“If My People…Prayed?” A Ramadan Prayer Challenge

I recently went to the Middle East on a ministry trip and returned with a growing burden for Muslims. As I’ve been fasting and praying in this season, I’ve been studying Islam for personal preparation—learning how to be a good witness and how to pray more effectively. According to the Pew Research Center – “Muslims are the world’s second-largest religious group and the fastest-growing major religion.”

There are approximately 2 billion Muslims in the world – that’s 2 billion people that have not encountered the love, the lordship and the LIFE that can only be found in Jesus Christ!

I’m sure I’ll share more about my trip and what I’ve been reading in the near future, but for now, there’s something pressing the Lord has laid on my heart. I’m still working this out, so forgive me if this is a little rough. Ramadan begins tomorrow and I need to release this idea NOW.

As you probably know, one of the pillars of Islam is praying five times a day. And one of the central prayers all Muslims recite is the shahada, the Islamic declaration of faith: “I bear witness that there is no God but Allah, and Muhammad is the Messenger of Allah.”

I find this really striking about Islam—that repeated, continual prayer is woven into their daily practice of faith. We as Christians don’t pray nearly as much.

According to a survey conducted by Pew Research in February 2025, “the share of Americans who pray daily has dropped 14 points since 2007. This decline has been fairly widespread: Catholics, all three major Protestant traditions and religiously unaffiliated adults all have shown statistically significant declines in daily prayer of between 6 and 10 points since 2007.” Only 60 percent of Christians (from all denominations) reported praying once or more daily. 33 percent of U.S. adults often or always say grace before meals.

But, if you examine our Judeo-Christian roots, prayer, recitation and meditation are important.

God commanded the Israelites to proclaim the Shema: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one” (Deuteronomy 6:4). (Jews recite it to this day.)

The Lord also instructs the Israelites to talk about the Word with their children, essentially all the time. In Deuteronomy 6:7-9, He says:

“You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

In the New Testament, the apostle Paul instructs us to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

I don’t come from a high liturgy background, and to be honest, as a charismatic Pentecostal, this seems a little counterintuitive, but this concept of memorization and repetition is not foreign to our faith.

Memorization and meditation are powerful tools. In fact, the Scriptures tell us to do it!

Look at the righteous man described in Psalm 1:

“His delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.” (Psalm 1:2-3)

And the Lord instructs the Israelites in Joshua 1:8:

“This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have success.”

One of the Hebrew words for “meditate” is hagah, (Strong’s Hebrew Concordance #1897) which means to mutter or speak in a low voice—like someone muttering Scripture to themselves throughout the day. It’s often compared to how a cow chews its cud, bringing food back up to chew again and again to extract every nutrient. That’s how we’re to meditate on God’s Word—reading it, pondering it, speaking it, and coming back to it repeatedly so that our spirits can fully absorb it.

Prayer—as my friend James Aladiran from Prayer Storm says—is powerful, no matter what kingdom you’re in.

Prayer is a power generator.

What if we, as followers of Jesus Christ, were more intentional about meditating on and reciting the Word of God, especially during this Ramadan season? Not as a reaction, or comparison, but as consecration. I’m not suggesting this as mere religious exercise. It’s about alignment, formation, and spiritual atmosphere. When we fill our minds with Scripture and our mouths with truth, we are:

• • • Establishing spiritual clarity
    • Strengthening our inner life
    • Anchoring our identity
    • Saturating our environment with God’s Word

This is not empty recitation. This is confession — the verbal expression of faith. And as Romans 10:9 reminds us, belief fills the heart, and confession gives it voice.

I am by no means an expert on church tradition, and I know the Apostles’ Creed and other recitations are readily available but let’s keep it simple. I propose we pray 1 Corinthians 8:6 multiple times through the day:

“Yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.”

Why this particular passage? Because the apostle Paul takes the Shema and updates it with the revelation that Jesus is God. It’s genius!

Would you be willing to join this challenge? Let’s saturate our hearts and the atmosphere this season with the knowledge that Jesus is Lord!

Action Items:

1. Commit to pray 1 Corinthians 8:6 four times a day. May I suggest, based loosely on Deut. 6:7-9, when you wake up, when you eat lunch, when you finish school or work and when you go to bed? Let this declaration of Jesus as Lord become part of your daily rhythm during Ramadan.
2. Consider joining Prayer Storm’s 11:11 fast, which begins tomorrow! Connect with others who are interceding during this season.
3. Make a list of people of Muslim faith you’re praying will come to salvation. Let the Holy Spirit bring specific names to mind and commit to praying for them throughout this season.