February Prayer Practice
Thank you for your wonderful response to the first edition of our monthly prayer email. Our team has been blessed to hear the many ways God is moving in your lives! Please continue to send your stories and prayer requests so we can share them in future editions.
Last week, in addition to Valentine’s Day, we marked the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday—the season of the church year historically devoted to praying, fasting, and charity. As we continue to lean into our collective prayer life, we hope you will take time to consider in both a joyful and solemn way the great love that God has for you and his church. We know that God continues to do immeasurably more among his people, and we’ve heard how God is moving throughout our churches in this ministry season. We share these few highlights with you:
- A family who ceased attending their church during COVID-19 visited Newport Covenant Church in Bellevue, Washington, in 2022. They became members in 2023.
- Through their “Instruments for Haiti” program, First Covenant Church in Mason City, Iowa, is reaching students who have little access to the musical arts, transforming lives through music.
- For the past ten years, West Bay Covenant Church in Traverse City, Michigan, has hosted a baby pantry that serves 20-30 people a week who need resources for their newborn to toddler-aged children. Volunteers from the congregation are offering tangible help, a warm welcome, and encouraging words to their community.
Praying the Hours
This month we are exploring the prayer practice of praying the hours, which we find in the Old Testament. We witness Jesus actively engaging in this practice as he prayed the Psalms. Praying the hours is a daily rhythm of pausing to pray throughout the day, for example at morning, noon, and evening. The psalmists offer rich expressions of God’s love intertwined with the human experience, so it makes perfect sense that they are the traditional entry point to engage in this practice.
PRactice Praying the Hours
Morning Prayer: A Lenten prayer of thanksgiving to start your day.
(Example) Amazing Creator of ourselves and our world, we thank you that you reveal yourself in the events of human history. We thank you that you have shown yourself in Christ Jesus, who shared our human life, walking that path of obedience to the cross. May we also die to ourselves and live for the world, through the empowerment of your Spirit. Amen. (From The Covenant Book of Worship)
Midday: Read through one psalm each day and reflect on what God may be saying to you.
Evening Prayer: A prayer of blessing for the day.
(Example) As we close this day, may the Lord Jesus Christ, who continues the work of building his church, bless us, guide us, lead us, and enable us, as we join his work to spread the hope of the gospel.
