PRAY FOR THIS

A brief story to inspire you:
 

I recall hearing a respected Scottish preacher reminisce about a prayer meeting started in Scotland in the middle of the twentieth century. A couple of ruling elders in the Church of Scotland covenanted to meet together every week to pray for revival in their church. The sad state of the Church of Scotland today might cause one to question what effect their prayers had. But in the latter part of the twentieth century the Church of Scotland was served by some great evangelical pastors. As the story is told, the weekly prayer meeting never grew beyond those two elders, and after a couple of years of weekly meetings, their burden lifted and the prayer meeting disbanded – without any observable signs in answer to their prayers. However, some years later, it was calculated that many of those great evangelical pastors in the church were called and trained for the ministry during the period those elders were praying. 

– John Currie, The Pastors as Leader, p.108 (the story was confirmed from various sources)

You know you must pray. It’s the heart cry of a child of God. But sometimes you’re not sure what to pray for. Every Christian experiences this uncertainty at times.

The best way to begin – and to continue and grow – is to take seriously Christ’s own teaching on prayer. And I want to remind you, dear church, that on two separate occasions Jesus told his disciples to ‘pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send our labourers into his harvest’ (see Matt 9.38 and Luke 10.2).

In Matthew’s gospel, Jesus said this in response to the need. He felt deep compassion for the crowds ‘because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd’, and so he told the disciples to pray for labourers. 

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus said this as he looked at the beginnings of a solution. He was about to send out seventy-two(!) preachers to go to different places – a large number of workers, but still far, far too few. So, he tells them ‘pray earnestly…’

There are a number of reasons why this requires earnest prayer. The people needed must truly feel called by God; they must be willing to endure the downsides and difficulties of the call; they must possess certain gifts; they need to have the right kind of character; they need to actually obey and say ‘yes’ to Jesus. 

I believe, therefore, that two things are true: First, the need is still there. There’s a harvest of salvation, and too few labourers – in our church, in our city, in our nation, in this world. Second, I believe that God responds to this divinely instructed prayer request.

Therefore, I want to charge you as a church: Pray earnestly, and pray every day, that God would raise up many workers. May we live both to witness and ourselves become a part of the answer to this prayer.

We must pray!

Something serious had happened. A woman in her twenties was on a call, walking quickly and speaking urgently. Phone in hand, headphones connected, she declared loudly, “WE MUST PRAY!”. It was the only logical and sensible advice she could give her friend. Whatever they were facing, prayer was the answer. She didn’t suddenly lower her voice in hushed solemnitude or opt to send the praying hands emoji. She was full of faith. It was a battle cry.

For me, it was a jolt. Faith in the public square! What boldness! Revival! But. Wasn’t she a bit loud? A little overly expressive? Does she really believe that, or was she just saying it?

I’m a Londoner, and unfortunately, cynicism is the air I have been breathing since birth. “Cynicism is the God of the thinking person”, said one pastor, and it often masquerades as discernment or a ‘healthy’ mistrust of people as it unpicks motives and dissects even a genuine smile. Of course, there are times when we ought to exercise significant caution and wisdom. Many of us have listened to The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill podcast, experienced the disappointment of those we should have been able to trust, or faced real pain that remains hard to fully understand.

The cynic, however, has allowed negativity and suspicion to become chronic, so much so that it distorts his view of God's character and paralyses his prayer life. Yes, we need to acknowledge what is truly broken about our world. Yes, the devasting effects of sin have infiltrated our hearts, our relationships and all of creation. But the Christian also knows that on the other side of brokenness is a real, solid, grounded hope. We have a Father who is more trustworthy than we can comprehend and the wonderful hope of redemption through Christ.

“The opposite of a childlike spirit is a cynical spirit” (Paul E. Miller). In Scripture, we are repeatedly reminded about how much Jesus loves children. Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 18). I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children (Luke 10). What is it to have a childlike spirit? A child is full of wonder and curiosity, not anxious about societal power dynamics or insincere motives. He knows he is pretty helpless and isn't ashamed of it. He also believes that his daddy is good and trustworthy, and is happy to rest in his embrace. This is the posture we are called to as we pray.

In our family, we’ve started declaring “WE MUST PRAY!” for the smallest things. Partly as a joke, but partly as a jolt out of cynicism. Brothers and sisters, let’s not confuse intelligence for cynicism, or childlike trust for naivety. Join me in repenting of cynicism and enjoying the wonderful hope of the gospel.

Some practical suggestions for journeying out of cynicism:

• Go to bed. Sleep-deprived people struggle to pray and are more negative about most things

• Read A Praying Life by Paul E. Miller. I can’t recommend it enough, and this email was inspired by it

• Redeem the prayer hands emoji 🙏 by only sending it when you actually pray

• Swap city breaks for forest breaks. Let the creativity of God move you to awe and prayer

• Note down short notes every few days where God is showing you glimpses of his goodness, his work in the world, and how he is renewing all things

• Spend time meditating on Psalm 91

Praying Together

When most of us think of prayer, we tend to think of it as a private and personal discipline. At one level, this reflects Jesus’ teaching on the subject. In Matthew 6, in the passage immediately preceding the Lord’s prayer, Jesus specifically instructs his disciples to ‘go into your room, close the door, and pray to your Father, who is unseen’, lest they (or we) be tempted to treat prayer as an act of performative spirituality. Private prayer is a vital part of our personal communion (relationship) with Christ. Without it, I suspect many of us would dry up in our affections and simply find ourselves trying to squeeze out obedience in the Christian life. 

Whilst individual prayer is vital, I’m convinced most of us undervalue the importance of praying with others. Starting next Sunday (26th Feb), we’re going to be reestablishing pre-service prayer for the whole church. Everyone is invited to join us for ~30 minutes of prayer together before each service (10.15am / 4.15pm). I’d love you to consider joining us. 

Let me give you five reasons why I think we should pray together:

1. Personal encouragement. I find it incredibly helpful to pray with other people. When I hear others articulating their worship of Christ, or simply asking God to work, it propels me into prayer. If we find our personal prayer lives flagging, there’s nothing like being with others to stimulate us.  

2. Welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit. The book of Acts describes a number of communal moments where the people of God gather together and the Holy Spirit is poured out upon them. There’s something significant about God’s people lifting their voices together and asking God to move amongst us. And it’s right that we hunger for more of the Spirit’s deep work in our life together. 

3. Prayer changes things. The great paradox of prayer is that God uses our prayers to change the world. It’s a mind-boggling reality but the (often) unspoken assumption in scripture is that God chooses to work through the prayers of his people to enact his purposes. Pastor EM Bounds argues, “God shapes the world by prayer. The more praying there is in the world, the better the world will be”. I suspect our prayerlessness reveals we often don’t really believe this. 

4. Prayer displays our dependence. Corporate prayer, by its very nature, is a picture of our dependence on God. As we cry out to God together, we’re signalling our fundamental need for God’s work in our lives, both as individuals and as a body. 

5. Prayer as service. One of the best ways we can serve someone is by praying for them. As well as re-establishing pre-service prayer, we’re also putting together a prayer team to pray for folks after each service. We’d love to encourage anyone to come forward for prayer for anything that’s going on in their lives. Please do allow us to serve you in this way. 

We’ll be praying in the staff room (opposite the toilets) from 10.15am and 4.15pm every Sunday from next Sunday (26th Feb). We’ll pray for 25-30 mins, finishing by 10.45am or 4.45pm, so we’re ready to connect with others over coffee. Everyone is welcome to join us.