Is prayer a priority for today’s church?
I recently spoke with a staff member from a church in North Carolina, and he was expressing concern about the lack of participation in his church’s Wednesday night prayer meeting. Only a handful of people was attending while outside the door stood a dozen or more church members waiting for the prayer meeting to end so they could use the sanctuary for Wednesday night choir practice.
When attending a prayer meeting at your church, how much time is actually spent praying? It seems that most of the time spent in many of today’s church prayer meetings is consumed with the reading of prayer requests or individuals verbalizing their prayer needs and concerns, rather than praying.
As a Christian, when you say; “I’ll keep you in my prayers,” read a prayer request, or attend a prayer meeting, do you actually follow through and spend dedicated time in prayer for those acknowledged prayer needs and requests?
If church members are not praying at church, do we really believe they will be praying at home? Many people will only pray in a time of personal need and trouble. We don’t know how much time others spend in prayer, but we do know how much time we individually spend. 1 Thessalonians 5:17 tells us to “pray without ceasing.”
In the Bible we find where Jesus said “My house shall be called a house of prayer” Three times in the New Testament (Matt 21: 13, Mark 11: 17, Luke 19: 46) Jesus refers to the statement “My house shall be called a house of prayer” which was first written in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah. (Isa 56: 7)
Should we re-evaluate our church’s priorities, and ask ourselves whether or not we are obeying Jesus? Is our church called and known as a “house of prayer?” Are we praying without ceasing?
Pastors,
Let’s commit to a challenging command in obeying Jesus, as prophesied and written in His word, to see our churches be called a house of prayer!
When looking through a notepad
that did belong to my 87-year-old
mom, Janette Turner, who passed
away on June 11th, 2021, written on
one of the pages in her handwriting
was this prayer. It is a prayer that we
all should be praying each-and-every
day of our lives.
I pray that this will inspire you,
in your prayer life and daily walk with Christ,
just as much as it did me.
Mike Turner
TOP 10 EXCUSES GIVEN FOR NOT ACCEPTING THE CHALLENGE
- We don’t have the volunteers or the staff to do it.
- We believe it would be a security risk.
- We have too many other things going on to do this.
- We would not be able to get our folks to participate
- Our Pastor is not interested at this time.
- Our church is too small.
- We already have a Wednesday evening prayer meeting
- We’re too busy to add anything else., and don’t have the time
- We already pray and don’t need to do anything different
- We may consider it next year, we already have everything set for this year.
Nothing is needed more in the lives of Christians and our Churches, than a commitment to Prayer!
– Mike Turner
When implementing the CAA P