Prayer Project Reflection Paper

For the past 3 weeks, I have been participating in the prayer project. I grew up in a culture of prayer, but it was more individualized than communal. By praying the morning prayers in The Book of Common Prayer, I was able to participate in a tradition of prayer that has been practiced for generations, and I was able to focus my prayer time on specific themes and patterns. Growing up, I was immersed in a prayer. Every class began with prayer, food was blessed, bedtime prayers were rehearsed, and prayers from Scripture were memorized. However, much of this prayer become more and more individualized as I grew up. Preachers encouraged us to pray in our quiet times, and very little corporate prayer took place in my community. As a more reserved, quiet person, I often find myself speaking inside my head rather than outside. This gives me plenty of time to cry out to God, ask him who He is, and ask for strength throughout the day. As I was looking at the spiritual projects, the prayer project stood out to me because of the corporate aspect of it. The Book of Common Prayer is used by many Christians throughout the world every day, and even though I am not surrounded by others as I read through the prayers, I know that hundreds of others are reading them also. The Holy Spirit hears all of our voices and binds us together through them. …show more content…
In both projects, I had to give up control in order to listen to God. It is so easy to take all of the work into my hands, and forget that the active God of the universe is trying to speak to me. That is why slowing down and listening to God in Scripture reading and prayer is so important. I am ignorant to think that He expects me to get it all right on my own. He is the all-knowing one, and He has entered a relationship with me. He speaks and I should listen, and by spending long periods in prayer and anticipation, I am better adapted to hear his voice and his desires for my