Weeks of Prayer

From The Message, Eugene Peterson’s introduction to Micah, “Left to ourselves we turn God into an object, something we can deal with, something we can use to our benefit, whether that thing is a feeling or an idea or an image. Prophets scorn all such stuff. They train us to respond to God’s presence and voice.”

The Pentecostal church which formed Pat and me was a praying church. A tradition and practice we have grown to value, and love, is the annual week of prayer held early in January each year. The week of prayer is part of the rhythm of our lives. For the last twenty years or more several churches in Northern New Jersey, and more recently in Philadelphia, gather in a round-robin format moving from church to church, to pray. It will be one of the things we will miss most as a result of our move.

Prayer keeps us from slipping into the trap of using God as a force for accomplishing our agenda. Prayer listens, and hears God speaking, establishing His priorities, articulating what brings pleasure to Him. John Newton’s biographer quotes one of Newton’s journal entries, “I acknowledge that I am an ignorant and feeble creature, and yet the next minute act and speak ex cathedra.”

Newton’s admission is reminiscent of Paul’s confession, “So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me. For in my inner being I delight in God’s law; but I see another law at work in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within my members. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” (Romans 7:21-25) If I do not learn to listen to God’s voice in prayer, to listen regularly and carefully, I am liable to “use God to my benefit.”

As the church gathers for prayer –

• The Holy Spirit trains us to properly respond to God’s presence and voice. Prayer is the forum in which we are purged from selfish desires, peer pressures, and institutional expectations as the Spirit leads the prayer in heart-searching and humble confession.
• The Holy Spirit prays through the church’s members. “In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.” (Romans 8:26-27) Hearing what the Quakers call “the sense of the Spirit” as others pray, as we are urged forward in prayers that liberate from past, unprofitable routines and introduce better ways.
• The Holy Spirit uses others to encourage us. The powerful voice of the praying saint is not in the decibel level, but in the will of God being expressed as the Spirit moves the intercessor in expressing the mind and will of God. That dynamic has been transformational for those who have learned to listen and affirm the voice of the Spirit saying, “Amen! I agree and desire the same!”
• The Spirit melds, molds, merges the members of the Body of Christ into a people with a more clearly defined identity. The prayer meeting includes Spirit-enabled fellowship, when our best hopes for one another are expressed and felt. Love is compounded. Before long, the world will know we are Jesus’ disciples. (John 13:35)
Pat and I will likely make a trip so we can participate in at least one of the Philadelphia prayer meetings. It is too important to us to miss. We fear falling into the trap of using God to facilitate our own agendas.