Imaginative Prayers

Recently, we’ve been reading Celebration of Discipline by Richard Foster with our small group. We just got to the chapter on Prayer, and I was amazed – he says that imagination helps us pray!

He shared a story where he was invited to pray for a sick girl. While in her home, he invited her four-year-old brother to pray. Together, they imagined Jesus. They focused on Jesus’s love, and imagined him smiling, getting up, and coming to be with them. They imagined Jesus placing his hands on top of their hands. They imagined light flowing from Jesus into the baby girl, and imagined this healing power fighting bad germs.

The next morning, she was well.

This practice resonated with me, because as a creative person, I have an active imagination. My writing sometimes emerges from visual flashes. My acting relies heavily on imagination.

So I knew that imagination was good as an artistic tool, but it was exciting to hear something confirmed that I’d wanted confirmed all along – imagination has spiritual power.

As soon as I finished the chapter, I sat and imaginatively prayed.

I pictured Jesus wrapping healing hands around Danielle’s sprained ankle. I pictured Jesus’s warm presence comforting a friend. I pictured two friends finally reconciling, and embracing each other again. 

“Imagination often opens the door to faith,” Foster says. And I discovered this to be true.

Using my imagination meant opening up. I had to open up my heart – what did I hope God would do? I had to open up to impossibilities – what could God do? It was certainly an exercise in faith.

But it was also so easy.

Sometimes, prayer feels like squeezing something out of nothing. I know I should pray, so I go through a mental list of people and circumstances. Then I try to conjure up requests and I ask for some stuff that might be good.

But imaginative prayer is different. It engages the whole person – the heart, mind, and soul. Rather than self-generated thoughts and detached words, I’m asking myself “Who do I care about? What do I want for them? What do I long for God to do?”

It was the most effortless prayer has ever been for me; engaging the heart and the soul is freeing.

If you’re a creative person, you might understand this. All artists are heart and soul people with great big imaginations. The incredible thing about this is that you’ve been given a special design by God – your active, creative minds have great spiritual power. Your calling involves not only impactful art-making, but also impactful prayer. 

The week I imagined Jesus healing Danielle’s ankle was the week her ankle was the strongest it’s ever been.

And true, nothing has yet happened with my other imaginative prayers. And as with any prayer, waiting is still a part of the process.

But prayers can change circumstances in time, or it could bolster the people you’re praying for, or it will strengthen your prayer muscles. So don’t give up!

What is the big, vulnerable desire in your heart that you want to bring before God? What is the incredible impossible that you want Him to accomplish?

Pray, and let your imagination come to life.