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Prayer Walk

By Pastor Richard Boatman

Prayer is perhaps one of the most talked about and least practiced of the spiritual disciplines. We have prayer chains and prayer circles and even prayer vigils. But in the final analysis, many Christians spend little time exercising our greatest privilege and call. Paul speaks of prayer as “travailing in birth” (Galatians 4:19), and as “labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me” (Colossians 1:29). To the same church, the Apostle says, “We have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will…we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way” (1:9-10). To the church at Rome he offers powerful words of hope: “The Spirit helps us in our weakness…[and] through our inarticulate groans the Spirit himself is pleading for us” (8:26). These few verses give us a feel for the prayer lives and emphases of the early church.

Some years ago a religious survey found that the average clergy spent less than ten minutes a day in prayer. If such is the practice of the “shepherds,” imagine the condition of the overall church—certainly a far cry from our biblical roots. Perhaps one Episcopalian priest was correct when he asserted that if the Holy Spirit were removed from our churches, ninety percent of the work would go on as if nothing had happened. Offering a similar sentiment was one Chinese missionary who visited this country. Asked by a prominent mega-church pastor what impressed him most about American Christianity, the Chinese minister responded with candor: “I’m amazed at what you’ve been able to accomplish without God.” His penetrating words speak of our religious programmed machines that often substitute for the power of prayer.

Methodist founder John Wesley was a man of prayer, spending two hours daily in this exercise. But he was also a dynamic organizer or “programmer.” We moderns would do well to adopt his practice. Wesley did not organize to try and get God to move. Rather, his organizing merely helped facilitate what God was already doing. We contemporaries may too often implement programs and then pray for God to bless them. Wesley’s approach was to pray and discern the will of God and then organize accordingly. This way the program was already blessed because God was the one who initiated it!

To this end, I will teach lessons on prayer during our Sunday worship services January 11^th, 18^th, and 25^th. Commensurate with this, two of our adult Sunday school classes will join together for a six week study on prayer beginning January 11^th.  Please join me in asking God to raise up more prayer “warriors” in our congregation. (Ephesians 6:12) Wesley once said that “God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”  Dietrich Bonhoeffer intoned, “Intercessory prayer is the purifying bath into which the individual and the fellowship must enter every day.” If you sense a stirring, even a small stirring in this direction, please respond to God. You will be entering into the most sacred of calls and practices…the practice of prayer.