Do you have 10, 20, or even 30 minutes? And, do you have worries, family members, neighbors, or praises on your mind most days? Then, you have all you need for a prayer walk. It may just change your life.
What is a Praise or Prayer Walk?
Simply, it’s a time of walking and talking to God, praising, listing gratitudes, or praying. It’s a habit of doing so. It’s a consistent time spent with God while walking outside.
Some listen to praise music while they walk.
Some pray or praise through the alphabet. Praising God first for something that starts with the letter “A” and last with the letter “Z.”
Some look around and pray for what they see. Or pray for each individual in their family. Some listen to the Bible on audio or even use it as a time to memorize or meditate on Scripture.
It’s sort of a modern-day small pilgrimage.
Most importantly, it’s taking time out of your busy schedule, slowing down, and spending it with God. And since God is in the business of changing lives, spending time with Him is certainly a great step to allow the change. Here’s how it may start to work in your own life.
5 Ways a Praise or Prayer Walk Can Change Your Life
1. It Can Change Your Outlook
It’s been said that prayer is not about asking God to align with your heart and requests, but allowing your heart to align with God’s. When you pray and listen for God each day, your heart, your desires, and your outlook changes.
If you use the time to memorize Scripture, you prioritize what God says over what you say. You listen to His words and store them in your heart. This can change your outlook.
2. A Praise or Prayer Walk Can Turn Your Worries Into More Gratitude
If you use your walk to cast your cares onto God, it can turn your concerns and worries into gratitude. For example, maybe you pray for each member of your family, one by one, as you walk.
Speaking to God about others has a way of showing us how God sees them. He sees them through His lens of love. And it can spur more gratitude in our hearts towards them.
3. It Changes How You See Your Neighbors
You can also pray for those who live around you. As you walk, pray for the people in each house you pass. It’s amazing how your heart changes toward anyone for whom you consistently pray.
Even though close-living neighbors may irritate each other now and then, we are all human. We are all trying to do our best.
You can also expand it to praying for your town, the schools and businesses in your town, your state, your country, and the leadership therein.
4. It Can Change Your Health
Walking is an amazingly healthy activity and offers benefits from your bones to your circulation.
In fact, there is evidence that walking consistently can reduce hip fractures in post-menopausal women (1), improve mood while reducing pain (2), and improve circulation (3) among other benefits.
5. It May Bring You Closer to the Life of Jesus
Sure, Jesus didn’t have a car. There was no public bus to take Him from town to town during His ministry. But, I wonder if He would have spent a lot of time walking even if there was.
Walking can slow the pace of life. It can give calm between the storms. It allows us time to think about life, spend time with others, feel the earth, and really see the things around us.
It’s been estimated that Jesus walked more than 3000 miles during His ministry and over 21, 500 miles in His lifetime based on the distance between the towns and the details given in the Bible and in historical texts.
That’s a lot of miles. And perhaps a lot of time thinking, praying, praising, and enjoying the company of His friend and family.
What if You’re Not Able to Walk
Although this article is about a “walk,” God doesn’t need your to walk to change your life. Any time you spend with Him in prayer or praise, whether sitting on your porch, sitting inside, or otherwise, is just as valuable. It’s the practice or doing so that matters.
Bottom Line
A praise or prayer walk is a tool you can use to slow down and spend time with God each day. You can use it to praise God, to pray, to lift up neighbors, family, and loved ones, to pray for specific types of things each day, or to pray as thoughts come to you. You can listen to praise music, the Bible on audio. You can pick a scripture and memorize it during the walk.
No matter how you use a praise or prayer walk, it’s time spent with God, and He can change your life when you give Him your heart and your time.
