Devotions based on David Benner’s book, Opening to God

In prayer we bring the mind and the heart to God in openness.  Mary, the mother of Jesus did this when she was told by the angel she was going to bear the Christ child. She received the news with her heart at first and then with her head she began to think through the implications for the message. Both her troubled mind and heart were prayer because they were shared in openness and trust to God. We also can share everything with God, who wants us to share our experience with Him and enjoy the communion that is prayer. Our imagination also has an important part to play in pondering prayer. When we ignore our imagination it is at the expense of a rich prayer life. One way we can bring our imagination into prayer is to enter a scene in a passage from the gospels with our imagination.  We can be there with the participants and hear the sounds and smells that are present, and be present to Jesus. Some have found it beneficial to meditate on Christian Art as Henry Nouwen did before the picture of The Prodigal.  In pondering prayer we can bring all that we have on our minds and hearts to Him and just share for He is already present