Prayers in Motion – A Lent Invitation from Rev. Wendy
And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Inspired by Rev. Anne’s prayer walks during Lent at Knox Harvey, I’d like to offer anyone who is interested to join me in a “Prayers in Motion” Lenten activity.
How does this work?
During Lent, I will offer different ideas, tips, prayer requests, sample prayers, Bible verses and inspirational quotes to help build your prayer life. Such posts will be made available on our website and Facebook page. And I can also make handouts available too. You can find these resources and verses under Prayerful Thoughts.
The idea is to pray while in motion. You don’t need to stop and bow your head or even pray out loud. Simply pray when you are on the move, whether you are out about the community walking, strolling the grocery store, walking from the car to a building, driving from point A to point B, doing some exercise, or traveling from room to room, and so on.
Praying in motion will help us become more aware or intentional about identifying and praying for people, situations and needs around us. As we walk with God through ordinary activities, we will become more aware of Christ prompting us to intercede for others around us.
During your journey of Lent, keep track of how or where you’ve been praying (e.g., names of streets or buildings). You may even want to count your steps or kilometres. I encourage you to keep a journal of people that you pray for (even when you don’t know their names).
At the end of Lent, I would like to gather info from the prayers in motion participants and put a story of our prayer activity (for St. Paul’s and St. James combined). It would be neat to discover how much territory and needs prayer can cover in just a short period of time and to affirm the power of prayer at work.
Note: We won’t breach privacy. We won’t name names (unless you had permission). We could describe prayer activity by relationship (e.g., family, friend, co-worker). Or we could identify them by position (e.g., while pushing my shopping cart at Superstores, I prayed for the teenager stocking the shelves. Or while I was walking on Main Street, I prayed for the police car passing by). Alternatively, you might decide to pray each day for five people in the church directory and aim to pray your way through the directory by the end of the Lent season. Or perhaps you pray for five homes or apartments each time you walk the street or hall. You may choose to let people know that you are praying for them, although it’s not required.
How might you pray? You could ponder a Bible verse. You could pray for blessings on someone’s health, work, social life, emotions and spiritual life. You may not know of specific needs, but God knows them. You could simply pray the Lord’s Prayer or a familiar prayer. You could pray your way through the newspaper, praying on people you read about or learn about on the news.