The story
For His glory, and for His peace on every street
Pray My Street exists for one reason: to glorify God, by asking for His love and His peace to rest on the people of every street. This is what it believes, where the idea came from, and what it will keep.
Pray My Street did not begin with an app. It began with a conviction that most Christians share and few find easy to act on: that God hears prayer, and that prayer changes things.
“The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”James 5 : 16, NIV
Years ago, one ordinary church member started praying for the streets around them, a street at a time. Sometimes walking, sometimes at home. Each street prayed for was coloured in on an A to Z, so that nothing was missed. It was slow, and online maps were new then, so the idea of a map that coloured itself in was set aside to wait for the technology. That is the whole of the origin, and it is the least important part of the story.
What mattered was never the pen or the map book. It was what the prayers were for. Every street on earth is home to people God made and loves, most of whom nobody is praying for by name. To pray for a street is to ask for His love and His peace to rest on the people who live there, and to give Him the glory when it does. The map only records that someone asked.
The belief underneath it is simple. Prayer glorifies God, and prayer makes a difference. Imagine a great many people praying for the streets they can see, and a map of the world slowly turning green because they did. That is Pray My Street.
What the prayers are for
Two things, and the map serves both
01
To glorify God
Not the person praying, not the app, and not the numbers. Every green street is a small act of turning towards Him, and the whole map is a record of people doing that. Nobody is named on it, so nobody can take the credit.
“Not to us, Lord, not to us but to your name be the glory, because of your love and faithfulness.”Psalm 115 : 1, NIV
02
To ask for His love and peace on every street
Behind every front door there are people He loves. Praying for a street asks for His peace in those homes, His love among those neighbours, and His hand on whatever is happening there that nobody else can see.
“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.”Numbers 6 : 24 to 26, NIV
What the Bible teaches
Six reasons to pray for the place you live
Praying for streets is not a new idea. It is an old instruction, given to God's people again and again. These are the words Pray My Street is built to help people act on.
Pray for the peace of the place you live
“Seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.”Jeremiah 29 : 7, NIV
God told His people to pray for a city that was not even their own. The street outside your door is the nearest place to start.
Pray for all people, not only the ones you know
“I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people.”1 Timothy 2 : 1, NIV
Every street is home to people you will never meet. All people includes them, and a street is a way of praying for them together.
Speak peace over every home
“When you enter a house, first say, ‘Peace to this house.’”Luke 10 : 5, NIV
Jesus sent seventy-two people out ahead of Him, and the first words at every door were to be peace. A prayed-for street is that greeting, given to every door at once.
Pray in secret, and let God see
“But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”Matthew 6 : 6, NIV
The map never shows who prayed. The street turns green, the person stays unseen, and whatever comes of it is God’s to give.
Ask Him to heal the land
“If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”2 Chronicles 7 : 14, NIV
The promise is to people who pray, and the promise is for a land. Streets are what a land is made of.
His kingdom come, on earth
“Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”Matthew 6 : 10, NIV
Jesus taught His followers to pray this before anything else. On earth has only ever happened one place at a time.
The words underneath it
“The earth is the Lord's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it.”Psalm 24 : 1
“Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”Mark 12 : 31
“You will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings.”Isaiah 58 : 12
What it will keep
Six principles, written down first
Decided before a line of the app was written, so they cannot quietly drift later.
Free to pray, always
The heart of it will never cost anything. If it is ever supported by the people who love it, praying stays free and supporters get extras, not access.
It never knows where you are
There is no location permission to grant. You choose a street; the app does not follow you to it. That is a design, not a setting.
Nobody is named
A green street says that someone prayed. It never says who. There are no profiles, no leaderboards, no public records. Prayer stays between the person and God.
One street is one street
The whole named road inside its own town. Simple enough to explain in a sentence, and every colour and every percentage rests on it.
Calm, not gamified
No streaks, no badges, no red dots demanding attention. A held moment, a colour that changes, and a record you keep for yourself.
The whole world, from the start
Any street on earth can be prayed for on the first day. The percentages begin where the data is best and fill in as people do.
How it stays free
Supported by the people who love it, not by adverts
Praying is free, for ever
Choosing a street, the moment, the colour changing, your record, your town's coverage, the verses and sending a street to someone. None of it will ever be behind a payment, and there will never be an advert next to a prayer.
Later, people who want to keep it going will be able to support it, a small amount a month or once and for good, and get a few extras as a thank you. That is how the servers get paid for without selling anything.
Who is building it
Pray My Street is being designed and built by BozApps, a small UK studio that draws things before it builds them and puts them in people's hands in stages. The concept screens on this site are that drawing.
bozapps.co.ukQuestions about how it works? Read the answers