5 x 5 prayers

A few years ago the Holy Spirit had been convicting me that I had grown into some bad habits in prayer.  I had been focusing on praying blessings into my life all the while “praying away the sin in people that bothered me”.  I had become an ‘advisor’ to God in how He should be working in other people’s lives in order to make them easier for me to get along with.  Then I read an article on prayer in the Discipleship Journal magazine which broadened my prayers for others.  Here is an excerpt from the article:

“When Johnny Jones, living in a middle-class suburb in central California, made a commitment to pray, [he prayed]:

-5  blessings on

-5  neighbors for

-5 minutes a day for

-5 days a week for

-5 weeks,

[and] surprising things began to happen.

-One neighbor asked him how she could have a personal relationship with Christ. When Johnny shared the gospel with her, she accepted Christ as her Savior.

-A drug-dealing neighbor asked Johnny to pray for him and help him turn his life around and get out of the drug business.

-A Buddhist couple from across the street asked if they could go to church with Johnny's family.

-And a Hispanic couple living next door asked him to start a Bible study for the neighborhood.

I was immediately challenged to adapt this idea in my prayer life.  I listed out the people in my life who I had been praying that God would change.  Instead of praying “sin out of them”, I began to pray God’s blessings on their lives.  Five blessings on five people for five minutes a day, five days a week for five weeks.

I can’t list out such amazing results among my ‘neighbors’ as what you read above, but I can tell you that my perspective transformed toward the 5 people I had been asking God to make them easier for me to get along with!  Instead of being frustrated with how their personalities bothered me, I began to enjoy thinking about them and about what blessings I could pray for them that day.  I looked forward to being with them as it gave me clues what kinds of blessings to ask God to give them each day. 

I also began to see the sin better in my own life and started to pray for character changes in my life.  I prayed for the fruits of the Spirit (Gal.5:22-23) to be exhibited in my life when I interacted with my 5 friends (some of the things I had been praying for others to exhibit when they were around me!).  I think it became easier for my friends to be around me when I changed my perspective and started praying blessings on others and sin out of my life!