A few years ago, my church at the time chose to focus on prayer. For some months, we would meet every day for about three hours to pray. I would typically make it for three or four days in the week.
At first, I struggled. Formal prayer isn’t my thing. But by the time I got to the second hour, I sensed a connection and it became easier. But I had to do something differently.
I came to church with things on my mind; things I wanted to talk to God about. Those were the things I wanted to pray about. But the prayer leader kept interrupting with all these abstract prayer points. I wished she would be quiet and allow me to pray. At first, I thought I was being rebellious. After all, we’re supposed to be united in prayer. Then something dawned on me.
The local church exists in two parallel universes. In a service, God is working through the body but he is also ministering to individuals. He doesn’t care about church programmes and agenda. They are tools and he will do what he likes, when he likes and how he likes. It is his church and his service. Sometimes, he doesn’t want to spend 20 minutes on praise & worship; 10 minutes praying; 20 minutes preaching and 10 minutes collecting offering. Sometimes, he doesn’t want the choir director’s playlist. He just wants him to sing the same song over and over for 30 minutes to catch someone’s attention. But back to prayer.
I realised that when people say they pray for hours, they give the impression they achieved something. Unless it is simply an exercise of willpower, when people pray like that, it is the Holy Spirit praying through them. It doesn’t seem like hours. Someone is energising them and generating power through them. We should depend on the Holy Spirit more.
In church today, the pastor gave an analogy of constantly filling your spiritual tank or charging your batteries in prayer. That way, you’re always ready for anything. I like that analogy. I love the way I feel when I pray. I feel more confident and less worrisome.
[bctt tweet=”In church, God works through the body but also ministers to each individual.” username=”subomiplumptre”]
[bctt tweet=”I love how I feel when I pray – more confident and less worrisome.” username=”subomiplumptre”]