Wootton Rivers St Andrew’s Church
What is prayer?
Prayer is meeting God – entering into a relationship with God.
We can’t see God. God is ‘Spirit’ – ‘God-stuff’. There’s a spark of God-stuff in us. Christians believe that human beings aren’t an accident, just here by chance.
God made us, and loves us, and wants a relationship with us. He made us as whole beings, with body, mind and spirit. That’s what we mean by ‘spiritual’. The bit of us we can’t see – but the bit that is the deep-down real us, beyond our being and thinking. The bit that makes us tick, that drives our being and thinking. Our ‘spirituality’.
If we don’t exercise our bodies, they seize up – we become couch-potatoes. If we don’t exercise our minds, they seize up, too. What about our spirits? Do we give them a chance? To get in tune with God?
Prayer is meeting God. Just like any other meeting, ideally we need to be relaxed, aware, attentive. The spirit works best when we relax the body and still the mind.
One of the ancient Bible songs says ‘Be still, and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46: v10).
Sometimes it can seem very difficult to begin to be attentive to God, to get quiet enough to catch what God wants to say to us. Work, family, anxiety, business, things to do and remember… they all crowd out silence. We’re all different, and different things help different people. There’s no one right way to pray – you need to find out what works for you. Pray as you can, not as you can’t.
How can we make prayer part of each moment of our lives?
Spirituality includes building an intimate relationship with God and prayer can help us to do this. To be in relationship with God can mean many things: to see, to know, to love, and to be sensitive to the uniqueness and beauty of every living thing. Trying to get along without prayer would be like having a special relationship with someone and not talking to, comforting or spending time with that person.
Prayer is meeting God – entering into a relationship with God.
We can’t see God. God is ‘Spirit’ – ‘God-
God made us, and loves us, and wants a relationship with us. He made us as whole beings, with body, mind and spirit. That’s what we mean by ‘spiritual’. The bit of us we can’t see – but the bit that is the deep-
If we don’t exercise our bodies, they seize up – we become couch-
Prayer is meeting God. Just like any other meeting, ideally we need to be relaxed, aware, attentive. The spirit works best when we relax the body and still the mind.
Sometimes it can seem very difficult to begin to be attentive to God, to get quiet enough to catch what God wants to say to us. Work, family, anxiety, business, things to do and remember… they all crowd out silence. We’re all different, and different things help different people. There’s no one right way to pray – you need to find out what works for you. Pray as you can, not as you can’t.
How can we make prayer part of each moment of our lives?
Spirituality includes building an intimate relationship with God and prayer can help us to do this. To be in relationship with God can mean many things: to see, to know, to love, and to be sensitive to the uniqueness and beauty of every living thing. Trying to get along without prayer would be like having a special relationship with someone and not talking to, comforting or spending time with that person.
Prayer goes beyond just a conversation. True prayer is communion, where there is pleasure just being in the company of the other. Prayer, then, is a relationship with God. It is not a manipulation. It is talking with God and having fellowship in each other’s company.
Brother Lawrence said that in order to form a habit of talking with God continually and involving Him in all we do, we must, first, consciously relate to Him. Then, after a little care, we would find His love draws us to Him without any difficulty.
Ideally, prayer is a deliberate, intentional, willed and grace-
The end result of prayer is that it has an effect. For example, external circumstances may show that a petitionary prayer has been answered. More often, however, it is the nature of the relationship between the believer and God that changes: Specifically, prayer changes the believer. As the Christian’s relationship with God develops, either naturally over the course of time as a tree might grow, or, perhaps suddenly, as in the case of a dramatic life event, prayer becomes less self-
Prayer is living your life with God. He is with us here today and wants to have a relationship with each of us.
about Prayer