April 4 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

In a society very comfortable with social lines that separate the genders, there are not a lot of contexts where one will find a whole Moroccan family gathered in one place. The f’tour table is perhaps one of the very few exceptions, and because of this it gives a poignant opportunity to ask the Lord to draw whole households to Himself, including the often-overlooked female demographic. It’s not uncommon for women to eat last and separated from the men of the household, especially during large meals where guests are invited, but Ramadan f’tour is different. At this meal, after slaving for hours in the kitchen where she is not allowed to eat or drink anything—the irony of days both deprived of and consumed by the preparation of food is not often lost on them—women are expected to sit and eat at the same time as the men. In this month, the breaking of the fast happens at a universal time. It’s also a season of hosting. Foreign workers are often invited into Moroccan homes to share in this festive and culturally significant occasion. Because of these factors, these meals are prime time for the proclamation of the Gospel. In other meals, women will often be excluded, voluntarily or involuntarily, from spiritual conversations for their lack of education and spiritual aptitude, but at the f’tour table both genders have access to the soul-filling message of Jesus.

Ask our heavenly Father to appear to the men who head these households—comprised of their women, children, unwed sisters, widowed aunts, siblings, aging parents—in dreams and visions, chance encounters with the Word or Christ-followers, internet searches, and in the midst of their own broken circumstances and doubting thoughts. Pray on behalf of the women, the cooking powerhouses behind each one of these lavishly spread tables, as they pour out their lives to provide nourishment for the families without knowing the Bread of Life. Ask for whole families, gathered around these circular tables, pouring over the Truth of God’s Word, ears tuned to the Holy Spirit, in the same singularity of focus they hold in waiting for the signal that allows them to eat. May their souls be truly satisfied, together, in the Word that brings life that lasts forever.

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.  

Isaiah 55:10-11 “The rain and snow come down from the heavens and stay on the ground to water the earth. They cause the grain to grow, producing seed for the farmer and bread for the hungry. It is the same with my word. I send it out, and it always produces fruit. It will accomplish all I want it to, and it will prosper everywhere I send it.”

Pray for a saturation of God’s powerful Word across Morocco and that it would never return void of the purpose for which he sends it out.

PRAY THE SONG

Father, You are an inviting God.  You are a God that cries out for the weak, vulnerable and hurting to come feast with you at the table.  We pray for our dear friends to say ‘yes’ to your invitation to commune with You…

“The Table” by Chris Tomlin