James 24:7

I have been emphasizing the importance of congregational prayer in my sermons lately.  My concern about that narrow topic grew out of the reading and thinking I have been doing with regard to the missional church.  My thinking about that topic has taken me back to the first 4 chapters of the Book of Acts. 

As I  learn more about the missional church and contemplate the earliest days of the church, one phrase rings in my mind: "the enormity of the calling and inadequacy of the called."

Think about it: Jesus meets with his disciples one last time before he ascends to God and tells them that they will be his witnesses starting right where they are, into the surrounding region, over into an area they avoided to a people they despised, and even to the uttermost parts of the world.

That's an enormous calling.

He called people who, in themselves, were not up to it.  He called the very people who had abandoned him and denied him.

That's the "inadequate called."

What did they do?  They didn't seize control and try to manage their way forward and they didn't flee (again). 

They prayed constantly together.

Yesterday we thought about that body of believers as they prayed following the arrest of Peter and John.  Luke records the actual prayer they prayed.  (you can read the whole account here)

In the sermon, I noted 4 parts of the prayer:

1.  They acknowledged who God is (Sovereign, Creator).

2.  They acknowledged what God said through David the Psalmist.  (That the nations and their rulers would be against them)

3.  They acknowledged what God did. (He had a plan that even those who crucified Christ followed.)

4.  They acknowledged what God can do. (He can give them even more boldness to continue proclaiming the gospel and can do signs and wonders to demonstrate his power)

The take away is that in the face of a crisis, they did not shrink back in fear but  recalled the nature of God, the truth of God's word,  God's involvement in the past, and they prayed for greater boldness, for more courage to go on.

When we acknowledge that everything is God's and that God is engaged with us just as God has been in the past, we can pray our way forward undeterred by any obstacle.  We can go on trusting that as the gospel song puts it: "If He did it before, He can do it again!"