Last week, I committed to limit my time with social media for Lent. It was surprisingly easy to do. I have only been checking Instagram and Facebook once every night (besides my Sabbath this weekend). I have seriously felt so free and at peace about it, it’s cool to see the it is all truly just excess.
This week’s Lent challenge is prayer. The tagline in my email notification read “Do you ever feel frustrated with prayer?” Ummmmm, it’s like they were writing directly to me. Lately my quiet times with God have been so methodical: bible, journal, pray, done. I've just felt disconnected, like there’s a wall between God and I. The most humbling part, it’s not God’s fault….it’s my attitude. I've been turning my prayer life into a wish list again. When it comes down to it, I've forgotten the reverence behind prayer. I've ignored God’s sovereignty.
One of this week’s challenges is to pray in a format similar to the Lord’s prayer. This structure opens with adoration for His power, and the supplication is not a selfish one. It’s to see His kingdom come. His will be done. What does that mean? It’s not about me. My mission is to see His kingdom come in my life, and on my campus.
So this week, I’m devoting time to converse with my Savior, intimately. I want to set aside time each morning when I wake up, and right before I go to bed to come God to listen and speak. I am also praying over this prayer, my personalized version of Matthew 6:5-13:
”Our Father, you are good and powerful and worthy of my praise. You provide for me beyond compare. Lord, I pray that your will be done on this campus. That your kingdom come at BU. You are my strength & my power. Remind me that you are my source. I pray against selfishness & pride. You are good and your plan exceeds my own. May I be constantly humbled to do Your will this week. Thy will be done. Thy kingdom come.”
2 comments:
I think it's so hard to know how to pray sometimes, and I feel like there's this weird dichotomy of either not be told how to pray or being given formula after formula after formula.
I think the Lord's prayer is a good structure. And I think part of heartfelt, authentic prayer is creating that atmosphere. Praying the Psalms has always helped me do that.
I love what you say here; I haven't been good about praying or reading the Word lately and I need, desperately, to dive back into that. Life has just all felt like a routine of bad news and disappointment lately, and I want His joy to be my strength, but how will it ever be if I don't take the time to meet with the joy?
So beautiful and challenging! Just what I needed today. Thanks, lady! :)
I also wanted to let you know that I nominated you for the Liebster award on my blog if you would like to answer the questions :)
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