Day 3- PRAYing 7 New WAYS in 7 DAYS

Praying with Music

The rain finally tapered off for a little while this evening and Rog took the girls on a 4-wheeler ride so I took advantage of the opportunity to have some uninterrupted prayer time.  
(See, I did learn!)

Praying with music is something I do on occasion but it had been a while.  The idea is that you turn on some music and pray until the music ends.  You choose the song(s) or playlist and therefore, the amount of time.  It's best to choose music without lyrics so that you don't end up singing along instead of praying (another lesson learned).

I chose a beautiful instrumental on youtube, turned the lights down low (candlelight would be awesome here too), and closed my eyes.  I let my breathing slow to the rhythm of the music and began by praying my usual prayers.  

The song I chose was about 10 minutes long.  I finished going over the usual prayer list and opened one eye to check the time ;)  2 minutes 16 seconds had passed.  Really?  That's my normal prayer time?  Hmmm... 

I returned to my prayer and prayed for each of my family members and friends that I hadn't prayed for in the prior 2 minutes.  I prayed for each of them by name and prayed for each of their specific needs.  Again, one eye opened- 5 minutes 39 seconds.  
Hmmm....

I closed my eyes once again and said, "Ok God what do You want to talk about now?"  lol  I sat silently for a few minutes and began to relax and think.  And the more I thought, the more I talked to God about what I was thinking.  And I began to have unusual thoughts.  By unusual, I mean thoughts that were.... not my own.  I began to look at a situation in my life from a different perspective. An unexpected scripture came to mind... a verse that caught me a little off guard but in retrospect made perfect sense.  (That's another story for another day, but suffice it to say that I feel much more at peace with the situation.)

When the music stopped, I was actually surprised that the rest of the time had seemed to pass so quickly.  

If you try this method of timed prayer, you may find that 10 minutes is a long time in comparison to your normal prayer time.  But as you relax into it, you will find yourself connecting to God on a deeper level. It is in that depth that you will discover a greater perspective and sense of clarity.

Can you spare 10 minutes for your Creator today?