Visualizing God in prayer

[Vort]

At our stake conference this past Sunday, a counselor in the stake presidency described a technique he uses during prayer to make his conversation with God more personal and meaningful to him.

Once many years ago, a friend of his who worked in the Church Office Building offered to take him to see President Kimball's office while President Kimball was away. He went and was greatly impressed by the very large and beautiful desk there. He said that, in his mind's eye, he could see President Kimball sitting at that desk.

He then said that he imagined God sitting behind the desk. When he prays, he imagines God seated at that desk; and when he addresses God in prayer, he imagines that God turns his head to look at him and listen to his prayer. I thought the idea was brilliant; such a thing had not occurred to me to try.

Does anyone here have a like visualization technique that s/he would care to share? What do you do and how does it work for you?

[Jamie123]

I don't see God as a physical being so much as an all-pervading ever-present "substance". To put it succinctly I agree with Alan Partridge:

"God is a gas! Well....not a little gas. Not like Calor Gas. He's a BIG gas! More like oxygen! Wait a minute....I've not really thought this through...erm....hang on..."

[hungrytrash]

I'm really glad you made this thread. My prayers are much much more meaningful when I do visualize and try to comprehend the reality of God and Him hearing my prayer. I just picture the reality of the situation to the best of my ability and go from there. I always try to keep what I say in my prayer the same as what I would say to Him if He was right in front of me. Because the two are one and the same. He would hear us the same were He directly in front of us as He does wherever He is when we pray. So I also visualize Him being right in the room in front of me.

[JudoMinja]

Prayer is something I've always struggled to make personal. I'm more of a writer than a talker, so it's easier for me to pour out my soul on a piece of paper than in a spoken prayer. For awhile, I actually used that to help me with my prayers. Instead of saying them out loud, I would get out a piece of paper when I knelt a the end of my bed and write my prayer down like a journal entry "To God". Sometimes I still do that, but I've been trying to work on my "spoken" prayers more, too.

One thing that has helped me somewhat was an experience with a friend of mine in college. This friend is very spiritual, very God centered, and very sweet. She's the kind of person that can easily work God into just about every conversation without making anyone feel awkward about it- even the non-religious people in the group. She would frequenty have "conversations" with God, just out of the blue, talking with Him as if He were her best-friend standing right there next to us as we walked, or ate, or whatever we were doing at the time.

I remember one of these conversations she had very distinctly. We were waiting at a bus stop, just me and her, and we were talking about the relationships of our other friends. They were all pairing off getting boyfriends and girlfriends and she and I were the only ones still single. At some point in our conversation, she got up on this ledge to pace back and forth across it and asked God if He could just send her a boyfriend. She told Him that she understands its His plan and things will happen as He sees fit, but she was starting to feel lonely and just wanted a good boyfriend that she could cuddle with. Somehow, I can almost picture God walking back and forth on that ledge with her as she prayed. I always felt slightly jealous, like she was closer to God than I was because it was so easy for her to talk to Him. When I try to pray out loud, that image of her at the bus stop always comes back to me, and I try to think of myself as just having a conversation with "my best-friend".

[Traveler]

A method that has proven helpful to me is what I call the plan and report method. At the beginning of each day (or for anything that is important and draws my attention to prayer) - I begin by going to G-d and outlining my plan and what it is that I would like to accomplish. Of course I solicit input and ask for guidance and help in putting my plan into effect.

At the end of the day (or whatever I had planned) - I return to discuss with G-d how things turned out and to especially thank him for his assistance and what I have learned in the process. I find this help keep me on track and close to G-d as I remember while accomplishing my tasks the promises I made in beginning and a greater awareness of his help along the way. It also gives me a great deal to be thankful for when I make my reports on how things turned out.

This process has proven to be a great source of inspiration in raising my children and improving the love and communications I have with my dear wife. The one down side is that whenever there are problems I realize that it is always my fault and short coming.

The Traveler

[Guest]

Growing up Catholic, we pray daily kneeling infront of the picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my mother's bedroom. When I'm punished, my dad would make me kneel infront of that picture and say my prayers with my arms spread out on each side and Grimm's Fairy Tales on top of one open palm and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on top of the other palm. If I was super bad, I get Andersen's Fairy Tales and Black Stallion added on.

So... until today, everytime I pray, I have that image of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in my head. I don't bother trying to change it. The image centers my concentration.