Purposeful Faith

How to Pray

This morning my husband happened to flip over a vase in our house. Surprisingly, little pieces of folded white paper fell, like snow, from this vase and danced to the ground. My son was enthralled. Immediately, he fell to the ground and opened the little pieces, like it was Christmas.

They were our old prayers. Prayers from, about a year ago…all splayed out on the floor.

The more we opened them, the more our mouths opened wide: God had answered so many of them. He had literally helped my daughter to stop sucking her fingers. He provided blueprints to my husband’s business. He gave me fresh wisdom for another book and the means to get there. Answer upon answer, breakthrough upon breakthrough, word upon word — HE did it.

Oh, how easy it is to miss all the things God is doing — and has done.

Dear friends, let me tell you something, I don’t think the timing of this downfall is a coincidence. With this happening this morning, I believe God wants you to know: He is moving through the power of prayer. It is no wonder that I’ve been praying for you – and you have been praying for me — and now He splays out answered prayers on my floor.

God IS answering prayer. Believe! Believe, afresh. God IS doing it.

Needless to say, I feel inspired to share all-splayed-out-on-the-floor prayer-process with you today. . .

It started with my friend, and wise Pastoral Counselor, Karen Mortensen, who — way back when — taught me about a “Casting Bowl”.  She, with wisdom, explained that we can take our worries, our fears, and areas we want to control and “cast (our) cares onto the Lord, for He cares (for us).”

In this, we can hand to God what is no longer ours to carry. We begin to “cast”– by writing it down on a little paper, and then we give it to him — by casting it into a little bowl or vase.  Here, we literally – let. it. go.

I like to think of this symbolic action as, “transferring, or putting, our trust in Him.

“But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him.  They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” (Jer. 17:7-8)

This is how it looked like in my household: First, I had my whole family write down their worries, fears, and areas of control like a prayer request  — on a piece of paper. Second, we casted each one onto God as we let it fall into our vase. Third, we chose to let Him carry what we usually carry. This includes fear, anxiety and stress. We gave it up. Then, we decided, as these things “come back” or try to pester us again, we pray for them. And, chose not to “take them back” from God’s hands.

I did this imperfectly, I might add.

But, still, God answered me!!!!!  He was faithful!

I believe He will do this for you. I believe He has actually answered many of your prayers of old (if you truly think about them). There are probably so many things you’ve prayed and forgotten, but God has moved. He has moved and IS moving.

Take faith. Take hope. Take courage. Christ has overcome the world. And, He is more than enough to overcome all your problems.

I love you all.

 

Get all Purposeful Faith blog posts by email – click here.


About author View all posts Author website

purposefulfaith

Kelly, a fun-loving, active and spunky mom of two rambunctious toddlers, spends her days pushing swings, changing diapers and pursuing the Lord with all her heart. Called a "Cheerleader of Faith", Kelly's greatest desire is to help women live passionately, purposefully and unencumbered for the Lord.

Read more about Kelly

6 CommentsLeave a comment

  • Wow I needed this. My mind DOESN’T stop. I NEED THE LORD TO FILL MY MIND ! No more worry and anxiety. Phew!
    Thank I you again

  • Thank you for this spot on post this morning! I needed to see it and plan on writing my cared down and then cit each price of paper they are written down on; then out them in a case while giving them up to God in prayer. Much like you attested to, I have tried to take back my worries instead if totally releasing to God.

    Have a beautiful day!

  • He is faithful and has answered so many prayers. I love the act of “casting” our prayers on Him by writing on a piece of paper and putting in a vessel. I think it will be more effective than writing in a book and never looking back. Thank you for sharing this and may all His good gifts overflow your cup.

  • Thank you. I’m praying for God to give me justice, and was really allowing myself to become frustrated because His timing is not My timing. I’m going to trust God to give me justice, because He loves justice! He has done so many wonderful things in my life, and I’ve forgotten He has been right on time with everything. I need to let go, trust Him, and give Him control

  • Thank you for encouraging me to record our family prayers. God has put this on my heart for 2 weeks now and I still haven’t done this yet. I love the idea of using pieces of paper and throwing them into a vase to reread later as if your opening up a surprise gift. We were looking for a family activity to do tonight since we don’t celebrate Halloween. Writing out our prayers is a great substitute allowing us to release our worries and fears to Him, trusting God to work them out in His timing. Then next year we can open them thanking God for each circumstance He allowed in our lives because we know that it was for our good. Then sharing how God used that circumstance to grow us into becoming more holy like Him. I’m so glad that God cares more about making me holy than happy. ?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *