Shouldn't Prayer Have Options?

Questions don’t disappear after we become Christian. Often they multiply. So when they do, isn’t it encouraging to know that our prayer options also multiply?

Here are six ways we're experimenting with and expanding our participation with prayer at Toledo First on Wednesdays from 10am to 9pm. Just follow the directions at each prayer activity table.

1. Forgiveness: Write something you want to bring to God on a piece of paper with a felt pen and put it in a bowl of water. Watch it wash away.
2. Scripture Prayer: Meditate on a written and provided Biblical passage and pray it into your life.
3. Adoration: Contemplate how God has revealed himself through various provided props and staged objects. Adore his revelation.
4. Write a Prayer: Select and recopy a written prayer from the handful provided that expresses your heart [or write your own]. Carry it with you throughout the day, put it on you dashboard, mirror, etc.
5. God Speaks to You: Ask God if there's anything he wants to say to you. Begin, on paper, with your name, [i.e. Dear Mike, ...] and then write whatever comes to your mind, as if God were writing to you. Henri Nouwn published a book of these types of prayers, too, emphasizing that prayer is a dialogue and not just a monologue.
6. Bring it to Jesus: Write or draw something that represents a personal concern, burden, or intercession. Place it in the provided heart-shaped bowl, representing the heart of Jesus.

Here's the fine print:

• You do not have to be a member of Toledo First to participate.
• You don't have to bring anything with you.
• You don’t have to be an accomplished "pray-er" to participate.
• You don’t have to pray out loud.
• You don’t even need to know what to pray for because Romans 8:26 reminds us “The Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.”