Chuffing up

The act of praying, or chuffing up as we call it at GA, has many levels to it. Today we're gunna run you through how we pray here at Guardian Angels and hopefully it will help you to think through how you pray.

First we have the physical aspect of prayer.

This is where the “chuffing up” nickname came from. Basically when you go to pray you grab your watch on your left wrist with your right hand behind your back and tuck it above your belt, kinda in the small of your back. Then bow your head and pray.

A fun fact about GAs is that we actually don't suggest shutting your eyes during prayer for a variety of reasons the two most important being that it leaves you unaware of attack and, because our agents are constantly tired, having them close their eyes often just induces sleep.

Traditionally the shutting of eyes is to prevent distractions, which we still strive to do by bowing your head and keeping your eyes at waist level to the people around you.

Secondly we have the spiritual aspect of prayer.

For a long time I really struggled to pray because I didn't feel like I was giving it the reverence it deserved. However we can solve this problem by acknowledging that God sees.

Sending up a quick prayer to God in the middle of a struggle, looking to him for comfort when your stressed, saying simply lord help me, doesn't feel very reverent. A friend of mine described these as ‘flare prayers’ and its just the act of sending up a message for help. So sometimes we have to flare prayer and I believe thats perfectly ok, And God loves it when we ask him for help at the smallest need.

The other side of this coin is that we also need to intentionally set apart time to pray to God in a revenant, meaningful, and sacrificial way. Currently in my walk, my goal is to pray for half an hour three times a week as a minimum. But I am convinced that I will only grow in this because it is such a rewarding exercise.

Taking time to set apart an 30 minutes or an hour to talk to God has never ceased to refresh, and strengthen me.

There are a million things I could say on prayer but I hope that you have seen some practical ways that we pray and are inspired to make prayer a cornerstone in your life.

Things to pray:

-Scripture, especially the psalms.

-Psalm 15, 51,31 are some of my favorites.

-Make a prayer list. Ask your friends how you can pray for them, it will give you an opportunity to draw closer together and a way to encourage them.

-Pray your way through your anxiety.

- Look for an organization that sends out prayer lists for christians around the world. I put two of my favorites down below

www.freeburmarangers.org

www.persecution.com