April 7 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

One of the things that is often not understood about Ramadan is where it falls on the calendar. Because many of the Islamic holidays land on particular days of the lunar calendar, which is 11 days shorter than the solar calendar (that typically lasts 365 days), these days do not stay aligned with any particular season but instead shift by 11 days each year. That means that over the course of a Muslim’s life, Ramadan will fall in each of the 12 months of our calendar year. This means it takes place during different seasons as well. Some years, Muslims worldwide are fasting from food and water at the height of the summer heat in what are typically quite arid climates, while in other years they are sleeping huddled under blankets to ward off the cold late into the mornings and longing for that steaming cup of tea or coffee when they wake up. Because Ramadan is a global community experience for Muslims world-wide, the climate challenges or amount of hours fasting in different time zones can vary significantly.

For one Muslim living in Northern Sweden, there might only be 4 hours of daylight fasting to contend with while another near the equator is trying to outlast the summer solstice. But if one just waits six or seven years, the poor Swedish man will find himself with 18 hours of daylight to contend with…For many Muslims, it’s a great game to figure out where in the global pecking order they find themselves in terms of who has the hardest fast. Because of course, the more costly the fast, the more weighty the points earned for it. Because the precise days of the beginning and ending of the fast are determined by actually laying eyes on the moon in a particular state, many nations will also have misaligned dates for the beginning or ending of the fast, and no Muslim ever knows exactly when the fast will begin or end. 

As we pray for the many experiences a Muslim will encounter in the fasting as they travel across time zones and move through the years of their lives, there is great comfort to be found in the truth that the God who created them and loves them is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. These kinds of complex rule systems and inconsistent parameters make us long for the days when all will be on equal footing before a steadfast and dependable God. And while, like Muslims, none of us know when the reign of darkness on the earth will end and the reign of the second coming of Christ will begin, let it fuel great boldness and proclamation as we wait.

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.  

Psalm 78:4-8 “We will not hide these truths from our children; we will tell the next generation about the glorious deeds of the Lord, about his power and his mighty wonders. For he issued his laws to Jacob; he gave his instructions to Israel. He commanded our ancestors to teach them to their children, so the next generation might know them- even children not yet born- and they in turn will teach their own children. So each generation should set its hope anew on God, not forgetting his glorious miracles and obeying his commands. Then they will not be like their ancestors- stubborn, rebellious, and unfaithful, refusing to give their hearts to God.”

Pray for the redemption of future generations as the work of saturation generationally reproduces.

PRAY THE SONG

God, we worship you because You never change.  You are the same yesterday, today and tomorrow.  You are constant. You are the One that we need…

“You Never Change” by Austin Stone Worship