Prayer Prompts

Roger Hornbeck February 13, 2024

Welcome to the Prayer Garden

The Prayer Garden is a place to still our bodies, minds, and hearts. Feel free to linger as long as you want, sit silently, or reflect on the prayer prompts. The prayer prompts are also accessible using the QR Code. You may choose to spend your entire time at one of the four prayer stations.

In this place, you are invited to break from the frantic pace of life and rest in the presence of your loving God, recentering your mind and heart in God’s presence. God is eager to be with you, asking you to bring your whole being and “sit” with Him. The stations in this Prayer Garden invite you to rest, reflect, and restore by reflecting on short Bible verses. We hope this place will help you connect with your heart and experience God’s loving presence as He patiently listens to you.

Here are two suggestions for using the Prayer Garden and these prompts:

First, there is not a prescribed path through the Prayer Garden. There are four areas inside the garden and a mural on the wall outside. Feel free to move between the stations as you pray or spend all your time at a single station. The goal is to still your mind and body by being present to the sound of water and the beauty of garden plants and design.

Second, do not rush through the prompts. The goal is to notice and become aware of yourself and God’s presence. It takes time to slow down and notice what is happening in our minds, souls, and bodies. Don’t rush.

Sermon Series: Strange Religion

For many, the new year is an invitation to reflect on the past year and map a course for the next year. For others, the rhythm of reflection and choices is ongoing throughout the year. For the next two months, we invite you to use the Prayer Garden as a space to reflect, adjust, and act.

Sunday morning sermons will explore the Strange Religion the first followers of Jesus were called to embrace. As their spiritual descendants, we are also invited to embrace this new and strange religion. The foundation of our Strange Religion is love. God’s love is not sentimental but passionate, desiring the flourishing of others and God’s whole Creation. God is love and invites us to be conduits of His love. When we embrace God’s love for us, love takes root in our hearts, birthing a unique mission, community, and convictions about our life and purpose. The prayer prompts for the next two months will focus on three foundational themes that help us embrace the beauty of our Strange Religion.

First, God is Love. Jesus and His early followers were shaped by the belief that God loves every person. Jesus demonstrated this love by embracing the outcast, foreigner, rich, poor, powerful, and weak.

Second, we are loved. This Strange Religion rejects the “voices” of fear, ambition, and greed. Rather, the follower of Jesus is called to compassion, generosity, and purposeful sacrifice. Our Strange Religion gives us a new identity, purpose, and future.

Third, we have a unique mission. The third set of prayer prompts is constructed to help you understand God’s mission in the world and your unique place in that mission. Another way to describe this individual mission is to answer, “How do I represent God in my world?”

Prayer Prompt Focus One: Who is our God?

God is the Creator

Many believe in a creator, but the God Jesus proclaimed was more than simply an impersonal creating force who left the scene after he had set creation in motion. The God of our Strange Religion created all that exists and continues to sustain and care for His creation. As you sit in this small space of God’s Creation, reflect on the following passages, knowing God is with you. In its opening pages, the Bible reminds us that God created the world, including humanity. Read and reflect on the following passages, asking God to reveal His beauty and love present in His Creation.

Genesis 1:31
God saw all that he had made, and it was very good indeed. Evening came and then morning: the sixth day.
(If you have time, you may want to reflect on the entire story found in Genesis chapters1-3)

Colossians 1:15-17
He (Jesus) is the image of the invisible God,
the firstborn over all creation.
For everything was created by him,
in heaven and on earth,
the visible and the invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities —
all things have been created through him and for him.
He is before all things,
and by him all things hold together.

Acts 17:22-31
Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said, “People of Athens! I see that you are extremely religious in every respect. ²³ For as I was passing through and observing the objects of your worship, I even found an altar on which was inscribed, ‘To an Unknown God.’ Therefore, what you worship in ignorance, this I proclaim to you. ²⁴ The God who made the world and everything in it — he is Lord of heaven and earth — does not live in shrines made by hands…. From one man he has made every nationality to live over the whole earth and has determined their appointed times and the boundaries of where they live. ²⁷ He did this so that they might seek God, and perhaps they might reach out and find him, though he is not far from each one of us… Since, then, we are God’s offspring, we shouldn’t think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image fashioned by human art and imagination. “Therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now commands all people everywhere to repent…

Reflection:

Find a comfortable place to stand, sit, or kneel. Breathe in and exhale several times, releasing thoughts, concerns, and plans.
Be present by noticing your surroundings. What do you hear, see, feel, and think?
Notice your thoughts, feelings, physical responses, and the garden surroundings.
What responses do you experience as you read about God as Creator? What response do you have as you read that Jesus has been given the title of Creator? Take a few moments to tell God/Jesus what you are experiencing. Listen for what He might want to tell you.
How do you respond to Paul’s claim that Jesus is the Creator AND Sustainer of Creation?
Pastor Caleb often reminds us that God is seeking to return the present Creation to its state before humans brought evil and brokenness into it. How does God want you to participate in the restoration of Creation? What might that personally look like for you?

Don’t Rush. The key to contemplation is to slow down and pay attention, giving yourself time to notice and be aware of yourself, your surroundings, and God’s presence.

Prayer Prompt Focus Two: Who is our God?

God is Love

If you have been around church for very long, you have heard the claim that God loves you. As a child, I heard, “Jesus loves me; this I know, for the Bible tells me so…” However, for many, the message of God’s love is tempered by the message of God’s anger over our sins. God loves me…but. Spend your time in the garden removing the “but” from the loving relationship God wants with you.

John 3:16-17
For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

1 John 4:9-11
God’s love was revealed among us in this way: God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we might live through him. ¹⁰ Love consists in this: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. ¹¹ Dear friends, if God loved us in this way, we also must love one another.

Romans 5:6-11
For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. ⁷ For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. ⁸ But God proves his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. ⁹ How much more then, since we have now been justified by his blood, will we be saved through him from wrath. ¹⁰ For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by his life. ¹¹ And not only that, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received this reconciliation.

Romans 8:31-35
What, then, are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all. How will He not also with Him grant us everything? Who can bring an accusation against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies. 34 Who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, but even more, has been raised; He also is at the right hand of God and intercedes for us. Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword?

REFLECTION
The claim that God is love is foundational to the strangeness of the religion Jesus offered his followers… and us. Everything we think about ourselves, others, and how to live is rooted in this claim.

Before reflecting on the Bible verses, take a moment and identify your beliefs about God. What is your response to the claim that God is Love? Do you feel God loves you individually? Is God delighted in you or disappointed? Is God smiling or frowning? What shaped your beliefs/feelings about God?
Slowly read through the above passage several times. Pause between each reading. Identify your emotions, thoughts, reactions, and physical responses. Use these observations to initiate a conversation with God.
What was your initial response to these Bible verses? Can you imagine what it would be like if Jesus joined you in the prayer garden? What do you think He would say to you?
Share with God what you have experienced here, trusting that God is listening with a heart full of love for you.

Don’t Rush. The key to contemplation is to slow down and pay attention, giving yourself time to notice and be aware of yourself, your surroundings, and God’s presence.

Prayer Prompt Focus Three (1): Who am I?

We all bear the Image of God.

Even when it is not conscious, every person asks the following questions, “Who am I? Where do I belong? What is my purpose? Am I loved?” For followers of Jesus, the answer to the identity question starts with the love of God for us—all of us. Built on the foundation of love, we discover that God created us as unique individuals who experience relationships with God, others, and Creation. We also find our purpose is partnering with God as He restores all of Creation to His original purpose. As you read these passages, allow God to affirm your identity and purpose in His Creation.

Genesis 1:26-27
Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.

Genesis 9:6
“Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made humankind.

Prayer Prompt Focus Three (2): Who am I?

We are all valued by God

Luke 15:1-7
So he told them this parable: ⁴ “What man among you, who has a hundred sheep and loses one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open field and go after the lost one until he finds it? ⁵ When he has found it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders, ⁶ and coming home, he calls his friends and neighbors together, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, because I have found my lost sheep! ’ ⁷ I tell you, in the same way, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous people who don’t need repentance.

Luke 15:11-32
He also said, “A man had two sons. The younger of them said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of the estate I have coming to me.’ So he distributed the assets to them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered together all he had and traveled to a distant country, where he squandered his estate in foolish living. After he had spent everything, a severe famine struck that country, and he had nothing. Then he went to work for one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. He longed to eat his fill from the pods that the pigs were eating, but no one would give him anything. When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired workers have more than enough food, and here I am dying of hunger! I’ll get up, go to my father, and say to him, “Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son. Make me like one of your hired workers.” ’ So he got up and went to his father. But while the son was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion. He ran, threw his arms around his neck, and kissed him. The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. I’m no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father told his servants, ‘Quick! Bring out the best robe and put it on him; put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. ²³ Then bring the fattened calf and slaughter it, and let’s celebrate with a feast, because this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found! ’ So they began to celebrate. “Now his older son was in the field; as he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he summoned one of the servants, questioning what these things meant. ‘Your brother is here,’ he told him, ‘and your father has slaughtered the fattened calf because he has him back safe and sound.’
“Then he became angry and didn’t want to go in. So his father came out and pleaded with him. But he replied to his father, ‘Look, I have been slaving many years for you, and I have never disobeyed your orders, yet you never gave me a goat so that I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your assets with prostitutes, you slaughtered the fattened calf for him.’
“ ‘Son,’ he said to him, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ ”

Prayer Prompt Focus Three (3): Who am I?

We are each uniquely formed by God

1 Corinthians 12:12-14
For just as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body — so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and we were all given one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Indeed, the body is not one part but many.

Galatians 3:28
There is no Jew or Greek, slave or free, male and female; since you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Ephesians 4:15-16
But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head — Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

REFLECTION

You have read the Bible’s perspective on who you are to God. Does this line up with how you see yourself? Spend time holding your view of yourself alongside what God says about you.
Slowly read through the above passages several times. Pause between each reading. Identify your emotions, thoughts, reactions, and physical responses. Use these observations to initiate a conversation with God.
Allow enough silence to notice God’s presence. Can you feel it in your body? If so, where and what does it feel like?
Remember, God loves you and is present with you right now. As you consider the verses above, share what you are experiencing with God. As you wait in quiet, do you sense an invitation from God? How do you want to respond?

Don’t Rush. The key to contemplation is to slow down and pay attention, giving yourself time to notice and be aware of yourself, your surroundings, and God’s presence.

Prayer Prompt Focus Four: What is my Purpose?

Humans have an innate desire to know the meaning of their world and purpose. The Bible is clear that this world is God’s Creation and that humans were placed on the earth to represent God to each other and the whole Creation. Jesus came to restore Creation to its original state and called His people to join Him in this restoration work.

Matthew 28:18-20
Jesus came near and said to them, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

Acts 1:8
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come on you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

Ephesians 4:11-16
And he himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity with a stature measured by Christ’s fullness. Then we will no longer be little children, tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit. But speaking the truth in love, let us grow in every way into him who is the head — Christ. From him the whole body, fitted and knit together by every supporting ligament, promotes the growth of the body for building itself up in love by the proper working of each individual part.

REFLECTION

Slowly read through the above passage several times. Pause between each reading. Identify your emotions, thoughts, reactions, and physical responses. Use these observations to initiate a conversation with God.
Identify the purpose you have given yourself to pursue. How did you determine this goal? How does it compare with the passages you have read? Spend time reflecting on the purpose God wants you to pursue.

Don’t Rush. The key to contemplation is to slow down and pay attention, giving yourself time to notice and be aware of yourself, your surroundings, and God’s presence.