Journey into Prayer

I have thought about this a little and have decided to start a new blog all about my spirirtual life and my journey with God. I have not talked a lot about my Faith very much in my crafty blog "Quietly Stitching" as it is a craft focused blog and I want to keep it that way. However, I feel that God is doing so much in my life and He deserves more than a mere mention every now and then. So this blog is dedicated to Him, my Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who without Him I would indeed be nothing.

This blog is really just a trial and I may delete it or I may let it run its course. Time will tell.

Recently, I believe God has been encouraging me to pray more. I have never been a big prayer and at times have got into confusion and stress over it. Some people told me I had to set aside a particular time of the day and spend a certain mount of time with God. They stressed the importance of talking and listenng to God - something as a young Christian I found hard to do. Other people told me that they didn't believe in a daily routine of prayer - that they prayed to God all the day long. So instead of choosing one way and pursuing prayer in that direction, I guess I chose no path and my prayer life declined.

Of course I did talk to God from time to time and I knew without any doubt that He was working in my life. Oh this past year has been an awful time for me but you would never know it. God has totally carried me through. I have leant on His everlasting arms and He has indeed carried me through with such a peace and a joy. He has been steering the course of my life this year as I have opened that door and allowed Him. I have been given a new job in a wonderful Christian school where we can talk about the love of God freely. It is amazing. I love my job. It has been hard though and what with looking after two young children - practically on my own most of the time - it has been tough going.

So onto the area of prayer.... I have always struggled with just sitting down and talking to God. I felt like I was repeating words and not knowing or having the right words to say. Then I stumbled across this - Praying in Color - and it has revolutionised the way I think and do prayer! Now, it is a time that I look forward to. It is no longer a chore or a dread but I am looking forward to the act of creating whilst praying. I am not much of an artist but I can doodle and I have found during the few times I have done this that God speaks to me during these times and I can write the words as they come to me. It is such a blessing. I feel like I am just hanging out with God and spending quality time in His presence. I am hoping to develop this habit in the coming months. I have ordered the book and waiting for it to pop through my door. Really looking forward to reading it. The essence of this method is that you can consider each stoke of the pen a prayer for the person or issue you are doodling around. So you can write the name of the person or issue you are praying for and begin to doodle or colour around it as you will whilst thinking of the person or issue and lifting it up to God whilst you are doing it. I thought it might really get the kids at school interested as well. So I am trialing it with them.

Well, as I said I believe that God is really leading me to pray more because after finding that little gem, I then stumbled across this book - Writing to God - again all about praying to God in a written form. So again I am looking forward to reading this and trying it out. More about this later when the book arrives!

Today I stumbled across a book called Breath of Life which is all about praying continually so that prayer comes as naturally as breathing. I haven't read it all yet but am intrigued by yet another way to pray!

In this blog I will record, sporadically, my journey into prayer. Hopefully, it will be a blessing to someone, somewhere and will also provide me with renewed encouragement in the future as I look back on it.

Blessings all.
xxxxx