We Need the Shema

Lord God, grow and stretch our prayer life. Help us to pray without ceasing. Thank You for loving us.

What is the Shema and how does it apply today? It is a prayer, it is a pledge, it is a song of praise.

It is words spoken in one’s last breath and words taught to children each night as they lay down to sleep.

It is an invitation. And in turn, it is a pledge of loyalty and devotion to the ONE true God and a rejection of all that is false. It signifies covenant and devotion.

“Listen, Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One” Dt 6:4

This is followed quietly by “Blessed is the name of His glorious kingdom for ever and ever”

The rest of the Shema includes:

In the Jewish faith, it serves as a daily reminder that the LORD alone is God. Historically and presently, it is a reminder of truth to those surrounded by a polytheistic society. The cultural narrative, even when it is not “our own” has a way of seeping in and potentially infecting our morals and values, and yet we have been marked.

While our country is not a polytheistic culture per say, it is still a fertile ground for “worship” of anything other than the one true God. It is all about to whom do we give our allegiance? Are we choosing to live for an audience of ONE – and allowing all else in life to flow from that one place of full surrender?

It is TRUE that the Word is living and active (Heb 4:12), written by the breath of God (2 Tim 3:16) and applicable for today! As we pray and speak the Word of God aloud, it has power to bring our world into greater alignment with His Kingdom! These days I open His Word and almost every chapter comes alive and speaks hope and truth into the world we are currently living in! Have you encountered His Living Word today?

Bind These Words

The recitation of the first verse of this prayer is done with the right hand over one’s eyes, to signify a focus on these most important words.

“In the book of Revelation, John the visionary drew upon this prayer to describe Jesus’ followers. Part of the Shema prayer in Deuteronomy 6:8 contains these words: “You shall bind these words as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as symbols between your eyes.” The physical location “on your hands” and “between your eyes” is a symbol with fairly obvious meaning. Your eyes are the place where you see and you use your hands for almost everything you do. This prayer was to guide the vision and action of every moment of life. This is why John the visionary says that in the new creation, when God’s people live in intimate proximity to God and the risen Jesus…

“They will see God’s face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” Rv 22:4

The Shema can keep God’s love and loyalty in the forefront of your mind and drive you towards obedience, not out of obligation or duty, but out of love.” (Tom Mackie, “What is the Shema?”, Bible Project)

We love because He first loved us! It’s a response that demands our whole lives, our whole devotion. Isn’t this the cry of our hearts in this day and in this time – that HE would become the center of our lives, that HE would become the center of this nation once again?

Would you join me in praying the Shema this week? Would you commit at least the first verse to memory? Let’s join our brothers and sisters in Israel and pray this over the Jewish people and over our United States of America. And let’s allow HIS love to transform us!

HE is the reason for the hope that we have – no matter how your emotions might be swirling these days. He alone is our anchor and our place of refuge – our God in whom we trust!

As you pray, call this nation, God’s people back and our own families back to a place of allegiance, to a dying of self and to a place of repentance as we press into surrender and holiness. We are called to be the light of a city on a hill. The Lord is our God; He alone is the ONE.

Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheynu Adonai Echad

I have learned the words as I listened to this beautiful worship song:

Article originally published at IFApray.org as “We Need the Shema”

Read the continuation to this article a few days later, as Jews all across the globe were praying in unison for their Moshiach to come now! See “Purim – How to Pray for the Jewish People“.