Postures of Prayer & Praise are
“outer representations of an inner reality”

Exploring: Hands Together – Prayer

Philippians 4:6 – Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.

Colossians 4:2 – Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.

When we are anxious, our hands are wringing, but notice the attitudes of thankfulness and watchfulness that are to accompany our prayers. It’s not about what He can give us, but acknowledging and being thankful for what He has already given us and being watchful to see how He will answer our prayers, sometimes in ways we don’t expect.

Putting It Into Practice

Palms together or folded/clasped together is a posture we typically think of when we think of a posture of prayer. This posture has been used by many religions as a posture of prayer, and there are some that even postulate that Jesus learned this prayer posture from Buddhist monks during his time as a young child in Egypt.

This posture can be done standing, sitting or kneeling. With palms together, thumbs can come to your heart or your forehead. As you can see in this photo, my friend Amy is both kneeling and has prayer hands at her forehead.

In a more “active” variation, I sometimes like to start with my hands out wide, palms facing one another. Then as I slowly bring my palms together, I think about all the scattered and fragmented places of my life being drawn to center. I like to call this action “pulling to center,” and I will pair it with my breath to bring myself to a place of calmness and peace.

If you’d like, you can use this action today to bring yourself to a place of peace as you follow along with my friend Mary Jones in her CaraMayan embodied version of The Lord’s Prayer. Once your hands are at heart center, remember to lift up an attitude of gratitude and thanksgiving.

EMBODIED :: Postures of Prayer & Praise

In this “Embodied” series, we are exploring postures of prayer and praise, in order to live a more fully embodied life. You can find the full explanation here, as well as links to all postures below:

EMBODIED DAY 1 :: Hands Raised
EMBODIED DAY 2 :: Palms Down
EMBODIED DAY 3 :: Palms Up
EMBODIED DAY 4 :: Hands Together
EMBODIED DAY 5 :: Hands to Heart
EMBODIED DAY 6 :: Hands Flat (Prostrate)
EMBODIED DAY 7 :: Hands Clapping

You can also find the full Embodied feature translated to Spanish here: EMBODIED Spanish Posturas de oración y adoración

If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below. Also as we journey together, feel free to share your experience by commenting here or Facebook or Instagram. I welcome your thoughts and observations.

Thank you for joining the journey!

Blessings of ARTistry, CREATivity & BEaUty, Jody

(C) 2018 Jody Thomae

______________________

Jody Thomae is the author of God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You and The Creator’s Healing Power—Restoring the Broken to Beautiful, both in-depth, interactive devotional books that are part of the Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series and serve as resources for creative Christians, artists, and lovers of beauty and worship. Jody has been involved in worship arts ministry since 1997, serving as worship arts ministry pastor, worship leader and creative arts director. She leads worship at local seminars, retreats and women’s events and is a guest lecturer on creativity, embodiment, and spirituality with Healing Care Ministries and HCM International. Her passion is for the revelation of God to be made more real through the prophetic use of the arts in church and the use of creativity in formational and healing ministry. It is her desire to portray the message of Christ’s desperate and unfailing love for His people to help sustain the hearts of the broken and weary. She is particularly interested in the reclamation of the body in the healing of trauma and works in the area of embodiment with survivors of abuse, addiction, and trauma.

The Bible Studies to Nurture the Creative Spirit Within series includes her first book, God’s Creative Gift—Unleashing the Artist in You and her new release, The Creator’s Healing Power—Restoring the Broken to Beautiful. Print and digital copies (Kindle) are available through Amazon. Signed print copies are available for purchase through Square where her resources are available most affordably (and in bulk amounts for your creative ministry team or group study). Jody’s devotional CD, Song of the Beloved, is also available through Square, iTunes, YouTube, Spotify, and other music outlets.