Missed Opportunities
It happened only a few weeks ago. The normal time for prayer came in the service. I had asked for requests. Only one person raised their hand. And so I proceeded with the prayer itself. But the moment I was finished praying hands shot up all over the sanctuary.
It happens like that all the time. Not just at church but in our personal lives as well. And so I think it is important to point out so few of us take as part of life. But it is nothing more than an attack.
There is no where in the life of a Christian that Satan works harder or more diligently than in prayer.
There is a reason for this. Your daily Bible study alone cannot change the world. Your sitting in a Sunday school class each week can’t help your neighbor. My preaching on a given Sunday can’t bring me or you any closer to God. The songs you sing won’t bring you closer.
But prayer, now that’s different. Prayer is weapon. It can be used to thwart anything the devil is using. Prayer can change lives. Prayer can directly bring you and I closer to God. Prayer can affect a person you have never before met.
Maybe you think I’m fibbing a little. But look around you. We find every excuse that we can as to why we cannot to pray. The mid-week prayer meeting is at the wrong time or on the wrong day of the week. Our quiet times are rushed by the rest of the world and lack of time. Many families sit in front of the television instead of sitting together at a table for mealtimes where they can pray together.
So I thought that today I would share some key foundations of prayer. Some things that I think every Christian should be aware of when it comes to prayer.
The first thing that I think that we need to see is that with the early church prayer was part of being together. These people prayed in groups.
Take a look with me at Acts 1 beginning in verse 12.
12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day’s walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
NIV
We can see two things in this earliest form of the church.
The first thing I want you to see is that they were all together. Everyone prayed together. There was no separation between the men and the women. There isn’t even a separation inside the early church based on prior arguments. They were all in the room. Look at the verses again. Peter? Yep. He’s there. John? He’s praying too. James and Andrew. Yes, they’re there too. Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, the other James, and Simon? They’re all praying too. Jesus’ brothers are among them. The women are around. Mary, Jesus’ own mother, is in this group.
The whole church met to pray. Everyone is included. They didn’t pray by themselves. All of them were present. We see this time and again throughout the rest of the New Testament. In fact, the time will come when that as the apostles travel when they come to a new city or town they start by looking for places of prayer. They don’t call them churches, sometimes. Instead they will refer to churches as places of prayer.
We need to be learning from this. As Christians we need to be praying together. So often we get that call in the middle of the week. The one that tells us that someone is in need of prayer and instead of praying together right then, we hang up the phone and pray by ourselves.
No! That’s not what we need to be doing. We need to be praying together. It doesn’t take that long. Just a few minutes of our time. We need to be taking the time.
The second thing I want you to see is in verse 14. Note the words, “constantly in prayer.” The Good News version says they were to gather for a “specific purpose.” They were gathered to pray.
They didn’t just pray. They prayed continuously. They prayed fervently. They wanted something and so they prayed together and they prayed with everything they had in them. They were going to pray for as long as it took.
Boy, that’s a hard idea to think about, isn’t it? We don’t do that in our society today. We don’t have time. Do we? Look around at all the things that draw your attention on a daily basis. We have better things to do. Or at least we think we do.
I want you to know that God works when his people pray. Maybe you doubt that. Maybe you have been praying and you think that God isn’t working. You seem to think that you don’t see it so there are no more miracles. It’s when God’s people pray that He works. One commentary put it this way:
“Now, as then, God works when people pray. Ordinarily we would rather do anything than pray. But it is only when we wait before God in desperate, believing, fervent, unhurried, united prayer that the reviving, energizing power of the Spirit of God is poured out.”
It’s hard to think like that though. Unhurried prayer? With our lack of time, that doesn’t happen. Believing prayer? Sure. We believe in prayer. But we don’t always believe that prayer works. Fervent, desperate prayer? Sometimes when we truly believe what we want is absolutely necessary.
Some of you have may have read the book 90 Minutes In Heaven. In it the writer, Don Piper, talks about the other minister that prayed for him. He says the man prayed for nearly 90 minutes. There was nothing specific about the prayer. Don was dead. This other minister wasn’t asking for something specific. He was asking for God to take care of needs. He was asking fervently that God to do what God wanted to do.
To me ninety minutes is a long time to be praying. I can think of times I’ve been able to pray for 20 minutes but even then I find my mind wandering. I think about the other tasks I could be doing. I think about all the problems I have in my life. My mind wanders off and I start staring at the floor, at strange dots on the ceiling, and at the fingers I’m wiggling for no apparent reason.
That’s a sad reality of our society. There are some of you who know exactly what I’m talking about when I say my mind wanders when I’m praying. It happens to you too. And you even question how a person could pray for 90 minutes. It’s the day and age we live in.
Yet the writer of Acts is telling us something very important about pray. We need to pray constantly. We need to be seeking God with a passion for what we’re praying about.
The third thing I want you to see about pray is that we need to be praying for other peoples needs.
Turn with me to Acts 12:5-6.
5 But while Peter was in prison, the church prayed very earnestly for him
6 The night before Peter was to be placed on trial, he was asleep, chained between two soldiers, with others standing guard at the prison gate.
Peter has a need here. He’s in prison and the others gather to pray for him. They know what’s coming they’ve already seen it. James, the brother of John, has already been executed. He’s gone. And now Peter sits in prison waiting for his own death.
It’s in Acts 12:2 “He (Herod Agrippa had James (John’s brother) killed with a sword.”
Peter has a real need. This isn’t one of those want things that we often pray for. This is a need. A physical and emotional need.
I honestly believe there that the others may have been praying for more than just his rescue. They were most likely praying for God’s will to happen.
There’s a thought, isn’t it? So often we pray for what we want to occur. We want things to happen our way. And so we ask God to heal people, instead of asking Him to direct the hands of the doctors to do what they can. We ask God to save people when what we could be asking is that he soften their hearts a little.
I’m not saying there is anything wrong with praying for what we want to have happen. We need to be praying for our exact needs. But we as individuals need to keep in mind that God does not always work in the way we want him to. He works in a way that is beyond our comprehension. Sometimes he grants what we pray for and sometimes he does what he knows it best, will further his kingdom, and test or temper us for his service.
But you need to see this. Peter is worried about whether or not he’s going to be executed in the morning. He isn’t wondering if the headsman’s sword awaits. He sleeping. Sleeping.
This is Peter we’re talking about here. This is the man that not once, but twice jumped willingly out of a boat. This is the man that lopped off the soldier’s ear in the Garden of Gethsemane. This is the same Peter that was usually the first to answer when Jesus asked a question. This is Peter and yet he is so calm about the coming of the morning that he is asleep between two guards.
His needs were prayed for. The others had seen to that. Their prayers had brought peace. In fact, later in this same chapter we find that their prayers bring rescue. An angel comes to Peter and he simply walks away from the prison, even with the guards standing right next to him.
And where does he go? Does he go into hiding like most fugitives of the law would do? Does he head out of town?
No. He goes straight to where the others are praying. He knows they are concerned for him and he goes to show them that their prayers have been answered by God.
Finally, above all else I think that when we pray we need to be thanking God no matter what circumstances have come into our lives. Ooooh…. That’s a hard thought isn’t it.
Some of you are saying right now, “But Tim I don’t always feel like praising God. Sometimes I need to vent. Sometimes I need his comfort more than anything else.”
You know what?
I understand that. There are times that I need his comfort. There are times that I am angry with God. And I believe that we need to tell him exactly what is going on in our hearts and in our lives. But we still need to be praising him when we pray.
It’s there in the Lord’s prayer, “Hallowed be your name.”
Lord I’m going to lift you up because you are great. Because you are marvelous. Because you are God.
There is an example of this I want you to see. It’s over in Acts 16.
Now some of you may already be familiar with the story that takes place in this chapter. But for those of you who aren’t familiar with the Bible or may not remember this story, I’ll do my best to summarize it for you.
Paul and Silas have been out building churches together. They come to this town and a woman begins following them down the street. She’s possessed by a demon and she is calling out to all those around that these two men are servants of God. Paul gets annoyed after a while and turns around and casts this demon out of the girl. Then Paul and Silas are arrest. They are both severely beaten and then thrown in prison.
Now I don’t know about you. I’m not sure I would have had the courage these two men had. They could have lost their lives. But here they are in prison and they do an amazing thing.
Look with me at Acts 16:25.
But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
They’re singing. They’re praising God. They’ve beaten within an inch of their very lives and they’re lifting God up. They’ve risen above the circumstances that have brought them to this very point and they are willing to worship God.
There is a black gospel song I remember from some years ago about his very event. Now I no longer remember the tune and I’m not going to try and sing it for you. But I will tell you about it.
The song told the story this way.
God is sitting up in heaven just listen to his angels singing. Paul and Silas are sitting in prison. Paul says, “Silas are you alive.” And Silas says, “I’m alright.” And slowly they begin to pray and sing. Their songs and prayers grow louder and more bold. At first it fills their cell. Then the prison. It lifts itself out of the prison and into the very streets of the city. It filters up into the air until it reaches the very throne of God. And God hears the praising. He summons an angel and says, “What is that?” “That’s Paul and Silas,” says the angel. “They’re in prison and they’re praising you.” God continues to listen to the praising. And slowly he begins to tap his foot to the rhythm of the music. The intensity of the tapping grows as the intensity of the worship coming from Paul and Silas grows. The tapping reaches a point where there comes an earthquake from the very foot of God and the shackles on Paul and Silas fall off. The prison doors fall down.
A bit of fantasy? Of course. But it tells the story. It shows that they are praising the one who deserves the praise.
I know prayer seems difficult sometimes. I know that we don’t always find the time.
But prayer is an awesome weapon we can use for God. Satan knows this. It’s why he will do everything in his power to prevent us from praying.
We just need to remember a few things. We need to be praying together. We need to be praying fervently. We need to pray for the needs of others. We need to always be praising him when we come in prayer.
Try it for a week. It won’t be easy. Satan will fight you every step of the way. But God will be listening. He’ll here you when you call.
