Being connected with God
One of the joys of encounterprayer for me is seeing how it helps people connect to God in ways they may never have experienced before. It’s not that there is anything ‘magical’ in it, but rather that it allows a person to have the space to delight in the love and presence of God in new ways.
Like any approach to prayer, it’s possible to become stale and to treat it rather casually – just ‘as something you do’, going through the different stages with little expectation of a meaningful encounter with God. However, this changes once we recognise that it’s all about the one we are addressing and very little to do with the words we speak.
Like any approach to prayer, it’s possible to become stale and to treat it rather casually – just ‘as something you do’, going through the different stages with little expectation of a meaningful encounter with God. However, this changes once we recognise that it’s all about the one we are addressing and very little to do with the words we speak.

Prayer is not just something we do. It is us expressing our relationship with the living God by bringing to him the deepest things in our hearts.
In this time of lockdown and uncertainty about what the future holds, it’s vital that we retain this sense of prayer being the outworking of our honest relationship with the living God. It thrills him that we choose to come to him and spend time with him and he is always delighted to see us, no matter what state the world might be in. Despite the current big global concerns, God is still concerned about the things that concern us, and longs to lovingly intervene in our lives.
In other words, although this world has changed dramatically over these past few weeks and months, God has not changed. He still cares deeply for his world, weeping with those who grieve and comforting those who are suffering, and his nature and character have not changed - he is still there for you.
John Ryeland
In this time of lockdown and uncertainty about what the future holds, it’s vital that we retain this sense of prayer being the outworking of our honest relationship with the living God. It thrills him that we choose to come to him and spend time with him and he is always delighted to see us, no matter what state the world might be in. Despite the current big global concerns, God is still concerned about the things that concern us, and longs to lovingly intervene in our lives.
In other words, although this world has changed dramatically over these past few weeks and months, God has not changed. He still cares deeply for his world, weeping with those who grieve and comforting those who are suffering, and his nature and character have not changed - he is still there for you.
John Ryeland