Prayer Calendar Archive

By Lisa Hall, international prayer coordinator

For the eyes of the LORD roam throughout the earth, so that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His. (2 Chronicles 16:9a)

Can you picture God searching the world over for those who are completely devoted to him? They are rare: Noah alone in his generation was found righteous in God’s sight and, with his family, was saved through the flood; God spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend; King David was known as the “man after God’s own heart.” How we long to belong to this rare group of individuals for whom God was their highest desire!

It is with this same heart of desiring God and his will alone that the 2026 theme of “No Distractions” was chosen for TWR Women of Hope. For it is a call to focus our eyes firmly on our God as we live in him and work alongside him – a call to cry out to God like David did, “Give me an undivided heart, that I may fear your name” (Ps. 86:11).

Living a life with no distractions begins by having devotion to God as our top priority. God calls it holiness, a being set apart only for him. He is to be our first love – the one whom our heart seeks to know and be with. Who or what has taken that place of “first love” in your life in front of God and how can you reorder your loves so that God has your first devotion?

We are told in Scripture to delight ourselves in the Lord (Ps. 37:4) Delight is a word we reserve for those whom we love immensely. You are devoted to those you delight in because you love being with them. Who doesn’t love being with someone who loves them back intently, who wants what is best for them and lavishes them with love, compassion and grace? God our Father is the best example we have of this kind of love.

When I was a young adult taking on greater responsibility for myself and those around me, my eyes were suddenly opened to see my parents in a new light. I began to understand and appreciate their devotion to me and the loving sacrifices they had made for me as their child.

And now as I spiritually mature, I’m seeing the depth of God’s sacrificial love, compassion and grace extended toward me. My heart responds with gratitude and thankfulness and a desire to be with my heavenly Father, for he is where I find rest and peace amid the chaos of life. He is the abundant life that I seek. The more I understand who God is and what he has done for me, the greater is my desire to be devoted to him.

It’s so easy for us to fall into the trap of seeing “devotion to God” as being service for him. While we are called to faithfully serve God and the body of Christ, it must take second place to our loving time with him alone. Where have we embraced Martha’s posture of service as more important than Mary’s posture of sitting at Jesus’ feet, listening and simply being in his presence (Luke 10:38-42)?

Devotion is that pure covenantal love that Jesus says is the most important thing for us to embrace: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). This is our foundational call to undivided devotion.

Devotion to God has so many expressions: listening for him in the Word, in prayer or reflection; noticing and responding to him in continuous conversation; obeying, being faithful, loving, enjoying his presence as Emmanuel, God with us in silence and solitude. How can you carve out time and space to be with him today?

As we bring our praise and adoration to God today, may it be with genuine joy and delight because we desire to spend time with our Father as much as he does with us.