It’s time to take a look at one of the “one another” commands. There are about 60 of them, given directly to Christians so we can know how to properly relate to each other in the Church. Healthy church life doesn’t happen by accident, it doesn’t happen on its own, it happens as we – together – follow the word of God not only in how we relate to Him, but how we relate to others.
In James chapter 5, we are commanded to pray for one another. And we’re told “the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.”[1]
Prayer is an issue that many Christians end up sidestepping or sort of giving up on. Many of us would probably admit that we don’t really have a great understanding or experience of prayer. We all know it’s important and we all do it at some level, but if we were polled anonymously, a lot of Christians might say that much of their prayer life is brief, repetitive, and feels mechanical.
Maybe it’s only pastors. A recent survey showed that only 16% of pastors feel very satisfied with their prayer lives.[2]
But God does not want us to feel unsatisfied with this aspect of our faith. He has given us prayer as a gift. And of course we’re not going to have a perfect prayer life, but that’s no reason to allow it to fall by the wayside.
We know the Lord will teach us to pray as we walk with Him and as we go to Him in prayer, imperfect as it may be. The good news is that the only barrier to prayer is our willingness.
So, we believe prayer matters and that corporate prayer matters. That’s why we’ve have an email prayer chain. That’s why we have a prayer wall on our website. That’s why we set out prayer cards and have a time of corporate prayer on Wednesday nights and have prayer up front after the study on Sundays. Not because we are trying to make a show, but because we believe that God works through prayer and that we’re commanded to pray for each other.
But, since the Lord has put this One Another series on my heart, I thought we could attempt another small step of obedience and faith. I know many of you spend a lot of time praying for others and have very vibrant prayer lives. But I was thinking about how we could not just hear this command, but encourage all of us to obey it and here’s one way I’d like us to try. If you have our mobile app, it is able to receive notifications. Maybe you’ve turned the notifications off, that’s ok.
But if you have them enabled, we’re going to schedule a regular notification to go out the same time each week to invite us all to take a moment to pray. To pray for our church family, maybe pray for a specific issue, to pray for God’s leading in our church. And, that can be a moment each week when a bunch of us are able to just pause and go to the Lord, maybe just a few words, but knowing that we’re praying together for one another. We’re going to schedule it for Saturday at 4pm.
And then, if you want to join the prayer chain or check out the prayer wall online, you can do that, of course.
But we see these words in James chapter 5. We believe God is telling us the truth that prayer is very powerful in its effect, and we want to obey the command more and more as we walk with the Lord and learn to trust Him more and more. I hope you’ll join us when you can.