Experience - Day 26

31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.

Oh how I wish that every prayer I finished resulted in the room shaking and everyone being filled with the Holy Spirit.  In fact, sometimes I wonder if I’m not doing the right things, or praying in the right ways, when my prayers don’t result in this same type of response.

Do you ever feel that way?  Or do you ever wonder if your prayers are really making any difference?

Well, at least two things to note.  

One, the people were praying together “all the believers lifted their voices in prayer to God,” (Acts 4:24) and I think that’s critical.

In fact, it’s often said that every major reformation in history has come at the heart of people who gathered together for prayer.  This is something I pray our churches could receive and practice even more.  Finding times for us to gather and pray is critical; critical if we want our communities to grow, critical if we want the Holy Spirit to continue to lead and guide, and critical so that God will open up more doors for us to walk through.

I truly believe in the power of prayer, yet I know that many of us struggle with it.  What do we say?  How do we say it?  Doesn’t God already know what I’m thinking, feeling, needing?

Look, though we could talk about prayer for years, in it’s purest form it’s a conversation with God.  In our conversations, we need to listen, maybe even more than we talk.  And listening could mean reading Scripture, it could mean listening to a sermon, it could be contemplating the words in a worship song, it could mean listening to the sounds of nature.

But we also need to talk.  I believe God loves to hear our voice, even if all we can say is the name of Jesus.  Prayer isn’t about getting God to do what we want, it’s about opening us up to what God wants to do in us and through us.  The more we are open to receive, the more we will receive.

Two, prayer was a part of the rhythm of this movement.  They prayed regularly, often, when things were good and when things weren’t.  The early church was fueled by the fire of the Holy Spirit, and their prayers.

I really do pray that our Crosswalk communities would be epicenters of prayer.  That we could gather together, as a people called to lovewell, and lift each other up, lift our communities up, and lift our call up to God that He may do in us and through us what His will sets forth.  All so that more people can come to know Jesus as their Lord and Savior, because when that happens, the whole earth will shake.

JOURNAL

1. Reflect on your prayer life and it’s rhythm.  What works? What doesn’t? What could help you grow?
2. What questions do you have about prayer?  Consider not just writing them down, but talking them over with another person who may feel the same way.
3. Is there anyone in your community that you’d be willing to connect with regularly for prayer?  Whether that’s just one other individually praying together over the phone, or on Zoom, or over coffee, or that’s a group that meets each week.