Its Time To Pray!

I can't think of anything our church does that's more important than the times we gather to pray as a church family. Seriously, there isn't a thing that should be more important to us than gathering together to seek God's face and to beseech Him on behalf of our family, church, community, and nation. I want to urge you to prioritize these gatherings of prayer and fight hard to keep the priority high on your list of all the things you have to do. Trust me, you and I won't have to look very hard at all to find a reason not to join with the church family to pray...

You could say:

• my kids have school the next day and I don't want to keep them out late... OK, its only one hour. We're talking 7-8pm.
• my son didn't finish his homework... OK, but is it life and death if its not done? How about him seeing in you the priority of prayer?
• I'm tired after work and want to relax with my family and watch TV... OK, the family thing is great. Why not spend time with your family (and church family) praying instead of vegging on the couch like a zombie?

The truth is this - we ALWAYS figure out a way to do the things we want to do and we ALWAYS find the time to do them. Maybe we just need to ask Jesus to give us wisdom in sorting out our priorities? Seriously, its not like the leadership of the church is asking you to be out of your home every night of the week. We respect the fact many of you have families and young children. But we schedule four of these corporate prayer gatherings every year (once a quarter), and some of you have never come to pray with us even once... Sorry to be so straightforward, but its time for you to think about this reality.

If we are about being like Jesus then we must be committed to prayer because He was committed to prayer. And for goodness sakes, if there was anyone who we would think DIDN'T need to pray, it would be Jesus, wouldn't it? After all, He was God, wasn't He? So, why would He need to pray?

Well, He prayed because in His humanness He needed to have communion with His Father for encouragement, grace and strength to accomplish the Father's will. Anyone in favor of more encouragement, grace and strength? He also prayed to set an example for us. I believe He wanted you and I to see the value of prayer and to walk away from His example saying to ourselves, "If Jesus did it, I'm going to do it."

I could go on and on about this subject, but here's one last thought for you to consider... The early church was a place of amazing, life-altering, manifestations of God's work among His people. Why was this the case? For many reasons, but chief among them is the fact that the early church was committed to fervent prayer. Read the book of Acts for yourself and see how many times the people of God gathered together CORPORATELY with their brothers and sisters in Christ to seek God's face in prayer. Its remarkable, really...

So, to sum it all up, let's pray together. THIS THURSDAY, MAY 6 @ 7PM AT THE HARVEST MINISTRY CENTER. I need it. You need it. Don't make excuses. Let's give ourselves to this matter of prayer and then watch what God does among us. Its going to be awesome!