Writing a Letter to God

 

Janet Bird writes:

Sometimes I find it difficult to pray, especially at the moment when life seems so difficult. Sometimes I even wonder where God is in all of this and if He’s even listening. I was speaking to a friend recently about how I feel and she said “Have you actually told God how you feel?” I had to admit that I probably hadn’t because when I pray I feel I have to say thank you and then pray for other people. Anyway when I am praying my mind often wonders and even to me I don’t always make a lot of sense.

My friend then asked if I had ever thought of writing a letter to God telling Him exactly how I felt and although my initial reaction was to dismiss the idea, as surely God knows how I feel without me having to tell Him, but then I started thinking perhaps it might help me get my thoughts together in a more coherent fashion.

I remembered just how thrilled I always am when I get a letter from someone and thought that perhaps it was worth a try. When I had some spare time and could be sure that I wouldn’t be interrupted I sat down to write. Perhaps not surprisingly the words seemed to just spill out of me in a way that they don’t when I say my prayers. I didn’t feel ashamed if my thoughts wandered because this letter was work in progress and I would present it to God when it was finished, I wasn’t expecting him to listen to my ramblings, just read the finished article.

However I now realise that there is no finished article but it continues to be work in progress. I commended to God what I wrote but now continue to write when I feel the need. Somehow this seems to have brought me closer to God although of course I still say my prayers in the normal way most of the time. Often my prayers are more like arrows which I shoot as and when I think of something but writing letters makes me stop what I am doing and what I am thinking and really concentrate on my relationship with my loving Heavenly Father.