{{2009_07_06_t1.jpg}} {{2009_07_06_t2.jpg}} {{2009_07_06_t3.jpg}} [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/de/doku.php/jn_de_2009_07_06|Deutsche Version]] [[Start|| Wiki Start]] [[topics_collection_i|| Topics Collection i ]] ======The World of Prayer I.====== Monday, July 6, 2009. A world of prayer - for one week we want to focus on prayer. What can prayer be? What different ways to pray do I know? Let us practice prayer. There are uncountable experiences with prayer which people of all times have expressed. The put it into songs, into stories, into poems and books. We could spend a month or even a year to talk about prayer. This week we want to focus on five topics: Prayers to Search God Prayers for My Needs Prayers of Dedication Prayers for People Prayers of Thankfulness {{2009_07_06.jpg }} What is a prayer to search God? It is a prayer which tells God that you want to know him. It is a prayer which tells him, that you search him. It is a prayer which starts to address God! Perhaps you think prayer is easy, you pray every day. That is great, wonderful. Prayer will not remain unanswered in the long run, even if a special prayer might seem to stay without any response of God. But most people have their problems with prayer. They pray sometimes, often when they are in big trouble. But they never used prayer to build a real relationship to God. They seldom experience clear answers to prayer. Or they pray in some particular tradition which has strong rules about how prayer should happen, and they feel that the tradition kills the life of their prayer. Prayer seems to be just a ritual, not changing much. A prayer to search God is also a prayer which tells God that you want a relationship with him. God, please come and talk to me. God, please come into my life. If you are the Lord, the almighty creator and saviour, then please come and show yourself to me, your possibilities. When I first started to pray I had many fears. I feared that God would not exist and that I made myself ridiculous by praying into the thin air. I feared what other people would say when they realized that I had started to pray. Also, I feared that God would be there and that my prayer would be heard. Then he would come - and what would happen to my life? Would he take over? Would he do things which I did not want? What would happen? It seemed a risk to deal with the almighty God. {{ 2009_07_06_2.jpg}} It is a risk to go into the unknown. But here we have a risk which is worth the stake! The God we are talking to is known as "the love". He is known as "the faithful one". He is known as the God loves humans so much that he would die for them himself. To ask this God: come into my life! is a good and reasonable prayer. It is a prayer we should say, every day, if we are clever enough to realize what we can gain here. If we want to meet the source of life, the most trustworthy being in the Universe, we should pray and search for God: God, show me that you are there. Come to me! Come into my life, come! [[http://www.jesusnetwork.eu/en/doku.php/topics_collection_i|... more texts]]