Your Golden Bowl
Leave a Prayer . . . Take a Prayer
Your Golden Bowl holds a simple way to experience the power of prayer and connection with God. Let Your Golden Bowl be a tangible inspiration for you to write your prayer, and then place it in the bowl.
What you’ll need:
- A golden bowl of your choosing
- A place to put it where you’ll see it and use it
- Pen or pencil (or crayons for kids) and paper
- Print out the free pdf poster/card as a reminder if desired
How to use Your Golden Bowl:
Prayer is just talking to God. If you’re not used to praying for yourself or for someone else, this is an easy way to start.
What’s on your heart?
Leave a Prayer:
- Ask—for yourself or for someone else’s needs
- Thanks and/or Praise for all God has done for you
- An encouraging verse or something that’s inspired you
- Prayer can be as simple as a name or “Help!”
Take a Prayer:
- An opportunity to pray for someone else
- Helping someone else helps YOU
- Our prayers for others show the highest love—God’s love
When you’re feeling desperate, depressed, or lonely, it helps you to help someone else. Take a prayer from Your Golden Bowl and be a blessing to others. Prayer connects us with God. It changes us, and it can change our world.
God’s response to your prayers can be an encouragement to others, too. So add your updates, progress reports, results, and praise and thanksgiving. Your Golden Bowl can connect and comfort people, families, and communities as you share your prayers and experiences.
Let Your Golden Bowl be a visible reminder for you to pray . . .
If you would like a banner, poster, or sign explaining Your Golden Bowl for yourself, your church, organization, school, or business, download the free pdf. Place it near the golden bowl you choose along with pens and paper, and you’re all set!
Your Golden Bowl for Kids!
“When your head starts to worry and your mind just can’t rest, put your prayers down on paper and let God do the rest!” Colleen from Kids Zone at NEC
Put colorful paper and crayons by Your Golden Bowl and invite your kids to Leave a Prayer/Take a Prayer.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Phil 4:6-7
About Maeve and The Golden Bowl:
Like many others, my life changed forever with a terrible crisis and the simple words, “God, if you’re real . . .” Over the past fifteen years I’ve experienced the power of prayer in amazing ways in my life and witnessed it for others.
Then Revelation 5:8 captured my attention and my imagination. They held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God’s people. I envisioned all of us with our very own golden bowl, filled with prayers. The more the better, since Scripture advises we “pray without ceasing.”
As a fiction writer, I introduced the concept in a book. When I submitted the manuscript to my editor, she emailed me: “This story has touched my heart, my soul, and my spirit. It has inspired me to do more, be more, pray more…. Everyone should have a golden bowl at home and know this story.” She sent me a bowl her Dad had made from golden maple full of her favorite verses.
So when my pastor asked how our church could make people who come through our doors feel loved, I felt emboldened to tell him about Your Golden Bowl. How better can we express love than praying for each other and sharing how God touches our lives? Fiction has become reality, and we’ve been using our Golden Bowl at church for years.
Now friends are asking how they can start their own Golden Bowl for themselves, families, churches, organizations, schools, and businesses. Find Your Golden Bowl, download the poster, and get started now! There’s so much to pray about.
with God all things are possible
Matt 19:26
Teach Your Children about the Power of Prayer
Make your Golden Bowl a family tradition
Impact:
Positive Outcomes
“You have been praying for . . . Thank you, Thank you, Thank you . . . Things are good”
“Thank you for helping us get my Mom where she needs to be”
Connection
A professional counselor took a long, sad prayer from the Golden Bowl and began praying for the person who wrote it. A week later they called for a counseling appointment, unaware the counselor had been praying for them.
Encouragement and Inspiration
“I started praying at NEC by taking prayers from the Golden Bowl and that inspired me to do more . . .”
At a young man’s funeral many guests wrote prayers and notes to the family and put them in the Golden Bowl. A church member noticed the Funeral Director reading all the prayers in the bowl, apparently touched by them. When she explained the purpose of the prayer bowl, he was visibly moved, and told her he’d take all the prayers directed to the family and give them to them.
Love and Community
“My heart breaks. But so grateful for Golden Bowl – pulled out prayer for . . . not knowing anything. This whole story commands my heart to be more faithful and energized to pray consistently . . . Miracles happen – Leukemia is hardest to beat. I pray for miracles – why not!!!”
Adventure
“I would like to invite you to visit the Golden Bowl this Sunday, and if you haven’t already done so, perhaps put in a prayer and take one to pray for. The little slips of paper carry something precious – a step of faith, a desire to hear from God, a need. We all have the opportunity to join in prayer for someone else, probably someone we don’t know and may never know. It’s something of an adventure and I hope you will decide to be part of it, to mingle our prayers with the prayers of thousands of other believers.”
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you.” Jeremiah 29:11-14 NIV
Get Creative with Your Golden Bowl
Create a piece of art to inspire visitors to Your Golden Bowl
