Many of my friends and I have been so burdened for prayer over this past year. I know many of you feel it, too. We started drive-by prayer on Wednesdays, driving through our community and praying for churches, businesses, schools, and the homes in our neighborhoods.
I’m also part of a group of ladies from various churches and towns who started meeting together to pray for revival in our communities. We meet each Saturday at 7:00 am somewhere in our local communities (ours meets at the Courthouse) to prayer walk our neighborhood. We are praying for revival, for churches to come together, for racial and denominational walls to be torn down, and for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed in our communities as we serve others in His name.
Our church started a free lunch for people in our community to try to ease the burden many of them face to feed their families under difficult circumstances. Other churches in our area do the same.
I have such a burden for this community. It’s my home. This is our mission field.
Love Your Neighbor
As Hurricane Florence approached our area last week, our family did our usual preparations–cleaned the house, put up outside furniture, stocked up on non-perishable food, and filled our hurricane lamps with oil. But I wasn’t prepared for such devastation in our community.
No wonder God has had us so burdened in prayer and for the lives of those around us.
As I stood in a circle last night, hand-in-hand with my brothers and sisters at our local Red Cross shelter, praying for God to meet their needs and be very real to them during this time, I realized God has been preparing us for this all along. He wants unity and revival more than we do.
Today we will meet together from different churches, different denominations, different races, but one in the Body of Christ, and we will plan for our future together as a community. We will assess needs and we will all work together to meet those needs, because that’s what Jesus taught us to do. 
“‘For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me somethings to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me,” (Matthew 25:35-36, NIV 84).
We have many people who have lost everything, some with only the clothes on their backs. The needs are great, but our God is greater. We will come together as a community. We will pray. We will help each other. And we will share the Gospel with those who don’t know Him.
“One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, ‘Of all the commandments, which is the most important?’
‘The most important one,’ answered Jesus, ‘is this: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.” The second is this: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” There is no commandment greater than these'” (Mark 12:28-31).
God is good. Nothing happens that doesn’t first pass through His hands. If He allowed it, He can use it. Even the storms in our lives can bring the greatest blessings.
When Jesus hung on the cross, it looked as if all hope were gone. But God was not finished. What appeared to be a huge loss was actually a great victory.
If we will be open to what God wants to do in and through us, He can use this disaster for great good and bring victory into the lives of those around us. 
As you see needs over the next days and weeks, pray and then ask how you can help. You may be surprised at how God will use you. Share the love of Jesus with a neighbor today. Even the small things we do in His name can be significant in the Kingdom of God.
“‘The King will reply, “I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me”‘” (Matthew 25:40).
Read last week’s post here about our hope in the storm.
*All photos by Andrew Guinn, used with permission.