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Make a prayer box

By Daniel Francis

I have been taking a more intentional approach to prayer over the past few months. I turn to prayer when I am in need, and I also turn to prayer in times of gratitude, attempting to strike a balance. Recently, my imagination got the better of me and I began creating a prayer box.

During my day, I have many different reminders of things or people I want to bring up in prayer. A friend might mention a sick family member, I might want to lift a specific venture to God in prayer, or I want to pray for the soul of a recently passed loved one, etc. I began doing this simple exercise of taking each thing I want to bring to God in prayer and adding it to my prayer box.

In my case, it is an imaginary box that I have fully conceptualised in my mind. I have visualised it to a tee. It has a colour, specific shape, and size. Anytime I have something that I want to bring up in prayer and I am still on the go, I visualise putting that thing in my prayer box so that I can properly bring it forward to God in my quiet moments of prayer.

Sometimes I  even write down the things I want to bring up in prayer if there are many items. In the past, I would talk to a friend, for example, and they would tell me about how difficult a time they are having. I would instinctively say that I would pray for them, as most of us would, but then I forget to do so.

The simple act of visualising putting this need or want into my prayer box or writing it down added that extra layer of intentionality that helped me to follow through with my words.

This activity not only helps to increase the likelihood that you will lift these things in prayer, but it helps add another habit that develops our trust in God.

It is so easy to constantly worry. We worry about work, friends, family, if we did our best, if we will get things done on time, etc.

When we hold on too tightly to these worries, they weigh us down. We tend to get caught up in a loop of worrying because we have positioned the worry upon ourselves as opposed to doing what we can and passing those worries off to God and letting Him handle them.

It sounds like such a simple thing to do, but the underlying notion is trust. Trust that God will take care of what burdens us. Trust that once we offer up our worries to God, there is no doubt in our minds that He has got us so we can relax.

That level of trust would allow us to let go, focus on our day, and not be constantly fearful of a potentially negative outcome. That’s a level of trust that has to be nurtured because how many of us can say that after we offer our worries to God, we can easily stop thinking about them and comfortably move on with our days? I know that I still think about what burdens me and hesitate. This habit of having a prayer box has helped me to immediately position myself towards God, pass my burdens onto Him, and help build trust in Him.

So, whether you create an imaginary prayer box like I did, write a list on your phone, or maybe get a physical box, write your worries down, and place in that box/list. I urge you to try this. The more intentional we are with our relationship with God, the deeper we grow in connection with Him.

 

Daniel Francis is a millennial helping other millennials. He is a two-time author of the books The Millennial Mind and The Millennial Experience, and an entrepreneur. Over the past four years, he has served as a Personal Development Coach whose work targets Millennials and helps them tap into their full potential. He is also a self-publishing coach and has guided hundreds on self-publishing their book successfully.

 

LinkedIn: Daniel Francis

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Website: www.ompublishing.org

Email: themillennialmind2020@gmail.com