MX3 Blog #6 – Prayer And Purpose
By: Suzanna
The last few days we’ve been in two different groups, and my group has a prayer walking focus in a specific city. I chose this group knowing that it would be a challenge for me, but not entirely knowing what I would learn. I think the biggest takeaway has been the essentiality of prayer in the life of a believer.
One of the workers introduced us to two things, wiping off the slime and grime of walking through spiritually dark places, and putting on the armour of God each day. Another worker talked about hanging the things that are weighing on us (positive or negative) on a “coat rack” in a group, out loud, before coming to God in focused prayer.
Prayer has also been key in a much more simple way, praying over our hotel rooms has been absolutely key in trusting God’s protection when we are seeking rest and refuge. This was a lesson we learned quite strongly in our first few days at the first location.
The purpose of prayer has really been emphasized to me, that our Father desires constant communion with us, and we do that through prayer. Prayer is the conversation between me and God, and I can do that alone or with others. One of the workers prayed over us that we would hear God’s voice the way He designed us to hear Him. Some of us hear Him more easily through Scripture, through words or thoughts or pictures, through songs and music, through symbolism or themes. There are so many ways that we hear God.
Prayer walking especially has helped me understand what unceasing prayer actually looks like. When I was walking for 14,000 steps, my feet get tired, but my spirit did not. Walking together with someone who was also praying helps inspire my own prayers, and so we encourage each other in our walk. We start noticing the things in the area that inspire us to pray, and so we begin unceasing prayer, in that particular instance we were constantly praying out loud for 4 hours. It seems like such a long time, but God sustains His children when we are in communion with Him, ultimately agreeing with the prayers of the High Priest who is Jesus Christ.
