First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone.
1 Timothy 6 2:1
It was remarkable. I was leading the congregation in prayer, so I had collected the prayer cards - and there was an outpouring of concerns, hopes, care and thanksgiving from our church. We collect, as you may know, the written petitions of our people on prayer cards - and the participation in our church is growing by leaps and bounds. So, as I sat through the offering and listened to our choir, I began to sort and organize the prayer cards, but I ran out of time, there were so many requests.
We are a praying church. More than that, we celebrate the power of prayer. We don't do so naively, as if our praying can manipulate God into doing what we want. We believe in the power of prayer because we have experienced God's answers to prayer in a variety of ways. When we pray, we often have a particular outcome in mind - that's only human. But the prayer of faith trusts God with the present situation and the outcome. So we pray and wait to experience God's presence and involvement in our lives and the lives of those for whom we pray.
Our prayers connect us to those for whom we pray, connect them to God and the congregation with whom we pray and surround all with the faith that the Holy Spirit alone can create. As such, we are forging a spiritual chain of prayer. And we believe that the world changes because of that - not because we are such great pray-ers, but because God has promised to listen and act on our prayers. God's promise is the power. We are those who trust and, through prayer, connect with that promise and power.
In our Atrium you will find a prayer chain made up of the various prayer cards we have collected over just the past couple of weeks. I hope you'll take time to look at it and imagine all the people for whom we have prayed. Then picture how we are connecting with them and with our God. Stop and add a quiet prayer of your own, and keep the chain growing.
Lord Jesus, thank you for both the command to pray and the promise that meets us as we obey your command. Amen
