prayer and personality...

Firstly, I want to say - fair play to the week. car breaking, laptop dying. Oh my word for the trials and tribulations...but God is faithful, today the laptop and car come back restored. Without any loss of life. And with huge thanks to my brilliant Dad! Awesome!

the prayer guys gathered together last night for the second half our a 7th lesson, on how our personalities affect the way we pray...

"our personalities affect the way we pray?" I hear you say inquisitively...well, yes. They do.

And it's fascinating. Four 'prayer personalities' were presented to us, and slowly everyone became a little uncomfortable, then slightly excited as they heard themselves being described in this brilliant teaching. It was great to hear how different people react differently, which sounds obvious, but when it comes to prayer I think we don't often think about the fact that people will approach being in God's presence differently - not necessarily because of how much / little they know him, but how they're made themselves. They kind of go like:

Sunbather : the one who basking in God's presence, his bigness and wonder

Surfer : full of action, creative, prayer must result in something

Ice cream seller : full of compassion and caring for others, good attention to detail

Snorkler : explores God, asks questions, delves into the very core of things.

(that is a tiny explanation, and full of holes, given that the talk was 1hr 20 mins long!!)

Well, it was brilliant, fun, and very interesting. Another brilliant thing was to listen and talk through some of the 'helps'; encouraging us to pray in the ways most natural. But just as brilliant, were the 'disciplines'; challenging us to practise other ways of praying, to try praying in ways that aren't natural to us, so that we can stretch ourselves, and grow in our relationship with God.

The only weird thing for myself, is that I didn't really fit with one or two, I strangely related with all of them, which was obviously strange cos other people were mainly one, or a mixture of two.

oh well. just more 'disciplines' for me...! Once again, i find this from Brother Lawrence really encouraging, no matter what personality we find ourselves with:

"How can we pray to Him, without being with Him? How can we be with Him, but in thinking of Him often? And how can we have Him often in our thoughts, unless by a holy habit of thought which we should form?...We must know before we can love. In order to know God, we must often think of him; and when we come to love Him, we shall also think of Him often, for our heart will be with our treasure! Ponder of this often, ponder it well."