The day after American troops pulled out of Afghanistan my social media feed was flooded with pictures and prompts to ‘pray for Afghanistan’. I knew prayer was needed, but I lacked the words. Not because I was horrified, that came later. I lacked the words because the events were far off. The activities seemed like rumors and the outcomes didn’t affect me.
Praying for Afghanistan has been nothing like praying for my brother-in-law who’s struggling for his life in the hospital right now. When I pray for him, it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, I can put everything out of my mind and pray. I can pray for him while driving, doing dishes, cleaning a room, etc. He is so dear to my heart it takes very little prompting for me to pray.
So how do we pray for things that aren’t close to home? How do we engage God in powerful prayer when we know that our lives won’t change? How do we pray for faces we’ve never seen, names we’ve never known and systems that are unfamiliar to us?
Maybe as you scrolled through prompts to pray you threw up a prayer, “Yes, Lord help them.” And perhaps as you saw more news you threw up another prayer, “God, wow, they need you to intervene now.”
But is that all? That’s far from the fervent prayers that James instructs us to pray! “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” James 5:16
Whether actually far away or just not personal to us, here are 4 tips to help us pray.
1- Gather information.
The best way to do this is to gather information. After reading an entire report I learned that since the US troops have begun their departure, reports of the mistreatment of women, children and Christians have been rampant, the Islamic state fired two missles at US troops and two suicide bombers killed over 100 people at the Kabul airport.
Take a few minutes to intentionally gather information, not just scroll through headlines. Read the whole article, listen to the entire interview. You get the idea. Gather facts and data and ask questions. Who’s in danger? What system is perpetuating these injustices? What is God’s heart? This information will become your prayer points.
2- Go somewhere.
Separate yourself from your typical environment. If there’s a church you can pray at, go there. Thankfully, my friend hosted a whole evening of prayer for Afghanistan at his church. Maybe you can go to your bedroom, your back patio, or take a walk. Wherever you go, just physically move away from your everyday activity so your mind can focus on prayer without the typical distractions pulling you away.
3- Focus your heart.
Scenario: I sit down and open up my bible, as soon as I start reading, I remember I need to get groceries for the party tomorrow, my daughter still needs shoes for gym class and I have to tell my husband to pick my son up at 4 o’clock. I’m not alone here am I?
We constantly have things in the peripheral areas of our mind. As soon as we settle a little, all those thoughts tend to surface. Let’s plan for that by taking a minute to focus our hearts. Playing worship music or singing a song helps me tremendously. Maybe it’s just a matter of giving yourself a little extra time to let the wheels stop turning before you try to jump into prayer.
4- Physically engage.
It’s hard to stay engaged in prayer while my head is laying on my pillow at night. That’s an effective recipe for falling asleep in record time. If we don’t do something to physically engage, we will unintentionally disengage. Our minds will wander and our hearts will move on.
The best way to engage in prayer is to get physical. Here are some ways to physically engage in prayer:
– write your prayers out on paper
– pray out loud
– kneel, stand, rock or pace.
– draw while you pray
This week, instead of scrolling through the news and happenings of distant places, take some time to actually pray. Talk to God, ask for His will to be done here on Earth as it is in heaven!
