There was a time in my Christian life, when I just always felt like I didn’t pray often enough.
And I was afraid I didn’t pray the right way,
prayed too much for myself,
not enough for others,
and not enough for – and about
God.
It seemed that every time I prayed it was “Give me. Give me. Help me. Help me.”
I had a problem. I needed a solution.
I tried a fixed, daily time and place for prayer, but there were always excuses. I blamed it on prayer A.D.D. I needed to find a way to make prayer as easy, simple, and reflexive as breathing.
The good news is that I found a way.
Now I pray all the time,
cover all the bases,
for hours without the hours,
in a pattern without form,
disciplined but all over the place.
I found the cure for prayer A.D.D.
It’s a two step solution. Both are pieces of cake.
The first was that I decided to just start chatting with Him. Kind of like Twitter – but with God. I tweeted God incessantly.
“Did you see that?”
“Did I buy the cat food?”
“What do you think?”
“Did I do that right?”
“Should I?” “Shouldn’t I”
“Do you believe she said…”
You know – that kind of stuff.
No matter too big – no matter too small.
With God tweeting there’s never a wrong time or place – and it’s just kind of comfortable and informal. It’s still prayer – and prayer is good. And God likes to be tweeted about even about the silliest of things: socks, hair, brushing teeth.
I really think God likes to hear about all the details of our lives.
He knows them anyway. He just likes twittering with us.
And he really likes it when we “follow” him.
Yes. that was a “God” twitter joke.
And I’m proud of it.
#justsayin
But tweeting with God, I’ve found, tends to be a little self-centered – and it’s far from a complete form of prayer.
I needed to find a way to solve this shortcoming in my plan.
I needed to find, in addition to my tweeting, a more complete prayer.
I figured that once I did that I could insert tab A into slot B and be well rounded and informal.
I needed a pattern.
I needed it to be easy to learn, from an unimpeachable source, and it only had to be…
perfect.
Fortunately, perfection walked the earth, knew all there was to know about prayer, and shared stuff with us.
“Our Father who art in heaven…”
It’s easy to learn because – well – who doesn’t have it memorized?
It’s a pattern of prayer that was taught by none other than God.
That’s kind of without peaches. That’s unimpeachable.
And is it complete?
I’m thinkin’ that if Our Lord said, “pray like this” – it’s complete.
So there I had my answer on how to pray.
I started with a type of prayer that invites God into every area of my life – all the time – then added the certainty of a perfectly complete pattern of prayer.
Together it’s the bread and butter of prayer,
the chocolate chips and cookie dough of prayer,
the peanut butter and jelly of prayer.
It might not be everyone’s PBJ.
But it’s my PBJ.
Please come back tomorrow, because I have more of my PBJ to share.
In God’s love.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
I am already in line for tomorrow’s PBJ…..can sure relate to that problem-solving spaghetti picture at the beginning!
The problem solve-y spaghetti in the picture is kind of like my mind. One good thing about the sleep thing is that it’s slowed down the mile a minute mind I had. The same strands of spaghetti. I think tomrrow’s PBJ is a little more about “praying ceaselessly” (see comments below – because that verse is really what this is about – except I forgot it when I wrote this so it’ll make an appearance tomorrow 🙂 God Bless you A.
That’s a lot like how I pray, but never thought of it that way… Tweeting with God. Hopefully it is as addictive to us as Twitter! 🙂
I’m already addicted. Admit it – you are too.
To prayer I mean – not twitter. 🙂
God bless.
I like the way you put things 🙂 We are told to pray without ceasing, and Jesus gave us a model of prayer. This reminds me of a classic book, Practicing The Presence Of God, by Brother Lawrence. Thank you for your insightful post.
Thank you for that Patti, I had forgotten all about “praying without ceasing”. That’s what continual conversation with God is. I missed that – and you just added the piece. I really heart that. Thank you. And God Bless.
Twittering with God. Love this, Craig! Thanks for a new way to think about praying without ceasing. (and I’m with you on the Lord’s Prayer — perfection)
I used to call it chit chatting with God – I had to make it more up to date:) Tweeting does that:)
Thank you Kim – God bless.
Hi Craig,
Like both of your sites – was a little surprised to see pink 🙂 One of my favorite colors!
Today I was eating cookie dough – not my normal, refrigerator died and I had to waste anything 🙂 and then I read your post of prayer. Loved it – just wish God talked back a little more often.
Look forward to reading more – blessings – Jo Rae
The pink – well – it’s LOVE – and I’m secure in my masculinity 🙂 Although I don’t own any pink – except for the laundry mistakes. But I like it here.
And the talking back of God – I hear people say “God told me this” and “God told me that” – I even find myself saying things like “God taught me this”. It’s hardly ever a “Hey – wasn’t that God just talking to me” type thing. I think he speaks mostly through the Bible, and people – he likes to use people – and other things – hmmmmmm maybe some future blog fodder. Anyway I get what you mean. Thank you for reading Jo Rae. God bless.
I love this! Our pastor shared that he took his boys out to breakfast and they were all sitting there texting on their phones to their friends, but it was insignificant things like “Hey. What’s up?” He then went on to say what if we had those small conversations with God all day. As if he were a friend we were texting.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
I thought of the texting thing. But I’m a tweeter – not a texter. The texting thing is right on. ANd I think that’s pretty much what I do. But like you said about the texting – we need that “Hey what’s up” type thing – but it’s incomplete – and that’s where “pattern” comes in. PB and J. Thank you for reading – God Bless.
This is the best PBJ – just perfect (I think) because it hit the spot. God loves those tweet prayers. He’s thrilled when we “follow” Him. He beams at every single tweet, no matter how short and sweet. They are always music to His ears. Always. He’d far prefer us to take delight in His company than for us to approach prayer as a mundane chore – don’t you think? And I do love His company, so I try to tweet without ceasing.
Brother Lawrence style.
Amen Debra. Prayer tweeting is like hanging around with God, he’s right there and we treat him as if he is. There’s a balance though between being this casual – and being respectful too. I’ve become too casual sometimes – and too stuffy other time. Happy “God tweeting” day.
Craig, I just tweeted this and asked, “Do you tweet your prayers?”
Debra I didn’t know you were on twitter – if you are why are we not “following” each other?
love this. I’ve been tweeting with God out loud for years… my kids think I am a bit crazy. but HE always Direct Tweets me back!!
I suspected you’d be a prayer tweeter 🙂 And he always responds – although we might lose his tweet amid the twitter stream. God Bless.
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