Finding Space for Prayer

In this blog we hear againg from Fitfish Life Coach and Ministry Leader Sharon:

I ended the last blog with this quote from John Mark Comer:

‘prayer is our opportunity to partner with God to bend the arc of human history.’

I don’t know about you, but I find that really challenging. On our recent retreat, we talked about the fact that we live in one of the most challenging periods (to date!) in human history to ‘be still.’ 

Add into the mix the extra pressures that the day throws at us. My day today didn’t get off to the best start – I left the house two minutes late, which meant I missed free parking at the station – meaning I then had to pay. The parking app then froze; I ended up paying double and missed the train. Arrived in Birmingham and realised I hadn’t bought a ticket. 

Cue another fight with an app so I could sort that and get through the barrier. Got back to the car at the end of the day to find a parking ticket!

Thankfully my days don’t usually pan out like that – but as I sat waiting at the station with a coffee in hand (keeping myself warm having encountered the first frosty start to a morning which led to the delay in leaving the house) I had a choice - to use the 30 mins delay to catch up on the work emails, or to pause and ‘take a moment.’

During our retreat, we talked about some simple prayer practices to anchor our days. 

Often these things are for a season – perhaps this could be a time to experiment with something different:

• Breath Prayers – the simple practice of taking a short verse and breathing in – and out. (eg. Breathe in – Be still and know, Breathe out – that I am God)

• Praying the Lord’s Prayer, slowly and deliberately each day. In Luke 11, the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray. His response was the Lord’s Prayer.

• For a change try journalling your prayers – don't overthink it, just let your pen flow.

• Go out for a walk and ask God to speak to you through your all of your senses.

• Use an app like Lectio365 to help ground the start or end of your day – or both.

• Set a timer for 3 or 5 mins and sit in God’s presence – we are human, so we are bound to be distracted. Bring those distractions before Jesus.

If you try and any of these, we would love to know how you get on.