A Tradition of Prayer Five Minutes with God First-Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ 2000 "D" Street Lincoln, Nebraska 68502-1698 Office (402) 476-7565 Fax (402) 476-8402

From the Prayer Room
of First-Plymouth Congregational Church
Lincoln, Nebraska

A Resource for Everyone Seeking Spiritual Growth Through Prayer

Welcome

    We welcome you to First-Plymouth Church's Prayer Room. The devotional materials you will find here are provided to give you a chance to spend a few minutes in prayer and meditation. This session introduces you to a simple form of prayer that can be used by anyone during the course of a busy day. 
    The Five-Minute Prayer is for all of those people who think that they do not have time for prayer because of the demands of modern society; or for those who don't feel comfortable with more "traditional" verbal prayers. The focus of this prayer is simply setting a brief time aside to be with God.

FIVE-MINUTE PRAYER
Listening to the Heart of God

“Be still and know that I am God.”

--Psalm 46:10a

      We’ve all seen children playing. They yell and run around, fight and laugh, and generally make a lot of noise. Sometimes they find a Fisher-Price doctor’s kit. (You know, the kind with all the great plastic medical instruments in it.) As they pull out the various pieces of equipment, the level of noise remains high. However, when they find the toy stethoscope, things change. A child puts the earpieces into her ears, places the other end on her chest, and becomes very quiet as she solemnly listens for her heart beat. Then, she places it on her playmate’s chest and he, too, becomes silent. They know that in order to hear their hearts beating, they have to be quiet. Any distracting sounds and the familiar lub-dub, lub-dub will be lost.

      Our own lives are filled with the same level of frantic activity we see in children’s play. There are so many things going on. We are challenged by so many demands. We are burdened by so many expectations. We are pushed around by so many pressures. Much of the time, we even don’t know if we’re coming or going!

      In spite of the tasks, we accomplish in our busy lives, most of us have a sense that something important is lost. We begin to feel that the center to our lives—as important as our own heart beat—is missing. With all of our material wealth, physical comfort, and personal accomplishments, we are “running low” spiritually.

      One of the things we can do to remedy this is to take time, just a few minutes, out of every day for prayer. As one person has said, “prayer is listening to the heart of God.” If you’ve ever held a baby against your chest, you may have noticed how the sound of your own heart can comfort and calm it. Something similar can happen to us in prayer. The act of taking time to focus on God’s presence with us gives us a chance to hear “the heart of God.”

Five Minutes with God

Prepare    One-half minute
    Move into a comfortable position with your feet on the floor, back straight, hands resting in your lap. Quiet yourself. Sing a hymn or read a brief passage from scripture or simply take several cleansing breaths.

Recall    One minute
    Think back on the day just past. If you’re an introvert, what were some of the things going on inside of you?
     If you’re an extrovert, begin with at least one thing that has happened to you during the day. How did it affect you?
     What are you grateful for during the day? What are you sorry about? What is God trying to teach you through the day’s experiences?

Pray       One minute
    How do you respond to all that? What is your deepest longing? Besides thanks or confession or concern for others, what do you want God to know about you? What need or hope, idea or feeling do you want God to know about?

Listen     One minute
    Listen to God’s response. This may take many different forms—a thought, a feeling, a picture in your mind, words, or even silence. God may even have something else in mind for you than what you might expect. Be open to whatever happens.

Plan       One minute
    What will the important things be for you (today or tomorrow or this week) after you have received some nudging or calling, idea or feeling from God? In what direction is God inviting you to move?

Rest        One-half minute
    Take a relaxing breath. Sit quietly. Just enjoy being with God.

Prepared for First-Plymouth Congregational Church United Church of Christ, Lincoln, NE. The outline for the prayer is adapted from Spiritual Awakening by John Ackerman, The Alban Institute, 1995.

The Scripture quotations contained herein are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches of Christ n the U.S.A. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

    If you would like to have a special prayer request added to First-Plymouth Church's prayer list, or if you have a concern you would like to share with our staff, please e-mail us through the Rev. Nancy Erickson.