Praying for our Neighbors
Jesus made following him pretty simple:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31
All of the commandments summed up into just a couple sentences. Seems simple, but we all know the challenges.
Today, as we pray together across our city, let’s take the time to unite in intentional prayer for our neighbors.
First: We pray to slow down
In Proverbs 4:25-26 we read:
Let your eyes look straight ahead;
fix your gaze directly before you.
Give careful thought to the paths for your feet
and be steadfast in all your ways.
We are constantly pulled in a thousand directions, and unless we take the time to slow down, rest and look ahead, we can often miss opportunities with our neighbors right in front of us.
Reflect
Take a few moments to reflect on ways that you can slow down, and give careful attention to the path God has made for you. Ask God to reveal a couple of practices you can insert into your daily life to help you slow down.
Next: We pray for awareness
Not only do we want to slow down and rest, but in our slowing we pray that God would make us aware of the needs of our neighbors around us.
In Luke 10, Jesus answers a key question: Who is my neighbor?
He answers it, like he often does, with a parable. This time, the parable of The Good Samaritan. In the story multiple godly men passed by a man in need, and ultimately he was helped by the Good Samaritan.
At the end Jesus explains who our neighbor is simply:
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
How many of our neighbors have we passed by that God had sent us to? As we slow down, we also pray for a heightened awareness of who God is sending us to.
Reflect
Take a few moments to reflect on who God may be sending you to. Think back on your last couple days, has God highlighted any of your neighbors to you? Write down some of those names and situations.
Lord, we know that the Harvest is plentiful. We pray for a heightened awareness of the needs of those around us. We want to see our neighbors the way you see them.
Finally: We pray for clarity and obedience
As God highlights the ways that we can slow down, and our neighbors in need, we’ll spend the rest of our time today praying for clarity on next steps and the courage to step into obedience.
In the book of John, Jesus makes it clear: “If you love me, keep my commands.”
Reflect
Ask God to give you a clear next step of obedience with one of your neighbors. Spend the next few minutes praying a prayer of blessing over that neighbor, write down what He is sharing with you, and make a plan for obedience out of this time alone with God.
Lord, we mourn the neighbors we have missed along the way. We repent of our behaviors that got in between our call to love our neighbors. We pray that you would bless our neighbors with the love and hope of Jesus, and that we could be the neighbor that they need. Mold us, correct us, and guide us, Lord.