Thoughts about prayer

For some reason, whenever a sunday school teacher asks if there are any volunteers to do the opening or closing prayer, I never stick my hand up.

I don't know why I'm so hesitant to pray around other people. It's weird. I don't have a problem praying for others, especially when I hear a specific prayer request or see a need for prayer in the lives of my friends, but I don't pray well in a group. Maybe I'm self-conscious or doubt I can pray in that holy prayer language pastors and certain church members have mastered. When I pray, I pray what I'm thinking, and for me, it's no less reverent to talk to God in simple words and clean slang than it is to say something "churchy".

You know what I'm talking about. Don't pretend you've never wondered if there's a Praying 101 you missed out on. It's amazing how the same churchy prayers can sound relevant in almost any situation; often, they're vague and general enough to fit

Churchy prayers are cool and all, but no one says, "we thank you for the opportunity to study your Word from the provided lesson," or "we ask that in your most Holy Name, you bless us as we fellowship together," out in the real world. I know I don't. If I were to pray churchy prayers, I believe I would be wasting God's time because such prayers wouldn't be real to me, and hence, the same would be true for God.

For the important prayers, I like to pray alone in my room with as much quiet as I can get. Even though it sounds all organized and logical when I say it like that, I assure you, my prayers are very ADHD. I don't make this huge list and knock out all my praying in one go; I stop whatever I'm doing during the day the instant I think of another major prayer need.

The reasons to pray vary. There are lots of circumstances in which prayer is appropriate, but some of the more popular ones are in times of trouble or if you or someone you love is sick. One thing worth praying for is that you might recognize opportunities to share your faith and that when the opportunity presents itself, you have the necessary courage to speak out.

It's important to pray for each other, including your family, peers, and your closest Christian friends. In fact, praying for those around will leave you feeling happier and closer to God than you would have felt otherwise.

Prayer isn't restricted to spiritual stuff. You can pray about anything that crosses your mind, be it serious or goofy.

Some of my silliest prayers are for my favorite maps in Call of Duty to come up when I play the game, or for my least favorite maps to be voted out when they come up. Believe it or not, every time I pray for either thing, God does it; some of these maps are almost always skipped, or preferred, so it's a very unlikely coincidence!

Ahem, Jesus made it clear that when you pray, if you believe, you will receive.

I'm not going to go into detail about all the big things I'm praying for right now, because that's between me and God. I would like to talk about some of the personal ones God answered for me in the past few days--sorry, no more video game prayers.

In the past week, Emerald told me she felt we needed some distance between us, breathing room, if you will. I agreed, but immediately found I was sitting at home all the time while most of my friends were at work or wherever. I was going stir crazy.

I've also been rather sad lately because of how long it had been since I'd gotten hugged by a friend or had held a girl's hand. Little things, yes, but when almost the past month was spent exhausted, I wanted nothing more. MD is very good at making me feel alone.

Choosing God rather than depression, I prayed. I think I asked for God to remind me how close my friends were to me. Also, I asked for the chance to experience a girl's affections soon, even if this girl wasn't destined to be my long term partner. I wasn't asking to be tempted by sex or a make-out session; I prayed to avoid that entirely. Female companionship, if you will.

God answered both those prayers the next day.

David spontaneously invited me over to his house for a mini video game party. There, I got to spend time with him, Crystal, and also an old French partner, Christine. It was their environment, and each of them were happy to be there. It was good to spend time around Christine again, and meet her fiancé, whom I'd heard so much about. Despite the fact that I have absolutely no skills whatsoever in Smash Brothers, I had a lot of fun.

That evening, Cherie and I had agreed to hang out. After dinner, we started talking and eventually got on the topic of her ex-boyfriends. She needed to release a lot of pent-up stress over the two of them, particularly Matt. Through her talking, I kept hugging her, and we eventually ended up sitting on the couch holding one another. At one point, she made sure I knew she didn't want to go out with me (in case we ever broke up) but when she saw I wasn't trying to ask her out, she relaxed next to me. Most of the night, we spent watching two soccer matches and talking about what a butthead Matt was.

She told me she is normally bored out of her mind during the day (since she works weekends), and we made plans to start hanging out all the time until the end of summer.

I'm not sure whether to give God a standing ovation or to bow down before his amazingness.