The Summer Reading Project: Begin With Prayer

Chap­ter 3 of B.L.E.S.S. is the B — Begin with prayer.

I liked this chap­ter a lot — it was full of prac­ti­cal tips and inspir­ing sto­ries.

One nugget I espe­cial­ly appre­ci­at­ed:

I reached into my com­put­er bag and pulled out my jour­nal and Bible. After spend­ing some time read­ing and reflect­ing, my rou­tine was to first write the word “B.L.E.S.S.” and then list the peo­ple for whom I would sim­ply pray for a few min­utes.

Next, I drew a straight black line across the bot­tom of the page in my jour­nal, paused, and then lis­tened for God. This is how I’ve learned to pray every day. Draw­ing that hor­i­zon­tal line became a rit­u­al that tran­si­tioned my mind from talk­ing to God to lis­ten­ing to Him. Often when I lis­ten, noth­ing comes to mind–but if some­thing or some­one does I write it down.

Dave Fer­gu­son, B.L.E.S.S. pages 35–36

I love how sim­ple that habit is — just draw a line and lis­ten!

Towards the end of the chap­ter, there is a sim­ple tool called the “Who Is My Neigh­bor?” map. Just draw a tic-tac-toe grid and put your­self at the cen­ter. Now iden­ti­fy the eight peo­ple who are clos­est to you in some con­text and write their names in the oth­er squares (you could do it for your dorm, for your lab­mates, or for your team­mates). Voila — you now have a prayer list.

So far I’m lov­ing this book. It is Bib­li­cal, prac­ti­cal, and easy to read!

Bonus: the chap­ter also con­tained this banger quote:

Do not have your con­cert first, and then tune your instru­ment after­wards. Begin the day with the Word of God and prayer, and get first of all into har­mo­ny with Him.

Hud­son Tay­lor

👀 — that’s good!