RADICAL PRAYER
The Prayer Room is open each week to pray for revival for ourselves, the women in our church, community and world.
Mondays 6-7 pm & Wednesdays 11:30 am -12:30 pm
A House Of Prayer
"'It is written,' he said to them,‘My house will be a house of prayer.’" (Luke 19:46)
We read these words, and the question arises: How do we make our church house a house of prayer? We have acknowledged that prayer is a priority in our church body, but are we living it? Corporately? Individually? There is always a deeper place of prayer where God longs to meet with us – a place where revival is stirred. It is a place where walls come down and the people catch on fire for God. This is at the heart of prayer: A body of believers acknowledging utter brokenness before God, crying out to him, and being filled by the Holy Spirit with a fire that spreads to our community and our world (Acts 1:8).
The reality, though, is that it starts within individuals. One seed planted in one heart. One at a time. It starts in our own homes when the doors are closed, when we’re out of sight from the world and only God is watching us. It starts as we become individuals who pray. Individuals who pray while we mow the lawn or wash the dishes or take the garbage out. Individuals who set aside time to pray and forsake sleep to pray. Who rise early and stay up late (Mark 1:35). Individuals who make prayer a priority because when we pray we come to know him more, and isn’t that really the purpose of life: to know him more (John 17:3)?
It continues when individuals, with individual fires in their hearts, fan those flames so that those around them catch on fire too. When families start praying together and not just before supper. When they turn off the electronics and get real about seeking God’s face (Psalm 27:8). When women step way out of their comfort zones and ask other women to pray. When men ask men. When families pray together. One bridge built at a time. That’s how our house becomes a house of prayer.
Eventually those bridges are strewn together, and we find that we’re standing on solid ground (Psalm 40:1-3). Hearts are burning for more of God, and we press in together as a congregation because…how could we not? Like the disciples, if we keep silent, even the stones will cry out (Luke 19:40).
We don’t become a house of prayer by checking one more box off the to-do list and showing up for the prayer meeting. We don’t become a house of prayer by trying to sound spiritual and wise and say all the right words when we pray. We become a house of prayer when we acknowledge our utter brokenness, our desperate need for a Savior, and we call on him for breath and life and everything that comes after that. We become a house of prayer when breath and life and everything else no longer really matter that much; when only one thing matters – seeking his face (1 Chronicles 16:11). We press in not merely for life and breath and everything else; we press in to seek his face and bow down in the presence of his greatness. His glory.
And so this is the challenge: become an individual of prayer this week. Set aside five minutes or fifty minutes or whatever it takes, and seek his face. Seek his face in the quiet moments and don’t stop pressing in as the day presses on. Our house will be revived one heart at a time.
Stacey