Thoughts on Prayer

The idea of prayer, how to pray and the importance of prayer have come up multiple times today for me, which leads me to believe God is trying to show me something about it.

The first instance is really quite personal. I have found the lately my prayers have become what I deem as vague, for instance praying for Missionaries, rather than each one by name and need etc. I have struggled a LOT lately with feeling that my prayers are just unworthy of God. I don;t know if that means my prayers are becoming less or my admiration of God becoming more but either way it is really starting to bother me. just 6 months ago I felt myself relying so much more on prayer, spending hours a day praying, and laterally turning to God for every matter of my day. These days I tend to group prayers together, and find myself struggling with the idea of "I don't have hours to pray for everything so Ill rush through." This really breaks my heart, because times of prayer for me aren't really asking for things so much as talking to God, so in essence I'm spending less time with someone I love. In reality only cheating myself. It is not as if I think there is not enough time in my day, or not making prayer a priority but rather I feel like I could pray for 24 hours straight and never say all I want to say.

Another instance is the idea that a friend brought forth. She said she used to keep a journal of her prayers, actually someone who went to Kenya with me in Jan said she did the same thing. The idea that if you get it all down you'll cover everything. Without going into much detail because it is really their own business this idea sort of appeals to me. Has anyone else ever kept a prayer journal?

Lastly I have a friend who is struggling greatly right now with the idea of prayer. She recently lost her baby and is going through things I can't even imagine. On top of it all she is dealing with thoughts on whether prayer really works, and how it works. If the idea is God has a master plan, and he knows your story before it is written then what is the purpose of prayer? I tried to give her my 2 cents, but lest be honest eloquent and well spoken when it comes to matters of God aren't my strong suit, I kind of just call it like I see it.

I definitely know I am far from figuring all these ideas of prayer out (I mean I guess Ill be figuring it out as long as I am here), However essentially prayer is one of those things that there are as many "ways to pray" as there are people in the world.

If it is something you feel comfortable sharing, how do you pray, have you ever kept a journal? Have you ever had a time when you just felt like you were getting no where, or not being heard? Can I pray for you?

Lastly a picture. These are some of the kids I met in Kenya. They live in Kawangware, the second largest slum in Africa. They can ALWAYS use your prayers. ALWAYS