Praying Together

As we have concluded the Lenten Season and we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord, I am filled with joy as I continue to serve here as your Pastor. I am excited about how God will continue to work here at our church. There are two things I feel led to do even as we move into the Spring and Summer. I would like to give us an opportunity to pray together more and to continue to study God’s Word together as we have done in our Lenten services. Our Church’s Mission Statement is “Glorifying God, we will grow in Christ and share God’s love.” The only way I know to grow in Christ is to spend time in prayer and in Scripture Study. Last month I wrote extensively about studying Scripture, this month I want to focus on praying together. In Acts 2:42-44 we read 42They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. This is really our example of how to be the church. So, what did the early church do? They studied the apostle’s teaching (what we know as the Bible). They devoted themselves to fellowship, i.e. they hung out together. They broke bread together which is a reference to sharing a meal and also partaking of the Lord’s Supper. Finally, they devoted themselves to prayer. 

Individual prayer is good and necessary, but we also need to meet together to pray as the church. E.M. Bounds wrote:

“The life of the church is the highest life, and its office is to pray. Its prayer life is the highest life, the most fragrant, the most conspicuous. When God’s house on the earth is a house of prayer, then God’s house in heaven is busy and powerful in its plans and movements. ‘For mine house shall be called a house of prayer for all people’ (Isaiah 56:7), says our God. Then, His earthly armies are clothed with the triumphs and spoils of victory, and His enemies are defeated on every hand… The very life and prosperity of God’s cause - even its very existence - depend on prayer. And the advance and triumph of His cause depend on one thing: that we ask of Him.”

We as a church must not limit our corporate prayer to Sunday mornings. I know it can be scary and many of you are uncomfortable praying out loud. That is one of the reasons I had the Confirmands take turns to offer a closing prayer for their class. Learning to pray together is a vital skill for everyone who seeks to follow Jesus.

Drawing on an image from C.S. Lewis, Tim Keller writes, “By praying with friends, you will be able to hear and see facets of Jesus that you have not yet perceived. . . . Knowing the Lord is communal and cumulative, we must pray and praise together. That way “the more we share the Heavenly Bread between us, the more we shall all have.”

I will be starting this month a weekly prayer time. If you are interested, please let me know what time works best for you and I will set the time based on the availability of those expressing interest.

    Prayerfully,

    Pastor Jim