Ways to pray! Thank you Carmen!

Sent in by Carmen-- thank you!

As Christians, prayer is very important to us, but I think sometimes we don't know how to pray. What everyone thinks of when they hear the word "prayer" is kneeling or just sitting and talking to God. This type of prayer is definately good and tons of people do it, but sometimes it can feel a bit intimidating. Sometimes we don't know what to say or we feel God isn't actually listening (even though, of course, He always is). If you don't like whispering to God, it's okay. There are other ways to pray. Write down your prayers or write a letter to God. Tell Him everything, He definately wants to know even when no one else does. Recently, there have been people in my life who have needed prayers. My family had been praying and praying, but it started to get a bit redundant. I wanted a new way to pray for them, so this is what I did. In this empty journal I have, I wrote this: "Lord, as I'm decorating these names, let every second I spend be an hour You spend with them." Then I wrote down each person I was praying for and left some space and drew designs around each one. The whole time I was basically doodling around a certain name,
I was thinking about the person and telling God in my mind to just fill that person up and be with them. There were three people in particular I was praying for. One with cancer, one who had just had a heart-attack, and one who had had a mysterious headache for two straight years. Guess what? God listened. Within a few days, the person with cancer got a cat scan and discovered the tumor was only one-fourth as big as it had been for the past year. The new treatment worked and we will be able to celebrate another birthday with him. The person with the heart-attack began to recover and had no more attacks. The mysterious headache person finally found a doctor who knew what it was from and they have started treating it. Praying does work and God does listen. Never give up on God because He will definately never give up on you.

-Carmen

What are some of your favorite ways to talk to God?