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've struggled with attending to prayer,
And hope this little offering brings you closer to the Creator.
Today's meditation is on starting something new.
To start,
Let's take five big breaths.
Deep breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress in situations.
It's good for slowing down,
Preparing for prayer,
But also a good practice for all kinds of situations we find ourselves in.
So just feel yourself breathe for 60 seconds.
Deep breathing has been studied and found to change how we engage stress in situations.
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 that gratitude towards God.
Starting something new can be an invigorating and challenging time.
Some people love change,
Or spend their lives starting new initiatives and manifesting new ideas.
For others,
Beginning something new is a leap into the unknown.
Identifying your own gifts and abilities help this process and can make starting something new a faith journey.
Our bodies are an important part of prayer,
So if you're able,
Put out your arms and turn your palms up as a posture of release to the Creator.
The Christian scriptures tell us of a very practical spiritual opportunity.
Cast your cares towards the divine.
So imagine you wrote this new plan,
Direction,
Initiative,
And how you're feeling about it on the palms of your hands as an act of submission.
What words would be there?
God,
We place into your hands these things on our hands.
We give to you this important new thing and its impact on our lives.
A lot of meditation teaches the necessary ability to release.
Let's also focus on what healthy things we put into that space of release.
If we're releasing any hesitation or anxiety about this new thing we're taking on,
As you close your hands,
What accompanying things do you need as you begin this new journey?
How about faith over expectations,
Gratitude over fear,
Hope and possibility over worry?
Starting new things help us live into our purpose because it focuses us on an active faith and meeting God in a new present adventure.
So in prayer we slow down and make commitments to our core foundations.
Spend a minute expressing to God how stepping out on faith 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 your visions,
Your timing,
Your results and your plans.
Now taking this time today did not start the new thing.
It may have changed your orientation towards it though.
You may need to take some greater steps to move on this new work.
But the great spiritual writers in the Christian tradition often maintain that prayer's greatest gift is not that it suddenly changes situations,
But that it often changes us.
Amen.
