Prayer & Fasting: Day 4 – Praying God’s Kingdom When Life is Hard OPEN IN PRAYER Pause with Jesus before jumping into today’s Scripture. Take a breath, choose to still yourself before him. PASSAGE FOR PRAYER AND REFLECTION 1. Read Psalm 42 and reflect on the following thoughts in your journal. Pray as you write and write as your pray: a. Read verse 1 and 2. How would you describe your soul’s thirst for God in this season? b. Read verse 3. What has caused you or others in your life to question, “Where is your God?” c. Read verse 4. What comes to mind when you recall the times you felt close to God? d. Read the rest of the chapter: i. How would you describe your downcast soul? Ask God to help you see you own heart. e. Read verse 7 and ask God for his ‘deep’ to connect with your ‘deep’. Ask for his waterfalls, waves and breakers to wash over you. Pause in this space, allowing yourself to be with God and him with you. f. Verse 5 and 11 both say: “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God.” i. Having expressed your pain and challenges to God, declare that you still choose to hope in him and praise him. This verse highlights that God is our saviour. Consider the way Jesus himself endured suffering for our salvation. If there is anyone we can trust in our moments of trial, it is one who has suffered and endured.