Are you praying in all circumstances?
My brother is a primary school teacher in Leeds, northern England. Recently he was doing an exercise with his children about prayer (although the education system in England is extremely secular, he teaches in a Church of England School so he can get away with things like that). He had made a load of sunflowers and he wanted the children to write a prayer on the sunflower for the situation in Ukraine and Eastern Europe.
He has a mixed ability class so some kids set straight off writing a prayer whilst others dawdled, asked lots of questions and tried to get away with the bare minimum. I loved listening to my brother tell me how he talked to the kids about prayer. He explained that it is telling God how you feel, asking him for help for yourself or someone else, that it doesn’t have to be long, just write what you are thinking and feeling. One kid, who wanted to do as little writing as possible, asked “How short can a prayer be?”. My brother’s response was brilliant. He simply said “You can say a lot with one word!”.
Isn’t it amazing how much you can say with just one word? Help…Please…Sorry. And isn’t it amazing how much God can respond?! Prayer is a discipline, a two-way conversation between us and God. That doesn’t mean it has to be complicated though. Maybe we have made it far more complex than we need. This week why not try praying in all circumstances using just one sentence prayers…maybe even just one word!
Rachel, Inspire Missioner, UK.
