Summer Prayer Challenge

Powerful things happen when people who follow Jesus pray together. Scripture assures us that God hears us (1 Peter 3), promises to give us good gifts (Matthew 7), releases his power and heals the sick (James 5), raises up workers (Matthew 9), empowers us to share the Gospel (Ephesians 6) and so much more. And prayer remains our supreme weapon against evil. There is no doubt from Scripture, God moves in response to our prayers.

We have a mighty tool available to us, but did you know fewer than 46% of Americans pray, and of those, fewer than 50% claim to follow Jesus. Depending on how you interpret the data, it seems that around 23% of people who follow Jesus pray occasionally. Very few (only about 2%) feel satisfied with their prayer lives. The reasons people give for not praying are varied and include things like busyness or distractions or not really knowing how. I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised by this data though, after all even Jesus’ disciples had trouble keeping alert in prayer.

I don’t know about you, but when I think about the power available to us in prayer when set against the numbers of Jesus-following Americans who actually pray, something inside me shifts. I’m still thinking about the farther-reaching implications, but I believe there is a call in this for us at Open Life to heed. If God’s word promises he will move when his people pray and if it is true that we want to see a move of God in our region, then we simply must start praying.

The needs are plenty with over 57,000 people in the 98391 zip code alone, and if we try to pray through them all, we could get overwhelmed or feel defeated and quit or at least doubt the effectiveness of our prayers when we don’t see immediate results. I don’t think it should be the aim of every person to pray for everyone and every need. In fact, I think that sort of overwhelmed or defeated thinking is a distraction from the enemy who wants to keep us from praying. What if we set out to pray simple prayers. Jesus gave us a model in Matthew 6:9-13 after instructing his disciples to keep it simple—not praying grandiose or wordy, high-sounding prayers, but prayers with few words from the heart. Here is what he said from the New Living Translation:   

“Pray like this:
Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us today the food we need,
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

What do you suppose could happen throughout our region if we began praying simple prayers like:

Lord may your name be kept holy in my life.
May your kingdom come to my neighborhood.
May your will be done in Bonney Lake.
Give my hungry neighbors the food they need.
Forgive me for offending my coworker.
Help my friend to not yield to the temptation to sin.

I think we should give it a try. Let’s commit to adopt a new prayer routine to our daily or weekly rhythms. Beginning on June 20th (the first day of summer) and continuing through the Labor Day weekend, let’s take on the challenge of praying through our streets and neighborhoods and around our schools, businesses and city.

To help get started, HERE IS A RESOURCE for you to download to guide you as you pray and walk. You can walk and pray alone, with a friend or as a small group. If your mobility is limited, you can pray your frequently driven routes or visited places as you envision them in your mind.

We’ve also created THIS MAP of some key locations throughout our region that offer a unique opportunity to pray on site strategically or over an entire region from a high place.
Let’s pray this summer like we’ve never prayed before. Let’s invite God to move through us. I’m excited to see what He will do.