Well friends one thing is clear to me, its only by God’s grace that one can love a city like Miami. The place voted rudest people, worst drivers, worst road rage several years in a row….I am reminded of these things often as I go through life. Of course, if that were the extent of it I would be able to grin and bear it with the occasional slip of sanctity, but those are simply the telltale signs of a deeper darkness.

As one reads Jeremiah we are told to love the city in which we are placed by God. Now many could argue that we were not carried into captivity, but we have non-the-less been chosen by God to occupy the place in which we live. As believers there is a very real call on our lives (yes, I mean EVERY believer) to be salt and light in our homes, neighborhoods, and cities.

So how do we do that when some of us live in undesirable places or have to live alongside undesirable people? I think the first part of the answer is to realize the lifestyle clearly laid out for us as “exiled” people. Yes, exiled. If you are a believer and you are a part of God’s people then you do/should have a hope for the future a hope for His Kingdom. Are we there yet? No, but God has called us to live “set apart yet still a part of this world”. We are strangers, aliens, immigrants on this earth and as such we live with His economy, His power structures, His vision and hope, His Kingship in our hearts and over our lives. As such we must strive with all our being to seek and know Him first, and second to live as His agents of transformation in the places He has placed us.

“But the place He put me stinks!!” Well, He did place you there on purpose… Even in the midst of trial or suffering (or should I say especially) we must live with joy and seek the peace that comes with justice and mercy in balance for those we love and those who hate us. We must pray for our “enemies” or for the jerk who just cut you off or stole your car (depending on which “hood” you find yourself placed in :).

Prayer is the key. I believe that if we began to read God’s word with the understanding that it is not just principles to know and have clear in our minds, but actual transformative truth for our lives in every area then we would begin to see His love build in us and flow out from us to those whom we might normally call our enemy.

Prayer must envelop and saturate our lives. So when we are cut off and feel like giving the broken peace sign we must pray for grace to pray for that jerk. Seriously though. I have been convicted of this many times recently as I have tried to practice it in my own life here in Miami…it is hard! But it is right.

I have attached an article that talks a bit more about prayer for our cities. It is called Praying for Wicked Cities I hope you enjoy it.

http://lc2c.blogspot.com/2008/03/praying-for-wicked-cities.html