Marilyn and I felt humbled when the director of the Christian conference centre where we’d led a retreat, said there’d been a greater sense of the Lord’s peace that week than during any other event they’d hosted. How awesome, that in our weakness, the Lord had been so present that they’d felt a tangible awareness of his peace flowing out to all. It reminded me of when Marilyn and I were praying once with a friend in a park before she caught her train home. We were early so had sat on the grass to commit her journey to the Lord. God suddenly spoke in my heart, ‘Do you realise that because you are praying here, this place has become sacred, and I am touching all who pass by with my love?’ Startled I’d looked around, it was just an ordinary recreation ground, quite busy with dog walkers, young mums, children on bikes, all going along the nearby path. How could this be sacred ground? ‘Lord I’ve hardly noticed the people going by and I certainly haven’t been praying for them,’ I protested.
‘But you have been praying together, and because of that,you’ve been inviting me to be with you and so this ground where you are sitting has become sacred ground. Through your prayers, I’ve been touching each person passing by with my love.’
I was staggered! How awesome that through our simple prayers the whole area had become a holy, sacred place. I found it very challenging. If God could touch people with his love just because we were praying for each other, how much more could he touch them if I was consciously praying for them?
This revelation reminds me of the passage in Genesis 28:17 when Jacob, who was fleeing from his brother Esau, stopped at a ‘certain place’ to rest for the night. As he slept he had a dream of a ladder reaching up to heaven with angels ascending and descending on it. He exclaimed, ‘How awesome is this place,this is none other than the house of God and this is the gate of heaven.’
Both when I and my friends were praying, and when Jacob was asleep and dreaming, the very ground became holy and full of God’s presence. This was also happening at the conference centre when the director said they’d never experienced so much of God’s peace.
It’s important to get our heads round the fact that we are living representatives of Jesus. He has chosen our hearts to be his dwelling place and Paul describes us as God’s ambassadors. Jesus taught us to pray ‘Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.’ (Matthew 6:10). We cannot pray for every person we meet or build places of worship everywhere, but it is mind boggling to think that through us simply having hearts to encounter God and reach out in his love to one another, the very ground we stand on will become an awesome sacred place where all can be touched by God’s love.
Prayer - O Lord Jesus, please knit my heart with yours that the power of your peace, love and hope will be made known wherever I go. Amen.
