Prayer - More than an idle hobby

Today I went to New Hope church, a church I haven’t been to in a couple of years. It was one of the best services I’ve been to in quite a while. No, it wasn’t because of the worship, which was amazing. No, it wasn’t because of the sermon, which I did remember and enjoyed. No, it was because of something else. It wasn’t what I was taught at the service today, but what they did.

When I was in senior high my church Bible study read through this book called “Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire” by Jim Cymbala. I recently found my copy of the book. I remember that it was good, but that’s all I remembered. I couldn’t tell you a thing about the book. So I decided to reread it. I was struck once again by the power of Cymbala’s words, and this time they will stick with me. Cymbala spoke about how one must have prayer in all that they do. He was talking about churches and how they have lost the way of prayer. One quote especially struck me from a minister from New Zealand:

“You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning.
You can tell how popular a pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night.
But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to a prayer meeting” (28).

The church I went to today, New Hope, had the prayer thing down. We prayed, a lot. I loved it. What’s more, they have a weekly prayer meeting! I think about my church back home. We have a time for prayer during the service, but that’s it. Prayer I not made an integral part of my home church.

I’ve come to see that prayer is the lifeblood of a Christian. Prayer is a part of our nature, it’s in the essence of every follower of Christ. To live a life without prayer is to live a life with our eyes plucked out. We can still move around, but we can’t see where we’re going. We’re lost to the plan that God has laid before us.

I’ve realized lately that I’ve been neglecting prayer. It’s not out of some habitual desire to not pray, it’s out of this lack of having my priorities in order. We need to pray without ceasing (1 Thessalonians 5:17). I forget to pray without ceasing. And I suffer because of it.

How does one pray without ceasing? The Greek words used say more to the point to pray constantly. I’ve had this explained to me that I should think of a leaky faucet. It’s not continuous, there are breaks. Yet it’s constant. It keeps dripping and dripping and dripping. In the same way this is how we should pray.

I heard Crawford Loritts speak on praying without ceasing and he brought up the example of Nehemiah. Throughout this short book we can see five different examples about this constant attitude of prayer.

-Nehemiah prayed without ceasing when there was bad news: 1:4-6
- Nehemiah prayed without ceasing when there was an opportunity: 1:11
- Nehemiah prayed without ceasing when there was a need for intervention: 2:2-5
- Nehemiah prayed without ceasing when there was danger: 4:9
- Nehemiah prayed without ceasing when there was a need for encouragement: 6:9

Nehemiah had prayer so ingrained into his daily routine that he prayed before everything He did. That was just how it was. That’s how I want it to be.

“Prayer is the source of the Christian life, a Christian’s life-line. Otherwise, it’s like having a baby in your arms and dressing her up so cute – but she’s not breathing! Never mind the frilly clothes; stabilize the child’s vital signs. It does no good to talk to someone in a comatose state. That’s why the great emphasis on teaching in today’s churches is producing such limited results. Teaching is good only where there’s life to be channeled. If the listeners are in a spiritual coma, what we’re telling them may be fine and orthodox, but unfortunately, spiritual life cannot be taught.

Pastors and churches have to get uncomfortable enough to say, “We are not New Testament Christians if we don’t have a prayer life.” This conviction makes us squirm a little, but how else will there be a breakthrough with God?

If we truly think about what Acts 2:42 says – “They devoted themselves to the apostle’s teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer” – we can see that prayer is almost a proof of a church’s normalcy. Calling on the name of the Lord is the fourth great hallmark in the list. If my church or your church isn’t praying, we shouldn’t be boasting in our orthodoxy or our Sunday morning attendance figures.”
Jim Cymbala: Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire (50-51)