Starting today, we’re beginning 2021 by dedicating it to God with 21 Days of Prayer and Fasting.
This week, Pastor Jonny brought us a message on prayer and Doug will be speaking on fasting next week.
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12Now we ask you, brothers and sisters, to acknowledge those who work hard among you, who care for you in the Lord and who admonish you. 13Hold them in the highest regard in love because of their work. Live in peace with each other. 14And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone. 15Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always strive to do what is good for each other and for everyone else.
16Rejoice always, 17pray continually, 18give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
19Do not quench the Spirit.
(1 Thessalonians 5:12-19)
A great Victorian theologian and preacher, Charles Spurgeon, ranked prayer as one of the most important things in life. He called his church prayer meeting “the Boiler Room”, as a praying church was the fuel for his ministry. At Light & Life, we also believe in the power of prayer, and so we also have a prayer meeting. Originally, they were weekly at Garstang Free Methodist, and now they are every 3 weeks on a Sunday evening on Zoom.
When it comes to prayer, we can always do better. We need to be intentional about it. We need to change our attitude about it and set time aside for it, and we will end up with a deeper, more prayer-saturated relationship with the Lord.
A question many ask is why pray to God who knows and ordains everything? We pray not to inform God but to involve God in our lives. When we pray, we say that we want God to be close with us, involved in our day.
Pray to listen. We ought to be telling God we’re ready to open the Scriptures and be ready to hear from Him.
Prayer is a vehicle. It takes us from where we are to where we need to be. Prayer is not just a conversation, but it is the vehicle that moves us through difficult stages in life.
Prayer is a weapon. Spiritual warfare is real. You can check out our series on that from last summer on our Youtube channel. The Enemy wants to distract us, but prayer enhances our focus on God and is an act of worship, which helps us live a more Christ-centred life.
How then shall we pray? Scripture gives us so much inspiration for this. Never stop praying, do not be anxious. God is omnipresent and omnipotent, so why wouldn’t we pray when we have a God with those attributes?
Where shall we pray? Prayer can happen anywhere. Some ideas might be:
An altar in a church (although can’t do that due to lockdown restrictions at the moment)
The foot of a cross in a church.
Anywhere on our knees with our face down - this is not the most comfortable position, but we bow before the King.
At the top of a hill with our arms raised high - being our in creation is an incredible place to pray and worship God as Creator.
In a hospital - praying for those who are sick.
In a group - a family in prayer is powerful.
Individually - a church made up of people praying individually makes a strong corporate church body.
Basically, as long as our posture in prayer is one of humility, we are doing it right.
One of the most important thing to realise is that prayer should be first response, not last resort. We need to be spending time with God, who loves us and has called us.
Let’s pray Lord’s Prayer together.
9“This, then, is how you should pray:
“ ‘Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
10your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
11Give us today our daily bread.
12And forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
13And lead us not into temptation, a
but deliver us from the evil one. b ’
(Matthew 6:9-13)