Praying through Advent: Praying our Desires

Desire is a popular emotion in Advent.  Advertisers use our superficial desires in the hope that we will want and buy things we (and our gift recipients) probably don’t need. This prayer looks at our deeper desires—the ones that come from God and inspire us to fulfill God’s desire.

This is a good prayer to use when you feel like your desires are getting the best of you. It allows you to hand them over to God.

The Practice

Begin by taking a few moments to become calm. Say a prayer of gratitude for all that has been, all that is, and all that will be in your life.

• Let your heart’s deepest desire be stated before God. Take a few moments in silence to see if the desire remains the same or if you want to state it in a different way.
• Visualize your desire. Feel it. Touch it. Taste it. Smell it. Let it become real to you in your imagination. Linger there and see how the scene depicting your desire develops or changes. Stay with this step for several minutes.
• Let go of specific outcomes. Ask that God’s desire be fulfilled in your desire, or that God will transform your desire as needed. Notice what, if anything, changes as a result of that request.
• Ask God how you might assist in fulfilling this desire. Stay in silence as you allow space for God to speak in and through your imagination.
• Close by thanking God for this desire and for the opportunity to pray in and through it. Thank God for being present in this prayer.
• Spend a few moments right after the prayer reflecting on how it was to pray with a desire. What surprised you? Moved you? Inspired you? What disturbed you? How did you feel God’s presence in the midst of this prayer? Did anything about your desire change as you prayed it?
• In the days following this prayer, be aware of ways God may be offering you opportunities to live into the desire. When they do, take prayerful action and don’t forget to thank God for the opportunities and eyes to see them.

For more about spiritual direction as I practice it, check out my website. Most of these prayer practices come from my book 50 Ways to Pray.  If interested, it can be purchased here.