Life should be a prayer walk

Have you ever been on a prayer walk? Do you know what you’re supposed to do? I was asked these questions while venturing out of Potters to the streets of downtown Hastings. My answers: I really don’t know.

It is definitely a process of fumbling. I remember the first one I went out on; me and four girls, bible in hand. A man from the alleyway asks what we are doing. I respond, I don’t know. He says you must know something, you’re carrying a bible. I say I’m just kind of walking and waiting for God to show me the way. Maybe that would have been a good time to stop and chat but I wasn’t ready yet. Presenting the gospel cold makes me feel like a sales man. It makes me feel like I’m treating everyone like a customer rather than a person. I don’t think Jesus ever did that.

Prayer – especially intercessory prayer - is something I’ve been searching to understand and I think God has been teaching me a lot about it lately. Prayer is basically plugging into God; it is aligning our will with His will. When Paul tells us to pray to God at all times with all supplication I really don’t think it is meant to be a shopping list. While we are to ask for all things I believe there is a hierarchy of what we ask for according to our spiritual maturity. As children our paramount prayer may be to ask God for the newest Transformer for Christmas. As spiritual adults our prayer can only be, how may I glorify you more today oh Lord. I may wish that this be my only prayer but I am not that mature and while I know that to be a sign of maturity I am still praying that he calms my fearful heart and lowers my anxiety level.

A prayer walk feels absolutely useless. What is the difference between a prayer walk and a walk? Are we miraculously painting the streets with a spiritual holy paint that no one can see? Are lives being changed in the buildings around us as we walk from block to block? Does God need us to bless this community? I would say no. So what am I doing? I don’t know, but I think that’s exactly where God wants me.

So I head out for our prayer walk, waiting on God. The lies of the world assault me. It tells me my plight is hopeless and that danger lurks around every dark corner – spring loaded knives and needles are an arms length away. I’m waiting for his leading. I’m listening for the Spirit which is inside me and all around me to make his will known. I’m reciting the words of Paul, ‘if God is for us who can be against us’. I am asking for the faith to believe that I will be taken care of and that there is nothing to fear. I’m trusting that God has a plan for what I’m doing and that this is more than a foolish walk around the neighbourhood. And then it dawns on me that this intense spiritual listening, this stretching of faith, this faith to trust, this fearless trusting should be practiced at all times. Life should be a prayer walk.

This is why I go to the east side to do ministry. It helps me to see how much I need to be plugged into God. The persecution that my culture faces is that of affluence, complacency, and boredom. These are motivators or symptoms of a belief that I do not need Jesus. I do not feel these cultural afflictions amongst the rigors of eastside culture. It is there that I am more prone to cry out and say I need you for safety. I need you for direction. I need you for peace. I need you for life.