We run all day long. We get up late and race to work or school. We move quickly between classes or meetings and hardly have time to sit and think about anything. Noon hour comes and we eat quickly, if we get to eat at all and then we begin the afternoon in another sprint to the finish line of school or work. After work or school we have practice of sports and other children we have to take care of and something to eat for supper and then we may go to another job or other meetings in the evening.

And when we pray, if we do that anymore, we race through our prayers at warp speed, spitting out our wants and needs as fast as we live our lives.

My life is no different than your life. I have raced through life at 70 to 80 hours of work a week for years. Married, with three children and we were involved in sports, work, school, church and multiple jobs at one time. But one thing I have continued to do is to find time to pray.

Recently, I read a book named ‘Silence The Mystery of Wholeness’ by Robert Sardello. The author has some great thoughts about silence, but one thing, in the book, that has changed my thoughts on prayer is to slow down. He encourages you to say your prayers one word at a time with silence between your words. This includes your memorized prayers such as the Our Father, Glory Be or Oh my Jesus.

Here is what the author says about one word at a time praying, “The words echo in an inner way as we silently speak the outer words. In this echoing we can feel, if we pay attention, an incredible, seemingly unending depth in what we are saying. It is as if we have entered a place where the word has become a spirit. The flatness of speaking transforms into dimensional space. This depth can extend to the point that the words seem to be no longer coming from “me” as I know myself to be, but from a being within me that speaks. When we pray, it is as if a second person is within us praying at a depth we can hardly imagine. Through our presence within the Silence, our spirit-being is able to speak. When we pray in the more usual way, we are often not present with our spirit. The presence of Silence is necessary for our inner spirit voice to resound. With this kind of praying, prayer and meditation join as one.”

There are many ways to pray; words, no words, standing, sitting, kneeling, walking, with or with out other people whenever you feel the need.

Romans 8:26-28 Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God’s Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don’t know how or what to pray, it doesn’t matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Scripture from The Message.