Prayer Logic
One of the things that I would love to see mark our church is a culture of prayer. I believe that we are pressing towards that goal in corporate prayer with the addition of Summer Prayer, the newly formed Women’s Prayer Meeting, and as we think beyond summer about how to keep the fires of gathered prayer burning into the fall and winter. But in addition, I desire that in response to God’s Word, it would be typical to turn the corner into the lobby, into Converse or Chipman Hall, or anywhere else and find members of our church with heads bowed in prayer—and that this reflex of prayer would spill out of our building into apartments and homes in Greater Boston—at dinners and in small groups and in coffee shops and restaurants, wherever we meet.
Adriana shared with me some of the evident fruit of the newly formed Women’s Prayer Meeting, a monthly gathering at our church building. As women shared their true hearts and circumstances, tears flowed, hearts opened, and many prayers of intercession were prayed. These kinds of intentional gatherings demonstrate what we believe about God—that according to Luke 11:9-10: And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.” Here is where a lesson in logic may be helpful: If we believe that God reigns—that he is the sovereign sustainer of his people, not to mention the rest of the world—then our lives will demonstrate this conviction! We will pray all the time, for each other, and for everything.
One gentle nudge of a suggestion for our worship gatherings on Sunday—a suggestion that I would like to see bear fruit and then fan out into every other expression of our relationships as believers. Let’s seek to be intentional with the time we have together, asking one another how we can pray—and then right there on the spot, in the middle of a crowd of people, saying, “Can I pray for you now?” Then do it. Not some complex prayer, but simple, heartfelt prayers that display that we believe that God will supply our every need if we pray. As Jesus said in Luke, “Seek and you will find.” Do we believe it? If so, let’s pray.
