31 Days of Prayer

Prayer, without a doubt, is a spiritual discipline, a practice deeply embedded in the Christian faith. Like any discipline, it requires dedication, consistency, and an openness to being shaped over time. It is not about the mastery of a skill but about the cultivation of a deep and personal relationship—the type of relationship that forms and transforms us. Through prayer, we can be led to new places in faith, new experiences with the Divine, that peace that surpases all understandding, and deeper insights about God and ourselves.

As we enter into this journey, we must remember that we do not walk alone. From the earliest days of the Christian faith, prayer has been both foundational and essential. Like many of us, those who have preceded us in faith also inquired about the "right way" to pray and even struggled with feelings of inadequacy. The Paul in Romans 8:26b wrote, "for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words” (NASB95). Even in this acknowledgment of human limitation, the encouragement remains: we serve a God who desires to be in relationship with us, and through the Holy Spirit makes himself present even in our limitations.

So, we enter this journey welcoming the excitement, challenges, and tension that may arise in our way. We also enter into this journey remembering that from the Gospels onward, faithful Christians have wrestled with how to pray and why. Jesus taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer, a model for simplicity and faithfulness, yet he also spent nights in extended prayer, modeling deep, personal communion with God. In the early and medieval church, prayer was seen both as a universal practice for all believers and as an art requiring great skill and dedication, particularly among monastics movements.

For John Wesley, the founder of our Methodist denomination, prayer was central to the life of holiness. Wesley emphasized both private and communal prayer, insisting that prayer is the breath of the soul. It was through prayer that Wesley experienced transformation, most notably at Aldersgate, where he felt his heart "strangely warmed." He also believed in the power of persistent prayer, recounting stories of revival sparked by small groups of Methodists gathered in fervent intercession.

For us, heirs of the Wesleyan theology, prayer is both a means of grace and an act of grace. That means, prayer is a way in which we encounter God’s prevenient, justifying, and sanctifying grace. Wesley saw prayer as a critical practice within the "means of grace," those channels through which God’s Spirit works in and through us. Through prayer, we align ourselves with God’s purposes, confess our dependence on his mercy, and open ourselves to the transformative work of the Holy Spirit.

Today, as in the past, the purpose of prayer remains the same: intentional communication with God. Prayer is not about eloquence or perfection; it is about authenticity and faithfulness. Whether through the structured words of the Psalms, the simplicity of the Lord’s Prayer, or the unspoken groanings of the heart, every act of prayer draws us closer to God.

As we begin these 31 days of prayer, let us embrace both the challenge and the gift of this discipline. Let us remember that prayer is not about performance but about presence—not about achieving but about abiding. Through prayer, we grow in grace, experience the depth of God’s love, and participate in the unfolding of God’s kingdom.

A word about what to expect: Each week you will be invited to engage in a consistent daily practice or way of praying to go along with a provided set of daily scripture readings and prayer foci. It is up to you what parts of the provided content you will engage with most and most consistently. Whatever you choose to do, be sure to intentionally pray and do so every day of this month. It is our hope that by journeying with us, our faith community will be open to and more aligned with what God is already doing at Hilldale UMC and that we find our hearts and minds grow more open to what God has in store for us in the days, weeks, months, and years ahead.

Love and Blessings,

Jefferson & Linda Furtado

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