Today I was invited to join some friends (the Malouf Family) in focusing on prayer during Lent… “growing in the area of prayer…prayer for one another, for our nation, for the Church, for our world, and to connect with God’s heart.” They are going to send out emails with specific things to pray for and Tara is going to continue to post her thoughts on and experiences with prayer on her site.    This was for me the straw that broke the camel’s back so to speak… just in the sense that I have been feeling God calling me to prayer lately, calling me to learn to pray, calling me to come to Him and present my requests to Him, calling me to just spend time with Him and delight in Him through prayer, calling me to meditate on Him and rest in Him through prayer. I have been taking small steps towards developing a rhythm and discipline of prayer in my life lately but after reading this request from my friends it seemed settled that God wanted prayer to be a more firm pursuit of mine right now. I have also been thinking a lot about Lent and how to practice this season at this time in my life and there are a lot of different things that I have been thinking about and things I would like to learn and focus on during lent (all of which you will hear more about in the coming weeks) but it seemed today that God was being very clear that he wanted me to focus on these issues I’ve been thinking about through prayer and to practice Lent through a discipline and practice of prayer. So, that’s what I feel God is calling me to this Lent and I find myself anticipating the season and excited about how God is going to change me through Lent this year.  

I look forward to sharing this journey through Lent with all of you. For today my simple prayer is this…

“Lord, teach me to pray.” 

Rejoicing in the journey - Beth Stedman