13. Day-by-Day Praise

Now it's time to integrate devotional prayer with daily living. My growing practice of conversational prayer has been to respond to the every day experiences of life, to give them to the Lord in prayer, and then to listen for his word to me. I have frequently found that many of these experiences reflect symbolically the principles and practice of faith. As a result, I think that my faith and service, but particularly my vocabulary of prayer in worship, have each become more meaningful. Even more important is the two-way conversation with the Lord that has followed.

Having taken into my prayer time this symbolism from everyday life, I have been encouraged to write sets of conversational prayers; these have been / are being published elsewhere. Each prayer reviews a specific incident, and then lays it before our Lord in worship and devotion. They have also been cross-referenced to the Scriptures to ensure that my thinking is in line with the written word. In some, but not all, I have sensed a response from our Lord. This has then been integrated into the prayer to make it conversational.

In this chapter, I have selected a few of my favourite prayers, told the real life story, and discussed the symbolism. In this way some of the principles of conversational prayer have been illustrated. I encourage you the reader to use these in your own prayer time, and pray that you will be blessed appropriate to your circumstance and needs.

Copyright Howard Smith 2002. All Rights reserved.

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