{"id":17045,"date":"2026-03-16T18:12:58","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:12:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/?p=17045"},"modified":"2026-03-16T18:12:58","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:12:58","slug":"prayer-as-a-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2026\/03\/16\/prayer-as-a-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"Prayer as a practice"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"17049\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2026\/03\/16\/prayer-as-a-practice\/marble_table_iron_foot\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?fit=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"800,600\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"marble_table_iron_foot\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?fit=800%2C600&amp;ssl=1\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?resize=800%2C600&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-17049\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?w=800&amp;ssl=1 800w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?resize=300%2C225&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/marble_table_iron_foot.jpg?resize=768%2C576&amp;ssl=1 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 984px) 61vw, (max-width: 1362px) 45vw, 600px\" \/><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h3 style=\"margin-bottom:0px;\">It will pass<\/h3>\n<p>from <em>Prayer: Forty days of practice<\/em> by <strong>Justin McRoberts<\/strong> and <strong>Scott Erickson<\/strong><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div style=\"border-style: solid; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 20px;\">\nThe young woman sat in a wooden chair across from her mentor and grieved, &#8220;I am so easily distracted. My mind buzzes with noise and I cannot pray. Please help me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her mentor nodded slowly and smiled, saying, &#8220;It will pass. Keep practicing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>One week later the young woman sat across from her mentor again. This time, sliding slightly lower into the chair, she stared at the empty table. &#8220;Nothing works. I sit in silence. I journal. I read the Scriptures. Still, my mind is too noisy. I cannot pray. Please help me.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her mentor nodded slowly and smiled, saying, &#8220;It will pass. Keep practicing.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Many weeks went by, during which the young woman did not visit her mentor &#8211; until one day, she bounded into the room and stood at the table, beaming. &#8220;You were right! I kept practicing. I sat in silence. I journaled. I read the Scriptures. And eventually the busyness of my mind settled like dust and I could pray! I can pray!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Her mentor rose from the table, set her hand on the young woman&#8217;s shoulder, and smiled. &#8220;It will pass,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Keep practicing.&#8221;\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<h3>A poem<\/h3>\n<p><em>Let Your God Love You<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Be silent.<br \/>\nBe still.<br \/>\nAlone.<br \/>\nEmpty<br \/>\nBefore your God.<br \/>\nSay nothing.<br \/>\nAsk nothing.<br \/>\nBe silent.<br \/>\nBe still.<br \/>\nLet your God look upon you.<br \/>\nThat is all.<br \/>\nGod knows.<br \/>\nGod understands.<br \/>\nGod loves you<br \/>\nWith an enormous love,<br \/>\nAnd only wants<br \/>\nTo look upon you<br \/>\nWith that love.<br \/>\nQuiet.<br \/>\nStill.<br \/>\nBe.<\/p>\n<p>Let your God \u2014<br \/>\nLove you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<br \/>\n~ written by <strong>Edwina Gateley<\/strong>, posted on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.journeywithjesus.net\/poemsandprayers\/3637-Edwina_Gateley\">www.journeywithjesus.net<\/a><\/p>\n<hr\/>\n<p><strong>From the blog<\/strong><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2023\/03\/01\/in-the-quiet-of-gods-smile\/\">In the quiet of God\u2019s smile<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2020\/07\/08\/3-prayers-while-waiting\/\">3 Prayers while waiting<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2022\/09\/30\/thank-you-for-making-me\/\">Thank you. For making me<\/a><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; It will pass from Prayer: Forty days of practice by Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson &nbsp; The young woman sat in a wooden chair across from her mentor and grieved, &#8220;I am so easily distracted. My mind buzzes with noise and I cannot pray. Please help me.&#8221; Her mentor nodded slowly and smiled, saying, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2026\/03\/16\/prayer-as-a-practice\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Prayer as a practice&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[63,3,60],"tags":[278],"class_list":["post-17045","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-poetry","category-prayer","category-story","tag-practice"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.3 - 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The psalms show\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;bible&quot;","block_context":{"text":"bible","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/bible\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rosehip_at_zeehuis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rosehip_at_zeehuis.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rosehip_at_zeehuis.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/rosehip_at_zeehuis.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":16364,"url":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2025\/06\/02\/theme-in-gods-presence\/","url_meta":{"origin":17045,"position":1},"title":"Theme: In God&#8217;s presence","author":"Irene Bom","date":"June 2, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"PDF version \u00a0 \u00a0 God\u2019s presence doesn\u2019t just fill a space \u2014 it transforms it. \u00a0 prayer sheet \u00a0 For personal use or to share. \u00a0 A. OPENING PRAYER Come, see the glorious things that our God can do! Be still in God\u2019s presence. Know that God alone is the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;prayer sheet&quot;","block_context":{"text":"prayer sheet","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/prayer-sheet\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17005,"url":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2026\/03\/02\/daily-practice\/","url_meta":{"origin":17045,"position":2},"title":"Daily practice","author":"Irene Bom","date":"March 2, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 In the book, Basic Christian: The Inside Story of John Stott, Anglican cleric John Stott shared this prayer. It was his practice to pray it every morning. \u00a0 Good morning heavenly Father, good morning Lord Jesus, good morning Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, I worship you as the creator and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;prayer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"prayer","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/prayer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rotterdam_sunset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rotterdam_sunset.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rotterdam_sunset.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/rotterdam_sunset.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3046,"url":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2017\/11\/24\/remember-national-day-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":17045,"position":3},"title":"Remember: National Day of Prayer","author":"Irene Bom","date":"November 24, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"As mentioned in an earlier post, 25 November 2017 has been earmarked as a National Day of Prayer for the Church of Scotland, as part of a year-long call for prayer under the banner of Together We Pray. You too are invited to stand with us and remember the Church\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"event","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1,"url":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2017\/03\/07\/wdp_2017_rotterdam\/","url_meta":{"origin":17045,"position":4},"title":"World Day of Prayer 2017 &#8211; Rotterdam","author":"Irene Bom","date":"March 7, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"World Day of Prayer is a movement and a process that requires a commitment in time, study, preparation, and personal stretching in order to bring into a local community, in an authentic way, the realities of women in distant places. It is a movement symbolized by an annual day of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;event&quot;","block_context":{"text":"event","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/event\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12600,"url":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/2022\/02\/10\/theme-change-my-heart-o-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":17045,"position":5},"title":"Theme: Change my heart, O God","author":"Irene Bom","date":"February 10, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"PDF version \u00a0 \u00a0 \u201cIn contemplative prayer the saint (who knows himself to be a sinner, for none of us is whole, healed, and holy twenty-four hours a day) turns inward in what is called \u2018the prayer of the heart,\u2019 not to find self, but to lose self in order\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;prayer sheet&quot;","block_context":{"text":"prayer sheet","link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/prayer-sheet\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Irene Bom","author_link":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/author\/irenebom-com\/"},"rttpg_comment":0,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/poetry\/\" rel=\"category tag\">poetry<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/prayer\/\" rel=\"category tag\">prayer<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/category\/story\/\" rel=\"category tag\">story<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"&nbsp; It will pass from Prayer: Forty days of practice by Justin McRoberts and Scott Erickson &nbsp; The young woman sat in a wooden chair across from her mentor and grieved, &#8220;I am so easily distracted. 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Please help me.&#8221; Her mentor nodded slowly and smiled, saying,&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17045"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17063,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17045\/revisions\/17063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17045"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17045"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irenebom.com\/prayer_matters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}