REFLECTING ON OUR WEEK OF 24/7 PRAYER

​REFLECTING ON OUR WEEK OF 24/7 PRAYER

We dedicated this past week to prayer. For 168 hours—seven days and nights—at least one person has been in the church building praying. Often, there were two or three or even more people praying at the same time. What did we accomplish? Looking back on this week, I think many important things happened. Here are just a few:

 We Made God Happy: The apostle Paul says, “Live in order to please God” (1 Thessalonians 4:10). I think we pleased God this week. All parents love it when their kids spend time talking with them. God loves it too. Martin Luther said, “Prayer is climbing up into the heart of God.”

 We Changed the Future: The request, “Your Kingdom come your will be done,” implies that both God and we play a role in bringing about God’s preferred future. It is a partnership in which God is the directing partner. I have no doubt that God will do “more than all we can ask or imagine,” through the prayers we have prayed. I’m keeping my eyes open for what he has in store for us.

 We Changed: You can’t pray from the heart and not be changed in the process. In prayer, we open ourselves up to God, and that opens us up to new possibilities. Over the course of time, prayer will bring about incremental changes in the person who prays, as well as in the community that prays. This week we welcomed God to make us more like the people he wants us to be.

 We Deepened our Unity: Psalm 133 says: “Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers and sisters dwell in unity! …For there the Lord commands the blessing, life forevermore.” Through our shared time of prayer, we humbled ourselves, together, before God. People, so unified, welcome God’s blessing.

​This is just tiniest tip of the iceberg of what, I believe, God has done through this week. We serve a wonderful, wonder-performing God. It is impossible to enumerate all of the gifts he gives to the people who earnestly seek him.—Pastor Tom

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