6 Ways to Do A Virtual Prayer Walk {without leaving your home}

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As I scroll through my news feeds, I’m confronted by so many needs and tragedies. A friend’s wife battling cancer, a high school classmate who passed away, a prayer request for a broken marriage, a mother worried about her teen’s battle with depression, a friend struggling with care for aging parents. Then there’s the news… lives lost in senseless acts of violence and hatred here at home, across the country, and abroad. Tragedies and hurt in nearly every news story I hear and read.

What is our response to all this? Where do we start?

We need to start with prayer. Invite God into our lives and into the heartache, grief, and struggle. Lay our hearts at His feet and listen for how He wants us to respond and be the change in this world.

While we may not live physically close to the people and places so desperately in need of prayer, we are virtually connected in so many ways. What if we used that connectedness to help in our prayer life? What if we virtually prayer walked through the needs and tragedies that surround us through the news and social media? What if we focused some of our media time on prayer?

Instead of watching the news, let’s pray through it.

Watching TV coverage of the reactions to the Dallas police shootings and seeing people praying with police officers wherever they see them and walking through the community in prayer, I was reminded of the power of a prayer walk. Prayer walking is a powerful way to draw near to Jesus as you walk and pray over an area, even though you may not know the specific needs. It’s a way to engage God in prayer as you walk, holding each person you see in prayer and covering every building, business, car, or seat in prayer.

6 Ways to Do A Virtual Prayer Walk {without leaving your home}

Below are 6 ways I’ve found to do a virtual prayer walk from your own home. You can even walk around your house as you pray, if you want to connect to the movement of prayer walking.

1) Pray through the news

Open a newspaper. This isn’t the time to read through each story, rather scan each looking for who and where you need to pray. Pause over each story to pray for the needs of the community and the individuals impacted. You can choose to focus on the front page or go section by section. Maybe start with world news, praying for needs across the globe, and then work your way through national news, state news, then local news.

If you don’t have a printed newspaper, open one of the news sites online and pray through the headlines there.

2) Pray through your Facebook feed

Open Facebook and pray for each person and news article in your feed. Scroll down the list, praying for each person and each need you see.

This is a good one to do on the go. I did this yesterday while sitting through my son’s sports practice and I loved the new perspective it gave me on social media. Rather than being a time drain, Facebook became a prayer list and I instantly felt more connected to the people in my list.

3) Pray through your calendar

Open your calendar for the week, and pray over each appointment, meeting, sports practice, etc. Pray for the people involved. Pray for God’s purpose to prevail and for Him to be present and active at each event.

4) Pray through your email inbox

Open your email inbox and scan through the list of senders. Pray over each one. If you have newsletters or prayers lists you receive via email, open those and pray through them.

This is not a time to respond to emails or clean up your inbox. Rather, spend time in prayer over the names and needs you see.

5) Pray through a directory

Do you belong to an organization that publishes a directory of members, such as the PTA at your child’s school or your church? Open that directory and pray over each name, even the ones you don’t know.

6) Pray through Google Maps

Maybe there’s a neighborhood or area that’s particularly on your heart. If you can’t physically go there for a prayer walk, open Google maps to that location and virtually walk the streets. Stop at each house or building and pray for the people there. This could be your own neighborhood, one where you used to live, or an area you know that particularly needs prayer.
Whatever method you choose, let’s join our voices in prayer and ask God to fill the dark corners of this world with His light. Let’s band together as prayerful, faithful people battling the forces evil with prayer. Let’s prayerfully ask God to lead us in our responses and guide our words so they may be filled with love and compassion. Let’s make the news and social media places of prayer and hope, instead of fear and despair!

Christ has no body now, but yours.
No hands, no feet on earth, but yours.
Yours are the eyes through which he looks
With compassion on this world.

Let nothing disturb you.
Let nothing frighten you.
All things pass away:
God never changes.
Patience obtains all things.
Those who have God
Find they lack nothing;
God alone suffices.

(Prayer of St. Teresa of Avila)