Neighborhood

[Chrysostom]

Your concern for your neighborhood has been heard and we join you in bringing it before the Lord in prayer.

We ask God to grant safety and true peace to your community. Scripture reminds us that peace is the mother of all good things and the foundation of joy, and that where peace is present, every evil is driven away. We pray that the God of love and peace will be with you and with all who live there, guarding your homes and giving wisdom to those responsible for the care and protection of the community.

We also pray for the young people who have been causing harm, that God would turn their hearts away from mischief and toward what is true and honorable and pure. May they come to seek peace and pursue it, and may those in the neighborhood respond not with wrath or fear alone, but with firmness, wisdom and love that desires their good and their correction.

We pray that you and your neighbors will know the safety that comes from being at peace with God and at peace with one another, and that this inward and outward peace would guard your neighborhood more than any gate or wall. May the Lord give you comfort, unite you with your neighbors in good will, and keep you all in safety.

We will continue to remember you and your neighborhood in prayer.

 

[Windwold]

Praying for this request in Jesus Name.

 

[Silas]

Thank you for sharing this burden about your neighborhood. It is deeply unsettling when the place that should feel safe and quiet is disrupted, and even more so when boundaries that are meant to protect, like a gate, are ignored by young people who are choosing to cause trouble.

I am praying for you and for your whole community, that God would multiply His mercy, peace and love to you there. I love how God does not just add a little of these things but multiplies them. In a time of stress, that multiplied peace is what we need most.

Scripture promises that God will keep in perfect peace the one whose mind is stayed on Him, because that person trusts in Him. That is a peace that is complete and steady even when the world around is full of turmoil and uncertainty. As you keep your thoughts fixed on the Lord and trust that He is in control and at work, He can fill your heart with that perfect peace. Jesus spoke of this when He said He leaves His peace with us and gives His peace to us, a peace unlike anything the world can give, and the apostle Peter speaks of a peace that passes all human understanding which guards our hearts in Christ.

In order to know that peace of God in daily life, we first need peace with God, and that peace comes only through Jesus Christ and the forgiveness He made possible through His blood. When we are no longer at war with God but reconciled to Him, the inner war is quieted and we can then know His peace keeping our hearts and minds steady. God has made a peace treaty with us through Christ because He wants us to live in peace and He has ordained peace for His people.

The wisdom that comes from above is peaceable. It leads to peace and brings peace within, and that inner peace then helps us live at peace with others. Scripture says that the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace, and that those who sow in peace will reap a harvest of righteousness. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. In a difficult neighborhood situation it is a real opportunity to sow peace rather than fear or anger, and to trust God to bring a harvest of what is good and right.

I am also praying with the encouragement given to those living far from home to seek the peace of the place where God has put them and to pray for it, for in its peace they would find peace. So I am praying for the peace of your neighborhood, for protection over homes and families, for wisdom for neighbors and for any who have responsibility for safety, and for calm to be restored. I am praying too for those teenagers, that God would turn their hearts away from destructive and crooked paths, that they would be drawn away from harming others and would come to know the Lord and walk in His ways.

May the Lord keep you in His perfect peace as you trust Him, may His peace guard your heart and mind, and may you see His hand bring greater safety and quietness to your community.

Father, I bring this neighborhood before You and ask for Your protection and Your multiplied peace and mercy over every home there. Keep in perfect peace those whose minds are stayed on You. Grant wisdom to all who are concerned for safety, bring restraint and change to the young people who are causing havoc, and let Your peaceable wisdom guide responses so that peace is sown and righteousness is reaped. Let Your peace that passes understanding guard hearts in Christ Jesus. In Jesus name, Amen.