BECOMING THE ANSWER TO YOUR PRAYERS

By Carol Madison

For several years my church cooperated with other churches in my community to bless the city with acts of kindness and service. We called it CityServe, and it developed a reputation with city officials as being a source of help with various projects. We picked up trash and debris from parks, freshened up school grounds, painted houses, and raked the lawns of disadvantaged people. We mobilized hundreds of volunteers at least once a year—and sometimes we did it quarterly.

Because of my role as director of prayer ministries in my church, I was assigned to lead the strategic intercession. I organized intercessors to prayerwalk in the community, stop at projects to pray on site, and, in general, provide prayer coverage for the endeavors.

A New Approach

After a couple of years, I said to one of the lead pastors, “Hey, I would like to rake a lawn or wash some windows once in a while!” I wondered out loud why we were separating the intercessors from the “workers.”

So we changed it up. Prior to going out on our assignments, we gathered everyone together for half an hour to worship and pray. We asked God to make us a blessing to others. We prayed for safety on projects and for opportunities to have spiritual conversations. We then asked God to use us to touch our community with the love of Christ. We commissioned everyone to go out and “be the answers to the prayers they just prayed.”

I was excited to grab a rake and “do something” beyond my usual role of the designated pray-er! My first project was a large backyard covered with pine cones. Another man and I raked behind the house while two other men pulled weeds and cleaned up the front yard. When we were finished, an older woman came out to thank us. I told her we were from different churches and we were there to bless her in Jesus’ name. I asked her if she had any prayer requests, and she shared some heartbreaking struggles. With the three men gathered around us, I prayed for her.

When we finished, the men expressed how touched they were by the simplicity of engaging with her and offering prayer. They thanked me for demonstrating how to do that. It was a successful merger of prayer and action!

Pray-ers and Activists Together

In this issue, Dana Olson addresses the tension that sometimes rises between pray-ers and those who like to “get things done.” He uses Nehemiah as an example of one who was dedicated to both intense intercessory prayer and the hands-on work of an activist. Nehemiah did not separate fasting, prayer, waiting on God, and building the wall. Kim Butts writes about the connection between prayer and “bearing fruit” by listing seven ways we can be the answer to our prayers. This issue also includes stories from Prayer Connect readers in response to our invitation to submit their experiences of praying and then realizing God’s intention for them to act on their prayers.

I myself learned a lesson after a morning of exhausting raking: aching muscles and an intercessor’s heart go together well!

CAROL MADISON is editor of Prayer Connect magazine.