May
2002
Reason for praying
‘What
other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the
way the Lord our God is near us whenever we pray to him?’ (Deuteronomy 4:7)
I think it is the underlying reality and experience of what
is referred to in the above verse that drives the corporate
prayer here at HTB. Somehow the sense of God drawing near
'whenever we pray to him' is enhanced when we pray and worship
together. It seems that often people leave such times refreshed,
built up and encouraged in a way for which there is no logical
explanation – except the nature of our God.
Of course, there are other reasons for praying together but
what I have already referred to really relates to the Westminster
Confession: 'Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy
him forever.' We can, of course, also look back on a wonderful
record of God’s faithfulness and kindness to us as a
church.
I am absolutely convinced that, with the level of the activity
increasing so dramatically (new service, more pastorate teams,
more church-planting and the spread of Alpha and so on) that
we urgently need to raise the level of prayer at HTB. I would
love to see the Tuesday morning prayer meeting growing out
of the Spring and into the church (rapidly followed by the
Thursday evening meeting!) and we will make that move when
the need arises.
One of the benefits of the church’s central prayer meetings
is that they inform and release other levels of prayer throughout
the life of the church as people go back to their pastorates
and other groupings armed with 'hot off the press' prayer
information.
This is partly why I think healthy prayer meetings in the
life of the church are so strategic and important and, as
part of the two-way process, may I ask other groupings that
pray to remember the prayer meetings here in your prayers
accordingly.
Our aim is to serve and be a benefit to the church community
and it is in everyone’s interests that the prayer meetings
continue to flourish and develop accordingly.
Finally, I can report that we are now considering running
the prayer meetings throughout the year (with the possible
exception of a short summer recess) because the need for prayer
does not seem to go away during the holidays!
Jeremy Jennings
This article is an edited version of one first published in
Focus, May 2002. Reproduced here with permission.
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