Prayer

A few years back, I read Too Busy Not to Pray by Bill Hybels.  If you are anything like me, then you get too busy for just about anything.  I constantly need to fight against the busyness of life.  I can over commit in a heartbeat and before I know it, my schedule is running me.  I have been in that exact place this month.  But I have found that when stress is high and I have too much to do and not enough hours to do it in, I need to pray more than I do at slower times.

In the midst of a full life, I found myself calling out in the words of the Psalmist, “Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer; listen to my plea for grace” (Psalm 86:6)   I need to rest in the Lord and find my strength not in my actions, activities, or self but in the One who created and sustains me.  Once I noticed my need to take time daily to spend time in prayer and ask God for His power, movement and plan, I have seen the overwhelming subside and God providing what I needed to make it through the long days.  In the midst of my crazy life, I can rest in the Lord.  Matthew 11:28, “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

Prayer Walking

The neighborhood of Lowry is four square miles and contains around 4,000 housing units.  There are 73 streets not including alleyways.  As a practice, I have divided the neighborhood into 4 major sections and I spend time once a week prayer walking one of the sections of Lowry.  It takes me about 2 hours to cover every street and pray over each house, condo, and apartment community and park that I come across.  It is my prayer that God will work in the lives of those who live, work or play on the streets where I walk and pray.

Lately, Amanda and I have taken on a new form of prayer walking.  We are prayer walking through open houses in our neighborhood.  One day we would love to own a home here and put down roots but, until then, we are asking God to move in the current homeowner’s life and the lives of the next people to call this house, “home”.  We pray for more believers to move into the neighborhood, that God would use us to communicate love and truth to them, and that if they are not Christ-followers that God would use us to bring them into the family of God.

I want to encourage you to pray for your neighbors, pray that God would use you to communicate the Gospel to them, pray that God would bless them and move in their lives.  Plan a time each week to prayer walk through your neighborhood, take time to prayer walk open houses, or spend your exercise time praying as you run or walk.  Be creative and constant in asking God to move in miraculous ways in the lives of those around you.