{"id":515,"date":"2018-08-08T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-08T20:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/?p=515"},"modified":"2018-09-04T18:00:09","modified_gmt":"2018-09-04T17:00:09","slug":"short-evening-prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/short-evening-prayer\/","title":{"rendered":"Short Evening Prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes life can feel exhausting by the time evening arrives! With the fading light and a jumble of experiences to sift through from the day we can often feel fatigued, tired, even overwhelmed. It can be easy to block out all these thoughts with a good book or a T.V. show or just some internet browsing. Sometimes I find during the tough seasons in life that drawing near to God becomes a two second prayer as my head hits the pillow for sleep! <strong>Yet deep down I know what my soul needs the most.<\/strong> Unless I feast upon some heavenly peace at night time I will feel empty on waking.<\/p>\n<p>A bedtime prayer need not be a prayer of detail. God does not need our prayers of worship \u2013 it is us who need communion and intimacy with God. Taking time to rest, to breathe a little slower, to look and to listen can take us to a new level of peace that the fast fixes of our media world cannot reach. Before bedtime, why not take a short evening stroll in the countryside, see the sun go down or watch a flicking candle during a long bath? All these things can be a way to draw close to God and lead us gently into the Lord\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n<p>I pray that tonight whether you are in a place of hope and security or a place of struggle and hardship, this short evening prayer will help you lay down to sleep in the shelter and security of our Lord Almighty:-<\/p>\n<p><em>Dear Father in Heaven,<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Here, safe with you, I drink in your peace. Help me to sift through the many experiences, feelings and thoughts I have encountered today. I allow myself to rest, to wind down and to be still. Help me to surrender all I am to you, my fatigue, my concerns, my hopes and fears.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>As I sleep tonight, I choose to hold your hand. I choose to live with you. I choose to believe, I choose to trust, I choose you always. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Amen.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"625\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/AYh87G2O3vw?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/p>\n<p>If you enjoyed this simple evening prayer it\u2019s possible to download this film and keep it for a small sum by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/FilmPages\/evening_prayer.html\">following this link<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sometimes life can feel exhausting by the time evening arrives! With the fading light and a jumble of experiences to sift through from the day we can often feel fatigued, tired, even overwhelmed. It can be easy to block out all these thoughts with a good book or a T.V. show or just some internet <a class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/short-evening-prayer\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[7,8,6],"tags":[11,10,46,3],"class_list":["post-515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-film","category-music","category-prayer","tag-film","tag-meditation","tag-night-prayer","tag-prayer"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Evening_Prayer_Blog.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7bKxI-8j","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":704,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/how-to-pray-at-night-bedtime-prayers\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":0},"title":"How to pray at night &#8211; bedtime prayers","date":"October 15, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m going to be sharing with you three things that I find really helpful to remember when I pray at bedtime. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VwIsbchElLI&feature=youtu.be Personally, I always try and pray to my Abba Father at night. I guess it evokes that security and protection you can feel as a child drifting\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Films&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Woman peacefully asleep on bed","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Sheltered_Julie_Palmer_600.jpg?fit=600%2C443&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":122,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/finding-faith-in-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":1},"title":"Finding Faith in Prayer","date":"November 15, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Sometimes I feel it is pointless praying. At times, when faced with the terrible suffering of others or in desperate circumstances I struggle to string any words together to God. Yet it is in these times that prayer is the only place we can go, it is often all that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Prayer&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Pile of Mustard Seeds","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/04\/MG_mustard_seeds_600.jpg?fit=600%2C338&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":673,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/how-to-pray-for-friends\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":2},"title":"How to Pray for Friends","date":"September 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Hi, today we\u2019re going to be looking at different creative ways that we can pray for our friends and loved ones. If you know someone at the moment that is going through a difficult time you might find these tips especially useful. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/playlist?list=PLIojy7PfSmO7aEzVZVGwnbrHlDLKawL09 Praying for friends or loved ones is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Films&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Julie Palmer on Prayer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/Julie_Palmer_on_Prayer_800.jpg?fit=800%2C450&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":574,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/closing-prayer\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":3},"title":"Closing Prayer","date":"October 8, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"I find that there is a unity that arises through worship that it is difficult to express in words. We sometimes encounter glimpses of this when we are joined together in hymns and worship songs, as we fix our eyes on eternal things and are in awe again of Jesus,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Films&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"birds flying over water round a modern bridge","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Closing_Prayer_Blog_600.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":748,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/how-to-lead-an-opening-prayer-in-church\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":4},"title":"How to lead an opening prayer in church","date":"November 22, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m going to give you three pointers to help you when leading others in prayer. In many ways when leading a meeting it is more about who you are than what you say! This is not just true for meetings but for every time we congregate with others for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Reflections&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"Praying Hands and Bible","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/Praying_Hands_600.jpg?fit=600%2C413&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":681,"url":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/4-tips-on-how-to-start-a-prayer-journal\/","url_meta":{"origin":515,"position":5},"title":"4 Tips on How to Start a Prayer Journal","date":"October 1, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Today I\u2019m going to be looking at prayer journals. I\u2019ve found them to be an amazing gift in my journey with God, and I wanted to share with you four ideas for them that I have found useful. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=pjmQxroiXYQ&feature=youtu.be I have always prayed in this way, so my home is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Prayer&quot;","img":{"alt_text":"journal with ink pen","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/un_journal_600.jpg?fit=600%2C337&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":564,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515\/revisions\/564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayerscapes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}