March 23 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

Ramadan is one of the five “pillars,” or central tenants, of Islam. For the next 30 days, Muslims will fast from all food, water, and other life pleasures during the daylight hours in hopes of gaining favor and forgiveness from Allah. Ramadan is one of the most outwardly spiritual times of the year for a Muslim.  As people observe this month, many set aside normal life habits and rhythms in order to have a month of outward works, reverence, and piety.

It’s also a time of deep tradition, family celebrations, and fond nostalgia. Like many religious holidays, it is being infiltrated by commercialism and secularism, and many Muslims observe Ramadan from a place of habit and social pressure, and not one of conviction. But for most, it has deep spiritual significance. Muslims believe that each thing done throughout life is assigned points or weight to the scales and tally system of each life. Ramadan is believed to work considerably in their favor because they believe that their good deeds during this time are worth more “points” than at any other time of the year. But regardless of which heart posture they have—default or devout—even after all this hard work, there is no assurance of salvation and no sure way of being made right before God.

Ramadan boils down to one thing: seeking the favor and forgiveness of God. But what if they knew they already had it? What if they knew it was free for the taking? It is to this end that we pray together this month.

Let’s pray for freedom from the belief that they need to pay for their own redemption and the knowledge that their payment has already been made by God, their Redeemer! And let’s pray for the many who are simply “going through the motions,” that their hearts would long for the meaning and belonging that cannot be satisfied by empty traditions but can only be known in deep relationship with the One who made and saved us.

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 45:8 “Open up, O heavens, and pour out your righteousness. Let the earth open wide so salvation and righteousness can sprout up together. I, the Lord, created them.”

Cry out today for the heavens to pour out and Moroccans to open wide and receive the outpouring of our Savior’s salvation and righteousness.

PRAY THE SONG

God, we worship You because You, our King, reign on high.  So we rise up and join the heavenly host to sing…

“Reigning” by Jeremy Riddle