Praying the Shema
One of the things that I have gleaned from Jewish culture is praying the Shema. This is one of the oldest prayers that is regularly prayed by the Jews. It is typically the first prayer that they teach their children as soon as their children can speak. And having been immersed briefly in their culture, I can tell you that this is a prayer that affects every aspect of their physical and spiritual lives, which in and of itself shows the power of this prayer.
The cool thing about the Shema is that it is just strait scripture. The prayer comes from three passages: Deuteronomy 6:4–9, Deuteronomy 11:13-21, and Numbers 15:37–41. I encourage you to read it.
I have been trying to read and pray the Shema daily, and the thing that has really impacted me in that process has been how it teaches that the scriptures need to be integrated into every area of our life. In the first and second parts of the Shema the scriptures say to talk about God’s word “when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.”
Talking about His word should happen continually, in everything that we do. I think too often Western Christianity compartmentalizes God’s word to something that is read in church or a quiet time and something that is talked about in Sunday School or a small group. But, it should be much more than that. His word should constantly be in the front of our minds for us to meditate on and bound to our hands for us to deliver to others. His word must play a larger role in our life, both spiritual and physical.
It is this type of dedication to God’s word that I pray I will learn and reproduce in my family for generations to come.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:35 am
[...] I want to really learn to live out the Shema that I wrote about recently. I want to talk about the scripture and meditate on it when I am lying [...]