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I’ve been asked to speak for a moment on prayer – prayer in the church and what prayer means to me personally.
John Bunyan, who wrote Pilgrim’s Progress, had this to say about prayer: “You can do more than pray after you have prayed, but you cannot do more than pray until you have prayed.”
John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church, believed that God acts only in response to our prayers.
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God said to Solomon, “If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, then I will hear from heaven, and will heal their land.”
Jesus said, “Ask in my name and you will receive that your joy may be full.”
We can’t do God’s work until we’ve been filled with the Holy Spirit, and the way to the Spirit is through prayer. After His resurrection Jesus instructed His disciples to remain in seclusion and to pray. Forty days later they received the power He had promised them -- the power that would enable them to carry on the work He had begun: the Holy Spirit that would forever live inside them. Without that filling, they would have been powerless and without that filling, we, too, are powerless to do what God has planned for, and gifted us, to do. The apostles went out armed with God’s Word. And we, today, must know the Word before we can share it with others. So to daily prayer, we add daily Bible reading.
This is a church. We assume the Holy Spirit is here in our midst. We assume the Holy Spirit is directing our efforts. But when we merely assume this, we are missing something very important: We must ask for this presence. Again, through prayer.
Jesus placed great importance on prayer and throughout His life He continually prayed. He calls us to do the same -- in private and together. He gave us both a model, the Lord’s Prayer, and an intercessor, the Holy Spirit.
I have a prayer journal. I don’t write down every prayer-, but I write prayers asking for guidance in making decisions, directions to take, and thinking through problems. After I have written my question or my concern, I put my pen down and wait. When I begin writing again I am writing answers, insights gained, decisions made, comfort received. Sometimes when I re-read these entries I can’t recognize the words as my own. They are coming from a pen other than mine. I highly recommend this practice.
My prayer this morning is that Bethany will become a House of Prayer and that this place will be filled with the wind and fire of the Holy Spirit. Let’s pray for it! I challenge you to pray for this each morning when you open your eyes and again at night before you go to sleep. Do this for 30 days and let’s see what happens.
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When Ken asked me to speak on the importance of presence, he said, “You seem to like being here.” And that’s true. Coming to church is an irreplaceable part of my week and of my life. In fact, when I moved to Houston three years ago, it was with the resolution that I would find a church in my neighborhood, so that the place where I lived would also be the place where I worshipped.
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Why does this matter to me? Why, when I am unable to attend a Sunday morning service, so I feel slightly off balance during the rest of the week, as if I’d missed something as important to my well being as my daily Zyrtec?
I believe there are two parts to the answer to this question. Over and over, the New Testament emphasizes the importance of community. Jesus did not minister alone—He chose twelve disciples to assist Him. The Apostle Paul did not embark on his great missionary journeys alone, but always with a companion—Barnabas, Silas, Mark. And then there’s the pervasive metaphor of family – God our Father, the sons and daughters of God, co-inheritors with Christ, brothers and sisters in the Lord, the fmily of God. Christianity is not a solitary faith. We are meant to come together—to encourage each other, to teach and learn from one another, to seek and to do the will of God together. I am a better Christian, more able to love God and people, when I take the time to fellowship with my fellow believers.
And then there’s the second part of the answer—the Gospel of Matthew records this promise from Jesus: “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” We gather together, not just to meet with each other, but to meet with Christ. There is a unique movement and blessing of the Holy Spirit that is given when we meet together in the name of Jesus, a gift of the presence of God that we cannot experience in any other way.
Here’s the thing—a church service or a prayer meeting or a work group or a potluck—doesn’t always look particularly momentous on the surface. No holy spotlight shines down on us every Sunday morning. It may feel chaotic — frustrating — even on occasion, boring. Sometimes it’s very easy to wonder, why bother? But God loves to use the ordinary things of the world to do His work. Just look at the tools Jesus used to perform miracles during His ministry on earth -- mud. Bread. Coins. Water. Common, dull, germ-ridden objects that nevertheless became a part of the story of the kingdom of God.
And in the same way, our very ordinary presence here – singing a hymn, reciting a prayer, trying not to fall asleep after a late Saturday night -- is a way for God to work in us and through us, a part of the story of His Kingdom.
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