Prayer

Prayer has been a big part of my life. I prayed for my father's salvation for decades and had a serious heart to heart sit down with him months before he passed about his faith. My father knew the Bible well. He attended seminary in China but was kicked out because he loved playing piano but was not allowed to do so but he would sneak in to play. He always bucked the system and despised the organized church.

Many people question the need for prayer. The Bible calls us to pray but never answers the question of how prayers are answered. So we feel our time is better off spent doing something with tangible results.

We gather for prayer every Sunday morning at 9:15. In my 30+ years as a pastor, I attend and lead the weekly prayer meetings. When I was in seminary, I attended the daily noon missions prayer meetings. I never want to guilt people into doing something they don’t want to do. I can’t nag people into valuing what I do. For the majority of the three years with His disciples, Jesus prayed alone because his disciples chose to do something else instead of attend his prayer meetings. When Jesus’ disciples realized that all the power, anointing, and wisdom came from His time alone with the Father, they then asked Him to teach them to pray.

As some of you know, I went to NYU Business school and worked in finance for several years before heading into ministry. In 1857, a business man named Jeremiah Lanphier invited people to prayer at noon. No one showed up for the first 1/2 hour, then 6 people in total prayed. The Stock Market and economy crashed in 1857 and this prayer meeting with attendees eventually numbering into the 10,000s was a response that resulted in estimates of one million conversions in a nation of 30 million. Jeremiah never received fame or fortune from this but I am assured he is celebrated by our heavenly father.

Satan will do anything to stop us from praying. He will distract, divide, and destroy. He wants to stop us from praying because he knows what is possible when we do. Jesus said, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you."