Praise as prayer

For years, my prayer time was a worry session. No longer.

At some point, I realized I needed to praise God for answered petitions, not just machine-gun through the unanswered ones. As a boon, I discovered it bolstered my faith.

In addition to my long list of prayer requests, I have an ever-growing list of praise reports. Daily I write down at least one thing that was good, something God did. During prayer, I thank God for each and every one of them as part of my prayer time.

I have found that if I only ask for needs, I tend to get depressed. But if I also remind myself of His provision and bounty, it injects optimism like an energy-shot.

Adding praise reports has revolutionized my prayer time. I strongly recommend you do it to.

Wayne Rooney and visualization

They don’t give Wayne Rooney any credit for soccer intelligence. But maybe he’s not as dumb as they say — they call him a “natural” player (no thinking involved).

Maybe he´s not as dumb as they say. Part of his formula for success is to visualize himself doing well the night before. He’s so serious about this mental preparation that he even goes to staff and asks which uniform they will be using the next day. Visualization is the cutting edge of sports psychology: to block out distractions, knock down discouragements and steel up nerve. Once on the field, the player enjoys a heightened level of concentration.

What is the difference between visualization and prayer? Not much. The biggest difference is that we actually have God involved too.

Visualization is a significant element in prayer. When you confess with faith, you see yourself triumphing beforehand. You bat down depression, failure, and fear of failure. Then you spring out of your prayer closet ravenously ready to grab blessing, revival, favor, and God’s help. He is pleased by this kind of faith.

In the most exhilarating goal of the English Premier League this year, Rooney fired an overhead kick, squeezed between two defenders, to win against crosstown rivals Manchester City. The eye-popper silenced critics, who were downgrading Rooney’s status of legend.

Today, blast an overhead goal — with the power of God — in whatever you do. Shut up naysayers with some positive visualizing in prayer.