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Connecting with the Divine — JUNE 2009

by Arleen Hannich | Email me if you questions or comments | Back to List of Articles

Deepening Your Relationship With The Divine Through Prayer

I often speak with folks who want to talk about prayer but are hesitant to bring it up. Some of them feel a little sheepish and some feel downright guilty because they feel they don't pray enough or that they don't pray "right."

I may be a Spiritual Facilitator, but I don't think for a minute that I can tell you how to pray "right." At best, I can offer you some questions to explore. Your answers will help you decide if your current mode of prayer is working well for you. Hopefully, your discoveries will help you feel better about your current prayers, or they will set you on the path for an even deeper relationship with the Divine.

Below are some questions you can ask yourself to help you see if you are getting the "biggest bang" out of your prayer practice.

To clarify, by "prayer practice," I simply mean:

1)  What you do on a regular basis to spend time with and connect with the Divine, or in other words, how you help God know you better and how you allow yourself to get to know God better.
2)  Your ongoing prayers over a period of time vs. a single prayer, no matter what your prayers "look like."

So here we go with the questions. Does your prayer practice:

  • Keep you interested and engaged?
  • Help you know yourself better? For example, does it cause you to look more closely at yourself? Does it help you become more aware of beliefs you hold, judgments you make about yourself or others, and/or your individual perceptions and filters?
  • Help you know God better?
  • Lead you to reveal more and more of yourself to God? To other people?
  • Cause you to treat yourself differently?
  • Make you want a relationship with the Divine more and more?
  • Help you see/feel/sense God's presence in your life?
  • Help you make choices in your daily life?
  • Take you into new physical, mental, emotional, or spiritual territory?
  • Inspire and help you to let God into more areas of your life?
  • Lead you to experience a variety of emotions?
  • Overall, at the deepest levels, leave you with a sense of joy, peace, and/or connection?

 

OK, this isn't a Cosmo quiz, so I can't tell you a percentage of "Yes" answers you need "to make the grade." Instead, just look at these questions and your answers as one way to consider how you are relating with the Divine. Are you relating at the level you would like to be? Are you satisfied with your relationship?

If you’re not relating with God at the level you’d like, or if you’re just plain "stuck” when it comes to praying, here are some suggestions you may want to consider. If you wish, you can incorporate one of these suggestions into your current prayer practice, or use one or more of them to help you begin praying if you haven’t already done so.

A few suggestions to consider…

  • Begin with gratitude. Tell the Divine about those things in your life you’re really grateful for.
  • Express yourself wholly and fully to the Divine. Don’t leave anything out. Hint: If you feel you need to keep something from God, that’s a great item to tell God. Don’t worry, you won’t be hit by lightning--God already knows anyway, but just wants to hear it from you!
  • Be highly communicative. In other words, don’t say to God “I’m mad.” Tell God how you got so mad, how you feel about being so mad, what your anger makes you want to do, etc. And if you’re mad at God, be sure to mention that little tidbit as well.
  • Listen closely. Allow the Divine to reveal itself to you. Put yourself aside for a few minutes and just allow yourself to be fully absorbed with God. Learn more about God, like you would when forming a new friendship with another person. (I have to laugh, because in my first draft of this article I accidentally typed “unlearn” instead of “learn.” I think there may be merit in that typo. As a child, what did you learn about God that perhaps keeps you feeling distant from the Divine? Be open to “unlearn” childhood beliefs that no longer make sense today.)
  • Allow for spontaneity in how you pray. What feels good one day may not be your best choice the next day.
  • Bring all of you into your conversations with God, not just your mind and your thoughts.
  • Pray in a way that you enjoy the time you spend with God.

 

In summary, prayer does not have to be hard; it can be a very natural process. It is simply the process of letting God get to know you better, while you get to know God better.

Remember, God wants to be with you. You are not a bother--no matter what you choose to talk about. No subject is off-limits. Interact with the Divine frequently, and trust your relationship will grow and unfold naturally. Expect to hear/see/experience God in your life. Expect it as the norm, not the exception. And above all, remember that anybody can pray. There is no reason for you to feel you can't. No matter what “you've done” or “not done,” God is still there for you!


 

by Arleen Hannich | Email me if you questions or comments | Back to List of Articles