One of our core values as a church is “Devotion to Prayer.” It is taken from Acts 2 that says, “And they devoted themselves to the Apostles teaching, fellowship, breaking of bread and prayer.” What was it that caused these early followers of Christ to make prayer a priority? Even before the Holy Spirit came upon them at Pentecost, they were in an upper room giving themselves to prayer, and then as we read throughout Acts, we see prayer is a mainstay. What do they know that we do not? What did they have that we do not?
Prayer is the engine of our faith. Prayer moves us more fully into the will of God. They prayed, because they lived to do God’s will. They saw Jesus pray throughout His time on earth and realized that His communing with the Father was His source of strength and direction. There was a settled, secure, peaceful, confident spirit in Jesus, not just because He was the Son of God, but because He placed the whole of His life in His Father’s hands. And that is what, we as followers of Christ, are also meant to do.
Over the course of our forty year history as a church, we have engaged in all manner and forms of prayer. We do it so that we can keep prayer as dynamic as possible. In this season, we want to give ourselves to prayer over the course of the fifty days from Easter to Pentecost. We invite everyone to participate. Prayer will be at the church property at Chapel Hill and Louisville. Use this setting to meet with God, call upon Him, commune with Him. Walk along the sidewalk, hike along some of the mowed trails, sit in your car along the curb, go to the wooden bridge and spend some time with God. Go for 5 minutes, an hour, or half a day. Do it once a week over the course of these 7 weeks of prayer. Try to do it at a consistent time each week, so you can get into some rhythm. Sign up on our prayer calendar and take a slot. Ask some friends to join you, or go together with your small group.
There is something about the location of this property – its on a high point in Columbia; its undeveloped yet full of potential. The vastness of the 37 acres makes you realize God has a much bigger dream for us than we have for ourselves. We can only see this dream, only enter into this dream, as we walk about the property itself.
God told Abraham, “Lift up your eyes now and look from the place where you are – northward, southward, eastward, and westward; for all the land which you see, I give to you and your descendants forever…Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.”
Let us give ourselves to pray in this way. Let us ask God to speak to us of what His plans are for us. Let us press into God and find our peace, our confidence, our direction. Let us call upon Him that we might be filled with the Holy Spirit, energized, and full of faith as we seek Him. When we finish the 50 days of prayer, we will be at the Feast of Pentecost, and we will celebrate.
May you be blessed as you give yourself to this good work.
Sign up for your prayer slot here.
