I first shared prayer prompts to grow the prayers of our youth through the seasons of Advent and Lent. I challenged them to stretch their prayers to include one more person each day.
Every day after school, I would text a new prompt.
A child.
A neighbor.
Someone in another state.
If you prayed for your little cousin every day, she couldn’t be the response to the child prompt. But you could pray for your best friend’s little brother, or the child you see walking to school with his father, or the little girl who is always coloring in the back of the sanctuary during worship services.
You didn’t have to know names or ages. God knows. You didn’t have to know the needs of an old classmate now living in another state. God knows. But you had to make room, make time, for one more person, one more prayer.
I began sharing prompts with adults as the virus crisis gathered. I first asked church family to pray with me each night at sunset. From wherever you are, lift whatever joys or concerns are on your heart.
After a week, I added some prompts.
A young family.
Someone you haven’t talked to in at least a year.
Someone grieving.
A young adult.
Someone who is serving you through the crisis. Cardiologist or cashier, pharmacist or Fed Ex driver, church administrator or an anonymous voice who answered your questions over the phone.
I don’t know if the prompts have lifted anyone else, but they are doing marvelous things for me. I can’t stop at one response. I let my heart wander each night and it allows me to find people who loved me, shaped me, prayed for me in critical seasons.
For the “neighbor” prompt, I let my imagination walk through an old neighborhood. I stopped and prayed in front of so many doors.
The “someone you haven’t talked to in more than a year” led me to the people who drew me into children’s ministry, encouraged me and nourished me.
The “someone grieving” prompt led to a family that lost its patriarch six months ago. I’ve known the family, including the patriarch, for more than 40 years, but divorce reconfigured the relationships.
People slip outside the parameters of prayer as new concerns and new faces gain entry. But if prompted to stay in prayer just a little longer, we can find them again.
Do you have time now, at sunset perhaps, to stay in prayer just a little longer?
I will provide a new set of prompts later in the week if you think they might help.
Photo by Bill Utterback