Prayer walking
Many people walk for pleasure, exercise or with their children or pets. It’s easy to turn our normal routine into a prayer walk. Or you may want to add a prayer walk to your normal routine. God can bless many people through you as you prayer walk.
Please consider the excellent resources offered in the Prayer Walk Challenge – The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association of Canada
Consider the vision of this prayer-walking friend in our city! (here)
There are other tools and approaches. The acronym “BLESS” may help you:
Body – pray for health and physical blessing.
Labour – pray for fruitful, productive and satisfying employment
Emotions – pray for healthy, healed emotions and positive mental health
Social Needs – pray for positive relationships, family life and supportive marriages
Spiritual Needs – pray for a positive encounter with Jesus Christ
You can pray “OPEN” prayers.
Open heart – for hearts open to God’s love and grace.
Open eyes – for eyes open to opportunities to share the love of Christ.
Open ears – for ears open to the needs of those in our community
Open door – for open doors to share the good news of Jesus in word & deed
Open heaven – to release blessing into homes as we walk and pray
You may want to consider mapping your walk using one of these downloadable maps for Maple Ridge and/or Pitt Meadows (option 1 or option 2). Please choose a route which ideally you can prayer-walk weekly or more. As you walk and pray, please give special attention to places people gather, schools, hospitals, city hall, influential businesses, areas of poverty and high-needs areas.
Our goal is to pray for every home in Ridge Meadows – as well as every school, business, government office etc. – at least monthly. Together we can! (In some countries, efforts are underway to pray for every home in the nation!)
As you walk pray for every home, school and business you pass. You may pray differently for schools than for businesses and differently again for city hall and medical clinics. Here are some suggestions. We can ask for God’s Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy, for prepared hearts, for a revelation of Christ, for a relationship to develop in each household with a follower of Christ willing to share Christ, for the Holy Spirit to rest on that household. We can ask the Lord to bind the work of the enemy and for release blessing, righteousness and healing. The Lord will suggest more specifics as you pray; Godly marriages and families, vibrant health and of course for an eternally transforming revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you are getting to know your neighbours, greet those you meet on the street with a smile or word. Fruitful conversations may emerge.
Here is a guideline provided by Cornerstone Church for its members prayerwalking-samplemodel. Barnett Fellowship has planned prayerwalks on pre-determined times and routes.
You could also consider forming a lighthouse on your block; a place where Christians you’ve met on your prayer walk can come to pray for the neighborhood and to whom your neighbors can ask for prayer. More here…
How might prayer walking be a foundation for outreach to the community? Consider this invitation.