April 1 2023

 PRAY THE PICTURE

Every day, we invite you into the ancient spiritual prayer practices of Lectio and Visio Divina. Each day you will be given a picture to meditate on in prayer, Visio Divina or “eating/digesting the image,” asking the Holy Spirit to prompt things from the image for you to pray into and to fill the image with spiritual meaning. Most of these visuals will connected to the concept of “Saturation” and will be connected to the insights included in each day’s prayer fuel.

We encourage you to start your prayer time each day by sitting in silence with the picture and listening for the Holy Spirit’s direction. It might also be meaningful to return to the image after you have read the additional pieces of the prayer fuel, using it to wrap up your time of intercession and giving the Holy Spirit the opportunity to speak through it on even deeper levels. May you be blessed as you engage your Creator in visually inspired prayer.

PRAY WITH CULTURAL INSIGHT

Believe it or not, a lot of eating happens during Ramadan—it just all happens during the nighttime hours. Families gather around round tables, where everyone has equal reach to the common plate in the center. As they tear off a piece of khobz (bread), the only appropriate utensil in sight, they reach to dip it into the communal plate for their share of the delicious meal before them. You may never be encouraged to eat more at a meal than if you have the privilege to sit at a Moroccan table. It is the job of the hosts to encourage you to keep eating. “Koul, koul” (“Eat, eat”), they repeatedly say as they push more food your way, making sure you have the choice pieces of meat in your section of the shared plate. They are so persistent in their desire for you to keep eating, that you fear you’ll offend them if you don’t! Hospitality is a virtue every Moroccan prides themself on. Tables are never set with simple meals, and meals never consist of a single course. Instead, food is lavished in amount and variety on those lucky enough to be guests in a Moroccan home—even to the point of financial strain. Moroccan cuisine is renown worldwide as a necessary checkmark on any foodie’s bucket list, because of their masterful use of spice profiles, their rich homegrown olive oils, and their skillful understanding of the slow cook. Needless to say, you end the meal with a very full stomach and satisfied taste buds! During Ramadan, this experience is often re-created night after night for 30 consecutive days, as out-of-town family gathers in central locations to pass this month together, and each meal becomes an event.

Moroccans don’t have a corner on this market, though. Jesus is no stranger to lavish abundance. In Matthew 14, Jesus fed hungry people. Matthew tells us that they ate to their satisfaction and then the disciples picked up 12 basketfuls of leftovers. Jesus didn’t just provide enough to fill their hunger, he provided more than enough to fill their hunger. Pray today that Moroccans would encounter the Jesus who is more than enough to fill their emptiness and satisfy their souls. And for all the Believers in Morocco who have the Bread of Life, that they would offer it with equal levels of enthusiasm.

PRAY THE WORD 

Each day, as we engage the practice of Lectio Divina, “eating/digesting the Word,” the Scripture we will pray comes from a community of prayer from within Morocco that has been praying Saturation over Morocco.

Adjective: “Saturated”—holding as much water or moisture as can be absorbed; thoroughly soaked
Noun: “Saturation”—the degree or extent to which something is completely absorbed

This group is daring to pray audacious prayers of saturation—asking for God’s Kingdom to come to Morocco to such an extent that it is completely absorbed in His truth, presence, and transformation. Keep this in mind as you pray these Scriptures and join with those who are already praying audacious prayers on behalf of Morocco.  

Matthew 14:19-20 “Then he told the people to sit down on the grass. Jesus took the five loaves and two fish, looked up toward heaven, and blessed them. Then, breaking the loaves into pieces, he gave the bread to the disciples, who distributed it to the people. They all ate as much as they wanted, and afterward, the disciples picked up twelve baskets of leftovers.”

As the Body of Christ across Morocco brings to Jesus the little they have, pray for God to saturate them with blessing, multiplying what they have as they work with Jesus to distribute his life-giving sustenance to hungry souls.

PRAY THE SONG

God, You are the Way Maker.  All things are possible for You Lord.  So we pray for miraculous spiritual hunger, healing and deliverance to spread across this nation…

“Way Maker” by Leeland