Praying Fervently

Read Acts 12.

Meditate on the passage answering the following questions:
1. What does this tell me about God and the Lord Jesus Christ?
2. What lesson can I learn from this passage?
3. What particular sin does it warn me against?
4. What verse, phrase or single word can I take with me for the day?

Pray

Today's reading was a very familiar story. Of the many things that I could have noticed (persecution, angels, Peter's astonishment, Rhoda, etc.), the part that stands out to me today was verse 5 and 12. The church was gathered to pray. When was the last time you gathered with the church to pray, let alone pray fervently. Was it when the church was without a pastor? Or, was it when the church was in a financial crisis? Maybe it was when the pastor asked us to pray for the mission team?

I am guessing that my own self was seen in this passage. I am not always in prayer. And I like the church gathered on that occasion don't always believe that God answered the prayer. I think it is that doubt that causes me to value prayer less and less. I have excuses (God's will is going to happen any way. So why pray?)

I wonder if our prayer meetings always had a crisis to pray for would there be more people. Since becoming a pastor, I have had more requests from people to just cancel Wednesday Night Prayer Meeting. I wonder if the guilt of this service being on the schedule and people's inability to attend drives this request, or is it simply we don't have room for prayer so why have a meeting. It is by far the least attended meeting of the church, but does that make it the least important.

I remember prayer meetings as a child. I remember listening to people like Mr. Elliot, my dad, Mr. Cooley, and other men pray from the depths of their souls. I bring my kids to prayer meetings hoping they will hear men and women praying and seeking God's face and will. I wonder if the people that night prayed silently or aloud? Did everyone pray or just those who felt led? Whatever was going on God heard the prayers of those saints. He responded in a way they expected the least. I am guessing they prayed for a fair judge, or Peter's defense of the gospel. I am certain they prayed for his release, but they did not expect it to come this way. I wonder if prayer meetings have become stale because we pray the same things, expecting the same results. What if we are missing God's answer because it isn't our dream.

Pray fervently for your pastor. Pray fervently for your teachers. Pray fervently for your church. Pray fervently for your family. Pray fervently for the lost.