February Prayers | Pray without Ceasing with Rosa Parks
“Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
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DEAR FRIENDS,
We enter into a new month, one that often feels like the bleakest. News of violence abounds. Spring seems far off. Our Black sisters and brothers know this space all too well and have a robust history of radical and hopeful defiance against despair. Let’s thank God for saints like Rosa Parks to help us find the language for hope.
-Christy Yates
“During the civil rights movement, we were troubled by hatred. We would pray a lot.”
“I have problems just like everyone else. Whenever I do, I think about my grandmother and my mother. They were such strong women, who always taught me to place my faith in God and to read the Bible.
I remember when I got married, I stopped reading the Bible.
When my mother found out that I had stopped, she told me that one should not stop reading the Bible; there was always something new to learn by reading it. On that day, I started back reading the Bible and have not stopped since.
The Bible is such a source of strength for me that it is hard to say which Scripture I look at for any one thing. But when I feel discouraged, I read Psalm 23 to restore my soul:
The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; He leadeth me beside the still waters.
He restoreth my soul; He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; for thou art with me;
Thy rod and Thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
During the civil rights movement, we were troubled by hatred. We would pray a lot. One thing we used to keep us going was the moving words of certain hymns, many of which had been passed down from the slave days. They gave us a sense of togetherness with our people. Singing gave us the feeling that — with God’s help — we could overcome whatever we were facing.
One of my favorite hymns is ‘Woke Up This Morning with My Mind Stayed on Jesus.’ We would sing, ‘Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom.’ Another is ‘I Am Bound for the Promised Land.’ Often we would substitute the word “freedom” for a key word of the hymn….
These moving songs gave us the strength to keep our dreams of true freedom alive. Whenever we sang them, we knew there would be no turning back.”