When you look around your community, you probably see many challenges. And some of them look overwhelming, impossible really. It’s true that every obstacle gives us a new opportunity. We learn new things about ourselves, make new friends, and discover new solutions. Some of the greatest inventions grew from an impossible challenge.
Turning Obstacles into Opportunities Falls Short
But obstacles alone do not guarantee positive movement. We hit some walls that no amount of grit, skill, or money can overcome. For example, we can feed a hungry child. That satisfies her physical need for the moment. We can even help her parents find good employment that will allow them to feed her. That gives her hope that her future can be brighter. She can graduate cum laud from high school in part because of our investment in her life, and that builds her confidence and opens opportunities for success.
Her wholeness, however, requires something less tangible, but more powerful than material good. We know this from experience. How many well-fed, well-educated, well-connected, and well-financed people do we know who live lives of brokenness?
So, when the prophet Jeremiah told the captive Israelites to pray on behalf of the Babylonians, I think that’s what he was getting at. The Babylonians were the conquerors. They had the upper hand, yet they were broken. As a key part of pursuing their wholeness, Jeremiah commanded them to pray for these new neighbors.
The possibility for transformation in our community that captures our imagination and motivates us to serve ultimately happens in the unseen places of the soul. We often describe it as heart-change, and heart-work is always God’s work. This is why prayer must permeate every effort to transform our communities.
What Prayer Does
Prayer reaches out to a powerful God.
It’s not uncommon to hear that there is power in prayer. I think I know what people mean, but prayer in itself is not the power. Prayer is not a meditative practice intended to simply center us. Prayer is not a positive attitude or merely a religious ritual. The practice of prayer, instead, asks the Lord God, who possesses perfect love, wisdom, and power, to personally intervene in the lives of our neighbors.
Prayer admits that our resources are limited, and that we depend on God to work according to his righteous purpose and good pleasure. The focus and the foundation of prayer, then, is the Living God who created and sustains everything. His glory motivates us because we know he is the only source of lasting satisfaction for our neighbors who we’ve all been called to love.
So the power in prayer is not in the words we use or even in the results we hope our prayers will accomplish. The power of prayer is in the presence of a sovereign God who cares about our community more than we could ever imagine.
Prayer opens our eyes to what is not easily seen.
In Old Testament book of 2 Kings, when the king of Aram was frustrated that the prophet Elisha knew his every move, he sent an army to surround Dothan, the place where Elisha and his servant had camped. The next morning Elisha’s servant stepped out of the tent and saw Aram’s army, and he panicked.
But Elisha said, “Don’t be afraid, for those who are with us outnumber those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16). Then Elisha prayed that his servant’s eyes would be opened. At that point, the servant saw chariots of fire surrounding them. Ultimately, Aram’s army was defeated at the hand of the Lord.
Our eyes see what is physically present, but prayer allows us to see other things too. As we pursue the welfare of our city, we are not fighting military armies. But we are engaged in unseen forces of darkness who seek to harm those we want to help. And the most lasting solutions are not always immediately obvious to us.
As we seek the Lord, he reveals his will and his ways, and then directs our steps to join what he is already doing to help or neighbors and heal our community. Through prayer, our eyes are opened and our hearts are turned to trust the unseen hand of God to bring wholeness to our community in the most unexpected, even miraculous, ways.
Prayer prepares people to receive the help they need the most.
It’s not totally uncommon for people who need help to refuse the help they need. We find the resources or volunteers only to be unable to deliver because of barriers created by the person we are trying to help.
As frustrating as that is, the reasons are not always as simple as we might think. What looks like ingratitude may be fear. What looks like sloth may be a lack of understanding. What feels like rejection may be a desire to protect.
Brokenness is not random. There are reasons for it. Experiences, decisions, and relationships build a mental framework, a way of thinking, that limits people. We might call it a stronghold.
So rather than receiving help with all of the perceived expectations for future performance associated with it is more than the possible recipient can bear. Rather than taking the helping hand, fear takes over and pushes a hurting person farther into the shadows. Rather than taking the job offer, settling for the security of what is already known makes more sense.
During Jesus’ ministry, the disciples met a boy with an unclean spirit. They could do nothing to free him. Thankfully, Jesus arrived and cast the demon out and healed the boy. The disciples didn’t understand. Jesus said, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer” (Mark 9:29).
There are forces gripping people in ways that are simply too much for us. Our battle is not against flesh and blood. And unless we pray, crying out for God’s presence and power, the people we want to help the most will never be free.
We do not pray because we are religious people. We pray because we are mere humans, limited by our capacities. But by his grace, the God who created us invites us to ask, seek, and to knock—to persevere in prayer trusting him to change us and to transform our community.
How to Pray Together
Engaging in prayer is not as hard as you might think. Here are just a few ways you, your church, or your sphere of influence can pray together:
· Prayer Walk. Spend a few minutes a week walking through neighborhoods or retail space or around schools.
· Pray for Homes. One church in our community invites people to request prayer for their home. Then the church sends people to that address to pray. One prayer resource is blesseveryhome.com, which provides resources for you to pray over every home in your community.
· Create a prayer texting group. We text for all kinds of things. Why not create a prayer group via texting that takes a minute each day or each week to pray for specific needs in your community?
· Pray for your server. Many of us give thanks for our meals. Ask your waiter or waitress how you can pray for them, and then pray specifically for their need.
· Organize prayer events. People from all kinds of churches and all walks of life will come together at the local park or civic auditorium to pray for the city.
What are other ways your community prays together?
If this would be helpful to you, your church, our your buddies, please share it.