Praying on the Nines - A Lenten Devotion for 2022 - The Prayer Ministry of GPC's Congregational Care Committee Offers: Germantown ... (2024)

The Prayer Ministry of GPC’s Congregational Care Committee Offers: Praying on the Nines –A Lenten Devotion for 2022 www.GPCTN.org

The Prayer Ministry of GPC offers to every GPC member and visitorthe opportunity to pray together at 9:00am and again at 9:00pm eachday on the same prayer topic and/or need.The Prayer Ministry plans to bring these opportunities to our GPCfamily of faith throughout the Christian calendar year, and in 2022this begins with the Lenten Season.Lent 2022: Oftentimes the Season of Lent is approached with thepersonal question, “What should I give up? Chocolate? Meat?Coffee? Alcohol? So many options!” This Lenten Season, however,the Prayer Ministry of GPC invites you to “take on” somethingrather than “give something up”. What we want you to take on arecharacteristics of Christ … one new characteristic each week duringLent. Each week’s focus scripture and prayer prompt will lead you tothe upcoming Sunday’s worship service and sermon.We hope you will join us on this journey as we pray about taking onJesus’ characteristics of: • Belief, • Discipline, • Holiness, • Reconciliation, • Faith, and • Humilityand Pray on the Nines (or whatever times work for you morning andnight) together as a family of faith.

Praying on the Nines Lenten Devotion(see focus scripture passages and prayer prompts) (GPC’s Prayer Ministry)Week One – BeliefWeek Two – DisciplineWeek Three – HolinessWeek Four – ReconciliationWeek Five – FaithWeek Six - HumilityUnless otherwise noted, all scripture quotations come from the NRSV.

Week One – (11 days - Ash Wednesday, March 2 – Saturday March 12) – BeliefImage credit: “Christ Mosaic,” Sacred Heart Cathedral in Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia Romans 10:9-10: If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. For Paul belief is foundational. All other aspects of the spiritual life – character, charity, acts of piety and justice, community, and many others, are mere fruits of the basic convictions one has about God’s grace and the assurances that come from it. Pray: each morning and each evening on this passage and be open to how God will lead and guide you in this week with regard to your own faith and belief.

Week Two – Sunday March 13-Saturday March 19 – Discipline Image credit: “Jesus Discourses with His Disciples,” James TissotPhilippians 3:17 – Brothers and sisters, join in imitating me, and observethose who live according to the example you have in us.Paul directs others to follow him as he points the way towardChrist Jesus. Paul teaches that to be a follower of Jesus meansto follow the example of others and to model the samediscipline in your life for others to also see and follow.Pray: each morning and evening on this passage andprayerfully consider how you are both following the lead ofan “imitator of Christ,” and how you are living a life thatothers can imitate.

Week Three – Sunday, March 20-Saturday, March 26 – H oliness Image credit: “Christ the Redeemer,” Paul Maximilien, Leonida Gheorghe, Rio de Janeiro.1 Corinthians 10:1-13 (selections) – I do not want you to beunaware, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the samecloud – all passed through the sea – all were baptized into Moses in thecloud and sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the samespiritual drink …. Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them… [for] they sat down to eat and drink and then rose up to play … thesethings occurred as examples for us.

[Therefore], we must not indulge in sexual immortality as some of themdid, and twenty-three thousand fell in a single day. We must not put Christto the test, as some of them did, and were destroyed by serpents.No testing has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God isfaithful and will not allow you to be tested beyond your strength but willalso provide you the way out so that you are able to endure whatever comesyour way.As harsh as this passage may seem at first read, it is good forus to be reminded we can learn how “not to behave” fromthose who’ve sinned against God. Paul is speaking about theancient Israelites and identifies sexual immorality as the sourceof profound downfall. He equates their behavior as “puttingChrist to the test” and instructs us not to follow their pathway.Paul’s writing provides hope, reminding us that regardless ofthe temptations we might face, God will provide all we need toovercome them and will always be steadfastly beside us, comewhat may.Pray: each morning and each evening on this passage andprayerfully consider what temptations you are facing; ask forGod’s guidance through them so that you will be living a lifepleasing to God.

Week Four – Sunday March 27-Saturday, April 2 – Reconciliation Image credit: “Reconciliation,” Josefina de Vasconcellos, Coventry Cathedral2 Corinthians 5:17-19 – So if anyone is in Christ, there is a newcreation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new!All this is from God, who reconciled us to God’s self through Christ, andhas given us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God wasreconciling the world to God’s self, not counting their trespasses againstthem, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.Paul invites the church to consider a deeper criterion than ourhuman point of view – namely, the orientation of one’s hearttoward God. What might this transformation of our “old

selves” into “new selves” look like? Paul suggests it will be aradical alteration of priorities and perspectives to be more inline with the way and will of God – a true reconciliation of ourhearts and minds with the heart and mind of God in ChristJesus.Pray: each morning and each evening about your ownperspective – that is, your worldview. Is it through the lens ofChrist? Pray about your own transformation to a new creation– someone who is reconciled to God’s self through Christ -during this season of Lent.

Week Five – Sunday, April 3-Saturday, April 9 – Faith Image credit: “Prayer,” D ShannonPhilippians 3:10-12 – I want to know Christ and the power of hisresurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in hisdeath, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead. Not that Ihave already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press onto make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.

We hear in this verse echoes of Jesus in the Gospels, who toldthe disciples that to be first, they needed to be last, and thatthey needed to lose their lives to gain them. Paul upendsconventional wisdom to point to one of the chief principles ofliving in God’s kingdom: it is not about us – it is all aboutChrist!Pray: each morning and each evening on this passage as youprayerfully consider what changes you need to make in yourown life to put Christ first in all your relationships – with God,with your life partners, with your children, and with yourself.

Week Six – Sunday, April 10-Saturday, April 16 – H umility Image credit: “In the Night of Faith,” Paolo MedinaPhilippians 2:8 – He humbled himself and became obedient to the pointof death – even death on a cross.

This is Holy Week: it begins the triumphant entry of Jesus intothe city of Jerusalem and then follows his last week on thisearth. It begins with the crowds cheering him and ends withthe crowds shouting “Crucify him! Crucify him!” We invite youto read all the scripture passages during Holy Week slowly andcarefully so that you will be well prepared to hear of hisexecution on Good Friday, and then, then, of his gloriousresurrection on Easter morning.Palm Sunday: Luke 19:28-40Monday – John 12:1-11Tuesday – John 12:20-36Wednesday – John 13:21-32Maundy Thursday – John 13:1-17, 31b-35Good Friday – John 18:1-19:42Read and pray: each morning and each evening as you slowlyponder these passages and the last week of the life of our Lordand Savior Jesus Christ.Saturday – rest and prepare yourselves for Easter SundayHumility comes from the Latin word humus – which literallymeans dirt. To be humble means to see oneself as grounded,drawn from the earth, connected to all of life, no better and noworse than the rest of all creation. Consider your own life livedthrough the lens of humility each day.

Sunday, April 17 – EASTER, RESURRECTION SUNDAY! Victory Image Credit: “The Glory of Christ,” Stephen B. Whatley1 Corinthians 15:19-26 - But in fact Christ has been raised from thedead, the first fruits of those who have died … the last enemy to bedestroyed is death.

Praise be to God! He is risen! He is risen, indeed! Let us liveour lives as Easter people, now and forevermore!Belief – Discipline – Holiness – Reconciliation – Faith –Humility – these are the essentials of Christian character.As you’ve read these passages of holy scripture and prayedeach day on the nines, we hope you’ve been inspired by God’sHoly Spirit to adapt each one into your own lives and that younow feel as though you are new creations in Christ!Thank you for journeying with your fellow GPC parishionersas we’ve Prayed on the Nines together.May God’s blessings continue to abide with you, and may youcontinue to share your blessings with everyone you meet.This Lenten devotion was written by Rev. Susan Carter Wiggins andadapted from the “Lenten Sermon Series: Character and Calling” by MagreyR. DeVega (Jessica Miller Kelley, compiler, A Preacher’s Guide toLectionary Sermon Series: Thematic Plans for Years A, B, and C, Volume2, [Westminster John Knox Press, 2019], 185-195).

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