You sit down, close your eyes and then…nothing. What happens when you cannot pray?
I know that the popular theory is to force it because something is forcing you not to pray. But early on in my faith, I made sure that I found other ways to communicate with God.
Why? Because sometimes I will not speak verbally to my circle but I’ll send them memes or videos. Because sometimes I’ll WhatsApp my friends and sometimes I’ll call them.
If we don’t communicate with our friends and family in ONE specific way, why shouldn’t we expand the way we communicate with our Father?
1. Journal
Part-diary, part-prayer book, I keep a notebook where I write everything that happened during the day and how I felt about this. This specific journal is for God’s eyes only. It started as a way to document my return to religion and then all of a sudden I was writing in it everyday. I felt a little silly because obviously He KNEW what was going on in my life and how I felt about it. But it made me feel less alone.
2. Write a Letter
You might ask how is this different? I have a collection of letters I wrote during an especially difficult time in my life. They’re pasted or slotted in various books of my Bible but every time I find one I open and read it and it makes me so happy. They’re all old prayers and it humbles me to see how nervous I was and how vulnerable I was.
3. Just Talk
This is probably one of my favourite things to do when I cannot pray. I start with “I don’t know how to pray” or “I don’t know why I can’t pray but I just wanted to tell you that” and then go into all the things. I am the type of person who can talk for hours so these sessions tend to go on for a bit but by the end of it, I feel better and 9 times out of 10 I usually end up stopping or pausing the conversation because all of a sudden I need to pray about something.
4. Sing
I have the habit of singing everything. So I started a specific playlist of Gospel songs that no matter what my mood is, I can sing along to. Eventually I go off on a tangent and either end up singing to God what I’m feeling/doing/wanting or I eventually feel like going and talking to Him about my life.
What do you do when you cannot pray? I’d love to know.