The Church Is Prayerful

Charles Spurgeon once said prayer moves the muscles of God’s omnipotence. He believed God both sovereignly ordained every event but also that God honors man’s petitions and would not do anything unless man asked. And you see that often in the Book of Acts. Here are 6 lessons on prayer from this book of inspired early church history.

1. Acts 1:13-14, 24-25 – When you need people, pray for them. The 11 disciples could only see what they could see. They didn’t know the heart of these qualified men. That was God’s territory. They didn’t know who “God’s man” was; so, they prayed to God about His man. When we need people for certain ministries or activities, we should not just hope God sends the kind of people you need to fill for certain needs; we must pray God would raise them up.

2. Acts 2:42; 3:1 – Christians are praying people. Peter was compelled by God to preach on Pentecost. The crowds were gathered for this Jewish feast and saw this filling of the Holy Spirit, and this new gift tongues-speaking and the people were compelled to come up with reasons for this behavior. Peter preached a sermon to re-direct their thoughts away from the tongues-speaking onto the crucifixion of the Lord. The result? 3,000 men converted to Christianity, and the church was born. Prayer is a means to communicate the One who saved us. The Jews had 3x of daily prayer – 9:00am, 12:00pm and 3:00pm. These regularly scheduled times of prayer show us their commitment to pray. They planned to pray, which is a key to begin a more faithful person of prayer, as we will talk later.

3. Acts 4:24-31 – When we feel insufficient for the task, we should pray. In Acts 4, Peter and John were before the Sanhedrin defending themselves for preaching the Gospel. The Sanhedrin couldn’t imprison them; so, they gave them a public reprimand. Peter and John left this scene and joined the local body of believers to give them a report. The Christians needed boldness as they faced public ridicule. How could these new, immature Christians possibly hope to persevere? By asking God for it! Prayer gave them confidence and made them even more faithful to the task of proclaiming the Gospel. God’s enabling. The Christian who faces adversity with hope, confidence and joy is a praying Christian. The Christian who panics often, can’t get away from their anxieties, and rarely sees victory over sin is not a praying Christian.

4. Acts 7:59-60 – Prayer is a means to love others. Stephen’s prayer was for those who persecuted Him. Much like Jesus’ prayer on the cross (Luke 23:34), Stephen wanted his persecutors to be saved. He wanted them to be treated better than he was being treated by them. Not praying for someone in need is cold indifference to that individual.

5. Acts 13:1-3 – Pray before you minister. Paul is ready for this 1^st missionary journey and how appropriate that his ministry begins with prayer. Ministry – as we learned from Spurgeon – cannot presume to be successful without God’s “backing” and that comes through prayer.

6. Acts 20:36-38 – Praying together creates intimacy and unity. Paul was in Ephesus on his 3^rd and final missionary journey. He was concerned for the brethren and the false teachers that could rise from among them. He exhorted them to be alert. He preached long and hard to their elders about protecting the flock. He told them that God would give them everything they needed to shepherd these people. What a beautiful scene this must have been to see Paul praying for them and them praying for Paul. It created a loving bond. Prayer creates a family.

But to grow in prayer, you must plan to grow in prayer. We must plan for it.

We must plan to mediate on God and His Word often. I’ve never met someone who loves God’s Word AND never prays. And I’ve never met a Christian who prays often BUT doesn’t know what God’s Word says. Meditation on the Word and prayer are companions.

We must plan to pray when tragedy strikes. Next time you see something awful reported on the news, pray through that tragic news. How about next time you get an amber alert on your phone, pray for the guilt of the kidnappers to would turn the missing person in and the safety of the one who is missing.

We must plan to pray by recording our requests and answers. Keep a record of how God is responding to your prayers. And when God answers your prayers, tell others how He did so. That encourages further prayer. Prayer takes organization.

We must plan to pray with others. If you don’t have a prayer partner, find one. If you don’t attend a prayer meeting, join one.

If we want to show our care for one another – then we must pray. If we want to be a thankful church – then we must pray. We don’t want to be an anxious or worrisome church – so we must pray. We want to possess wisdom and discernment and be filled with joy – then we must pray.