Take Notes by ba1969 at www.sxc.hu
Thursday was the National Day of Prayer. I was invited by our Mayor to lead a prayer for the people of Mayfield and Graves County. I did something I don’t know I have ever done, I wrote out the prayer.
I found this to be a very beneficial exercise. I have made notes for prayers before, but never written it out in a sentence format. I ended up not reading the prayer and actually chose not to use the entire prayer because of its length, but I am still glad I did this exercise.
Here are some reasons you should consider writing out a prayer especially for a public gathering.
- It forces you to think about what you want to say. Rather than slipping into vain repetitions that you habitually use and Jesus warned about writing it out causes you to consider what you will say (Mat. 6:7).
- It forces you to think about how you will word your prayer. Though prayers are not about flowery, eloquent speech, it does seem that our present age may neglect some of the beauty element to public prayers.
- It allows you to research and incorporate Scripture and other important thoughts into your prayer. I included two quotes from Psalms in my prayer. The Psalms provide a rich resource of prayer material. It is a good practice to pray the Psalms, and this allows you to incorporate this idea into your prayer. Paul’s recorded prayers in the New Testament are another great resource.
- It helps with your nerves and anxiety. When I teach the young boys leadership training class on prayer we spend some time writing down our thoughts first. One of the most intimidating aspects of prayer is the fear of going blank. Writing it down alleviates this fear in that you are prepared and you have notes.
- It helps you to take the privilege and opportunity of prayer more seriously. We are talking to Almighty God. I recently saw where people had bid for charity on gaining some time with Apple CEO Tim Cook. Most of the bidders looked like smaller companies who wanted to be able to make a sales pitch of how their product could be used by Apple. Do you think the winner will prepare what he will say? Shouldn’t we give some thought to what we will say when we lead a group of people in prayer before our God?
I obviously will not normally write out my prayers. But I found it a very beneficial exercise. I would also recommend it for private prayer when you are having trouble expressing your thoughts. It might be that a journal serves this function. It is a good recommendation for someone dealing with grief or some difficult decision.
Why have you found it helpful to write out your prayers?
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Also in case you wish to read my prayer, here it is in pdf format: prayer
