Prayer

Prayer is more than just something meditative, it's how I can communicate with God and vent frustrations, make decisions about what to do in life, and aline my thoughts with His.

I pray each morning and night (and often many more times throughout the day), but my morning and nightly prayers are special and take on more of a structure.

Morning Prayer

For being the first part of the "day" (coincidentally also how God referred to the creationary periods in the Bible), I believe that morning prayers are time for spiritual creation. Just like God created things first spiritually, before creating them physically. As part of my morning routine, my morning prayer has a few parts that tend to happen in this order:

1. Gratitude, giving thanks
2. Help, asking for what I may yearn for
3. Others, thinking about who around me needs help
4. Pause, to think and let the Spirit provide input

They are always closed in the name of Jesus Christ, as He instructed.

Nightly Prayer

Nightly prayers are where I return and report my labors of the day during my nightly-routine. It's a practice that is divine in nature to make an accounting of work done. The general outline is usually:

1. Gratitude, giving thanks
2. Help, asking for what I may yearn for
3. Repentance, asking and addressing ways I should have been better throughout the day
4. Pause, to think and let the Spirit provide input

It is closed the same way.

Notice how the only really different number is #3. This outline is very rough because I don't want my prayers to turn into structured speeches so much as a daily standup.

I have other prayers throughout the day that feel more like conversations, but these 2 have some structure to help me make them meaningful.