Prayer

A couple weeks ago I began to sense that I needed to pray more. At the same time, I attended a meeting at our church that was designed to address ways to make improvements. At that meeting my initial thoughts were we should do more advertising and programs. But before I could speak up, the Lord reminded me that we should increase our prayer time. I didn't tell anybody at that meeting but the next week my pastor mentioned to me that he was feeling convicted to pray more and wanted us to become a church of prayer. It was no coincidence that we were both being led in the same direction.

As a result, we have started holding prayer meetings before our worship service and I am in charge of leading them. We spent the first week praying through Psalm 51. I chose this passage because I was feeling the need to confess my own sins but also because I wanted us a church to confess our sins before we moved forward with our numerous prayer requests. It was a powerful time. Afterwards a friend of mine who was at the prayer time but not yet a Christian took me aside and confessed some sins in his life. I love how the spirit convicts people without anybody having to say a word. The sermon that night was on David and Psalm 51. I had no idea but again we were on the same page and it was obvious that God had planned it ahead of time.

The following week's prayer time was not as powerful for some reason. We started late and it felt a little rushed and forced. Tonight we meet again and I feel like I need to replicate the same feelings we had the first night. But I woke up this morning with a sense of relief that my only responsibility is to create an atmosphere of prayer and that the Lord will do the rest. I sometimes feel inadequate that I am leading the prayer time and wished I knew how to pray better. Then I realize that praying is not a matter of performance but a matter of the heart. I can lay out relevant topics or use flowery words but without a sincere longing to simply dwell in God's presence it doesn't much matter. So tonight I hope to lay out that example and invite others to join with me in enjoying His presence.