On becoming a woman of prayer...

Several years ago a friend gave me the book Creating a Life with God by Daniel Wolpert.  I have read it from cover to cover.  Most of the pages are highlighted and many dog-eared.  The book is filled with simple and understandable approaches to prayer practices that have deepen my life with God.  

Prayer is a conversation with God that begins in communing with Him and leads to life transformation.  Many people start with the understanding that prayer is nothing more than speaking formulas or appealing to God for help.  Prayer is something much more rich and profound.  Prayer must be your life with God : an awareness and consciousness of God that sweeps you off your feet.  In prayer, your whole existence is transformed as you begin to seek God in all that you do.  Your daily routine is no longer compartmentalized as "daily devotions" and praying before meals.  

For me, the tipping point came in chapter 11 - Prayer and Life in the World.  Wolpert writes, "...the hallmark of all our prayer practices is that in some manner they put us at God's disposal.  God is in charge, not us."  For me that means 

I am there to listen and to notice God's presence; 

I am not there to have God do my bidding. 

Wolpert continues,

"Prayer is difficult.

It is not the techniques that are hard -- most of the techniques are amusingly easy. Rather the difficulty lies in following through on the commitment to pray in the face of distractions that bear down on us or pick at us like annoying bugs, driving us away from the presence of God."