How to Pray for Your Community or City

As prayer leaders today often seek God for “city transformation,” urging faith to seek God for a whole city, what may guide our intercession? In 1 John 5:14-15, we read that if we ask anything according to God’s will, we can have confidence he will answer us. In 2 Thessalonians 3:1, God’s Word reveals his desire for his work to advance everywhere in the way it had advanced in Thessalonica. We have the authority of the Scriptures to pray boldly for the gospel to “spread rapidly and be honored,” just as it was in that city the Holy Spirit impacted long ago—the very city where the charge was made that the gospel had turned their world upside down (Ac 17:6)

It cannot be by accident that the Scriptures combine to embolden prayer for “city transformation.” To pray for this,

(1) base your prayer requests for your city on Biblical cases of cities being impacted by faith and the gospel (for example, Jerusalem, Nineveh, Philippi, Lystra, Jericho, Samaria, Antioch);

and (2) pray for a full activation of God’s love among the believers in your community (2Th 3:5). It is Biblical to believe for a move of the gospel that will not only change you, your church and your city, but one that will cause that grace to spread a testimony far beyond your locale (1Th 1:6-7).