Christians often talk about the value of prayer. I suspect
we practice what we preach far less often
than we would like to admit. Though
there are many ways to pray, one way is prayer walking. I will never forget how
we learned the value of prayer walking. We had been trying to start a church in
a nearby village and had only met opposition. At one point, four people drove
over from that village to tell us to stay out of their town. But knowing there
was no Gospel witness in that town, we had to find a way to break down the
spiritual walls that held us back. Someone told me about prayer walking and I
thought that since nothing else had worked, maybe we should try prayer. We sent
out the word to Baptist Student Union groups across the nation and invited them
to come spend a week praying over this little town. We knew it was a long shot;
after all, most students want to spend their spring break at the beach
partying, not in a rural town in New England praying. But word began to spread
that prayer warriors were needed and college students from across America began
to show up. Over a six week period nearly two hundred students came and prayed
in that little New England village. Some stayed only for a few hours, some
stayed a day, some stayed a week, all prayed. And the God of the Universe heard
those prayers and within months a new church was started, and one of the people
who came was the leader of that band of four people who had told us to stay out
of their town. Prayer gives us the spiritual power needed to complete the task
and works wonders when we will do it intently. The question we must answer is,
how intently are we praying?
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