Why Fifty Eight Isaiah?

I had no idea how to pray. But here I was in the prayer room at the National Brethren 2011 Conference and prayer was my purpose for inhabiting that particular space for the next hour. The previous sixty minutes or so were spent with Brethren pastors, spouses, elders, delegates and lay leaders in the Ashland University auditorium.

On stage was Reggie McNeal, challenging us to be the church. Not just do church, but be church beyond the walls of our church buildings.

Replicating, summarizing, or even giving a few bullet points in order to capture the power of his message would be futile. All I could do after I heard him speak was feel. Feel for the lost, feel for the oppressed, feel for the poor in Spirit, feel for the marginalized, and feel for the times I've been more concerned with doing church than being Jesus with those closest to me, let alone the rest of the world.

So I asked the Holy Spirit to lead and picked up the Bible sitting on the prayer alter. I may not have words, I thought,  but God does, so I decided to pray scripture. And, you guessed it, I landed in Isaiah 58.

After praying through these scriptures, I knew the exact words to pray next.

Not prayers for the world, but prayers for myself.

Our Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy name.

And forgive my trespasses . . .