Let's be a praying church
If you've spent much time in the church, you might already know how important prayer is. You've heard all about it and you probably understand why it's important. You may even want to see more of it in your life, family, and in the church, but where do you start?Have you ever been praying with someone or by yourself, and struggled to find things to pray for? You continue to try and push through your stale and dry prayers because you know it's something you should do, but nothing seems to change. You know prayer is powerful, you believe it, but you struggle to see it as valuable.When you hear the church is hosting a prayer event, you quickly think up a few reasons why you don't need to be there; why a night to rest at home is more important. Well, here's a reminder for us: that reaction will never change. We will always struggle against the call to pray, because it goes against our very nature. It's a selfless and needy act; it's inconvenient. The fact is that prayer is a discipline. It's a sacrifice. This means you have to put effort into it, and we don't like things that take work. But it’s worth it. There’s nothing more powerful in God’s kingdom than a people dependent on God in prayer.Praying together as a group is a beautiful picture of what the church should be. A people reconciled to one another and to God in dependence on Him. On one hand, prayer is an ordinary, seemingly innocuous thing. However, the Bible describes prayer as a necessary act in the church. We are a church that prays because God has chosen prayer as a means of working through His people to accomplish His purposes in our city and in the world. Praying together (corporately) is the main biblical model we have of prayer. (Matthew 6:9, Acts 2:42, James 5:16)
A healthy church is a praying church.
Once a month, our church gathers to pray together. It might just be the most important thing we do. Our hope as pastors and leaders is to see the church rally together in constant prayer in dependence on God (1 Thessalonians 5:17). So fight through those thoughts and excuses that come up and let's seek God together. Let's bring our cares, worries, and fears and cast them down at the feet of Jesus in dependent and expectant prayer. God's going to do great things.See you on the second Thursday of each month.A note for parents: If prayer is important for both the individual and the church body, how much more important is modeling this to your kids? As we seek to disciple our kids and train them up in the way they should go (Proverbs 22:6), let me encourage you to bring your kids to the prayer night if at all possible. (Childcare is an option if you let us know) Will it be easy? No. It'll be messy and loud and inconvenient, but this is what the church is. A messy people reconciled to God and to one another in dependence on Him. Let's show that mess to our kids in all of its glory.
