Week of Prayer: Our God is an Awesome God

Fourteen years ago a small group of pastors serving in Philadelphia organized an annual week of prayer. The first full week of the New Year was set aside for a citywide prayer meeting. The round robin format took participating congregations to at least five unfamiliar cross-town neighborhoods. The format was, and remains, simple. The gathered church members worshiped briefly and then the host pastor reported victories of the past year, and shared special challenges the church was facing. And we prayed.

One evening we met at the building where Resurrection Life Church now meets. About 400 square feet of the more than 15,000 were swept clean, temporary heat and light warmed the space and we shivered and prayed. The concrete floor was too cold to kneel on and people huddled without taking off their winter coats. I don’t recall who started the simple chorus, but I will never forget the power of the simple affirmation. It began quietly,
Our God is an awesome God.
He reigns from Heaven above.
With wisdom, power and love;
Our God is an awesome God.
And then, it caught on! Simple, unpolished and unsophisticated people gathered in a basement of a building that had been abandoned sang, really sang! Again and again the melody carried an affirmation of trusting faith. If you had been there, you couldn’t forget that moment either!

Sunday night Philadelphia churches will begin their annual journey to five neighborhoods to pray. Parking is a challenge! The weather promises to be blustery. Cold winds will cut through coats, sweaters and scarves. But, people will gather and pray.

This year there will be no meeting at Resurrection Life Church in deference to other congregations, but the Spirit who prompted the primitive confession of faith in the basement under construction a few years ago has been faithfully drawing people to Jesus. People from that congregation, who walk to Resurrection Life will be praying with members of other churches in five locations throughout the city. New believers will learn to pray as they hear others pray in places they are visiting for the first time.

This 15th annual week of prayer promises to be powerful. The same Spirit who has been teaching people to pray since Pentecost will prompt intercessions and anoint one after another to share a word of encouragement or a building block for faith. Lives will be changed, people will be healed, and the Spirit will fill and equip people for lives of service. The prayers offered in an unfinished basement are still at work! Our God is an awesome God!