A Prayer Journey for the Places God Has Sent Us: My Street
During this prayer series, we are praying in widening circles from our own hearts to our homes, streets, relational networks, city, and ultimately the harvest. We began by asking God to search our hearts, and last week we prayed for the people and rhythms of our homes. This week, we widen the circle again to the places and people immediately around us.
Along the way, we are asking God to help us pay attention, pray specifically, and recognize where he is already at work.
My street: Right where you are
It is possible to live somewhere without really seeing it. We move through the same spaces, pass many of the same people, and settle into familiar routines. Over time, the people and places around us can become part of the background of our lives.
When we talk about “your street,” we don’t necessarily mean a literal street. We mean the place immediately around you and the people with whom you share it, the people whose lives regularly cross yours simply because you are in the same place.
In Acts 17, Paul is speaking on a much bigger scale than our streets or neighborhoods. He describes the God who made the world and all humanity, who determined the times and places where people would live, and who is never far from any one of us.
But those big truths become very personal. Every one of us lives our life somewhere. We inhabit particular places, surrounded by particular people, in a particular moment in history. And God is not far from any of it.
This week, we are going to bring that big truth down to the ground beneath our feet. Who are the people immediately around you? What is happening in the place you share with them? And what might change if you began to believe that God is already near and at work right there?
Read: Acts 17:24-28
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. “For in him we live and move and have our being.” As some of your own poets have said, “We are his offspring.”
Notice
Read Acts 17:24–28 again and pay particular attention to the final words: “He is not far from any one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.”
Now take some time to pay attention to the place immediately around you. If you are able, step outside and walk through it. If you can’t, find a place where you can sit, look around, and bring to mind the people and places you know.
Move slowly enough to notice what you normally pass by. Who is around you? What do you know about them? What don’t you know? Where do people gather? Where do you see signs of connection, joy, beauty, or life? Where do you notice loneliness, struggle, brokenness, or need?
Don’t feel pressure to figure out what God wants you to do. For now, simply pay attention to the place you share with others and remember: God is not far from any one of them.
Ask God: What do you want me to notice about this place and the people around me?
Give yourself time to listen. Write down any people, places, or situations that particularly draw your attention.
Pray for your street
Think about what you noticed. Bring the people, places, and situations that came to mind before God.
Begin by praying for the people around you. You may know some of them well and others hardly at all. Ask God to make his nearness known to them. Where you know something about their lives, pray specifically for what they are carrying. Where you don’t, simply bring them before God and ask him to be at work in ways you cannot see.
Then pray for the place itself. Thank God for the signs of life, beauty, connection, and goodness you noticed. Bring before him the places where something feels broken, lonely, divided, or in need of his peace.
As you pray, ask: God, where are you already at work in this place? Who around me might be reaching for you, even if they don’t yet know how to name it? Where do you want your life and peace to become more visible?
Stay with the people or places that seem to draw your attention. Pray specifically for what God brings to mind.
Consider
As you have prayed, you may have found yourself thinking differently about the people and places around you. Someone you normally pass by may have come to mind. You may have become aware of something you had stopped noticing, or found yourself more curious about a person whose life regularly crosses yours.
Ask God: Is there someone or something around me you are inviting me to pay more attention to? How might you want me to be more present to the people who share this place with me?
Don’t rush to turn what you hear into something big. God may simply be inviting you to learn someone’s name, become more curious, listen more closely, offer encouragement, or begin praying for someone regularly.
Pay attention to whatever God brings to mind and talk with him about how you might respond.
Pray for the network
Now widen your prayer beyond the place immediately around you. Pray for the many places where the people of the Kansas City Underground live their everyday lives.
Ask God to open our eyes to the people around us. Pray that we would not move through our days unaware of the people and places we regularly encounter, but would become increasingly attentive to what God is already doing there.
Pray for the streets, neighborhoods, apartment buildings, housing units, workplaces, schools, and other places where our lives unfold. Ask God to make his nearness known in each of these places and to bring his peace, healing, hope, and life where they are needed.
Ask God to form us into people who are truly present where he has sent us, people who notice, listen, pray, and are ready to respond when he invites us to join him.