Beyond the Weekend

February 22 | Honest to God

February 22, 2021

TODAY’S SCRIPTURE

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? Psalm 13:1

Read: Psalm 13
Listen: 
Psalm 13

TODAY’S MESSAGE

The book of Psalms contains 150 songs and prayers written by King David, Moses and other authors over 100+ years. For millennia, the Psalms have served as the prayer book of God’s people. Modeling how to talk to God, about one-third of these conversations include prayers of lament. Pastor Jeff Manion describes lament as saying to God, “Things are not going well, and we need to talk about it.”

God invites us to have honest conversations with him about what’s really going on in our lives and how we feel about these situations. Many things can prevent us from talking to God. We may fear the answer, not know what to say, get busy and forget, talk to people instead, think God won’t respond or wonder if our prayers even matter. Sometimes our prayers may include more crying or yelling than calm conversation. God invites us to turn to him and bring all of it—every tear, emotion and fear.

Over the next six weeks, we will look to the Psalms to deepen our conversations with God. Whether praying to God is new for us or a habit formed over the years, we will journey together using a variety of prayer forms practiced for thousands of years. This week we explore the three invitations of lament—complain, ask and trust. We will move through these invitations to create our own psalm of lament to God.

IN YOUR CHAIR TIME TODAY

Commit to talking honestly with God in the coming weeks. Ask God to grow a deepening desire for honest conversation with him and help you make conversation with him part of your everyday life. “Father, I desire to grow closer to you in prayer. Deepen my prayer life and help me turn to you in every situation this week. Amen.” Use this lock screen to stay on the path.


NEW TESTAMENT READING PLAN

Join us this year as we read through the New Testament.

Today’s reading is Mark 8.

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