DAYS  OF PRAYER

Prayer is a gift God has given His people. God said, “Call to Me and I will answer you…” (1). That is an incredible promise when I consider who God is and I remember who I am. Prayer connects us to God in a fellowship that is not possible any other way. That is one reason at Hyde Park Baptist and The Quarries Church we are setting aside Sunday October 19-Wednesday October 22 as “Days of Prayer.”

Years ago I read the results of a survey reporting a large percentage of Christians felt they had never encountered the presence of God in a church service. That bothered me then and it bothers me now. In one sense, my life calling should be devoted to getting people in contact with God. Like Andrew in the New Testament who brought his brother to Jesus, and who brought the boy with the loaves and fishes to Jesus, and who brought the Greeks to Jesus, (2) I can also arrange meetings between God and people. Prayer meetings can connect God and His people. I have no doubt the Apostles were thinking something similar when they said, “We will devote ourselves to prayer and the ministry of the Word.” (3) The word “prayer” in their declaration is plural in Greek and is preceded by the definite article, “the”. In other words, the Apostles said, “We will devote ourselves to “THE PRAYERS” (emphasis mine), meaning not only their personal prayer lives but also the coordination of the frequent prayer meetings that characterized the early church! That’s what Armin Guesswein meant when he said, “The early church didn’t attend a prayer meeting, the early church was a prayer meeting.”

Prayer connects God and His people. A true prayer meeting should be primarily about one thing: bringing people into contact with God. I lead a prayer group every Wednesday night after our mid-week church service. It is always good- but sometimes it is indescribable. When the Spirit of God connects with the spirit of man, the result is something different than all other experiences in life. That connection often occurs in my informal prayer group. Last night we met and our main prayer was for “Days of Prayer.” We had a prayer meeting in which we prayed for another prayer meeting! We prayed for prayer. It was powerful. At spontaneous and combustable moments like that, I come to realize what Samuel Chadwick meant when he said, “The greatest answer to prayer is more prayer!”

Sunday October 19, 2014 will be different by design at Hyde Park Baptist/The Quarries Church. I urge you to pray for the service and attend “Days of Prayer.” The goal is simple : We want to bring people into contact with God.

~jkb

1-JEREMIAH 33:3

2-JOHN 1:40-41; JOHN 6:8; JOHN 12:22

2-ACTS 6:4