Acts 2:42 They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.
When we read through not only the book of Acts, but the whole of the New Testament, we find that prayer is central to the life of the church and to Paul’s teachings. For us in our current context at PBC, if you asked the question as an outside observer if we were devoted to prayer, you would probably have to say “no”. That is not to beat ourselves up and make us feel bad – we just aren’t particularly devoted to prayer.
“Devotion” is a strong word – I am devoted to my wife, and that is evident in the way I spend my time, order my life, deal with money and a whole bunch of other things. But am I devoted to prayer? Does it shape my life, influence how I spend my time, affect my use of possessions and money? Prayer is often hard, especially if you want to be consistent with it and have regular rhythms built into your day or week. Yet when we look at the life of Jesus we see him regularly getting up early or taking time out to go off and pray on his own in solitary places.
Luke 5:16 But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Why do you or I find it hard to pray individually or corporately? Is it still mystical to us or disconnected from “real life” such that we find it awkward, or perhaps a bit pointless at times? Why does it seem we only pray when we are in trouble, and why does God often seem to not answer our prayer? In the coming weeks we are going to look at prayer in our preaching series. We want to understand what prayer is better. To know how to pray, to look at different ways of praying and to hopefully be encouraged to pray more and engage with prayer more authentically.
As part of this journey as a church, we have shaped a prayer that we want to use as a starting point and anchoring place for us individually and corporately. It is a prayer to call us back to God, to open ourselves to him honestly, and to ask him to open our ears so we can hear his voice.
Father, Son, Spirit, I choose to make room for you
Still my mind and quiet the clamour of all that competes with you
I repent of my independence, apathy and busyness
Wherever I am, whatever I do, you are with me
I want to walk daily in intentional conversation with you
Unplug my ears, let me hear your still small voice once again
I would encourage you over the coming weeks to go deeper in prayer, explore it in new ways, experiment with new types of prayer or places of prayer in your life. Ask God to deepen your desire to spend time conversing with him and waiting on him. Let us follow the model Jesus left us, let us often take time out of our week to spend with God. May we hear his voice afresh and may it cause us to be more devoted to prayer.
Grace and Peace - Garry