When the Apostle Peter was imprisoned
for His Faith, we read these important words for the church today: "So Peter was
kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church" (Acts 12:5). God heard the
earnest prayers of those early believer. Peter was miraculously set free.
When was the last time you heard
someone pray with earnestness? The dictionary defines the word earnest as
follows: “Resulting from or showing sincere and intense conviction.” I’m sorry
to say that too often when I hear others pray there’s not only a lack of earnestness,
but sometimes it sounds like they’re bored.
In churches today that still have one,
why is the prayer meeting the least attended meeting of the week? If asked,
people will show up to almost every other kind of meeting, but call a prayer
meeting, and the majority of Sunday morning attenders will be MIA, including
ministry leaders. Many would rather watch a rerun of their favorite TV
show.
I believe there’s two reason for the
lack of interest in attending a prayer meeting. First, many, especially in
America, don’t have an urgent sense of their needs or the needs of others. When
we read about the early church being gathered together in Acts 12:12, it wasn’t
because of a special event, or tradition. They were gathered together because
there was an urgent need that was deeply felt, namely that Peter was locked up
in prison. Earnestness in prayer comes from a deep sense of our needs and the
needs of those around us. Along with this deep sense of need, there also has to
be love in our hearts. If we don’t have love in our hearts, we will not care
much for the needs of others. We would rather sit and watch YouTube while others go to Hell.
Secondly, earnestness in prayer comes not only from a sense of urgent need, but also faith in a God who hears the earnest prayers of His children. Where there’s much faith there will be much prayer. Where there is little faith there will be little prayer. And where there is little prayer we will see little of what only God can do in us and through us for our good and His glory.
What's the answer to this lack of earnestness and faith in Prayer? If an individual in the congregation can't endure sound preaching because they rather have their ears tickled, what's the answer according to Paul? The answer is preach the word (2 Timothy 4:1-4). Where there's not a heart for earnest prayer, the answer is to pray. I appreciate what Charles Spurgeon said on this subject:
"Prayer itself is an art
which only the Holy Ghost can teach us. He is the giver of all prayer. Pray for
prayer- pray till you can pray."
And I would add, Pray with an open Bible asking God to teach you to pray. Prayer is a two way conversation and it's best to let God start the conversation. My friend Daniel Henderson often says, "The one who starts the conversation tends to lead the conversation." When you seek God in this way, He will begin to share His heart with you--He will share Himself with you. And when you have a right and higher conception of God--when you take on His heart of love, you will pray with faith and earnestness.
After Peter was miraculously
delivered, Doctor Luke also wrote, “When he
realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose
other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying” (Acts 12:12).
We see here
that God moved powerfully in answer to the earnest prayers of the church and He
still does today. Recently I read these challenging words by Francis
Chan:
“If prayer
isn’t vital for your church, then your church isn’t vital.”
It’s important to
note that when Luke wrote that the church prayed for Peter, he’s referring to
believers. In addition, these believers were not gathered in a church building,
but in the home of Mary. During the early church, it was most common for the
church to gather in homes. Today, believers, especially in America, have the
luxury of gathering in the comfort of beautiful church buildings. However, we
should never lose sight of the fact that buildings don’t bring us any closer to
God. Wherever the saints are gathered in the name of Jesus He is in the midst
of us.
In light of this, about a year ago MBC
began Life Groups. These groups currently meet Monday’s, Tuesday’s and
Thursday’s. My Monday night LG has not been meeting in recent months due to
health issues. However, moving forward it we will begin meeting again,
Wednesday, January 30th.
We’re also excited to announce that in
the coming months we will be launching two more LG’s. One of the reasons that
we are adding additional LG’s is because they’re growing. Currently we have
approximately 50 brothers and sisters meeting in a LG during the week. The LG
that meets on Thursday night had a recent high attendance of 26 people. This
year we are going to make some adjustments to how LG’s are facilitated so that
prayer becomes a vital part of what takes place and not just something that we
tag on at the end.
In light of the growth of LGs and the
adjustments that will be made to make prayer a vital part, we believe that it
would be best to meet for corporate prayer once a month rather than every week
as we do currently. More specifically, LGs will meet nightly every week except
the last week of the month. The last week of the month we will have a church
wide corporate prayer meeting where we will encourage all LGs to attend. In
addition, we will require that everyone who is involved in ministry be in
attendance to give themselves to earnest faith filled prayer.
If you currently attend our weekly
prayer meeting on Wednesday nights, but are not in an LG group, we highly
encourage you to join one. If Wednesday nights work best for you, consider
joining the Wednesday night LG facilitated by me.
These changes will take
effect starting the last week of January.
If you have any questions, or need
more information about Life Groups, please contact the church office.
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