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prayer_bench.jpgMy prayer life changed radically during my first year in Romania. It changed even more the next four years. When I was on the airplane heading back to the States one summer, I wrote down specific prayers for each of the youth in the village. I wrote down all the things I wanted to remember to pray for them.

Several of the youth had agreed to pray every afternoon that summer at 3:00 p.m. and I would pray with them at 7:00 a.m. in the United States. For three months, every morning, my alarm sounded at 7:00 and I fell to my knees, praying for the teenagers that I knew were bowing in prayer at the same time, an ocean away. The discipline of fixed-hour praying became an integral part of my prayer life.

That summer was also the first time that I had ever prayed anything written before. I used those written prayers daily when I would pray for the youth in village. They were written out so that I would be disciplined in my prayer life, remembering the necessary things and keeping me from drifting to other thoughts when I prayed.

Praying written prayers eventually became a vital part of my prayer life. I loved the beauty and spiritual depth found in many of the prayers of saints of old, as well as the prayers found in books like The Book of Common Prayer, and I felt as if I was uniting with the universal church whenever I prayed others’ prayers. I knew that if I wanted to my devotional time to be revitalized, I must let my heart and desires be shaped by the hearts and desires of the faithful who have gone before me. I learned that there is a time and a place both for spontaneous praying, and also for thought-out, formal praying.

My prayer life eventually turned away from me and my needs and became something that was centered on other people, whether they were the youth, people we knew who were sick or suffering, people going through tragedies like the tsunamis or civilians caught in the crossfire of war. The more we pray for others, the more our heart becomes like God’s.

written by Trevin Wax  © 2008 Kingdom People blog 

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