Prayer Challenge: Tuesday Morning, Week 2

       Welcome to week 2 of the prayer challenge!  If you missed the start, I'm challenging you to 14 weeks of using the lectionary's Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession.  There are lots of prayers scattered throughout the lectionary (apple/android), and all are wonderful for getting you out of a prayer rut.  The Prayers of Thanksgiving and Intercession have been particularly helpful for getting me out of my usual "I need, I need!" prayers.    

If you're just now joining us - welcome! Start where you are.  Each week we'll dissect one of the prayers to help us pray more intentionally.  Here goes...

 

Prayer Challenge: Monday Morning

Praying Commonly: Take the Challenge

lec·tion·ar·y

ˈlekSHəˌnerē/

noun

1. a list or book of portions of the Bible appointed to be read at a church service.

Westside Christian Fellowship began using the Presbyterian lectionary several years ago when PastorK wanted to get us all on the same page reading scripture together.  Are we Presbyterian?  Nope.  He admits he chose almost at random, probably because he had the Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer on his shelf.  Either way, it's been a few years.  We started out listing all the readings on our website and then the Presbyterians came out with this handy app (iOS/android) that thankfully ended that feat.  (Shout out to Bob Marshall who came into the office every week to type out those readings.)

If you aren't familiar with a lectionary (I wasn't), it's simply a Bible reading schedule including some repeated phrases to give it form and written prayers.  After using it for a few years, I have a confession...my prayer life has changed, and I love it.

Flash back to teen years:

As a kid I LOVED alone time, was uber passionate about EVERYTHING, and could daydream my way through the longest summer day with the best of them.  I'd sit on the carpet in my room looking out the window (Because then you couldn't see the other houses and therefore it was easier to imagine I was an innkeeper in the middle ages taking a break between another round of bread and ale for my guests.  Duh.) and fill notebooks with my prayers to God.  I'd ramble.  I'd dream.  In those black and white composition notebooks I'd pour out my heart.

Meatballs and Memorization

I hope you've been reading Darlene's book Evidence Not Seen (see link on right).  One of the recurring nudges for me in her story is how often memorized scripture is the way God speaks to her.  In trials, i suffering, when circumstances her off guard - different passages come to mind that speak directly to the peace and joy God offers in no matter what she faces.  The practice of memorizing scripture is a discipline common in previous generations of believers, but more foreign to mine - a generation that easily memorizes a thousand song lyrics but struggles to get one measly verse committed to memory.

I love a moment in The Long Winter when Laura Ingalls is at school.  The teacher announces she'll begin the school day with readying the 23rd Psalm: Laura knew the Psalms by heart, of course, but she loved to hear again every word of the twenty-third, from "The Lord is my shepherd: I shall not want" to "Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever."  Two page turns later, Laura's teacher is leading the children home through a sudden blizzard.  The snow is so thick, they have no idea what's two inches in front of them and the air so icy, the children already feel sleepy as their bodies quickly begin to freeze.  No doubt, this memorized Psalm and its promise that she would one day dwell in God's house forever gave her fortitude to continue searching for her own.