Do You Have a Prayer Practice?

How Often Do You Pray for Yourself?

How often do you pray? Is it an ongoing conversation with the Lord? Or do you, like so many of us, go through our days, one at a time, with maybe a prayer to get the day going, and then we’re pretty much on our own the rest of the day, not thinking about prayer at all. I know that I’ve been like that, especially during times when something at home or work has me so busy that I can’t see straight.

I also know that when we’ve been spiritually abused, that it can be difficult to pray. Perhaps the awkwardness of the abusive situation has spread even into our prayer life. It’s especially important in times like that to stay grounded as much as possible. A prayer practice can help us feel like there’s some stability possible. I shared the Jesus Prayer last week. At the time, I didn’t know that it would become a prayer practice. But I do know that when I started praying it with my breath, it took over.

Recently I held an online Quiet Day that I titled “Full-Spectrum Praying: A 7-Fold Way to Get It All Said Before You Say Amen.” Today, I’m writing about one of the seven: the kind of prayer called petition. Petition is praying for ourselves. Believe it or not, I have known people who think that that would not be a good prayer to pray. They think that would be too self-centered to pray for themselves.

Or sometimes we’re too hurt or depressed to even think about praying for ourselves. And so the strong emotion takes over and rules the day.

I’m here to tell everyone that God created each and every one of us. He loves each and every one of us. And as the saying goes, from a few decades ago, “God don’t make no junk.” Of course we are to pray for ourselves. For whatever reason. For healing, for guidance, for wisdom, for forgiveness, to feel God’s love again. FOR WHATEVER REASON.

Here is the formal definition of petition: “In petition, we present our own needs, that God’s will may be done.” The Psalmist in Psalm 13 prayed for himself:

1 How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts

and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

After telling God how alone he feels, how depressed he is, toward the end of this Psalm, he says,

5 But I trust in your unfailing love;

my heart rejoices in your salvation.

6 I will sing the Lord’s praise,

for he has been good to me.

No matter how cast down we might be, no matter what kind of strong emotion might have hold of us, we are to tell the Lord exactly what is going on in our mind and our heart. And then tell him that you still trust in Him and thank Him for at least past blessings.

My message today? Make praying for yourself a prayer practice.

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