Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Three-Love Prayer


One of the simplest ways to pray, that I would like to invite you all into, is the three-love prayer. I learned this prayer, and credit it to, 24/7 Prayer International, especially the Kansas City Boiler Room and David Blackwell. It is a very simple prayer rhythm to do with your roommates (or group). It is an outward focused prayer rhythm. My prayer group and I do the three-love prayer over a three day rhythmic cycle that might go something like this...

Monday Evening: Love 1
Tuesday Evening: Love 2
Wednesday Evening: Love 3
Thursday Evening: We do our own prayer thing and re-start 3-love prayer on Monday of the next week

OR you could even separate it into weeks

Week 1: Monday - Thursday evenings, Love 1
Week 2: Monday - Thursday evenings, Love 2
Week 3: Monday-Thursday evenings, Love 3

Love 1: God. "Adoration" - To begin, just start with simple adoration. Think of adjectives that describe God. Think of his characteristics and attributes. Write them down, share them with your group, reflect on them. Paint them. Write them on slips of paper and keep them in a jar. Make this exercise as simplistic or creative as you want.

Love 2: Others. Praying for people - Do exactly that. Gather prayer requests, spend time praying for people.

Love 3: World. Pray for current issues/world - This takes a little bit more preparation on the group's/group members part. Make yourself aware of different current issues going on locally, nationally or internationally. Spend time praying for these issues. Use pictures, stories, anything to make yourself and your group aware.

Three-love prayer is a great way to begin a small prayer group -- it is general enough that anyone can participate, but challenging because it's very altruistic (new word? mean's other-centered :))

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