- Pray for the johns on Tuesday, Feb. 14.
- Encourage your church to pray for the johns on Sunday, Feb. 12.
- Tell other friends about the event.
Consider committing to doing one or more of the following, on our own or with a friend or even your Bible study or community group.
- Pray — Commit to pray for the johns at some point on Feb. 14. Suggestions for prayer are below.
- Fast and pray — Commit to fast from one or more meals or another component of your daily routine (e.g., TV, email) as part of your prayer on Feb. 14.
- Prayer walk — Pray for a particular area of your community as you walk through it. This could be as short as one block or a few. If safety is a concern, you could also pray while driving through the area.
- Make a manageable commitment. If you're not in a regular rhythm of prayer, consider shooting for just 2-5 minutes.
- Consider tying your prayer into a specific rhythm or activity in your day, such as the walk to the subway, part of the drive home, while you're showering or waiting for a slow computer to boot up, etc.
- If you are new to prayer or in a more spiritually barren season, you may prefer a more structured approach, such as "fixed prayer" (e.g., praying through scripture or using prayers such as the Lord's prayer or those in the Book of Common Prayer).
John Smed breaks the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray into seven simple priorities.
- Our Father in heaven (sonship)
- Hallowed by Your name (worship)
- Your kingdom come (evangelism)
- Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven (mercy and justice)
- Give us this day our daily bread (generosity and contentment)
- Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us (reconciliation)
- Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil (warfare, holiness, wisdom, truth)
This helpful acronym provides a guided and flexible structure for prayer:
Adoration — Praise God by focusing on His divine attributes and His mighty acts as the God of the murderer-turned-apostle, the exploitive collaborator with the enemy-turned-generous disciple, the slave trader-turned-pastor and hymn writer and — in our time — the drug dealing murderer-turned-antigangoutreach worker.
Confession — Invite God to examine your heart, including whatever wounds, fear or sinful attitudes praying for the johns may raise; confess whatever sin and idolatry may be displeasing to God and inhibiting your relationship with Him.
Thanksgiving — Ask God to open your eyes to His blessing and to give you a grateful heart; thank Him for His forgiveness, mercy and good purposes for all of His children, no matter the ways we sin against Him and each other.
Supplication — Pray for the men who patronize and pimp prostitutes, those who directly participate in the trafficking and sexual exploitation of men and women, and/or those participate in this system through their use of pornography. Pray for them to:
Other scriptures to meditate on:
- Turn from their sin in repentance
- Find the courage to confess their sin to those who need to be made aware of it
- Experience God's healing in their sexual and relational brokenness
- Receive God's forgiveness
- Be freed from shame
- Discover the good works God has appointed for them to do
- Become agents of blessing and flourishing in their families and communities
- Experience the joy of the Lord
- Discover what they are called to and the good purpose(s) for which they were created. Pray boldly!
- “There is there now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.” — Romans 8:1-2
- “…[W]e too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He love us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus, in order that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, that no one should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” — Eph. 2:3-10
- “…[O]ne thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” — Phil. 3:13b-14
- “Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance, and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” — Heb. 12: 1-2
“Prayer-walking” can cover everything from talking to God during the post-work walk toward BART to praying a specific scripture verse over every house on your block to walking through a neighborhood asking God how He wants you to pray for it, and praying as you feel led.
- Pray silently or out loud, alone or with a partner.
- Use some of the prayers or scriptures above as a guide while you walk and pray.
- As you walk, look for details that may give you a sense of what’s going on in the neighborhood and how to pray for it.
- Do you see “For Sale” or “For Rent” signs?
- What kind of businesses or institutions do you pass (e.g., schools, coffee or tattoo shops, gas or police stations)?
- Do you pass any sites of recent importance (e.g., scene of a crime or protest, recent sale or construction, street fair or concert)?
- Do you pass any sites of power or influence (e.g., universities, book stores, churches, schools, government offices)?
- Do you see signs/sites of loneliness or need?
- Ask God to show you how to pray!
