Welcome to Responding with Prayer,
An opportunity to respond to the complex everyday experiences that lift us up and bring us down.
My name is Jess.
I have struggled with attending to prayer,
And I hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is on choosing joy.
To start,
Let's take five big breaths together.
Deep breathing has been scientifically studied and found to change how we engage stress in situations.
It's good for slowing down and preparing for prayer,
But it's also a good practice for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
So just take a moment and feel your body breathe.
That was one minute.
If your mind went to other places just now,
Or happens throughout this time,
That's okay.
It's natural.
And you're still here,
So let's move on.
Take a moment and identify one person or situation you are grateful for as you do this.
Take a moment and out loud or in your head,
Express gratitude towards God.
Joy comes so naturally as a gift to some.
Others of us struggle with maintaining the level of optimism and hope.
Joy is a deep abiding presence rather than a circumstantial fleeting feeling.
Joy does have to be chosen sometimes.
We choose joy when we put the hope of our hearts first to guide how we respond to the world.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer,
So if you're able,
Put out your arms and turn up your palms as a posture of release toward the Creator.
The Christian scriptures tell us a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares towards the divine.
So imagine you wrote the things that are trying to steal your joy on the palm of your hands as an act of submission.
What words would be there?
God,
We place into your hands the things on our hands.
We choose joy and the impact that joy has on our lives and the world around us.
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's also focus on what healthy things we put into the space of that release.
If we are releasing the cares that keep us from joy,
What are we needing to take on?
As you close your hands,
What accompanying things do you need as you deal with and accept the joy that is available to you?
How about hope,
Playfulness,
Space for love,
Relationship?
Joy helps us live into our purpose because it focuses us outward on God,
Others,
Life's potential,
And hope in the future.
So in prayer,
We slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how choosing joy is impacting your life and what freedoms you want to live into.
God,
We accept the freedom that comes with submission to you.
We often fight against the very abundant life that you have for us.
So we accept the grace of contentment and joy that is available to us.
Now taking this time today did not change what is trying to steal your joy.
It may have changed your orientation towards those things,
But you may need to take some greater steps to address this in your life.
But the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition often maintained that prayer's greatest gift is not that it suddenly changes situations,
But that it often changes us.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
Amen.
