Good Morning Praying Neighbor! Gotta fly but check out the devos below and pray for the harvest and ask what your part is and who your partners are. Then ask God to reveal those He is drawing for revival--neighbors. Then go live and love like Jesus and water, fertilize and maybe even harvest. God has plans and partners and even neighbors for you! Go! Love God, self and neighbor and love to bring Good News and Go's love alive. Amen
Upper Room: Walking with Neighbors
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself. - Luke 10:27 (NRSVUE)
When I retired, I moved to the mountains and lived only a few miles from the Appalachian Trail. Each year, thousands set out to hike the entire trail — a months-long journey of nearly 2,200 miles. Hikers must carry everything they need to survive — for days at a time. Many hikers end up tired, sore, and short on water and food, despite their best planning.
Encountering these “thru-hikers” on my day hikes, I was amazed at how they looked out for each other and shared their meager resources. A few ounces of water, a little food, a bandage, an aspirin, or a ride into town could make a huge difference. Strangers formed community. The other hikers became their new “neighbors.”
As Christians, we are called to serve others and take care of our neighbors in need. On the trails I regularly visited, people benefited from small kindnesses. I always brought extra food, supplies, and a well-stocked first-aid kit on hikes. I was enriched by my interactions with hikers; we shared stories, laughed, hugged, and prayed together. What opportunities do we have to serve others? Let us be observant and open-minded, pray about it, and see what surfaces.
's Prayer
O God, our Savior, thank you for the beauty of your world. We thank you for opportunities to meet new friends and neighbors. Amen.
Connection Blogs
- Preparing God’s Highway
“Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them” (Psalm 126:5-6).
God promises a bountiful harvest to those who sow with tears. Indeed their reaping will be with shouts of joy (Ps. 126:5-6). The agricultural picture of a ripe crop ready for harvest is far removed from the day to day experience of most urban Christians. To have a harvest there must be plowing, seed sowing and cultivation. Each worker who prepares the soil, plants seed, cultivates or harvests contributes by fulfilling his task. No task is insignificant (1 Cor. 3:6-9).
Faith is required to see the harvest before the first blade sprouts from the soil. In the parable of the sower, Jesus likens the good seed to the word of God sown into hearts (Mt. 13:19; Lk. 8:11). There are real obstacles to the healthy maturity of a sprouting seed. An adequate water supply is critical for an abundant harvest.
Wesley Deuwel said, “Prayer is God’s ordained means to prepare God’s highway through spiritually dry and arid places, and prayer is God’s ordained way to bring the refreshing water of God’s Spirit to barren lives. The more you pray, the more the water of the Spirit flows. The more you pray the more the seed sown is watered. The prayer you pray has the potential to turn any heart or desert into a garden of the Lord.”
Father, increase my faith ! The kind of faith that believes in the significance of each small act within the harvest…the preparation of the soil, the seed planting, watering…and waiting as You bring forth the fruit of such labor. May I be willing to take my place in the harvest…whichever role within it Your Spirit leads me into. May my heart be continually willing to intercede so that the hearts of the lost might be brought into Your kingdom!
--Adapted from Chapter 75 of Giving Ourselves to Prayer (Prayer for the Harvest) by Paula Hemphill. This resource is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount on the book.
Prayer Points
Shout Hallelujah! to the Lord God Almighty.
Praise God for his power and glory.
Thank him for salvation (Rev. 19:1).
Confess how rarely in recent days you have meditated on God’s wisdom and strength.
Commit yourself to thinking more about what you can do for God, rather than what God can do for you.
Ask for a renewed sense of awe about God’s character, for a greater hunger to know him.
Pray for family members or friends who hold God at arm’s length. Plead for personal peace and joy in Christ, so they will want what you have. Prayer Pointer “Prayer is not conquering God’s reluctance, but taking hold of God’s willingness.” —Phillips Brooks
Prayer Points taken from Patterns for Prayer by Alvin VanderGriend. This book is available at prayerleader.com. Use the code CONPSP3 at checkout to receive an additional 10% discount.
