missonaries and me. He always followed the same scheme
and had it written down on a paper. 1) Adress God 2) Thank him 3) Ask
him 4) Close in the name of our Savior.
This made him nervous; what if I ask
before thanking? Well there is nothing wrong with that and also,
prayer can be said in one's mind or out loud. Some people find that
praying out loud makes it easier for them to focus. For me I rather
pray in silence when I am by myself.
When it comes to pray in a group there
are lots of reasons why people find it hard to pray out loud.
They might be shy or they worry about
what people will think of them if they stumble over their words.
Sometimes I have found it hard to pray out loud and when I was an
investigator a member of the church said after a prayer; that was an
honest prayer. Yes, my prayer was honest but it made me think; what
has been wrong with my other prayers?
When hearing a prayer in a group or at
meetings in a church it is nothing wrong if you don´t get a strong
feeling from the spirit. Important is that the person saying the
prayer is honest and might be the Holy Spirit gave something to
another member in the group. I have heard prayers in ward meetings
that have touched my heart right there and then. Sometimes praying
together goes hand in hand with sharing our struggles. And that is
good.
On the other hand one pattern that
consistently appears in the Book of Mormon is that people often go to
a private place to pray. For example Nephi went out:
"And it came to pass that he went out
and bowed himself down upon the earth, and cried mightily to his God
in behalf of his people, yea, those who were about to be destroyed
because of their faith in the tradition of their fathers." (3 Nephi
3:11)
Prayer is the way we communicate with
God and as long as we are honest God will hear us.
I also think there are different kinds
of prayers.
Your body needs lots of nutrients to
help you grow and to give you energy to do everything that you.
Sometimes when we are on the run we have to have a fast snack to get
the energy that will keep us going. But every day we also need
proper meels. A good breakfast is for example important.
The same thing with our prayers; Yes we
are busy people sometimes and can have a ”snack-prayer” in our
lifes. I can have it many times during a day. But to get the
nutrition for my soul i really try to put time into my morning
prayer. Wath do the Lord want from me today? And at least one other
”healthy-meal” prayer during the day.
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