Pray in Difficulty

We begin our new near as a church with a focus on prayer. We’re going to be devoting our first community groups of the year to prayer. As Jared shared in his message on Sunday from Acts 4:23-31, ‘prayer is the voice of a church that is desperate for the power and presence of God.’

If we understand prayer rightly, we ARE desperate for prayer. It is the unique relational privilege we have with God our Father, made possible by the mediation of the Savior.

For our blogs this week we’re going to take a break from our regular features and devote the entire week inspiring you to pray based on points from Jared’s message. His first point is that we pray in difficulty. This is true no matter what our circumstances. If we are in a season of trial, we find that difficulty will drive us to cry out to God for mercy and deliverance. If we are in a season of blessing, the difficulty is to neglect prayer in favor of distraction and self-sufficiency. So no matter what, prayer will be accompanied by difficulty. That is where we see it operate.

The following words from John Piper will help you keep your desire to pray lively and your practice of prayer faithful.

“My hope is … not only that you feel encouraged to pray, but mainly that the nature of God as a fountain of free grace will be reaffirmed- that God is the kind of God who delights most deeply not in making demands but in meeting needs. Prayer is his delight because prayer shows the reaches of our poverty and the riches of his grace. Prayer is that wonderful transaction where the wealth of God’s glory is magnified and the wants of our soul are satisfied. Therefore God delights in the prayers of the upright.”

Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. (Romans 12:12)