Having a healthy prayer life can help us focus less and less on the things of this world, which in turn will cause the things of this world to lose its hold on us! Jesus says in Philippians 4:6-7 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” In this world, we will continually face uncertainties! In this world, we will face discouragement! In this world, we will face disappointment! In this world, we will face anxious moments! But the sad reality is that none of us has the power in and of ourselves to effectively change any of these situations! But, we can tap into God’s power through prayer! Here is a central idea we can take from Philippians 4:6-7: the way we find the answer to all those anxious moment is through prayer. Take it to the Lord in prayer!

Through prayer, the awesome power of the Lord can be activated to deal with our circumstances and thereby eliminate the power those anxious moments could otherwise exert on us! The fact is, we get anxious or perhaps even fearful, because we realize we cannot control the situation we are facing or about to face. In other words, we fear what we cannot control. But we don’t have to fear and we don’t have to control everything, we should instead tap into the unmatched power of God, through prayer, and turn the issues over to the Lord!

Here are some things we must remember: as a church congregation, we need to

• Pray all the time!… 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18… Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
• Pray like your life depends on it, because it does!  If in your life, you don’t make consistent time to pray, your spiritual life will suffer! And if as a church, we don’t pray, it doesn’t matter how many members we have, it doesn’t matter how rich we become financially, it doesn’t even matter how much good we are doing in the community, we will be a dead church!

Understand this, a praying church is a church in which each member has a personal prayer life and pray consistently.

The Bible talks about earnest prayer, without getting technical, this is talking about fervent prayer, desperate prayer, or we could say no nonsense and no-frills prayers; the type of prayers we send up when the walls seem to be closing in on us. Earnest prayer is also persistent prayer. A great example of this is the record of the church praying for Peter to be released, when he had been arrested for preaching the Gospel, and was facing an uncertain future (Matthew 7:7-8; Luke 11:5-10). Acts 12:5 paints it this way,”Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” Instead of allowing anxiety and fear to lead them into a state of panic, the congregation got together and prayed fervently. So, instead of allowing anxiety and fear to drown out our spirits, we too must fervently call out to our Father in heaven and find rest in Him. The Psalmist reminds us, “I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 121:1-2). The Lord is the solution for all the woes of this life, He alone can make it all work out for our good, according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

Wrapping Up with Key Insights

A praying church is a powerful church, because she finds her strength in the Lord. But a church can only be a praying church, when each member becomes a praying Christian. Let us make prayer a habit!

Written by Pastor Prudent