Lissara Presbyterian Church

Great is Your faithfulness, O God my Father

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Why Pray?

Charles Spurgeon, the great 18th century English preacher and evangelist, described prayer as the ‘engine room’ of his ministry. Whatever else he was doing, for Spurgeon, serving God began with prayer. For us, whether it’s our personal Christian walk or participation in public ministry in our local church, the same fundamental starting point must be to pray.

In theory, we could actually reach the ten per cent of our community without God being there. Through our planning and hard work, we might find we have ten per cent of our population in church, but they may simply be there as ‘nominal’ Christians, without the Spirit of God being present.

How do we guard against that? We keep going to God in prayer, asking that his Kingdom will come, that his Spirit will be at work in changing people and saving the lost, and that we will be enabled to do these things in his strength. We need to pray that we will be equipped to live godly lives and tell His Gospel, whatever the cost.

We need Christians who will commit to praying for individual members, for our church, our mission and our community. In many ways this could be likened to joining the ‘E61820 Battalion’. This refers to Ephesians 6:18-20, where Paul exhorts readers to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests.”

All churches need people who will commit themselves to learn about prayer, to petition God earnestly and to thank God gladly when they receive answers to our prayers. We need people who will commit to five personal sessions of prayer per week and to get people to commit in this focused way is the fundamental task of a mission church. We also need leaders of our pray(ers), who will commit to four personal sessions of prayer per week and will gather and lead the prayer group once every week.

Pray for the right reasons

Why should I pray? Because I want other people to know the Lord Jesus. If we are assured of God’s love through his word, we will tell of the love of God. But not only that; we will encourage the obedience of faith, so that we will please our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The resurrected Christ gave one command a number of times in different forms: “Go and make disciples of all nations.” That must be our motivation – to see this command of the Lord Jesus obeyed and fulfilled.
Pursue the desired outcomes.

None of us can actually make the Mission outcome happen; God has to do that. But we can do all the responsible things within our power to play our part. The starting point in this will be for all of us to devote ourselves to prayer, which will then drive us to pursue the desired outcomes in all areas of life. Prayer has to be on the agenda at every level of our life, so that our senior members are actually taking the lead in this matter.

It’s also helpful to reflect on times when God has done great things, and specifically how he has answered the prayers of his people. For us, the times of the Apostles in the first century, the 16th century Reformation, and the 18th century revival in England are probably the three main historical periods.

John Wesley, one of the great 18th century preachers in England had a small room, next to his bedroom where, at 4 a.m. every day, he would pray until 5 a.m. Then at 5 a.m. he would have prayers with all the guests in his house. That sort of thing can inspire people to say their prayers regularly.

It’s vital for us to understand that we don’t exist in a ‘Christian vacuum’. We are part of a great work of God happening down through the ages.

Adapted from an original article by The Rt Rev Reg Piper, September 2003

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article, or would like one of our leaders to pray for you in your present circumstances, please complete and our Prayer Request.

Office Address:

Rev. Ian Abraham  

The Manse, 17 Downpatrick Road  

Crossgar, DOWNPATRICK  

Co. Down  

BT30 9EE