Skip to main content

Prayer Column - May 2020

Image
By

Prayer Walking

I’ve been writing a prayer walk this last few days. Let me explain. Mostly we pray with our eyes shut, using our imagination to bring people or problems to God. But imagination is helped by information: our vision is sharpened, requests focused and prayers enriched. That's where prayer walking can help. You can pray as you walk, looking at people and places – houses, shops, offices, mills, schools, gardens, parks, open country, or whatever, and also encounter people and get talking to them on the way. All this can prompt prayer.

Near where I live we’ve got prayer walk leaflets for short routes round all the local churches, and a couple for more general use. But of course you can follow any route you like. What’s more, you can physically walk the route you choose, for instance for your daily exercise, or you can imagine your way round while you sit at home, with the aid of a street map if you want to pray for areas you don’t know well. Either way, you can walk alone or with others, though always in the company of Jesus, ministered to us by the Holy Spirit, who is sent to be with us (and within us) – always, from the moment we first believe in Jesus as our Saviour and Lord.

Do leaflets help? Well, they can suggest things to pray for we might not have thought of for ourselves: asking God for blessings on people and places, but also they can remind us to thank God for his goodness to us, and praise him for all that he is and all he promises. Besides, we can be reminded of some of the challenges which come with following Jesus as our Lord through every day of our own lives. You might not think you need reminding, but we all do, over and over again!
See: https://baildonmethodists.org/prayer-walks-2/ for examples.

Roy LS

A prayer for each week

All-knowing Lord, please tell me the places and people you want me to pray for today, whether in my daily exercise or imagination, and bless them. Amen.

All-seeing Lord, please show me what in particular I should be praying for today: what people, in what places, with what problems – and bless them richly. Amen.

Ever-present Lord, within me wherever you lead me and yet at the same before and beyond, please bless all those whom I lift to you on a stretcher of prayer. Amen.

Companion Lord, perceiving all from on high, and yet also with us on the way, please guide all our steps: so we find what’s right, and avoid what’s wrong. Amen.

Mighty Lord, with whom no appeal is ever lodged in vain, please hear our prayer and keep us alert for your answers, however and whenever they come. Amen.

Your own prayers
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Biblefresh Festival 11 June 2011 - bookings now open

By
Bradford North and South Circuits invite you to their city-wide Biblefresh Festival Saturday 11 June 2011 Full details and booking form
Post a Comment
Read more

July message from Rev Phil

By
Dear Friends,      The Methodist Church makes provision for its ministers to take a three-month sabbatical break from the routine of ministry every seven years – this year, in my case! By the time you read this letter, I will have already started my sabbatical and I will be absent from the circuit from mid-May to mid-August.     This is not an extended holiday but an opening to do something different, as a way of being refreshed in ministry; an opportunity to ‘power down’ and to get away from a hectic, diary-driven ministry, in order to spend more focused time with God. It is a requirement and not an option for ministers to take their sabbatical break.     There have been two main aspects to consider in planning the sabbatical. The first has been to decide how I should use the time. For your interest, I am pressing on with studies begun through Leeds University (which could lead to the award of a PhD), reflecting on my wor...
Post a Comment
Read more

Godly Ways 8-10 March 2013

By
Godly Ways CODEC  and the  Dales Biblical Literacy Project  present: A weekend of Worship – Teaching – Workshops. WHEN : March 8th to 10th 2013 (Starts Friday evening) WHERE : Elm Ridge Methodist Church and Bondgate Methodist Church, Darlington and Ingleton Methodist Church SPEAKERS: Revd. Professor David Wilkinson  is a Methodist minister and Principal of St. John’s College, Durham. Well-known as a writer, speaker and broadcaster, David has wide-ranging interests, although he is especially concerned about science and religion. Revd. Dr. Peter Phillips  is a Methodist minister and Director of Codec, a research centre housed at St. John’s College, Durham. For many years, Pete served on the staff of Cliff College. He has a great interest in the New Testament and in communicating the faith in a digital age. Revd. Ron Willoughby  is an ordained minister with the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States, now living in this cou...
Post a Comment
Read more