This page contains:
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The Holding Cross
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Sign Language
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Different Prayer Postures
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Prayer-Walk around your Neighbourhood / Work Place
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Prayer Walls
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The Holding Cross
Holding crosses were designed as prayer aids for sight-impaired people. However, they can be used by anyone, and make good gifts to people in times of need. They can be found in many Christian bookshops or retreat centres, and come with suggested prayers. A holding cross is made of wood with the arms deliberately uneven in shape to make it comfortable to hold in the palm of a hand. The cross is a powerful symbol of Christ’s sacrifice. It acts as a reminder that Jesus is alive and with us when we pray. Perhaps you could write on the wood any helpful Bible verses (e.g. verses about healing if you were to give one as a gift to someone unwell)?
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Sign Language
Knowing some basic British Sign Language signs is a very useful skill. Not only can you begin to communicate with other B.S.L. users, and make them feel welcome in your church, but it is also a wonderfully expressive way to aid prayer and worship. Signing is beautiful to watch because some signs express much more than their English equivalents. (For example the sign for ‘Jesus’ involves the signer pointing out the nail-marks in his hands.)
These days, many children’s action songs use B.S.L. (rather than any old actions), so that children learn a real skill. Any expert on learning will tell you that we learn and retain knowledge better if we use more senses: if we express the Christian message with our hands and faces as well as with our words, it will become more firmly rooted in us (and our children).
It is difficult to teach signing over the Internet, so I will not attempt to do so! The best place to start is through a friend. However, if you do not know anyone who can sign, various organisations can help. Many local learning centres offer introductory classes, which can lead to qualifications at B.S.L. stage 1, 2 and 3. There are some brilliant resources available from ‘The Forest Bookshop’ www.forestbooks.com. They also provide some Christian books and videos. I recommend Lifting Holy Hands: a Dictionary of Signs used in Church Services by Richard Chubb, produced by the Advisory Board of Ministry’s Committee for Ministry among Deaf People.
Once you have acquired some basic signs (which may take more than one week!), try using them in prayer. Begin with common words, such as ‘Father’, ‘God’, ‘Jesus’, ‘holy’, ‘worship’, and take it from there…you may end up leading prayers and songs from the front in services!
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Different Prayer Postures
It has become less common to kneel down and ‘put our hands together and close our eyes’ to pray. Of course, prayer needs no special formula in order for God to hear it. However, it can be interesting to try different postures when praying. We use ‘body language’ to express ourselves day-to-day (some more than others!), but for some reason when we pray we often close our eyes and become still. Prayer is about communication: if we have a living relationship with God, then that will mean expressing all kinds of emotions, so why not show them!
Here are some examples of possible different postures relating to particular states.
1. Praise and thanks: stand up and raise your head and hands (don’t forget to smile!), as you express God’s glory and your gratitude.
2. Confession: sit and bow your head.
3. Asking God for help: kneel and raise your open hands, waiting for them to be ‘filled’.
4) Your turn! Try expressing doubt or fear etc. through a posture. It’s o.k. to be honest with God – He knows how you feel anyway!
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Prayer-Walk around your Neighbourhood /
Work Place
Try going for a walk around your neighbourhood / work place / school /
college campus. As you do, make a note of particular homes / buildings /
rooms and the people who live or work there. Consider possible prayer needs
for each of these situations, and make a note. You could pray right there
and then, or perhaps go away and write up your list of locations and prayer
topics. Then organise a small group of neighbours / colleagues / course
mates to join you for a ‘prayer walk’. (N.B. It is probably sensible to keep
the group very small, or split into pairs because a large group of people
may attract unnecessary attention, unless that is your intention!)
An example to inspire you: at my last place of work our prayer group tried a prayer walk at a time that we felt we ought to pray for each department specifically. Two of us stayed in our meeting room, and prayed generally, whilst others walked around the building, stopping at specific points. It was a very powerful experience. Just as we finished praying, the others returned, and told us to go to the window where we saw a huge rainbow arching over our building – God’s lovely touch on the proceedings - a reminder to us (like to Noah after the flood) that He keeps His promises!
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Prayer Walls
The idea here is to build a ‘wall’ of prayer for
24 hours, 7 days a week (or just 24 hours for a start!) by asking volunteers
to sign up for 1 hour slots of prayer. The aim would be to fill a week with
wall-to-wall prayer for one particular event / situation or person. Each
person can pray wherever they are. You could then repeat the week over and
over again. It is amazing how many people will actually sign up to pray even
at the most unsociable hours! To make it more visual you could draw a wall
with hours of the day written on each brick, and each person could sign his
/ her name on that brick.
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