God laid it on my heart to have a prayer bus ride one morning in Quito, Ecuador. In my mind, this is similar to a prayer walks, except you are on the bus. I have found this to be a very powerful practice when we intentionally pray for the people and city around us.
I was so nervous to share this idea with my team. I am honestly not sure why I was nervous because I know they will support my idea. I think the devil put the anxiousness in my head to try and hinder me from sharing the idea and spreading prayer throughout the bus. However, I shared at the last second that a prayer bus ride was laid on my heart, and of course, everyone was happy to join in. So we leave our house to walk to the bus terminal.
A couple of us get involved in a silly word game as we are walking to the bus stop. Keep in mind, about 5 minutes ago I had just suggested this prayer ride. We get on the bus nonchalantly and continue our game. A few minutes into our ride, my team leader, Kaylin, asks one of us playing the game to translate her prayer with someone on the bus. We immediately realize that we had gone about our ride and completely forgot about the prayer ride!! I think we all felt a moment of shame that we had forgotten to pray.
This is how quickly and easily the enemy can infiltrate our thoughts.
The enemy did not want us praying for people or making the name of Jesus known on that bus. He wants us to play our silly little games and stay distracted from the people around us that we could be witnessing to.
Maybe our intention was not harmful. Maybe we were playing a harmless game. However, that is how the enemy slips in, quietly, like a thief in the night, in ways we do not notice. Then, our distractions turn into an idol we put before God. I am guilty of thinking things like “I will read Scripture after my to do list is done” or “Tomorrow will be a better time for me to carve out an hour to pray.” Wow…distractions can subconsciously avert our attention away from God, even if they are not intended maliciously. This is what the enemy wants. We think we are doing fine, yet we are leadings ourselves away from God one accepted invitation or extra commitment at a time. The enemy enjoys this because he has to do little to no work to get us to this point.
The good news is that we have God on our side to take back our thoughts and make them into His glory. Once we realized that we were distracted, we immediately stopped playing and started praying for others. This ended up being such a blessing. I asked my friend, Rachel, to pray for a man next to her. She willingly began talking to him and prayed over him. He seemed so grateful for us praying with him. Later that day, she asked me if there was something specific I heard that she should have prayed for. I told her that Holy Spirit only told me that the man’s family needed prayers. This was such a cool moment because Rachel, unknowingly, had prayed for this man’s family! I do not know anything else about the man or his family, but just seeing the joy on his face, I know it touched his heart and God spoke to him through us.
I have realized in the past 2 months, while trying to live each day intentionally obeying, how easy it is to get distracted from the voice of God. And how distracted I actually was back home. It is partly American culture. I feel like I have to fight to keep my mind on Jesus and have personal time with Him each day. My heart is in a place where I want to, but silly distractions slip in and then before I know it, another day has gone by where I did not read the Word or only had a short prayer right before bed.
How can we carve out intentional time in our day to speak and interact with Jesus?
Something I am working on is incorporating Holy Spirit into every single decision and event of my day. I am not a talented multi-tasker, so I’ll be honest, this is difficult for me. I have found a rhythm in my quiet time in the morning that I can hear guidance and knowledge from Holy Spirit, but throughout the day, I do not keep my mind focused on Him. The Bible commands us to pray without ceasing and have constant communication with God all day long. This is what the enemy does not want because he knows how powerful we are when we obey the Holy Spirit. So this is exactly what we should be doing. The Holy Spirit will point people out or give us people to pray for and talk to, we just have to ask (although sometimes, we don’t even have to ask).
It is not my desire to be distracted. I want to have constant, uninterrupted conversation with the Most High. I want to live interruptible in the world-not be scared to miss the bus, be late to the meeting, or have an unfinished to do list, and meanwhile, miss the people in front of me and the spiritual battle around me. I do not want the enemy to take my thoughts captive to plant lies, gossip, and complaints. I want my thoughts to be infiltrated by God whether that be conversation with Him, praise for Him, or prayers for His children.
