I just spent some time looking over our church’s Prayer Walls from 2008 in order to get a sense for how we prayed and how God moved over this last year. Certainly the most regular prayers tended to be for God to heal those who were sick or hurting, to comfort those who were grieving, and to provide for those who needed a job. Along with those prayers, we prayed every week for a different ministry, for our elders, and for me and my family. For those of you who engaged in those prayers for my family regularly, THANK YOU. Most of you have no idea what kind of spiritual warfare goes on in our lives (especially on Sunday mornings), and I know there is no more important ministry to me and my family. There were also two bigger prayer items that dominated the year – our mission trip to Honduras, and our search for a new meeting space followed by our subsequent move to 131 Griswold St. And we praise God for how He answered those prayers this past year.
As I reflect on our prayer life as a church and look forward to 2009, I feel God calling us to get both smaller and deeper. Smaller meaning that we do not let the length of the list keep us from coming alongside one or two people on the list who God could be calling us to encourage and come alongside; and deeper meaning that we go further than simply praying for healing, comfort, and provision.
Let me begin with the call to go smaller. When you look down the list of those requesting prayer, do not let the number of prayers overwhelm you. Instead, pray that God might put someone on that list on your heart, so that you might come alongside them and encourage them through their struggle. Perhaps you can pray with someone until they experience victory or an answer to their prayer, checking in with them occasionally for updates. Or you can send one person a note of encouragement, letting them know that you will be praying for them. It is okay to feel like you can not pray diligently for everyone on that list. Just don’t let the list keep you from coming alongside someone in their pain and praying for them.
Secondly, the call to go deeper. Consider what great things we could pray for fervently: that our church would love like Jesus, serve like Jesus, look like Jesus, and be holy like Jesus. That God might use us to reach this town, this region, and even this world with the gospel. That He might open doors that have long been shut for His message, that He might transform our town into one that passionately loves God, and that He might give us a hunger and thirst for Him above all other things. Or that we would pray according to these Scriptures:
Ephesians 1:18-19 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Ephesians 3:17-19 And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge– that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 6:19-20 Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should.
Colossians 4:3-4 And pray for us, too, that God may open a door for our message, so that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ, for which I am in chains. Pray that I may proclaim it clearly, as I should.
Acts 4:29-30 Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.
There is so much more available to us than simply healing, comfort, and provision. There is the same power that raised Christ from the dead. There is boldness and clarity to speak the gospel. There is a love whose depth can never be reached. There is hope beyond your wildest dreams. And so in 2009, GO DEEPER with God. Ask Him to lead you into the depths of His great love and incomparable power and matchless beauty. Do not be content to simply ask for the usual, but ask for more of Him. I am reminded of Luke 11:1, where the disciples saw Jesus praying, and then remarked, “Lord, teach us to pray.” The disciples saw something in how Jesus prayed that made them say, “I want that.” There is a depth of intimacy and power in prayer that Jesus knew that certainly puts us to shame. In 2009, I challenge you to go deeper with your prayer life, to not just pray for the usual, but pray for the extraordinary.
Go smaller. Pick someone to come alongside and pray for in the midst of their struggle. And go deeper. Do not be content to stay where you are, but search out the depths of our great God. To God be the glory.
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