Try writing a letter to God telling him about your life right now.

What do you most want to share with him?

No-one else will see this letter - this is between you and God.

Get still… get quiet… ask for the help of God's Holy Spirit… then

Dear God …

Draw a picture of your life. Perhaps you could do this in a series of scenes, or by drawing a road or a river passing through different scenery.

Where have you been most conscious of God during your life?

Are there parts of your life that you are not very happy about, perhaps where you want to ask for God's forgiveness or healing?

Are there people or things that you particularly want to thank God for?

Where might God be leading you on to in the future?

Choose a card that attracts you.

Spend some time in quietness looking at it.

What does it say to you about God, yourself, etc?

Get into a comfortable position to pray - decide whether to sit, stand or kneel…

1. Put your hands in front of you, one on top of another, forming a cup (as if you were holding a butterfly inside).
2. Think about something that is bugging you (an anxiety, a worry, a grudge, a hatred, a distraction…) Name it specifically to yourself. Imagine that you are holding it in the cup of your hands.
3. Now hold your hands away from your body as if you are giving that thing to God.
4. Then open your hands with the palms facing downwards, and imagine that thing falling away from you onto the floor.
5. Turn your hands palm upwards and ask for the Holy Spirit to fill the void of what you have just let go.

You can repeat this prayer with anything else that is getting in the way of your living or praying, and that you would like to hand over to God.

Choose a stone or pebble.
Look at it, noting its shape, its regularity or irregularities, its colour.
Feel its smoothness, its texture, its cold that becomes warmer in your hand. Feel its weight.
Think of the forces that have gone into its making…
Now it is small and still and yours.
Does it say anything to you about God, yourself, etc?

You may like to dunk it in the bowl of water…
Feel the water on your hand…
What does this do to the stone's appearance?
In what may might you need washing, cleansing, transforming?
What is water to you? Think of what has gone into its making…

Turn your thoughts into prayer…

Maybe you're one of those people who finds 'doing' more helpful than writing or thinking…

Take a lump of 'pray-dough', and put it on a piece of paper.

Pick it up - knead it, feel it, work it. Work it into whatever shape or model might express your prayer - what you would like to say or offer to God, or an expression of what God means to you.

It doesn't matter what the finished article looks like - it can be quite abstract! This is just an opportunity for you to shape, if you want, a prayerful expression to God.

Read a news clipping.

Think about what it must be like to be the people involved in that story or the people involved with or affected by them.

Begin to pray for the people involved from the position of having 'stood in their shoes' in your imagination.

In your imagination, visualise a large basket.

Place into it, one by one, people or situations or sins or hopes which you want to give to God.

Then see yourself picking up the basket and taking it to Jesus and giving it to him (or placing it at the foot of the cross if you find this easier).

Look at the fruitbowl and then choose a piece of fruit…
Look at it carefully - notice the colours, and how they vary according to the light and shadows. Touch it and feel its skin, its texture.
So many different fruits, so many colours and texture - yet all still fruit.

Jesus said 'I am the vine, you are the branches. If a person remains in me and I in them, they will bear much fruit'.
Think about the fruits you bear, or that you might bear.
What are you good at? What are you good for? Who are you good for?

Cut a little piece of your fruit now, and taste it.
Notice its special taste, its sweetness.
What do you do, what might you do, to make life a little sweeter for others?

Jesus compared God to the gardener who prunes the fruit tree to bear more fruit.
Are there branches of your life that need pruning?
Are there things going nowhere, that you should probably be cutting away if you are to grow?
Are there branches that could actually become a little more fruitful - maybe they need a little more patience and love?
Maybe it's time for some completely new growth in some areas?

Where should you be asking God for more help to grow, and patience to wait for the growth to happen?
Ask God to send the Holy Spirit to inspire you and bring new fruit to your life now…

You might like to eat your fruit now as you think about it.