Published by LifeWay Press® • © 2016 Angela Thomas-Pharr No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing by the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to LifeWay Press®; One LifeWay Plaza; Nashville, TN 37234-0152. Unless indicated otherwise, all Scripture quotations are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright © 2000, 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Scripture quotations marked HCSB® are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible®, Copyright ©1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible® and HCSB® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers. To order additional copies of this resource, write to LifeWay Church Resources Customer Service; One LifeWay Plaza; Nashville, TN 37234-0113; order online at www.lifeway.com; fax 615.251.5933; phone toll free 800.458.2772; email [email protected]; or visit the LifeWay Christian Store serving you. Adult Ministry Publishing • LifeWay Church Resources One LifeWay Plaza • Nashville, TN 37234-0152 Angela Thomas-Pharr is a Bible teacher, national speaker, and best-selling author of books and Bible studies that include: Stronger: Finding Hope in Fragile Places and Brave: Honest Questions Women Ask. As a mother of four, her determination to know God on an intimate level, and her dedication to studying the Bible, have taught her many truths—some discovered through tears and some in times of joy. Angela has the uncanny ability to be transparent, make readers laugh, and whisper to them about their most personal fears and heartfelt dreams. Angela spends her time as a wife and mother in Greensboro, North Carolina. She has a master’s degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. If you would like more information about Angela Thomas-Pharr, please visit her website at www.angelathomaspharr.com. 40 DAYS: THE PSALMS, MEDITATION, AND PRAYER Why in the world did I add 40 days of Psalms, meditation, and prayer to this study? Well, you can thank my small group of squirrelly, middle school girls from Arlington, Texas, for all this. Amy, Missy, Erin, Christy, Kenalea, Cheryl, Julie, Carmen, Sheralyn, Cathy, Kim, Sarah, Leslie, and Mary are all grown up now. They’ve become beautiful wives, moms, and friends, but none of them will let me forget the summer I tried to teach them how to pray. I was the seminary intern that summer at Pantego Bible Church. They were the silly, joy-filled girls who stole my heart and agreed to meet with me once a week for the summer. I can’t remember one thing we talked about, but I do know I wanted to challenge them to grow in prayer. So I did the only creative thing I could think of and brought a kitchen timer every week. We were going to pray until the timer went off. Our first week of prayer time went pretty well. The timer went off at five minutes, and the girls high-fived one another like old prayer warriors. Every week after, I added five more minutes to the timer, and they’d whine like little babies. But by the end of the summer, we were up to 45 minutes of prayer and those precious girls knew a couple of things for sure. They could pray longer than they ever believed they could. And, there is a lot to pray about when you finally stop and start to pray. During our 40 days of prayer, our family read Draw the Circle by pastor Mark Batterson. He says, “If you want God to do some- thing new in your life, you can’t do the same old thing.”1 One thing is certain, 40 days will definitely help kick start a new prayer life and maybe even begin a new prayer habit in your life! SOME PRACTICAL THOUGHTS FOR ACTUALLY PRAYING To shake up our routine and jog ourselves into better listening, Scott and I began our 40 days of prayer with empty prayer journals. We were also reading other books on prayer, both old and new, and listening to sermon podcasts about prayer. We just wanted to increase our prayer focus and the power of our prayers. Scott and I usually prayed separately in the mornings. He has a prayer chair. I’m usually on the floor in my home office, sometimes laying prostrate, sometimes sitting, sometimes pacing, and lots of times going back and forth between all those. I have prayed on the floor of my walk-in closet, underneath the baby bed, or sitting in the parking lot of the grocery store, just to have a quiet place. Years before the War Room movie, my girlfriend built a house with a prayer closet underneath the stairs in the center of her house. It was a perfect, small space, cozy but not distracting. She had a lamp, bulletin board, paper, pens, a Bible, but not much else. It wasn’t a reading room. It was a prayer room. The kids left prayer requests in there for her to find. I thought it was the most brilliant idea I’d ever heard of. Most of the time, I am praying all throughout the day for anything that comes to mind or requests I’ve committed to pray for. Many of you probably do the same thing. First Thessalonians 5:17 calls us to “pray without ceasing.” But I hope your prayer time these 40 days can become an actual, set-apart time that eventually becomes your regular, daily prayer. Some people do better praying with friends because accountability helps the praying to actually happen. Some of my friends pray together each day on the phone. Some walk together and pray as they walk. Are you getting the idea, that the most important thing is actually praying, no matter how or where it happens! MEDITATION As we’re reading through the Book of Psalms together, I hope you learn to sit quietly for a moment to think about what you’ve read and how God might be speaking directly to you. Consider how the words you read might apply to your life or a situation you are facing. That is meditation. Right now, our culture thinks meditation is cool, but what they promote isn’t biblical medi- tation. Cultural meditation, or mindfulness, is about turning your focus inward. Biblical meditation turns our focus God-ward. It’s a totally different thing. There is nothing inside of me that can give me peace. Peace is a gift from God that grows in the soul being redeemed. We prayerfully meditate in God’s presence as we transition from study to prayer because we’re entering a conversation God began in His Word. We respond with meditation, listening, and prayer. READING THROUGH THE BOOK OF PSALMS To meditate on a particular passage in Psalms, read through the words, meditate on their meaning, make some notes if you want to, then personalize those words and pray them back to God. For instance, One generation shall commend your works to another, and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty, and on your wondrous works, I will meditate. PSALM 145:4-5 Father, teach me to meditate on Your majesty. Teach me how to meditate on Your glory. Show me how to commend Your glory to the next generation. I want to learn to declare Your mighty acts in ways they can hear. THE BIBLE YOU READ There are lots of mobile versions of the Bible you can download for free. So, I hope you have a Bible on everything you own! Lisa Harper says she plays the audio Bible in her house all through the night, so the Word is continually being spoken over them. Brilliant. Another friend, Amy Heywood, plays the audio Bible in the mornings as she drives the kids to school. They are all kind of sleepy, so it’s a good listening time. As awesome as technology is, I do hope you have a physical, hold-in-your-hand Bible of your own. You can Google “free Bible” to find several organizations who will be glad to send you a Bible of your own. This past weekend, my son zipped up my Bible in the front pocket of my roller bag, and I spent 24 hours thinking it might be gone. When he remembered where it was, it was happy dance all around! My little notes in the margins. My underlines. My dates and circled words. I hope you have a precious copy of God’s Word. BEGINNING WITH THE LORD’S PRAYER Actually beginning to pray may be your hardest thing. That’s why I usually lay down on the floor somewhere in my house, or on towels at the hotel. I’m not sure why that physical act instantly focuses my head, but it does. And then there are the words. How do we begin talking to God? Sometimes words begin before I can lay down, and sometimes they don’t. Timothy Keller wrote about beginning our prayer time by making the Lord’s Prayer our personal prayer. Many days, that’s exactly how I begin. When I begin with the Lord’s Prayer, I am beginning with God and His glory, not me and my needs. It’s amazing how intentional we have to be to center our thoughts on Him first. THE PRAYER REQUESTS Scott and I both used little blank journals to make notes about our prayers, but I’m now trying index cards to see if that’s a better system for me.