1 Timothy 2:1-4 (CEB)

¹ First of all, then, I ask that requests, prayers, petitions, and thanksgiving be made for all people. ² Pray for kings and everyone who is in authority so that we can live a quiet and peaceful life in complete godliness and dignity. ³ This is right and it pleases God our savior, ⁴ who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.

Today's Reflective Questions

• Where do you find yourself as you pay attention to this scripture?
• What is God saying to you through this/these texts?
• How will you allow this/these scriptures effect your prayer life?

This Week's Lenten Focus: Prayer

Prayer is at the heart of Christianity. Prayer is connecting to God, showing our heart. Prayer is also listening, listening, listening. There is no one right way to do it. What we have found is that the more we pour out our heart to God, the more connected we are to God. The more connected we are to God, the more strength we have to pray. Sometimes our prayers are intimate. Sometimes our prayers are universal. Sometimes they are coherent and sometimes discombobulated. Sometimes we are silent. Each of these have ways that connect us to God who is both intimate and universal, who cares enough to have created each of us and also created the universe.

There have also been times when we could not pray, we did not know how to pray, we did not know what to pray, or how to even begin. It is in these times especially that we give God thanks for people who have come alongside us to be a prayer advocate.

Prayer in its many forms is vehicle for mutual communication with God. Not only talking to God but also sensing where ... when ... how God is speaking and what is God saying. As with Elijah on 1 Kings 19:11-13 ... often God is in the thin silence ... a still small voice.

• Watch a video featuring Rev. Dr. Shelly Petz and Rev. Dr. Charlotte Abram talking about prayer.
• Watch a video featuring Bishop David Wilson inviting you to observe a Holy Lent
• To learn more, check out this special page on our website dedicated to our Lenten topics.

Synopsis of Prayer Practice: Prayer Advocate

Friends, we invite you to consider having a prayer advocate, someone who can prayer with you on your behalf. We each have both been people who have prayed for others and people who have been prayed for. If you have someone who prays for you, how has your life been changed? If you have not had someone praying for you, would you consider this? Would you consider this for such a time as this? What would it look like to show your heart to God and to one other person and invite them to pray on your behalf? When we are in the midst of so much all around us, what would it look like to pay attention to God and invite someone alongside us as we do to pray on our behalf? We also invite you to invite someone to be your prayer advocate during our Lenten journey, someone who prays with and for you. Or consider entering a prayer partner relationship, mutually praying for each other. Both can happen in the relationship.
 

Invitation to Go Deeper

Prayer for Reflection

Matthew 5:44
Acts 16:25-34