When I was probably 7 or 8 I tapped my dad on the shoulder in the prayer room in Kansas City and asked him “what bible verse talks about abortion?” I wanted to pray on the microphone for the ending of abortion. He explained to me that there wasn’t a
Sitting at the local HOP here in Reno a few years ago, my daughter called in a panic from NYC. Her bf at the time was randomly assaulted on the subway. I told her I’d pray and then she had to quickly hang up. I was at a loss what and how to pray so I googled “prayer against violence” or something like that. I quickly found a Prayer For The Victims of Violence. I silently read it and realized the words perfectly reflected all the jumbled thoughts bouncing in my head. So I prayed it aloud uniting my faith with those words.
Why do we charismatic think we always need to reinvent the “prayer” wheel? There are thousands of prayers written throughout centuries by godly Christians. And if that doesn’t seem right, just keep silent remembering our Jesus already knows the depths of our hearts.
I’m just a girl who was only at IHOPKC for 2 years, but was deeply formed by the teaching and culture. Your writing has addressed so many things I’m wrestling through. Thanks for writing and processing publicly. It feels like a friend I can chat with over coffee that just gets it - but still loves Jesus and is mining the diamond in all this rough.
As a woman who was raised in a "women keep silent" denomination, I never learned to pray out loud, and the prayers I heard were all rehearsed sounding, with "thee"s and "thou"s and the same phrases over and over. So I am still completely uncomfortable with praying aloud, at all, other than simple prayers with kiddos (and I mean small kiddos, other than my own). The first time I ever prayed for anyone out loud was for a good friend who's husband (who was also a good friend, but we had all only been friends a year or so) called asking me to pray over the phone for her, and I couldn't say no and I don't even remember what I said because I was praying my own private prayer inside to not say the wrong things or sound stupid. I'm really working on it, and trying to realize what matters is just doing it, communicating with the Father, just like I do when it's just me and Him - but old habits die hard and ingrained teachings are difficult to uproot sometimes.
I'm sorry that you were raised in an environment that distorted prayer! Prayer is meant to be a sweet interaction between you and the Lord and it's sad to me when it gets distorted by others.
I really do like the apostolic prayers (prayers prayed by the apostoles in the New Testament). They help me pray out loud, evne just reading them out loud is helpful.
This is likely the beginning of a beautiful journey for you. I was raised in the church and a worship leader for over 10 years, but had to leave for different but quite painful reasons, and it was the best thing that ever happened to my faith. I needed to be on my own to learn to hear the voice of God outside of what everyone else was saying and teaching. I developed a life-changing connection with Jesus that I had never had but always loved for, and although I always struggled with prayer, now it's becoming second nature.
You can trust the Holy Spirit within you to lead you through your own intuition. You will learn to hear your Own unique voice in response to the voice of God.
And as a side note, you might appreciate the book "The Way Of A Pilgrim" - it's a beautiful book and a short read with much of it being about prayer. have loved it so far. Blessings!
That's amazing Rachel. I'm so glad that you were able to find Jesus in a new way. Many people abandon the faith entirely when they leave churches like that.
Congratulations, my escape away from Morningstar 5 years ago led me down the path toward a more ancient Christian Celtic view mixed with a bit of messianic. Prayer changed, got simple and so did my life. Enjoy the journey.
This is beautifully written, thank you for sharing. God still hears us even where are prayers are nothing more than a groan. Fancy language isn’t always necessary! x
Sitting at the local HOP here in Reno a few years ago, my daughter called in a panic from NYC. Her bf at the time was randomly assaulted on the subway. I told her I’d pray and then she had to quickly hang up. I was at a loss what and how to pray so I googled “prayer against violence” or something like that. I quickly found a Prayer For The Victims of Violence. I silently read it and realized the words perfectly reflected all the jumbled thoughts bouncing in my head. So I prayed it aloud uniting my faith with those words.
Why do we charismatic think we always need to reinvent the “prayer” wheel? There are thousands of prayers written throughout centuries by godly Christians. And if that doesn’t seem right, just keep silent remembering our Jesus already knows the depths of our hearts.
That's amazing. I think there is a lot we can pull and learn from the deep history of Christianity.
Love these posts cloe. I was told recently that my prayers also weren’t quite good enough, it’s intimidating! Keep praying the real prayers! ❤️
Ugh that is so rough! And very intimidating, and also just wrong. I'm sorry that someone said that to you.
I’m just a girl who was only at IHOPKC for 2 years, but was deeply formed by the teaching and culture. Your writing has addressed so many things I’m wrestling through. Thanks for writing and processing publicly. It feels like a friend I can chat with over coffee that just gets it - but still loves Jesus and is mining the diamond in all this rough.
Thank you so much Tiffany! These posts have been very healing for me as well. I have enjoyed "processing out loud".
As a woman who was raised in a "women keep silent" denomination, I never learned to pray out loud, and the prayers I heard were all rehearsed sounding, with "thee"s and "thou"s and the same phrases over and over. So I am still completely uncomfortable with praying aloud, at all, other than simple prayers with kiddos (and I mean small kiddos, other than my own). The first time I ever prayed for anyone out loud was for a good friend who's husband (who was also a good friend, but we had all only been friends a year or so) called asking me to pray over the phone for her, and I couldn't say no and I don't even remember what I said because I was praying my own private prayer inside to not say the wrong things or sound stupid. I'm really working on it, and trying to realize what matters is just doing it, communicating with the Father, just like I do when it's just me and Him - but old habits die hard and ingrained teachings are difficult to uproot sometimes.
I'm sorry that you were raised in an environment that distorted prayer! Prayer is meant to be a sweet interaction between you and the Lord and it's sad to me when it gets distorted by others.
I really do like the apostolic prayers (prayers prayed by the apostoles in the New Testament). They help me pray out loud, evne just reading them out loud is helpful.
This is likely the beginning of a beautiful journey for you. I was raised in the church and a worship leader for over 10 years, but had to leave for different but quite painful reasons, and it was the best thing that ever happened to my faith. I needed to be on my own to learn to hear the voice of God outside of what everyone else was saying and teaching. I developed a life-changing connection with Jesus that I had never had but always loved for, and although I always struggled with prayer, now it's becoming second nature.
You can trust the Holy Spirit within you to lead you through your own intuition. You will learn to hear your Own unique voice in response to the voice of God.
And as a side note, you might appreciate the book "The Way Of A Pilgrim" - it's a beautiful book and a short read with much of it being about prayer. have loved it so far. Blessings!
That's amazing Rachel. I'm so glad that you were able to find Jesus in a new way. Many people abandon the faith entirely when they leave churches like that.
Congratulations, my escape away from Morningstar 5 years ago led me down the path toward a more ancient Christian Celtic view mixed with a bit of messianic. Prayer changed, got simple and so did my life. Enjoy the journey.
This is beautifully written, thank you for sharing. God still hears us even where are prayers are nothing more than a groan. Fancy language isn’t always necessary! x