“and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”—Ephesians 5:2
For 2020, my word that I am focusing on is, deeper.” I bought a Bible dictionary to help me with this. One of the other things that will also deepen my relationship with the Lord is by implementing a prayer walk. I read about this several months ago, but I didn’t do anything with it.
At the church that I attend, they encourage the members to do what they can to make a difference in their corner of the world especially in the neighborhood in which you live.
When we moved into our current house 12 years ago. I got to know several of our neighbors through a Pokeno group that I started. People have moved in and out of our neighborhood over the past few years and now, I know less and less people despite the organized get togethers where every house is invited.
This has been heavy on both my and my next door neighbor’s heart. We have been brainstorming on ways we can make a difference on our street. This is when I remembered reading about prayer walks. I googled it and couldn’t believe how much information there was on the internet about this topic.
While I would love to be able to do this on a weekly basis, I am not sure how realistic this is, so I suggested that the first Saturday of the month we commit to doing this. Maybe other neighbors will join us, but this past week, the two of us did this together. She and I both walk together for exercise, so why not incorporate prayer into part of our walk?
Since I wasn’t sure exactly how to start, I found an acrostic for the word, Bless that I modified for us to use as a guide:
B Body Lord, we pray that you bless the physical bodies of our neighbors. We pray for safety and good health for all.
L Labor We pray that you bless their work. Bless the children as they go to school each day.
E Emotions We ask that emotional needs be met in these houses.
S Social We pray for the relationships inside these houses.
S Spiritual We lift up these households spiritual needs be met. If they don’t know You, we ask that they be drawn to You. For those struggling spiritually, reveal Yourself to them. For those who know You continue to grow in their faith.
As our feet hit the pavement, we prayed for God’s promises to cover our neighborhood. We live on a circle where there are 36 houses. The first time around we walked in silence as we used the above acrostic to start our prayers. When we were finished with that, we walked a 2nd time around and talked about what we felt God laid on our heart (if anything) for specific houses.
Ideally, we would like to know all of the names of who lives in each house, but for now, God knows who does and that is all that matters. While I know this isn’t like Joshua marching around Jericho 7 times and physical walls come tumbling down, one of my prayers is we have doors start to open with a community that interacts more with each other. God is bigger than closed doors and I look forward to how He will be able to use this in the circle in which I live.
Dear Lord,
Open my eyes to those that may be broken or hurting on my street. I thank You for the Holy Spirit that can guide me to pray when I am not sure what to pray. I praise You that You can use something as simple as walking to make a difference in Your Kingdom. Help me to walk in Your love not just in my neighborhood but every place I plant my feet this week. It is in the name of Jesus that I pray these things. Amen.
January Memory Verse
“Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.”—Psalm 73:23
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