Archive for » July, 2010 «

30
Jul
How High Is Your God Awareness Level?

In his book Everything Belongs, Richard Rohr says, “We cannot attain the presence of God because we’re already totally in the presence of God. What’s absent is awareness.”

Ouch! I’ve been pondering what it is that keeps me from the awareness of God, and I’ve come up with 3 things that make me oblivious to God at any given moment of my day.

Caught in the “shoulds”

We all tend to get frustrated when life is not what it should be, people are not behaving as they should be, and our agenda isn’t coming together as it should be. When our minds are occupied with what should be, we lose our ability to recognize God in a situation. Focusing on the possibilities, instead of the “shoulds,” influences how we view God and his abilities. Our God awareness level goes up.

Caught in assumptions

How often do we make quick decisions without gathering the facts to base our decisions on? So often we make up our minds without asking questions, or we neglect to seek information from different sources concerning a situation. We do this without even realizing it—assumptions about people, assumptions about work, and assumptions about the church we attend. Making assumptions limits and often distorts our view of God’s workings in a situation. Focusing on the facts removes assumptions. Our God awareness level goes up.

Caught in an emotional overload

Grief, anger, and despair feel so intense they overwhelm our awareness of God. We want relief, and we seek it through escaping the situation or going into denial mode. Yet, Jesus is in the midst of the storm—calming it or enduring it with us. When we choose to stay with our emotional moments in a healthy way, our God awareness level goes up.

These are only 3 things that affect my God awareness, and, yes, there are many more to work on. But enough about me, what things do you do to keep your God awareness high? (Click on the blue comment link at the bottom of this post to leave  your words of wisdom for us.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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Category: Brain overhaul, Daily, Personal growth  Tags: , , , , , ,
28
Jul
What Simple Pleasure Marks Your Life as Good?

A Chinese legend tells of a group of elderly, cultured gentlemen who met often to exchange wisdom and drink tea. Each host tried to find the finest and most costly varieties, to create exotic blends that would arouse the admiration of his guests.

When it came the turn of the most venerable and respected of the group to entertain, he served his tea with unprecedented ceremony, measuring the leaves from a golden box. The assembled connoisseurs praised this exquisite tea.

The host smiled and said, “The tea you have found so delightful is the same tea our peasants drink. I hope it will be a reminder to all that the good things in life are not necessarily the rarest or the most costly.”

I don’t know about you, but I find more contentment sitting on our deck enjoying good conversation and ice water with my husband than I do a night out at a fancy restaurant. Fancy parties are fun and I enjoy them, but the simple pleasures with those I love carry the warmest memories for me.

What simple pleasure marks your life as good?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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26
Jul
6 Humorous Killer Prayer Tips

Need a little laughter to start your day? Igniter Media has some killer prayer tips that wrap up our last two weeks of exploring different avenues of prayer with a smile. Enjoy!

If you received this post via a RSS reader or by email and cannot view the video, please stop by the Holy in the Daily blog to enjoy it.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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23
Jul
Body Prayer–Part 6 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

“This is the body like no other that my life has shaped. I live here. This is my soul’s address,” says Barbara Brown Taylor in An Altar in the World. Since I live inside a body, I often involve that body in expressing my heart prayers. My inner world is enlarged as my body communicates for my soul through voice and motion. Here are a few examples of letting your body speak for your soul.

Sing your prayer

Psalms is the prayer book of the Old Testament. Originally written as prayers to be sung, this book continues to give us wonderful lyrics for singing our prayers. Many of our hymns and worship choruses are right out of the book of Psalm. If musicians express their prayers through music, why can’t we? Try singing one of your favorite hymns or choruses his week to express your heart in prayer.

Lift your hands in prayer

Lifting hands is the universal sign of surrender. When we do so in prayer, we are physically expressing our heart surrender to God (See Lamentations 3:40–42 and 1 Timothy 2:8).

Bow down or kneel in prayer

Matthew 20:20–24 records the story of a mother kneeling before the Lord to request a favor for her sons. Her arrogant request was not granted—in fact, it got a lot of negative reaction from those standing by, but her posture shows an attitude of humility. She was obeying Psalm 95:6, even though her motives may have been too “motherly.”

Dance your prayer

One of the most moving expressions of prayer for me happens when I observe or participate in dance as a form of prayer. Getting past my self-consciousness to pour my heart out before the Lord isn’t easy, but I find that worship and intercession freely flows, whether in private or in public, when I dance (Psalm 149:3).

How do you engage your body in prayer, and how does what you do enrich your faith walk?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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21
Jul
Other People’s Prayers–Part 5 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

Do you ever feel your prayers could use a little upgrading as far as their content and expression? Are you ever too tired to think through what you want to say in prayer? Try using prayers written by others and you might find a depth in prayer you have been missing. We all do this already when we pray a psalm, the Lord’s Prayer, or one of Saint Paul’s benedictions. These prayers were originally songs, instructions, or written in a letter.

Ancient and modern prayer books often contain a richness of prayer that our own words often lack. Some are organized by topic, so you can find a prayer to suit your situation, such as To Bless the Space Between Us, a Book of Blessings by John O’Donohue. Devotionals frequently include a prayer at the end of the reading.

I’ve written other posts on fixed-hour prayer, or praying the hours, and have found The Divine Hours by Phyllis Tickle and Celtic Daily Prayer to be faithful prayer companions. Such prayer books include a pattern of praise, confession, intercession, scripture reading, and blessing—each worded a little differently depending on the day or the week.

One of my favorite prayers from The Diving Hours a few months ago read, “Almighty God, you know that I have no power in myself: Keep me both outwardly in my body and inwardly in my soul, that I may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body, and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.”

We have a treasure trove of prayer available to us in the expressions of others past and present that connects our faith journeys.

Share with us a time when a prayer written by someone else enriched your spiritual journey. (My comment section is a blue link at the bottom of this post.)

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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19
Jul
Contemplative Prayer–Part 4 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

Do you long for a deeper, more intimate relationship with the Lord? If so, you might consider practicing contemplative prayer, a type of prayer that calls you to “be still and know that I am God.” Contemplative prayer invites intimacy with the Lover of your soul. It is an ancient, spiritual practice for gaining a depth of relationship with God.

Henri J.M. Nouwen said, “Through contemplative prayer we can keep ourselves from being pulled from one urgent issue to another and from becoming strangers to our own and God’s heart.”

This type of prayer involves quieting your whole person—body, soul, and spirit—and listening for God. In contemplative prayer, God does the talking and you do the listening. There are three stages of contemplative prayer that bring you to a place of intimacy with the Lord.

Solitude—quieting your body

Find a quiet and comfortable place to be alone. This type of prayer doesn’t just happen. It takes effort. Jesus made it his practice to go off alone to listen to his Father (see Mark 1:35 & 6:31). A quiet room, a garden, park, or the beach, are excellent places for practicing contemplative prayer.

Silence—quieting your soul

This is the hard part as you need to quiet your inner person—your thoughts and emotions. Contemplative prayer does not focus on your concerns, so taking time to set these things aside is wise if your mind is working overtime. In order to hear God you have to stop hearing yourself.

Find a comfortable position for your body. Take a few minutes to relax and still your mind and emotions. This isn’t easy. Keep a pen and paper next to you and as a concern intrudes to dominate your mind, note it on the paper to attend to later. You can also use your imagination to picture yourself sitting by a gentle brook. Imagine throwing each intruding thought or concern into the brook and leave it to flow away in the water.

Slowly work your way to a peaceful place where your thoughts and emotions are at rest. Don’t hurry or force this time of quieting your soul.

Intimacy—quieting your spirit

Once you have found your inner place of quiet, just rest and wait in it. Richard Foster describes this time as, “our spirit is on tiptoe—alert and listening. There is stillness to be sure, but it is a listening stillness. Something deep inside us has been awakened and brought to attention.”

At some point in this quiet place you will sense the Lord’s presence and the flow of the Spirit Holy. Intimacy at a deep level happens as the Lord communes with you. Words are not necessary. Feelings of love may flood your emotions, images may come to your mind, and wisdom and revelation may flow as God reveals himself to you.

Contemplative prayer brings an experience of God’s presence that will influence the rest of your day. It takes practice, but the depth of relationship with God that results is worth the effort.

What has been your experience in contemplative prayer? How has it deepened your relationship with God?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

If you enjoyed this post, you might also enjoy my free e-book, Quotes For the Contemplative Life, located in the sidebar.

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16
Jul
Pray as You Go–Part 3 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

Do you feel guilty because your prayer life takes a back seat to your busy life? What if you are a person for whom sitting still and praying takes more energy than jogging five miles? Simple problem solved: Pray as you go.

Headed for the gym? Going out for a jog? Put your ear phones on, turn the music down low, and use the motion of your body as a rhythm for prayer. Talk to God in your thoughts as if he was right beside you. Praise him for his creation and the ability to move your body. Discuss your day with him. Give him your concerns. Let him be your exercise partner.

Add a friend. For many years a friend and I would pray and walk together every Sunday morning at 5:00. Another friend helped me renovate my son’s room, and we prayed together as we rolled green paint across the walls.

Pray as you do the tasks that don’t take much concentration. I pray when I’m driving around running errands and when I’m cleaning the bathtub. The Celtic Christians were great at this type of praying—see my post on The Celtic Art of Knitting Work and Prayer Together.

Pray quick prayers for people as you encounter them throughout the day. This keeps you in a positive mood when the stresses people create threaten your peace. A short blessing spoken over a child as he leaves for school or a quick silent prayer for a co-worker add up to a lot of daily prayer!

Begin and end your day with a pillow prayer. When you first wake up in the morning and before you ever lift your head from the pillow, ask the Lord to oversee the events of your day. As you lay your head down on your pillow at the end of the day, thank God for five things that happened in your day.

I’d love to hear your suggestions for “on the go praying” in the comment section below. Join us next week as we continue this six post series on Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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14
Jul
Praying God’s Word–Part 2 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

One of my favorite ways of praying is to reword a Scripture passage into a paraphrased prayer. Praying God’s Word back to him ignites the Father’s heart towards those for whom we intercede.

The following is an example of Ezekiel 36:24–27 paraphrased as prayer by a wife for a husband captivated by pornography. It could easily be adjusted to fit any person and the struggle hindering his or her walk with God.

Father, you promise in Ezekiel 36:24–27 that you will take my husband out of the ways of the world, which includes pornography. You state that you will sprinkle clean water on him and he will be clean. The impurities that have contaminated him from his idol of pornography will be wiped away.

Along with that, you promise to give him a new heart and create a new spirit within him—removing his heart of stone and giving him a heart of flesh. And finally, you promise to place your Spirit within my husband to motivate him to follow your decrees and keep your ways.

Father, I remind you of these promises in Ezekiel 36. I ask for purity and holiness for my husband and that you cause him to seek mental cleanliness and the destruction of his idol of pornography.

I request that a new heart for you and our family be given to my husband and a new spirit of love and purity. Motivate my husband to follow your directions and keep your ways.

I ask this for your name’s sake and for your reputation as a promise keeper. I know my husband does not deserve your mercy, but you are a God of mercy who continually seeks to save those whose hearts are far from you. I realize that my husband has a free will, but I also know that just as you turn the heart of a king, you can turn my husband’s heart towards you.

Finally, I request that this promise be kept because of your Son’s shed blood and victory at Calvary that has broken all the power of sin to hold my husband captive. I ask these things in the name of your Son, Jesus. Amen.

If you haven’t already, try using the Scriptures as prayer this week and see how it expands your experience of prayer. For those of you who pray this way regularly, what has been your experience and what are your favorite Scriptures to pray back to the Father?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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12
Jul
Can You Imagine This? Part 1 in Exploring Different Avenues of Prayer

One of the most important tools that God provides to help communicate with him is our imagination. This little function of our brain can take us places in prayer that we never expected to go and give us prayer experiences that are deep and lasting. Warren W. Wiersbe states, “We think in pictures even though we speak and write with words.”

Think about it. What were you picturing in your mind as you read the above paragraph? I may be writing these words for you to read, but the thoughts going through your head as you read them are probably forming an emotion (interest or boredom) and some sort of mental picture. Our inner communication is not a tickertape of words, but of emotions and mental pictures.

Perhaps that is why God chose the Hebrew people as the means to bring his message of salvation to mankind through the Bible. The Hebrew culture and language are filled with pictures, vivid symbols, emotion, and imagery. God still uses imagery to communicate with us. According to Horace Bushnell, “God gave man imagination that He might have a door to enter by.”

Try using your imagination in prayer. Mentally picture yourself sitting on a hillside, or beside a brook, under the shade of a large oak tree with soft clouds drifting overhead. Imagine the Lord sitting next to you (even if you can’t see his face), and just begin talking to him. Tell him about the events of your day or share your concerns with him.

If you don’t like to sit still even in your imagination, picture yourself walking with Jesus beside a gentle lake. As you walk along, share your concerns with him. Then imagine Jesus handing you some flat stones to skim across the lake representing each concern that you need to release into his care.

Don’t be surprised if you find God enlarging your prayer time by adding more to the imagery. He may even use metaphors and similes to represent what he wants to communicate, or you may just hear him speak softly deep within your spirit.

What has been your experience with using your imagination in prayer? We would love to hear from you in the comment section at the very bottom of today’s post.

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

This is the first in a series of posts at Holy in the Daily exploring different avenues of prayer. I hope you’ll join us as we discover some new and old ways of praying.

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09
Jul
See How Easily You Can Change Someone’s Day for the Better

It doesn’t take much to change someone’s day for the better.

I don’t remember where I first heard this tale, but the story is told of a blind man sitting on the steps of a building with a hat by his feet and a sign that read: “I am blind, please help.”

A creative publicist was walking by and stopped to observe. He saw that the blind man had only a few coins in his hat. He dropped in more coins and, without asking for permission, took the sign and rewrote it.

He returned the sign to the blind man and left. That afternoon the publicist came back to the blind man and noticed that his hat was full of bills and coins.

The blind man recognized his footsteps and asked if it was he who had rewritten his sign and wanted to know what he had written on it.

The publicist responded: “Nothing that was not true. I just wrote the message a little differently.” He smiled and went on his way.

The new sign read: “Today is spring and I cannot see it.”

How can you infuse a little of the Holy into someone’s world today?

In Him together, Susan Gaddis

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