I Pray Because - Jacquie Block

Hi, my name is Jacquie Block, I am part of the Inspire Spiritual Care Team

I Pray Because….

I pray because it brings me joy to spend time conversing with God and prayer lets the peace of Christ take deeper root in my heart. As a person who feels most loved through quality time – it brings me joy to I know God always has time for me. It is also a grace to become more aware of God’s loving presence in my life through prayer. Prayer opens my heart and mind to God both as I listen to God and speak my thoughts/desires to my heavenly Father. As my prayer life grows, I grow in confidence. I become more confident to ask of God, and more willing and able to hear from God, even to hear words that are hard but can lead to greater freedom in Christ; freedom which comes as my heart is more willing to obey. The more time I spend in prayer the more I gain confidence to act and reach out because through prayer I gain trust that my actions are increasingly aligned with God’s will. A few years ago, I began to understand how much prayer – as an intimate conversation with God – requires me to listen, to be honest and to be vulnerable with God. No doubt my ability to do this comes and goes depending on my faithfulness and confidence to spend time with God in prayer.

I pray because I enjoy meditating on God’s word as I pray – both the written word and the living word, the person of Jesus. In these past years I have learned a variety of contemplative prayer forms that center on a prayerful reading of scripture. While study is important to transform the mind, I believe praying with the scriptures allows truth to sink deeper into one’s heart and life. Somedays when I do not know what to pray or it is early, and I’ve not yet fully woken up, reading the prayers of scripture or written prayers of other followers of Christ allows me to pray alongside my brothers and sisters in Christ.

I pray because I value community and praying in community. I believe when we pray together our hearts become united through the Spirit at work in us. I pray also because I care about the community of people that I meet here and there, and I do believe prayer has a greater impact – so I love people by praying for them. While I’m not sure I can always help I do believe God can, and sometimes God uses me to be the answers of my own prayers for others.

I pray because prayer also has great power – not because we can convince God to do anything, but in prayer we discern more of God’s heart and increasingly are able to pray alongside his Spirit – in this lies the power of prayer. As Eugene Peterson has said, “Prayer is political action. Prayer is social energy. Prayer is public good.”

I pray because I struggle emotionally, spiritually, and mentally if I am not regularly spending time with God in prayer.

Thanks for listening to my reasons for why I pray.