{"id":9974,"date":"2014-04-04T20:30:31","date_gmt":"2014-04-04T20:30:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/?p=9974"},"modified":"2018-10-29T02:47:13","modified_gmt":"2018-10-29T02:47:13","slug":"welcoming-prayer-method","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/featured\/welcoming-prayer-method\/","title":{"rendered":"The Welcoming Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you ever felt like you are being ambushed by stress, fear, worry, <\/span>and anxiety? \u00a0Sometimes the unpleasant feelings can be so overwhelming, making it very difficult to get a proper perspective, focus on the tasks at hand and make good decisions. \u00a0Here is a useful tool for dealing with these feelings.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Welcoming Prayer<\/strong> method developed by Thomas Keating is a way of recognizing the Father’s presence in our <\/span>lives and saying “Yes” to the work of the Spirit in and through all of life. \u00a0The goal is to help us cultivate a deeper relationship with God as we recognize that in Christ all things are working together for our good. \u00a0Becoming aware that God takes even the challenges and painful things of everyday life and will use them to help us live more freely. \u00a0God meets us in these difficult things to untangle thinking and emotions, deal with the systems of our false-self and bring healing in a transformative way. \u00a0 These <\/span>love\/truth encounters are a part of the process of becoming like Jesus.<\/span><\/p>\n

And we know that in all things God works for the good<\/span>\u00a0of those who love him, who<\/span>\u00a0have been called<\/span>\u00a0according to his purpose. Romans 8:28<\/span><\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Whether you believe everything, good or bad, comes directly from the hand of God, that God causes the painful circumstances in our life, or you believe that life has <\/span>its own seasons of pain, perhaps we can all agree that God is with us and through it all working all things for our good.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Welcoming Prayer postures us so no matter what comes we are looking for God in the situation and how he is at work to bring healing and transformation. \u00a0It is by faith we trust that God is using ALL things for our good!<\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas Keating’s version of the Welcoming Prayer is as follows:<\/span><\/p>\n

Welcome, welcome, welcome.
\nI welcome everything that comes to me today
\nbecause I know it’s for my healing.
\nI welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons,
\nsituations, and conditions.
\nI let go of my desire for power and control.
\nI let go of my desire for affection, esteem,
\napproval and pleasure.
\nI let go of my desire for survival and security.
\nI let go of my desire to change any situation,
\ncondition, person or myself.
\nI open to the love and presence of God and
\nGod’s action within. Amen.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Method:<\/strong><\/u><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Experience it<\/strong>. \u00a0When the emotions come, the temptation is to run away from them. \u00a0We may ignore them, deny them, medicate them away, etc. \u00a0 You can’t deal with something that you deny or refuse to experience. In the safety of the love of God, accept that you feel what you do, and experience\u00a0the emotion. \u00a0You will know when you are experiencing the emotion when you also experience it on a physical level. \u00a0This might seem unsettling but remember God is with you and you are safe in his perfect love.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Welcome it.<\/strong>\u00a0 In the presence of God and in the safety of his perfect love you can say “Welcome _______ .” \u00a0The emotions may be fear, anger, frustration, sadness, disappointment, whatever you are feeling. \u00a0The goal here is to come to a place where you are no longer fighting it. \u00a0 Coming to a place <\/span>wherein surrender to God, we trust God to be our protector and our healer. \u00a0This brings about a sense of rest and calms our soul. \u00a0 This is not the end goal. \u00a0 By welcoming the emotion and stop fighting it, we can then hear God in the midst of it. Take a few moments to listen for God. \u00a0Listen for words of encouragement, insight, comfort, <\/span>and affirmation. \u00a0Remember God speaks words of love and life, not guilt or shame.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Let it go<\/strong>. \u00a0 When you have come to that place of welcome, then you can let it go. \u00a0No longer engaged and grappling with it, you can let the feeling go. \u00a0You can do this by praying something like this:<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Father, \u00a0I give you this emotion of ____________ . <\/span><\/p>\n

    I let go of my desire for affection, esteem,\u00a0approval and pleasure.
    \nI let go of my desire for survival and security.
    \nI let go of my desire to change any situation,\u00a0condition, person or myself.
    \nI open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. Amen.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      \n
    • It is here that you can release the feeling to God. \u00a0You let it go. \u00a0If it is helpful, you can picture letting go of a helium-filled balloon or perhaps blowing on a dandelion that has turned to seed.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • You may still encounter some resistance. \u00a0You may have to let it go once more. \u00a0Calmly, gently let the emotion or feeling go. \u00a0You may need to\u00a0return gently to steps one and two.<\/span><\/li>\n
    • Remember to be gentle and kind <\/span>to yourself. \u00a0Resist the urge to fight it, and fall into the safety and rest of the perfect love of God.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Have you ever felt like you are being ambushed by stress, fear, worry, and anxiety? \u00a0Sometimes the unpleasant feelings can be so overwhelming, making it very difficult to get a proper perspective, focus on the tasks at hand and make good decisions. \u00a0Here is a useful tool for dealing with these feelings. The Welcoming Prayer…","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":9977,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,34,36,37],"tags":[129,167,172,179,425,595,596,553],"class_list":["post-9974","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-soul-significance","category-tools","category-significant-tools","tag-daily-living","tag-everyday-spirituality","tag-experiencing-god","tag-faith-in-real-life","tag-prayer","tag-thomas-keating","tag-welcoming-prayer","tag-wholeness"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9974"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9974\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9974"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9974"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iamsignificant.ca\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9974"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}