A PRAYER OF GRATITUDE

January 23rd, 2021

I do begin each day with a prayer of gratitude. Before my head lifts off the pillow, I thank God for the hours behind me since my last prayer, thanking Him for the day before.

It has been a ritual practice that I enjoy even on the days I do not want to get up. Sometimes I do sleep-walk through the first few hours before I sit with God again in prayer. I love how my few minutes with God help me set my day.

“Everything exposed to the light itself becomes light”
- Ephesians 5:13

The word prayer has often been trivialized by making it into something we want to get. Let us pivot on the perspective and instead of looking for a wish list of things to check off, allow our prayer to become an experience that journeys us into a deeper faith with the hope and love to discover ourselves to become who God created us to be. Allow prayer to be much more and personal to you and not a technique for making God happy or a requirement into heaven. Consider prayer a practice of experiencing heaven now.

"In prayer, we merely keep returning the divine gaze and we become its reflection, almost in spite of ourselves"
- 2 Corinthians 3:18

My prayer practice is far from perfect. As the years have gone on, I come to recognize how much joy I receive from my prayer time. At the start of the day, continuing throughout and wrapping myself in God’s embrace every night. I pray you come to share in the journey of discovery in your prayers.