Relationship with God

Kido Butai said:
I don't pray very much. I wish I had the desire to pray, but it feels like a chore. I ask God to give me the desire. So far nothing
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Usually if praying feels like a chore its because we entertain an idea that God needs our prayers and so we feel like its some kind of boring obligation to Him. Rather than something we need to do for ourselves. God doesn't need anything from you. He can do without your prayers. Force yourself to pray morning and night every day, if you struggle then remind yourself that it is more needful and beneficial for you than anything else you might do that day.
 
Easy thanksgiving prayer I say before most meals:

"My Lord, thank you for this gift which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ my Lord, Amen."

If you want to add more,

"Bless the hands who made, prepared, and will consume this food, while I remain mindful of those in suffering and distress, Amen."
 
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Samseau said:
Easy thanksgiving prayer I say before most meals:

"My Lord, thank you for this gift which I am about to receive from thy bounty through Christ my Lord, Amen."

If you want to keep add more,

"Bless the hands who made, prepared, and will consume this food, while I remain mindful of those in suffering and distress, Amen."
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I've been trying to make it a routine to say the Lord's Prayer before meals, but it keeps slipping my mind and haven't succeeded on making it a habit.

If I'm about to undertake something major, like a big project at work, I might say the prayer to the Holy Spirit (O Heavenly King...).
 
analyst_green said:
I've been trying to make it a routine to say the Lord's Prayer before meals, but it keeps slipping my mind and haven't succeeded on making it a habit.

If I'm about to undertake something major, like a big project at work, I might say the prayer to the Holy Spirit (O Heavenly King...).
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That kept happening to me as well, but I pause eating, say sorry to God for forgetting and then pray over my food. Its important to catch the error promptly and make amends through prayer.
 
Veritas said:
That kept happening to me as well, but I pause eating, say sorry to God for forgetting and then pray over my food. Its important to catch the error promptly and make amends through prayer.
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Yeah I think we often have an "oh well, too late now" attitude to things like this. It doesn't matter if you already ate half the plate, if you remember, stop and thank God.

The same applies to a lot of things. If you're on a porn site, stop and shut it off as soon as your conscience troubles you about it. There is often a little voice that says "its too late now", but we should not listen to it.
 
Let God Arise said:
I almost never ask for anything in prayer. I prefer to just pray for forgiveness, give thanks, and ask for blessings and safety for others. I don't put much effort into "creating" elaborate prayers. Being Orthodox, I follow traditional prayers passed down to us through the Saints and Church Fathers, and only add on personal things at the end. Sometimes I wonder if I'm wrong for not asking for things. Ask and it shall be given unto you, and so on. Honestly though...WHAT do I really need?
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This has been my experience as well. I am bad at verbalizing prayers and don't know what to say, so I just pray using our church's prayer book. When I'm out in the open during the day, I usually just say something like, "Your will be done, not mine."

But despite not asking for anything (I don't even know what to ask for anyway), God has given me powerful non-material things. Let's say that I have lived with my own failures for years, but I have gained opportunities that allow me to get back into the race and become equal to my friends and acquaintances who were formerly so far ahead of me. In certain respects, I am even in a better position than them.

God has also acted through "butterfly effects," which are events that look insignificant but have a cascading effect, eventually bearing positive outcomes for me over many years.

To me, these experiences are evidence that anyone can have a relationship with God, as long as they want to.

Another straightforward way to enhance your relationship with God is to go to church, become a catechumen, get baptized, and be a serious member of the church. When I was still a non-baptized, spiritual but not religious person, I often prayed to God and Jesus. However, due to not being in a state of grace and misunderstanding many of the Bible's passages, it led to nothing, like a radio out of tune. But these problems have been rectified since I started going to church.
 
I pray to God throughout the day. I thank Him for waking me up in the morning. For my family. For food. For being with me at work. I ask Him to help me be grateful for all he's given me. When I ask for anything, I ask that it be done only if it accords with His plan, and to be content if I don't get what I want, knowing I can trust in His plan.

I usually pray before I eat. Sometimes I pray while I eat. I don't believe Jesus becomes angry with me over when I pray. Not that He doesn't deserve it, but that His grace abounds for me.
 
Lawrence87 said:
Yeah I think we often have an "oh well, too late now" attitude to things like this. It doesn't matter if you already ate half the plate, if you remember, stop and thank God.

The same applies to a lot of things. If you're on a porn site, stop and shut it off as soon as your conscience troubles you about it. There is often a little voice that says "its too late now", but we should not listen to it.
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Agreed.

It is never too late to repent.

Imagine if we applied that little voice to bigger things, like forgiveness and salvation.

Obviously it can't be too late to be forgiven of sins and saved by Jesus Christ? Right? So why would anything smaller be different? There's certainly nothing bigger.
 
I've been working on improving my relationship with God and found the following made me realise I was
looking too much at the past. No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
Kingdom of God. When a person is done with all the things that do not work towards salvation, leave them be.
 
Marcus2022 said:
I've been working on improving my relationship with God and found the following made me realise I was
looking too much at the past. No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
Kingdom of God. When a person is done with all the things that do not work towards salvation, leave them be.
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That is the way to go. I often think of Lot's wife who turned back to see the destruction of Sodom, but she was turned to a pillar of salt. That should be a warning to all of us to let sleeping dogs lie. We may have frequent flashbacks to past sins, but this is just another passion we have to fight with prayer and aligning our will with God.

A high school friend of mine used to see a psychotherapist who was digging up all this stuff from his past. At one point he became suicidal and I think it's because of this "therapy". You can't think your way out of these problems, the way you heal is by not thinking about them. And if anyone is digging into your mind, it should be someone who believes in the soul, in angels and demons, etc... Someone who has the grace of the Holy Spirit to help you, not some leftist shrink.
 
Yes, it fills the soul with nourishment when we sit well with God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit. It is the way it is meant to be and nothing man made can compare. I'm sorry to hear about your friend's experience analyst_green, I will pray for him. Thanks Samseau for highlighting the traps.
 
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