To live a dangerous, adventurous life, means we live not just for ourselves, but for God and for others. In fact, the Dangerous Prayer series this week has assured us of God’s continuing love despite our tendency to default to materialism, selfishness and comfort. If we read the whole of Psalm 139, we realise that we can never really hide from God, go anywhere from His Spirit, or even be unknown to Him (take time now to read together this beautiful and transforming Psalm).

In his book, Dangerous Prayers, Craig recounts how he has been privileged to share in praying for, and with, members of his congregation for many years. People look for guidance and spiritual comfort in times of distress, doubt, and disappointment. We have and still are currently in these times.

As we move towards the end of a week of praying it may be helpful for us to reflect a little further and review some of what we have read and prayed about these past few days:

“Search me, God, and know my heart.
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me…

The question the Psalmist raises for us to pray today is so challenging, he reminds us to ask God if there is any offensive way in us. I don’t know about you, but this is a question I try to avoid, it’s not one that is the first on my prayer list.

Test me and know my anxious thoughts. Sometimes we feel like being anxious, frightened or fearful is a bad thing, like we’ve failed in our walk with Jesus in some way. This may be true. Our fears may be due to some area of our life where we are not walking closely with Jesus. But it is just as likely to be more complex than that.

Search me, God, and know my heart. While yesterday we began our week of prayer together by praying this Dangerous Prayer in its entirety, today, we want to begin to focus on one small section of it, as we will continue to do each day for the next four days.

As we commence a week of praying together it is important to remember that these anxious, challenging and dangerous times provoke a variety of responses in people. Some will shrink back fearful of what might happen, some will mourn the loss of community, of the church physically gathering together week by week and others will try and seize with both hands the opportunities they see before them and commence new initiatives.