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prayer
prayer is somethin i find at times hard to do. in alot of the cases (when i make time 4 prayer) i find myself lost 4 words, or repeating what i said the night bfr. at other times i slack off cause im too tired nd end up sleepin rather than prayin.
i wanna find out more bout wat to say and how to discipline myslef to pray every nite.
i wanna find out more bout wat to say and how to discipline myslef to pray every nite.
Comments
Try to set a time for prayer and get into a routine. It will b hard at first but with God's infinite support im sure u will grow in his name...
Pray for me too
Peter
So our God is a jealous God… when you don’t pray you are stealing from your God… God is Amazing no doubt about that…. so tell Him how much you love Him… how much you need him in your life… that can take days to mention, also pray for everyone that asked you to pray for them… for it is your duty to pray for each one of them… I cant remember who, but I remember a story of a saint that used to write the name of anyone who asked him to pray for them, so that when he came to pray he would mention them… so there are many things to pray about, but the problem is in you… and remember you prayer could be 2 seconds, but you feel it, and it makes you closer to God, better than a prayer of 3 hours that will part you from God, and make you cease prayer. Pray from the agpya, ask your abouna how much you should pray, and it will lead you to the words you should say to God. Read the prayers of the fathers… when God sees you striving to pray… he will give you the JOY that is indescribable… it will make you so happy and spiritual… but that does not come right away, you have to strive, and strive, within a tow months or maybe three God will start giving you glimpses of it… God will provide.
Ecellent topic.
So many great responses, don't know If I can add anything to them but I will try:
First, what is prayer? It is our way of talking ot God. H.G. Bishop Youannes said "The simplest and best diffintion of prayer is talking to God" Talking to your creator. Who dosen't have friends? we find the time every day or every week to talk to them. I could spend a whole day with my friend and at the end, I still feel that there so much more I want to tell him. God is our friend, in fact He is our BEST friend. No matter how close you get to your friend, he will never be as close to you as God is. Even more, God takes it a step further, He doesn't want us as friends, because I can have more than one and as Bishoy said, Our God is Jealous, He wants us as both "children, His sons and daughters" In which case He will be our father and don't know about you, but usually people only have one father. Or as in the songs of Solmon He used to talk to the human spirit as his "bride" and again a Bride has only 1 groom.
So just like you chit chat with your friends in school, in church, etc... Chit chat with God, Be sure that God will silance the angels to listen to you. It doesn't have to be fancy. You don't have to arrange words, meditate on His works in your life or simply just talk. The point is to spend time with Him.
Another point is follow in the foodsteps of those who really knew how to pray. Example: David the prophet. He really knew how to pray. That's why the church gives us the Agpya. It is not repition of words, but to see what others said and we can follow or we can stop an meditate on one of the Psalms. if any one visits St. Bishoy's Monestary in Egypt, they have his cell there with a rope hanging from the ceiling. He would tie his hair to the rope so that if he fell asleep during prayer, his hair would be pulled and he would wake up again. They say that Anba Makarious Used to stand at night to pray (around sunset) giving his back to the setting sun and wouldn't realize when to stop untill the sun shines back during the morning hours. These people just loved God so much and loved to spend time with Him.
I am not saying go pray all night or tie a rope around your hair so that when you sleep while praying it will be tugged, but make every effort to spend time with Him who not only created you but layed Himself down and died for you. If you love someone so much, you would want to spend time with them. Same here. Don't look at prayer as an obligation, but rather a chance that presented itself to you. An opportunity to talk with God.
We don't some times realize how blessed and how privilidged we are that we can pray to God directly. In the old testment, no one can talk to God except Moses for example, and people would talk to Moses and ask him to talk to God on thier behalf. This is not the case anymore. We are in a time where God listens to us, lets take that to or advantage (sounds bad but it is not)
finally, (I know I am going overboard here) but TASBEHA. It is the best form of prayer. You don't have to know the tune or anything. Just grab a Psalmody and read a couple of verses from a Psali or read a Hoos. They are all Glorifications and praise to God. If you feel you are running out of words but feel like praying, do that, you will be inspired by some of the writings in those verses (hooses are derived from the psalms) but still. you can meditate on one of the verses or a hymn, or a discription of God in one of those verses.
I hope this helps.
i never read the bible or prayed and so me and my mom, bro and sis go together to a room and read the bible out loud. Then we would pray the agpeya retiring. Then each would pray aloud. Soon i developed the process of praying at night soon, i did the same thing for mornings. Hope it helps.