April 29, 2025 • 31 mins
Prayer transforms our spiritual journey from transactional requests to authentic divine communion. Whether you've prayed your entire life or struggle to understand what prayer means, this episode offers fresh perspectives on connecting with the God through prayer.
The foundation of meaningful prayer isn't found in perfect words or formulas but in genuine intention. We explore various approaches—from traditional petitionary prayer to contemplative sitting with God—and examine what makes each practice powerful. Many of us unconsciously default to treating prayer as a spiritual to-do list or desperate bargaining tool when life gets difficult. But what happens when we shift our perspective?
The concept of "the perfect prayer" offers a revolutionary approach: "God, may your perfect will be done for the greater good of all." This simple phrase releases us from the burden of knowing what's best and opens us to divine wisdom beyond our limited understanding. It requires courage to surrender our agenda and trust in something greater, but through this surrender we can experience profound freedom and peace.
Christian contemplative traditions offer another pathway through practices like centering prayer, where we simply sit in God's presence without agenda, consenting to God's divine presence within us. This form of prayer creates space for transformation that goes beyond words and concepts. Even brief moments of intentional connection can profoundly impact our spiritual journey.
This week, consider your true intention when you pray. Is it to get what you want, or to align with divine will? Choose one prayer practice that resonates with you and commit to it daily. Your spiritual journey deepens not through perfection but through consistent, authentic connection with the divine presence that holds us all.
Music by Song Channel Music. Listen at SongChannelMusic.com
Go to WelcomingGod.com to subscribe to our email newsletter and receive updates about all things Welcoming God.
Listen to MC Hammer's song, Pray, here.
Keith Kristich at Closer Than Breath, a "contemplative community for the spiritual seeker."
Richard Rohr and the Center for Action and Contemplation.
Living the Sacred Yes, Affirmations for Action by Rev. Deborah L. Johnson, pg. 100-101.
Love poems from God by Daniel Ladinsky, pg. 287-288.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Sarah Haykel (00:05):
Hi and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God.
I say we pray, pray, pray.
(00:26):
We got to pray just to make it.
Today I say we pray, pray, pray.
I say we pray just to make it.
Today, I say we pray.
I don't even know if those arethe real words to that song, but
those are the words that are inmy mind when I think of that
(00:49):
song, and this episode today isall about prayer.
So thank you for joining me,Sarah Haykel, here, your host of
Welcoming God.
I am super excited and enthusedto talk today about prayer,
because on the last episode wetalked all about creating a
(01:10):
conscious daily practice thatsupports you to connect more
intentionally and consciouslywith yourself and God on a daily
basis, and how this really isthe start of creating a more
spiritual lifestyle and living amore spiritual life where God
(01:31):
is in your life all the time,not just in moments of
desperation or on Sunday morning, when you might go to church,
or during the holidays to churchor, you know, during the
holidays.
So today we're going to talkabout different ways of praying
and communing with God, beingwith God, and this is something
(01:53):
that you can do in your dailypractice.
It's something you can dothroughout the day, and this is
just a simple tool and there areso many ways to pray.
I mean, I'm just going to offera handful of ideas, but I am
sure in traditions around theworld there are probably
(02:18):
hundreds, if not thousands, ofdifferent ways of prayer.
I'm always learning fromdifferent people in my life how
to pray.
I absolutely love learningdifferent ways of praying,
different ways of phrasingthings to God, to God.
(02:41):
It is so powerful and when itis that authenticity of I am
communing with God right now,there is something magical about
it for me and I just it's likeI gravitate towards it.
(03:11):
I just it's like almostawestruck, like yes, I feel it.
And I think of 2014, when I wasasked to paint at that Easter
Sunday service I spoke about,maybe in the first episode of
Welcoming God, first or secondepisode.
I think about, you know, when Iwas standing there the day
before that Easter Sundayservice and they were singing
the songs they were going tosing while I was on stage
painting live for the EasterSunday service, and I mean this
(03:35):
big auditorium it wasn't even achurch, it was filled with the
Spirit.
I mean I could feel it in myheart space, in my chest.
I could just feel the spirit inthat space and when they
started praying God, we know youlove us, we know we're loved.
I mean, that shit hit me in thecenter of my heart space and
(04:02):
changed my life.
It erupted into a series ofevents and explorations that
would deepen my exploration intoGod and spirituality and,
ultimately, the truth of who Iam and who we are, and what this
all is, which I'm stilllearning.
Today.
I feel like I have no answers,but I have some ideas and some
(04:27):
experience and some insights andknowledge to share, inspired
through God, from God through me, and I'm so grateful to be here
to share this with all of you.
So we're on the exploration,we're on the journey together,
and today is about prayer.
How do we pray?
(04:47):
And I think about the old waysof praying that I still do
sometimes like, oh, my God, god,please forgive me for thinking
that, please forgive me forsaying that, please forgive me
for doing that, because I'm soafraid that I've done something
wrong and then something bad'sgoing to happen to me because I
did something wrong.
Like so afraid that I've donesomething wrong and then
something bad is going to happento me because I did something
wrong, and so that's certainlyone way of praying that you
(05:09):
might be familiar with.
There's also praising praisingas prayer, thank you, thank you
God, thank you life, thank yousource, thank you creator,
giving thanks for what is in thepresent moment or for what we
(05:30):
have.
And I know I've heard peoplesay you know, treat all of your
praise equally, whether it'ssomething that you want or
something that you don't want.
How can you treat your praise,treat everything equally and
praise it and give thanks for it?
That can be challenging.
(05:53):
I'm going to let that land Takea breath.
Yeah, how can we be gratefulfor everything and just say
(06:27):
thank you, thank you God, evenif it's something we don't like?
I've heard that about money.
Like, can you just be withmoney in the same way every time
, whether it's that you'rereceiving a lot of money or you
lost money or you're getting alittle bit of money?
Just have the same attitudetowards it every time?
And I think that's somethinginteresting to consider.
As far as giving thanks, givingthanks and praising God for
what we have and what ishappening in the moment, there's
(06:49):
also like groveling Is that theright word?
Groveling with God, like, ohplease, you know I'm sorry I did
this, please do this for me.
And begging you know, I knowthat I definitely can get into
that mode of prayer as well Like, please, god, please heal this,
(07:12):
please do something, and justpraying for the healing.
And then I think of my spiritualcoach who said to me once, my
spiritual coach who said to meonce there is a perfect prayer
and that perfect prayer is God,may your perfect will be done.
(07:37):
And my spiritual coach hastaught me some sayings to go
along with that God, may yourperfect will be done for the
greater good of all.
And that's a concept I learnedas well through the Feminine
Power course many years ago, butmy spiritual coach brought that
back into the limelight for me.
May your perfect will be done,god, for the greater good of all
, for your glory, which to memeans the glory of all.
(08:01):
When I'm glorifying God, I amtruly glorifying the whole of
life, with the least amount ofsuffering and the most amount of
joy, in all spaces, places,times, dimensions and realities.
So praying for God's perfectwill everywhere, all together,
(08:21):
for the greater good, with theleast amount of suffering and
the most amount of joy.
And I love that prayer, I use itall the time.
It gets me out of my own waybecause I can go into prayer
mode and like pray for everyoneand put all these nuanced things
and then I'm like this justdoesn't, I don't know.
(08:44):
Does this feel right?
Like, and I love praying forpeople, I love praying for
specific things and lifting thatup to God or inviting God into
it.
So those are two other aspectsof prayer.
We'll talk about those in aminute.
But you know, sometimes I feellike, am I just is this a to-do
list?
Is my praying like a to-do list?
(09:05):
And I'm just getting through itLike, okay, if I don't pray for
these people, I'll feel guiltyor bad and wrong and that I
should pray for them.
So that's where authenticprayer really captivates me,
because it feels different.
It feels like it is from theHoly Spirit, from God, from
(09:26):
source, from creator, whateveryou believe in as the one true
source.
It is from this one true sourceand it's coming through us to
offer to life Some other optionsof prayer, like I just
(09:49):
mentioned, inviting God into it,saying God, I invite you into
this.
Emotion, thought, experience,situation, concern, worry, fear,
joy, whatever.
God, I invite you into this,please come into this, please
(10:17):
fill me with you, fill thesituation with your spirit, with
your grace, your love,whateverering it to God.
My cousin encouraged me to do asurrender prayer this past fall
, I believe it was, and she saidjust lay it at the feet of
Jesus, lay all your concerns,your worries at the feet of
(10:40):
Jesus and just give it up to God.
And that was really helpful toremember that.
Oh yes, I can give it up to God, I can lift it up to God.
I can lift this situation,these thoughts, these
experiences, these ideas, thesewords, these, whatever it is
(11:01):
health concerns, worries,whatever it is, health concerns,
worries, fears, safety I canlift this up to God and
surrender it to the sourcegreater than myself.
So we've got some differentideas as far as verbal prayers
here and intentions, becauseprayer can also be an intention
(11:25):
an intention for what we wouldlove to happen, or our intention
for what we truly want, wantGod to do, which is something
that is important to get clearon.
You know what is my intention.
(11:46):
Do I want my way or do I wantGod's way, and we've talked
about this concept already inthose terms.
Do I want things my way, andI'm going to do it my way on my
own, or am I willing tosurrender to God, to the bigger
(12:10):
plan, to the higher plan that Ican't see?
Because I'm not God.
I don't understand whyeverything's happening the way
it is, why everything'shappening the way it is.
But I'm willing to go with God.
Even if I don't know, I don'tsee it all, I don't understand
(12:33):
it all, I am willing to trustand listen and respond and do
what God is willing through meand ask God to do what is God's
perfect will as opposed to mywill, like what I think is the
right thing.
So this is tricky.
This is tricky territorybecause it's hard.
It's hard for me.
(12:55):
I think it's hard for us humansto surrender enough at times to
really go with God and to dosomething that we can't see.
We can't see the whole plan, wedon't understand it.
So it takes courage, it takesfaith and trust.
(13:19):
Faith and trust, a knowingnessthat I'm okay, I'm held by God,
I know God loves me.
We talked about that in a recentepisode.
It gives me some courage tostep forward into the unknown,
because I know I'm held by thesource greater than myself.
(13:39):
I've experienced it already.
I know I'm held by the sourcegreater than myself.
I've experienced it already.
I have some real experiencewith this.
I see God showing up in my life.
I know it's happening.
God is asking me to step forwardinto something else.
I am going to ask for God'sperfect will to be done.
For God's perfect will to bedone, not my own.
(14:04):
I'm going to give it up to God,lift it up to God and allow God
to work this through me andthrough life itself, through
others, through creation, in allspaces, places, times,
dimensions and realities, forthe greater good of all, with
the least amount of sufferingand the most amount of joy.
For your glory God.
Amen.
(14:25):
How does that land with you?
And I know when I say for yourglory God, I still have some
(14:47):
resistance to that.
Like, oh, what does that evenmean?
Oh, just for God's glory.
Like, not my own, not.
And I'm starting to get it thatfor your glory God means, like
I said a little while ago, forthe glory of the whole.
The glory of the one truesource is for the betterment of
(15:11):
all, everywhere, in all spaces,places, times, dimensions and
realities.
And this might not seem clear,especially when there's a lot of
horrific things going on in theworld and people can say well,
how does this work and why arethese people suffering so much
(15:32):
and I'm not?
Or why is you know?
And look, I don't have all theanswers you know it's.
This is just what I am learningand experiencing in my own
seeking God and learning to livein harmony with this one true
source.
So those are valid questionsand I think it's okay to be in
(15:58):
the question.
And I think it's okay to be inthe question and, as my
spiritual coach and DariusPridgen from True Breath of the
Baptist, when I went there, whenI started opening up to God,
they were the ones I painted forat Easter Sunday service in
2014.
And other teachers say talk toGod about it, god about it.
(16:18):
You know, if you have a sincerequestion, talk to God about it
and say God, I want to knowabout this.
Do you want me, or what do youwant me to understand about this
?
I need help.
I feel mad, I feel confused andask God directly.
(16:39):
God, I'm talking to you.
I want to know from you, god,the one true God, that's who I'm
talking to right now.
Please guide me.
What do you want me tounderstand about this?
And then, what's it like tojust be open.
You can even journal right thenand there, or you can let it go
(17:04):
and allow God to speak to youthrough you in your life.
Sometimes I do that I will askGod to give me clarity about
something and then I just let itgo.
I watch TV or I move on with myday and all of a sudden, at
some point in the day, I willjust get this revelation, oh my
God.
And I keep track of those.
I have a Google Drive doc.
(17:25):
I keep track of my insights, Idate them and write them down
and it just helps me with mygrowth journey.
And it also helps to look backon those like oh right, remember
this, remember this.
I like to do a monthly check-in.
I started doing that this year,a monthly check-in to see what
(17:47):
I've learned every month, whereI've been, and it just helps
refresh my memory and then I canmove forward into the next
month with more purpose, clarityand intention.
So, coming back to this idea ofdifferent ways of praying,
(18:09):
asking for God's support, thereare other ways of praying too.
There's a whole tradition ofChristian contemplative prayer
which is more about being withGod than asking God for anything
.
So like centering prayer, whichThomas Keating made very
(18:33):
popular in our modern Christianculture, meditation could be a
form of prayer sitting with Godwithout any agenda.
That's what contemplativeChristian centering prayer is
all about is sitting with God,doing our best to not get caught
(18:57):
up in the thoughts and theneeds of our parts and all of
that, but just noticing them,letting them move away and
coming back to our prayer word,which is that anchor to
reminding ourselves of ourintention of the Centering
prayer practice to sit in thespace, the presence, the
(19:25):
stillness of God consciously andto do that practice with
intention and then see whathappens from there.
I'm not asking God for anything, I'm just sitting with God in
the presence of God, they sayconsenting to God, and it is a
(19:47):
beautiful practice.
I remember when I was introducedto contemplative Christian
tradition through my cousin,during COVID actually, she sent
me Richard Rohr's email, one ofhis emails and introduced me to
the Center for Action andContemplation which Richard Rohr
started and he's a Franciscanpriest and that was my
(20:11):
introduction into this world ofChristian contemplative
tradition.
And it's a beautiful traditionand I love it.
But back then it was reallyhard for me.
It was like, oh my God, my mindwas going and after a few more
years of therapy and parts workand I felt like I was able to
clear out enough stuff that Icould start to actually engage
(20:37):
in sitting with God and itbecame a real joy for me to just
set a reminder on my phone.
Every day at around this timeof the day I would give myself
the grace of sitting with Godand I would literally just sit
on my couch or lay down.
I would even allow myself todoze off if I did.
(21:01):
It wasn't a big deal, it wasmore about just saying, right
now I'm going to be with God.
And then I kind of let go ofthat practice for a while.
And then last year I came backto it.
I was having an existentialcrisis and reached out to my
friend Keith Christich at CloserThan Breath and he said you
(21:22):
know, check out our group andthey do Centering Prayer Monday
through Friday together, andthat's when I started in earnest
with this practice again and itis beautiful.
So there are many different waysof praying, even meditating, if
you do mantra type meditation,where you're repeating a sacred
(21:44):
mantra or some kind of inspiringor empowering mantra, or you
are even just connecting in withyourself, like doing a body
scan or connecting in with yourbody sensations, to just check
in to the moment with yourself,as a way to cultivate that
(22:05):
noticing and that awareness andallowing, like clearing out more
, a little more space bynoticing what's there, letting
it be, allowing it to evolve,giving it space, and sometimes
that stuff can just clear theemotions, the sensations and all
of a sudden you're in a muchmore open space to connect with
(22:28):
the divine.
So there are so many differentways of praying and what I'd
like to do actually in the nextepisode is to practice a little
centering prayer meditation withyou and actually we usually
don't put those two thingstogether centering prayer
meditation but I'd like to do alittle practice with you on the
(22:51):
next episode.
So what I'd like to ask for youtoday is to consider your
intention for prayer.
What is your intention forpraying and how can you just
give yourself a few minutestoday to contemplate that?
(23:12):
You can journal about it, youcan just think about it, you can
go for a walk and think aboutit, be out in nature, whatever
works for you, but what is yourreal intention for prayer?
And look, be honest withyourself.
I'm even getting inside myselflike, oh yeah, I know, sometimes
when I pray, it's because Iwant to get what I want.
(23:33):
Yeah, okay, that's definitelythere.
Just this is a loving,compassionate exploration.
That's definitely there.
Just this is a loving,compassionate exploration.
You know, even if some shamecomes up or embarrassment, or
guilt, it's all good.
We can deal with hard emotions,difficult emotions.
You just give yourself thatgrace to recognize that you can
call God into it.
(23:55):
God, I need help with theseemotions.
Right now I'm feeling bad aboutthis or I'm feeling bad about
myself.
God, please come into this,help me process through this,
help me understand this, help meto have the grace and
compassion towards myself thatyou have always towards me.
We can lift it up to God.
Okay, so just exploring what ismy intention for prayer.
(24:18):
I'm going to do that too.
And then this next week, whattype of prayer would you like to
experiment with?
Is there one that I mentionedthat really resonates, or
another one that you know of?
So think, what one way ofpraying am I going to try every
(24:39):
day this next week until thenext episode, and I'm going to
do it at this time of the day.
I'm going to set a reminder onmy phone or an alarm on my phone
to go off at this time everyday.
That's my reminder to pray,whether it's for 10 seconds or a
minute, or five minutes or 20,whatever works for you, just get
(25:00):
in touch with what type ofprayer would you like to
practice and experiment withthis next week?
So I'd like to leave you with aprayer, and I might do a couple
of prayers here.
I've got this wonderful bookfrom Reverend Deborah L Johnson,
(25:21):
living the Sacred yes,affirmations for Action, and
I've just opened up to a pagehere, page 100 to 101, our
Indwelling Christ.
There is a Christ consciousnessthat dwells in each and every
(25:41):
one of us.
It is our awareness ofourselves as spiritual beings,
perfect, whole and complete.
It can be neither created nordestroyed, only revealed.
Our indwelling Christ is pureand intrinsic.
(26:03):
The heart is its womb andincubator, never stagnant or
stale, it is always fresh andgenuine.
Genuine, our indwelling Christis fully present, redeeming each
moment in oneness and love.
(26:25):
The Christ in me affirms andsupports the Christ in you.
(26:47):
Together, we are a mirror untothe world that says look at how
beautiful life in truth can be.
That's so beautiful so youcould even pause the podcast
right now and just contemplatethis prayer for a few moments,
contemplate this prayer for afew moments, and that could be a
form of prayer, like LectioDivina, which I'm learning about
(27:28):
myself.
And let's read one more.
This is from St Teresa of AvilaFrom 1515 to 1582, from the
book Love.
Poems from God 12 Sacred Voicesfrom the East and West, daniel
Ladinsky.
This poem is called the Grail.
They are like shy young schoolkids, time and space before the
woman and the man who areintimate with God.
(27:48):
The realized soul can play withthis universe the way a child
(28:08):
can.
A ball, a chalice.
The grail my body became, forit held the Christ and he drank
from me.
The Grail is each creature andbeauty may worry about its
comeliness waning.
We fear dying till we know thetruth of ourselves.
I got to read that line again.
(28:29):
We fear dying till we know thetruth about ourselves.
The seams on my body are torn.
I have stepped from that regionof me that did not love all the
time.
There is a divine world oflight with many suns in the sky.
(28:53):
I slept with my Lord one night.
Now all that is luminous.
I know we conceived Beautiful.
So I'm going to leave you withthose prayers, poems today.
(29:17):
Have a wonderful day, enjoyyour journey through prayer this
week and I will see you on thenext episode for some practices.
Thanks for joining me onanother episode of Welcoming God
(29:42):
.
Please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen and
consider leaving us a review, asit helps more people find and
benefit from this show.
Music by Song Channel Music.
You can listen and hear more atsongchannelmusiccom.
Until we meet again, aloha nuiloa, take care, and God bless,
(30:11):
thank you.
Hi and thanks for joining me on Welcoming God.
I say we pray, pray, pray.
(00:26):
We got to pray just to make it.
Today I say we pray, pray, pray.
I say we pray just to make it.
Today, I say we pray.
I don't even know if those arethe real words to that song, but
those are the words that are inmy mind when I think of that
(00:49):
song, and this episode today isall about prayer.
So thank you for joining me,Sarah Haykel, here, your host of
Welcoming God.
I am super excited and enthusedto talk today about prayer,
because on the last episode wetalked all about creating a
(01:10):
conscious daily practice thatsupports you to connect more
intentionally and consciouslywith yourself and God on a daily
basis, and how this really isthe start of creating a more
spiritual lifestyle and living amore spiritual life where God
(01:31):
is in your life all the time,not just in moments of
desperation or on Sunday morning, when you might go to church,
or during the holidays to churchor, you know, during the
holidays.
So today we're going to talkabout different ways of praying
and communing with God, beingwith God, and this is something
(01:53):
that you can do in your dailypractice.
It's something you can dothroughout the day, and this is
just a simple tool and there areso many ways to pray.
I mean, I'm just going to offera handful of ideas, but I am
sure in traditions around theworld there are probably
(02:18):
hundreds, if not thousands, ofdifferent ways of prayer.
I'm always learning fromdifferent people in my life how
to pray.
I absolutely love learningdifferent ways of praying,
different ways of phrasingthings to God, to God.
(02:41):
It is so powerful and when itis that authenticity of I am
communing with God right now,there is something magical about
it for me and I just it's likeI gravitate towards it.
(03:11):
I just it's like almostawestruck, like yes, I feel it.
And I think of 2014, when I wasasked to paint at that Easter
Sunday service I spoke about,maybe in the first episode of
Welcoming God, first or secondepisode.
I think about, you know, when Iwas standing there the day
before that Easter Sundayservice and they were singing
the songs they were going tosing while I was on stage
painting live for the EasterSunday service, and I mean this
(03:35):
big auditorium it wasn't even achurch, it was filled with the
Spirit.
I mean I could feel it in myheart space, in my chest.
I could just feel the spirit inthat space and when they
started praying God, we know youlove us, we know we're loved.
I mean, that shit hit me in thecenter of my heart space and
(04:02):
changed my life.
It erupted into a series ofevents and explorations that
would deepen my exploration intoGod and spirituality and,
ultimately, the truth of who Iam and who we are, and what this
all is, which I'm stilllearning.
Today.
I feel like I have no answers,but I have some ideas and some
(04:27):
experience and some insights andknowledge to share, inspired
through God, from God through me, and I'm so grateful to be here
to share this with all of you.
So we're on the exploration,we're on the journey together,
and today is about prayer.
How do we pray?
(04:47):
And I think about the old waysof praying that I still do
sometimes like, oh, my God, god,please forgive me for thinking
that, please forgive me forsaying that, please forgive me
for doing that, because I'm soafraid that I've done something
wrong and then something bad'sgoing to happen to me because I
did something wrong.
Like so afraid that I've donesomething wrong and then
something bad is going to happento me because I did something
wrong, and so that's certainlyone way of praying that you
(05:09):
might be familiar with.
There's also praising praisingas prayer, thank you, thank you
God, thank you life, thank yousource, thank you creator,
giving thanks for what is in thepresent moment or for what we
(05:30):
have.
And I know I've heard peoplesay you know, treat all of your
praise equally, whether it'ssomething that you want or
something that you don't want.
How can you treat your praise,treat everything equally and
praise it and give thanks for it?
That can be challenging.
(05:53):
I'm going to let that land Takea breath.
Yeah, how can we be gratefulfor everything and just say
(06:27):
thank you, thank you God, evenif it's something we don't like?
I've heard that about money.
Like, can you just be withmoney in the same way every time
, whether it's that you'rereceiving a lot of money or you
lost money or you're getting alittle bit of money?
Just have the same attitudetowards it every time?
And I think that's somethinginteresting to consider.
As far as giving thanks, givingthanks and praising God for
what we have and what ishappening in the moment, there's
(06:49):
also like groveling Is that theright word?
Groveling with God, like, ohplease, you know I'm sorry I did
this, please do this for me.
And begging you know, I knowthat I definitely can get into
that mode of prayer as well Like, please, god, please heal this,
(07:12):
please do something, and justpraying for the healing.
And then I think of my spiritualcoach who said to me once, my
spiritual coach who said to meonce there is a perfect prayer
and that perfect prayer is God,may your perfect will be done.
(07:37):
And my spiritual coach hastaught me some sayings to go
along with that God, may yourperfect will be done for the
greater good of all.
And that's a concept I learnedas well through the Feminine
Power course many years ago, butmy spiritual coach brought that
back into the limelight for me.
May your perfect will be done,god, for the greater good of all
, for your glory, which to memeans the glory of all.
(08:01):
When I'm glorifying God, I amtruly glorifying the whole of
life, with the least amount ofsuffering and the most amount of
joy, in all spaces, places,times, dimensions and realities.
So praying for God's perfectwill everywhere, all together,
(08:21):
for the greater good, with theleast amount of suffering and
the most amount of joy.
And I love that prayer, I use itall the time.
It gets me out of my own waybecause I can go into prayer
mode and like pray for everyoneand put all these nuanced things
and then I'm like this justdoesn't, I don't know.
(08:44):
Does this feel right?
Like, and I love praying forpeople, I love praying for
specific things and lifting thatup to God or inviting God into
it.
So those are two other aspectsof prayer.
We'll talk about those in aminute.
But you know, sometimes I feellike, am I just is this a to-do
list?
Is my praying like a to-do list?
(09:05):
And I'm just getting through itLike, okay, if I don't pray for
these people, I'll feel guiltyor bad and wrong and that I
should pray for them.
So that's where authenticprayer really captivates me,
because it feels different.
It feels like it is from theHoly Spirit, from God, from
(09:26):
source, from creator, whateveryou believe in as the one true
source.
It is from this one true sourceand it's coming through us to
offer to life Some other optionsof prayer, like I just
(09:49):
mentioned, inviting God into it,saying God, I invite you into
this.
Emotion, thought, experience,situation, concern, worry, fear,
joy, whatever.
God, I invite you into this,please come into this, please
(10:17):
fill me with you, fill thesituation with your spirit, with
your grace, your love,whateverering it to God.
My cousin encouraged me to do asurrender prayer this past fall
, I believe it was, and she saidjust lay it at the feet of
Jesus, lay all your concerns,your worries at the feet of
(10:40):
Jesus and just give it up to God.
And that was really helpful toremember that.
Oh yes, I can give it up to God, I can lift it up to God.
I can lift this situation,these thoughts, these
experiences, these ideas, thesewords, these, whatever it is
(11:01):
health concerns, worries,whatever it is, health concerns,
worries, fears, safety I canlift this up to God and
surrender it to the sourcegreater than myself.
So we've got some differentideas as far as verbal prayers
here and intentions, becauseprayer can also be an intention
(11:25):
an intention for what we wouldlove to happen, or our intention
for what we truly want, wantGod to do, which is something
that is important to get clearon.
You know what is my intention.
(11:46):
Do I want my way or do I wantGod's way, and we've talked
about this concept already inthose terms.
Do I want things my way, andI'm going to do it my way on my
own, or am I willing tosurrender to God, to the bigger
(12:10):
plan, to the higher plan that Ican't see?
Because I'm not God.
I don't understand whyeverything's happening the way
it is, why everything'shappening the way it is.
But I'm willing to go with God.
Even if I don't know, I don'tsee it all, I don't understand
(12:33):
it all, I am willing to trustand listen and respond and do
what God is willing through meand ask God to do what is God's
perfect will as opposed to mywill, like what I think is the
right thing.
So this is tricky.
This is tricky territorybecause it's hard.
It's hard for me.
(12:55):
I think it's hard for us humansto surrender enough at times to
really go with God and to dosomething that we can't see.
We can't see the whole plan, wedon't understand it.
So it takes courage, it takesfaith and trust.
(13:19):
Faith and trust, a knowingnessthat I'm okay, I'm held by God,
I know God loves me.
We talked about that in a recentepisode.
It gives me some courage tostep forward into the unknown,
because I know I'm held by thesource greater than myself.
(13:39):
I've experienced it already.
I know I'm held by the sourcegreater than myself.
I've experienced it already.
I have some real experiencewith this.
I see God showing up in my life.
I know it's happening.
God is asking me to step forwardinto something else.
I am going to ask for God'sperfect will to be done.
For God's perfect will to bedone, not my own.
(14:04):
I'm going to give it up to God,lift it up to God and allow God
to work this through me andthrough life itself, through
others, through creation, in allspaces, places, times,
dimensions and realities, forthe greater good of all, with
the least amount of sufferingand the most amount of joy.
For your glory God.
Amen.
(14:25):
How does that land with you?
And I know when I say for yourglory God, I still have some
(14:47):
resistance to that.
Like, oh, what does that evenmean?
Oh, just for God's glory.
Like, not my own, not.
And I'm starting to get it thatfor your glory God means, like
I said a little while ago, forthe glory of the whole.
The glory of the one truesource is for the betterment of
(15:11):
all, everywhere, in all spaces,places, times, dimensions and
realities.
And this might not seem clear,especially when there's a lot of
horrific things going on in theworld and people can say well,
how does this work and why arethese people suffering so much
(15:32):
and I'm not?
Or why is you know?
And look, I don't have all theanswers you know it's.
This is just what I am learningand experiencing in my own
seeking God and learning to livein harmony with this one true
source.
So those are valid questionsand I think it's okay to be in
(15:58):
the question.
And I think it's okay to be inthe question and, as my
spiritual coach and DariusPridgen from True Breath of the
Baptist, when I went there, whenI started opening up to God,
they were the ones I painted forat Easter Sunday service in
2014.
And other teachers say talk toGod about it, god about it.
(16:18):
You know, if you have a sincerequestion, talk to God about it
and say God, I want to knowabout this.
Do you want me, or what do youwant me to understand about this
?
I need help.
I feel mad, I feel confused andask God directly.
(16:39):
God, I'm talking to you.
I want to know from you, god,the one true God, that's who I'm
talking to right now.
Please guide me.
What do you want me tounderstand about this?
And then, what's it like tojust be open.
You can even journal right thenand there, or you can let it go
(17:04):
and allow God to speak to youthrough you in your life.
Sometimes I do that I will askGod to give me clarity about
something and then I just let itgo.
I watch TV or I move on with myday and all of a sudden, at
some point in the day, I willjust get this revelation, oh my
God.
And I keep track of those.
I have a Google Drive doc.
(17:25):
I keep track of my insights, Idate them and write them down
and it just helps me with mygrowth journey.
And it also helps to look backon those like oh right, remember
this, remember this.
I like to do a monthly check-in.
I started doing that this year,a monthly check-in to see what
(17:47):
I've learned every month, whereI've been, and it just helps
refresh my memory and then I canmove forward into the next
month with more purpose, clarityand intention.
So, coming back to this idea ofdifferent ways of praying,
(18:09):
asking for God's support, thereare other ways of praying too.
There's a whole tradition ofChristian contemplative prayer
which is more about being withGod than asking God for anything
.
So like centering prayer, whichThomas Keating made very
(18:33):
popular in our modern Christianculture, meditation could be a
form of prayer sitting with Godwithout any agenda.
That's what contemplativeChristian centering prayer is
all about is sitting with God,doing our best to not get caught
(18:57):
up in the thoughts and theneeds of our parts and all of
that, but just noticing them,letting them move away and
coming back to our prayer word,which is that anchor to
reminding ourselves of ourintention of the Centering
prayer practice to sit in thespace, the presence, the
(19:25):
stillness of God consciously andto do that practice with
intention and then see whathappens from there.
I'm not asking God for anything, I'm just sitting with God in
the presence of God, they sayconsenting to God, and it is a
(19:47):
beautiful practice.
I remember when I was introducedto contemplative Christian
tradition through my cousin,during COVID actually, she sent
me Richard Rohr's email, one ofhis emails and introduced me to
the Center for Action andContemplation which Richard Rohr
started and he's a Franciscanpriest and that was my
(20:11):
introduction into this world ofChristian contemplative
tradition.
And it's a beautiful traditionand I love it.
But back then it was reallyhard for me.
It was like, oh my God, my mindwas going and after a few more
years of therapy and parts workand I felt like I was able to
clear out enough stuff that Icould start to actually engage
(20:37):
in sitting with God and itbecame a real joy for me to just
set a reminder on my phone.
Every day at around this timeof the day I would give myself
the grace of sitting with Godand I would literally just sit
on my couch or lay down.
I would even allow myself todoze off if I did.
(21:01):
It wasn't a big deal, it wasmore about just saying, right
now I'm going to be with God.
And then I kind of let go ofthat practice for a while.
And then last year I came backto it.
I was having an existentialcrisis and reached out to my
friend Keith Christich at CloserThan Breath and he said you
(21:22):
know, check out our group andthey do Centering Prayer Monday
through Friday together, andthat's when I started in earnest
with this practice again and itis beautiful.
So there are many different waysof praying, even meditating, if
you do mantra type meditation,where you're repeating a sacred
(21:44):
mantra or some kind of inspiringor empowering mantra, or you
are even just connecting in withyourself, like doing a body
scan or connecting in with yourbody sensations, to just check
in to the moment with yourself,as a way to cultivate that
(22:05):
noticing and that awareness andallowing, like clearing out more
, a little more space bynoticing what's there, letting
it be, allowing it to evolve,giving it space, and sometimes
that stuff can just clear theemotions, the sensations and all
of a sudden you're in a muchmore open space to connect with
(22:28):
the divine.
So there are so many differentways of praying and what I'd
like to do actually in the nextepisode is to practice a little
centering prayer meditation withyou and actually we usually
don't put those two thingstogether centering prayer
meditation but I'd like to do alittle practice with you on the
(22:51):
next episode.
So what I'd like to ask for youtoday is to consider your
intention for prayer.
What is your intention forpraying and how can you just
give yourself a few minutestoday to contemplate that?
(23:12):
You can journal about it, youcan just think about it, you can
go for a walk and think aboutit, be out in nature, whatever
works for you, but what is yourreal intention for prayer?
And look, be honest withyourself.
I'm even getting inside myselflike, oh yeah, I know, sometimes
when I pray, it's because Iwant to get what I want.
(23:33):
Yeah, okay, that's definitelythere.
Just this is a loving,compassionate exploration.
That's definitely there.
Just this is a loving,compassionate exploration.
You know, even if some shamecomes up or embarrassment, or
guilt, it's all good.
We can deal with hard emotions,difficult emotions.
You just give yourself thatgrace to recognize that you can
call God into it.
(23:55):
God, I need help with theseemotions.
Right now I'm feeling bad aboutthis or I'm feeling bad about
myself.
God, please come into this,help me process through this,
help me understand this, help meto have the grace and
compassion towards myself thatyou have always towards me.
We can lift it up to God.
Okay, so just exploring what ismy intention for prayer.
(24:18):
I'm going to do that too.
And then this next week, whattype of prayer would you like to
experiment with?
Is there one that I mentionedthat really resonates, or
another one that you know of?
So think, what one way ofpraying am I going to try every
(24:39):
day this next week until thenext episode, and I'm going to
do it at this time of the day.
I'm going to set a reminder onmy phone or an alarm on my phone
to go off at this time everyday.
That's my reminder to pray,whether it's for 10 seconds or a
minute, or five minutes or 20,whatever works for you, just get
(25:00):
in touch with what type ofprayer would you like to
practice and experiment withthis next week?
So I'd like to leave you with aprayer, and I might do a couple
of prayers here.
I've got this wonderful bookfrom Reverend Deborah L Johnson,
(25:21):
living the Sacred yes,affirmations for Action, and
I've just opened up to a pagehere, page 100 to 101, our
Indwelling Christ.
There is a Christ consciousnessthat dwells in each and every
(25:41):
one of us.
It is our awareness ofourselves as spiritual beings,
perfect, whole and complete.
It can be neither created nordestroyed, only revealed.
Our indwelling Christ is pureand intrinsic.
(26:03):
The heart is its womb andincubator, never stagnant or
stale, it is always fresh andgenuine.
Genuine, our indwelling Christis fully present, redeeming each
moment in oneness and love.
(26:25):
The Christ in me affirms andsupports the Christ in you.
(26:47):
Together, we are a mirror untothe world that says look at how
beautiful life in truth can be.
That's so beautiful so youcould even pause the podcast
right now and just contemplatethis prayer for a few moments,
contemplate this prayer for afew moments, and that could be a
form of prayer, like LectioDivina, which I'm learning about
(27:28):
myself.
And let's read one more.
This is from St Teresa of AvilaFrom 1515 to 1582, from the
book Love.
Poems from God 12 Sacred Voicesfrom the East and West, daniel
Ladinsky.
This poem is called the Grail.
They are like shy young schoolkids, time and space before the
woman and the man who areintimate with God.
(27:48):
The realized soul can play withthis universe the way a child
(28:08):
can.
A ball, a chalice.
The grail my body became, forit held the Christ and he drank
from me.
The Grail is each creature andbeauty may worry about its
comeliness waning.
We fear dying till we know thetruth of ourselves.
I got to read that line again.
(28:29):
We fear dying till we know thetruth about ourselves.
The seams on my body are torn.
I have stepped from that regionof me that did not love all the
time.
There is a divine world oflight with many suns in the sky.
(28:53):
I slept with my Lord one night.
Now all that is luminous.
I know we conceived Beautiful.
So I'm going to leave you withthose prayers, poems today.
(29:17):
Have a wonderful day, enjoyyour journey through prayer this
week and I will see you on thenext episode for some practices.
Thanks for joining me onanother episode of Welcoming God
(29:42):
.
Please subscribe to thispodcast wherever you listen and
consider leaving us a review, asit helps more people find and
benefit from this show.
Music by Song Channel Music.
You can listen and hear more atsongchannelmusiccom.
Until we meet again, aloha nuiloa, take care, and God bless,
(30:11):
thank you.
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