The Nazarene World Week of Prayer

Every year, the Nazarene church has an event called the World Week of Prayer. Each day, a different world region is lifted up in prayer. There are six world regions in the Church of the Nazarene: Africa, Asia Pacific, Eurasia, Mesoamerica, South America, and USA-Canada. The last day in the week is devoted to praying for the Persecuted Church. (Statistics & links to each region's website can be found here)

You can find the prayer requests here.

For the year 2014, the World Week of Prayer is from March 2nd through March 8th, which overlaps with the interdenominational World Day of Prayer on March 7th.

I love this event, because many times, my prayer requests center around me. MY family. MY church. and sometimes MY country. But there are global requests. Being a volunteer missionary has opened my eyes to others' prayer requests. Each week, the Nazarene Church sends out the Prayer Mobilization Line. As a volunteer missionary, when I read the names & prayer requests of missionaries, suddenly they are more real, because I know them. I work alongside them. I heard them speak.

This year, I challenge you to pray for the world.

I’m Generous…because I know I’m selfish

You call me generous, but I don’t always believe it. My generosity is fueled by my knowledge of my own selfishness. I know it sounds odd, but it’s true: I am generous because I know I am a selfish person. 

There are people in my life whose generosity amazes me & shames me. For I know I am selfish, stingy, and otherwise self-seeking. Their willingness to share astounds me & challenges me to do better.

Yet when we are trying to carpool somewhere, I am unwilling to give up my seat to you, if we all must go, for I know I’d be rearranging, not solving, the problem. 

I hoard to guard against the possibilities in the unknown future, yet I am shamed by verses talking of radical generosity (for instance instructions to give away one coat if you have two).

The reason I am generous is because I know that I am selfish by nature. I know that left to my own devices, I will have more than enough & others won’t have enough. So I intentionally live generously. I share what I have, but don’t use often. I give what I have, but don’t use. I open the doors, to my house & to my cupboard, to be intentionally generous, to act against my selfishness. 

I know I am selfish, and so I am generous.