I didn’t grow up in the church. I was basically raised agnostic.
But when I was in fifth grade, my Dad, who did grow up in a strict Christian home, taught me to pray to God when I was scared at night. I’ve always had an overactive imagination, and used to get really freaked out. It didn’t help that I started watching horror movies constantly then, and needed to pray Freddy Kreuger, Jason, Michael Myers, Zombies, and Demons out of my head so often!
I had another significant moment of prayer when I was seventeen years old. A drug overdose led me to have an out of body experience. I was so scared when I essentially came back to life and into my body that I began to cry out desperately to a God I had no idea about, and had a feeling of warmth and love fill me like never before. It made me want to turn my whole life around, at least temporarily, up until I fell back into temptation and bad behavior again, and things got much worse for a time!
When I first had a one eighty, became sober, got in shape, got healthy, and even became celibate at age 19, I delved into all sorts of weird spiritual practices. I used to do power yoga, and light candles all over my room. I would quite literally pray to a drawing that someone I thought I was in love with gave me and ask whatever was out there to help me and fill me. Yes- I was truly “pagan”!
It wasn’t until I came to Christ at age 20 that I realized how amazing praying to the true God of the Universe, through Christ and the Holy Spirit, was!
And right out of the gate, because I was involved in a Lutheran Church, I learned the beauty of the Lord’s Prayer. I learned how powerful Jesus’ teaching on prayer was, and it impacted my life very much! I want you to be impacted by Jesus’ teaching on prayer!
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