The weekly prayer meetings can be the heartbeat of the church. But it can also be an extremely frustrating experience: members turning up for no other reason except out of a sense of duty, wondering why the group is always small, angry with others that we think should have been there, wanting to feel good about our own commitment and yet hardly feel inspired or encouraged by being there ... Am I the only one who feels this way?
Which is why Johannah Reardon's article on "The Art of Group Prayer" was such a breath of fresh air. In fact, it was so positively and helpfully encouraging that our prayer group read and talked through it together at prayer meeting last night.
Johannah wrote about how a group member's complaint became a wake-up call to how they handled prayer time in their group. It directed them to God's Word, where they didn't find prayers about "arthritis, unruly children or rotten work conditions", but "powerful, life-changing" prayers that were "full of God's power and glory" (e.g. look at Paul's prayer in Ephesians 1:16-23).
Not that we shouldn't pray about arthritis, unruly children or rotten work conditions (ironically, our group conceded that health, family & work issues dominate our prayer agenda!). Rather, Johannah suggests that we transform our prayers by "putting them into the bigger context of what God wants to do in our lives"by remembering 3 key principles:
1) MAKE THEM GOD-CENTERED, i.e. remember who we are talking to. One church member put it this way: "think not KNOW-HOW, but KNOW-WHO". Extolling God's virtues prayerfully (ef. Ephesians 1:16ff) surely carried Paul further than any listing of complaints. When our prayers are God-centered, we can "pray victoriously in the midst of whatever [we are] praying".
2) MAKE THEM PRAISE-FILLED, i.e. focus on praising God for what he has done. Trust that God knows what he's doing, even in times when we're painfully aware that we don't! God may deliver us from trouble, or he may not! But one thing we know - whichever is his will, he will equip us with everything we need to face the situations he put us in.
3) MAKE THEM LIFE-CHANGING, i.e. focus expectations not only on how God could change the circumstances around us, but also (and especially so) how God might want to change us!
Johannah's small group prayers changed after their wake-up call. Instead of a complaint session, prayer time became "an incredible opportunity to gain the wisdom, direction and power of the King of kings who rules all time and place".
May God bring about the same transformation to our prayer meetings! Amen.
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