How Praying through Writing Is Helping Me Focus and Grow
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I used to have a great prayer routine. Not only was I able to pray throughout the day, but after I dropped my kids off for school and drove to my office, I’d turn off the radio and have a wonderful talk session with God.
I also began thinking about my past, about sins long-ago confessed and forgiven. Sometimes the memories float to the surface as my mind recalls walls between me and the Lord and ways I strayed in the past.
I always heard about God leaving the ninety-nine to check after the one missing sheep who went astray, and I loved the analogy, but never really thought about how it applied to me. I’ve always been a churchgoer, I’ve always tried to be kind and compassionate, and I’ve always believed. I didn’t really think of myself as that one sheep. But one day, as I was confessing my sins, reality hit me in the face. I began to look back and realize it applied to me, too. God pursued me! He worked really hard to get me on the right path and pull me back when I started to go astray. He closed and opened doors to guide me. Now I see I have been that lost sheep, and I am so grateful to have been found. I never realized this until I began writing down my confessions.
Thanksgiving came easy. I found it was really nice to be able to write down and think about so many things to be thankful for.
But when I got to the supplication part, where I’m supposed to ask God for what I’d like him to do or bring, I was surprised to realize I didn’t have quite as much to request. My grateful heart, having already expressed so much thanksgiving, realized I already had so much. So while I do ask for things — healing and protection, help for a friend who is struggling, help when I’m having a debilitating migraine — I’m asking out of a place of gratitude.
Here is an abbreviated example of what my prayer might look like on a given day:
Adoration
Lord God, I love you so much. You know I don’t have the right words for this, but today I sit back and think about how magnificent you are. Your creation is all around me — the breath you put in my lungs, even the way that you knit my muscles together so that I can hold this pencil and write these prayers to you. I love you so much, and I am so grateful for you. You are my everything.
Confession
Lord, I’ve been so prideful these past couple of days, and I have to admit I’ve been selfish too. Help me remember today that there’s nothing I can do on my own. Everything I have, and everything I am, is because of you. Help me to hear the cries of the needy and to love others as much as I love myself. Help me to put you first. I know I don’t always do this, but I’m trying. Please help me do better.
Thanksgiving
Thank you so much for all the blessings in my life: my husband, my children, my pets, my home, my mom and my sister and my mother and father-in-law. Thank you for all of my extended family, my friend Katy, and all the other people you put in my life. Thank you for a beautiful church service and how Sunday’s message is still staying with me and helping me. Thank you for the rain outside my window today. I know it’s helping with the growth soon come to this land. Thank you for my body and the breath in my lungs. Thank you for my job and my writing ministry. Thank you for loving me, and most importantly, thank you so much for sending your son. Thank you for salvation. Thank you, thank you, my Lord and my God.
Supplication
Lord, I ask for healing for my niece, Kendall, who is battling cancer. Help her recover from her last round of chemotherapy, stop the infection, and help the cancer completely leave her body. Protect my family today and please keep us all safe and healthy. Help us all look to you first before anything else. Help us all to model you, to shine your light in the world and draw others closer to you. Please heal my foot injury and keep my headaches at bay. Help me to lead others to you, and help everyone in our world look to you and know that you are the truth and you are the light and you are perfect, holy love. You are the path and the only answer. I love you, God. Amen.
If you’re looking for a better prayer routine, your mind is wandering, and you just can’t seem to establish a good prayer rhythm, consider giving this a try. Write down your prayers. You can use the ACTS model or whatever feels right between you and God.
Whatever you do, know that it’s a step in the right direction. My prayers are with you!
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