5 Creative ways to praywhen it feels like you're talking to the ceiling

by Liz Ditty

Sophia is the Greek word for Wisdom, and Propel Sophia seeks out the voices of truly wise women and asks them to share worked examples of how they express faith in daily life. Pull up a chair at Sophia’s table, won’t you? There’s plenty of space. Learn more here.

Blink.
Blink.
Blink.

The red light on the smoke detector was like a metronome counting off every second of prayer that wasn’t happening. This “prayer time” had started and trailed off a few times already. The only thing that seemed capable of holding my attention was the smoke detector’s signal. This quiet time was very…quiet. Why does prayer sometimes feel like talking to the ceiling?

Prayer is a radical act of relational connection. We are talking to God and listening for His response. What can we do when we hit a lull in that conversation? Get creative! Here are five ways I’ve mixed things up to keep the dialog moving.

Try praying both scheduled and spontaneously

I got out of the chair I was sitting in under the smoke detector’s spell. I took a breath, and took a walk. It’s important to have scheduled time with God, and it is important to have spontaneous moments of awe, wonder, curiosity, doubt, fear, sadness or joy that we share with Him. On that particular day, I needed to stop beating myself up for being bad at prayer and go outside to talk to God about what I was seeing around me. My spontaneous conversation can quickly dry up, though, and my day can easily carry on without a single prayer at all if I am not consistently listening for His voice in my Bible reading and also intentionally praying at a scheduled time.

Try praying both alone and with others

In the Bible we see God meeting people in prayer individually- even alone in a closet! (Matthew 6:6) But also as they pray with one another (Matthew 18:20) and corporately as a church (Acts 2:42). When we are having a hard time hearing God’s voice, it’s helpful to have friends who can pray with us in person or even over the phone. Our church communities are also there for us with a collective faith that can carry us into God’s presence, even when our faith in His nearness or goodness feels weak. Giving and receiving prayer is a wonderful way for us to see God’s faithfulness in one another’s lives.

Try praying both quietly and out loud

If you’re anything like me and have a mind that wanders—or as I like to say is “constantly on the move”—then silent prayer can be a challenge. You may find yourself staring at the smoke detector or the shadows or the…SQUIRREL! at any moment. One creative solution is to speak our prayers out loud, even when we are praying alone. It feels more like an actual conversation and you have more connection points with your words as you think them, speak them, and hear them. You might be surprised what God calls your attention to in your own wording, naming, or tone as you hear your own prayer, or see the words written in the page of a prayer journal.

Try praying both mind and body

Sometimes praying aloud or journaling can get me out of my head, but other times I need my body to help. I try to pray in a body posture that reflects the type of prayer I am praying. In the Bible we see examples of people praying lying face down on the ground, on their knees, sitting, or standing. Their body posture reflected their emotional posture towards God in that prayer.

We might also find that taking care of our bodies helps us pray. Any of us can find it hard to connect with God (or any other human for that matter) if we woke up early after having stayed up the night before, are mid sugar-crash, or are on the verge of sleep underneath warm covers in the dark. Being aware of our bodies and their needs can help us stay present and connect with God in prayer.

Don’t fear the silence

We can hear God in His speaking as well as His silence. There is not always a creative way around silence in prayer, at one point or another we will all walk through it. Just like the disciples who felt abandoned by Jesus at sea, He calls to us “Don’t be afraid.” He is with us after all. (Matthew 14:27)

God is speaking and you can hear Him

Even though it can feel like we are staring at a ceiling from time to time when we pray, that doesn’t change who God is or what He is like. God is a loving father who isn’t hiding behind the smoke detector or in a distant corner of the cosmos, He is closer than we dare imagine. It’s not only the super-spiritual ones or the unbroken people who hear His voice when they pray, it’s the loved people. And God loves you very much.

Liz Ditty

Liz Ditty is the author of God’s Many Voices: Learning to Listen, Expectant to Hear. She is a speaker, a spiritual director, and also serves on the teaching team of her local church in San Jose, CA. For more information, visit her website at www.LizDitty.com