Today''s post focuses on the prayer commitment of praying for revival in your neighbors.

My family lives in an apartment located on the top floor of our building. Nice for us, but not so much for the older lady living underneath us. If you''ve ever lived in an apartment, you know how this goes, right? Too much racket and you get the ol'' broomstick to the ceiling sending no other message than, "Pipe down up there!" Unfortunately, we''ve received this message more than a few times during our tenancy at this fine establishment.

Even more unfortunately, my poor daughter (the infamous three-year-old I''ve spoke of before) is often to blame for the frequent broomstick ceiling beating. She''s three. She runs. She falls. It''s a natural progression… and a noisy one, at that. Needless to say, we''re all a wee bit sensitive to the matter. I must say a dozen times a day, "Stop running! The neighbors!" The poor girl is developing a complex.

Here''s where the story gets interesting. One afternoon I heard a thud on the kitchen floor -- sure enough, my little girl fell down again. As usually, we received the appropriate in kind response followed by the saddest little words, "I didn''t do it on purpose -- it was an accident!!" I melted. And with every protective instinct rising up in me, I grabbed my daughter and said, "That''s it. We''re going downstairs."

And it was under those circumstances that I met me neighbor for the first time. And it sure wasn''t pretty. With my daughter''s head buried in my shoulder in embarrassment, my attempt to apologize for and explain the excessive noise quickly went south. Not only was the woman harsh, rude, unforgiving, and unrelenting -- she insulted my parenting and (verbally) attacked my daughter.

Yikes.

Sure, the woman had a right to be mad. Frankly, so did I. But talk about a situation that could have been used for GOOD going very, very, WRONG. Another classic case of getting stuck in the muck that God had already pulled me out of. Unfortunately, I haven''t had another exchange (good or bad) with my neighbor. She doesn''t know a thing about me and I don''t know a thing about her. Father, forgive me for screwing this one up.

It''s hard to swallow our pride, isn''t it? It''s even harder to ask God''s forgiveness when we make all wrong decisions when dealing with those we regard as our neighbors. Some of us (like me) are content exchanging an early morning hello when we head out for our morning commute. Some of us are content sending a once yearly Christmas greeting card, but heaven forbid we send another if we don''t receive something in return. Some of us are content not having an exchange of any sort -- after all, it''s just easier that way.

Easy or not -- God designed us otherwise; he designed us to engage with one another. He''s a relational God and we are a relational people. This week, let''s strive to live a little less for ourselves and a slowly take down the fence we''ve put up between our home and our neighbor''s.

Today, consider the following questions and prayer prompts as you focus on revival in your neighbors. Again, as you pray, remember that the basic nature of prayer is two-fold. 1) We pray and God listens and 2) God responds and we listen. It cannot (should not!) be any other way. So as you ask God any of the questions below, remember you are engaging in conversation with him. Don''t forget to wait on the Lord.

Blessings, friends.

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1) Do a mental sweep of your street (or apartment building). Have you had more than a superficial/surface level exchange with any of your neighbors?

2) How do you regard your neighbor(s)? Why do you think you regard them this way?

3) Commit to finding a way to intentionally interact with one neighbor 3 times this week. (Repeat this step in the weeks to come.)

4) At the end of the week, write out a list of things you''ve learned about your neighbor and spend time in prayer for them.