As I get more into thinking about, developing and praying for
Jefferson County for Jesus Christ (JC4JC), I am more and more
convinced that in order to move forward we need a foundation and
a movement of prayer.
Because of that conviction, I’ve been thinking about and reading
about prayer. We are all familiar with the WWJD bracelet—what
would Jesus do? What Jesus would do is pray. Every significant
event in Jesus’ life was preceded by or linked to a time of
prayer (cf. His baptism, temptation, transfiguration, and
crucifixion).
The only recorded thing Jesus’ disciples ever asked Him to teach
them was to pray (see Luke 11:1). But how did Jesus teach them to
pray? Did He teach them the four easy steps to prayer, or the five
principles of prayer, or the seven postures of prayer? Did He tell
them what they needed to do in order to pray? No. The way He
taught His disciples to pray was by praying. He did not teach, He
prayed. There is an important principle here. We learn to pray by
praying. Praying is not something that we need to be taught.
Praying is something we need to do.
Notice the results for the disciples. Every major event in the
book of Acts, beginning with the coming of the Holy Spirit,
proceeded from or happened during a time of prayer. So how can we
make prayer more important in our churches and fellowships? Maybe
the reason we are not seeing “major events” with reference to the
kingdom of God today is that we are not given over to times of
prayer together. Most of the early Christians we read about in
the book of Acts were not famous for their preaching (the only
sermons we have recorded were preached by Peter, Stephen and
Paul). The Christians in the book of Acts were famous for their
praying. And the book of Acts implies that the prayer meetings of
the church were well attended. Who attends prayer meetings inside
(or even outside) the church any more? It seems to me that prayer
meetings are obsolete. I think that is a large reason why the
church is irrelevant. I am convinced that prayer is the primary
work of the people of God—and we’re not doing it.
So let’s pray!
Dave