Mission and prayer

“A praying life isn’t something you accomplish in a year. It is a journey of a lifetime.”

Paul Miller, A Praying Life

The importance of prayer

While prayer might seem like an obvious part of sharing the good news about Jesus, reality shows that we are far less likely to put it into practice than you’d expect.

Actions speak louder than words! So often we forget to pray or we give up praying.

The fact that we pray most when we feel weakest reveals a truth we need to grapple with.

We are more satisfied with the status quo - in our churches and our lives - than we’d like to admit. Or at least we’re more satisfied with our own strategies to draw people to God than we realise. This quote captures it well: “If you want to actually be an evangelistic church, you will need to be a church that actually prays for conversions, [since] God is the only one who can make them happen,” (The Soul Winning Church, Medders and Logan, 2024).

Try to reflect on what the biggest barrier to growing in this area is for you.

Have you grown cold to God’s teaching about prayer?
Are you confused about what it means for you?
Or are you consumed with other things that stop you putting this truth into practice?

Ask God to help you overcome that challenge, even as you engage with God’s word now...

When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field.” (Matthew 9:36-38)

In Matthew 9 verses 36 to 38, Jesus says to pray for help to reach people with the gospel – and specifically for more people to get involved in this great work.

One way of looking at it is that Jesus encourages us to have a “999” mentality as we see our neighbourhood. When you call 999 three things have happened. First, you’ve seen a situation that is very serious. And secondly, you realise that you can’t deal with it on your own. Third, you know that help is available. You need to call out the big guns!

When it comes to our neighbourhood – we see countless spiritually-lifeless sheep waiting to be shown the way to go, but very few shepherds to point them to safety. We realise that we can’t deal with that on our own. And we need the critical care of our heavenly father – who we can call on in prayer.

Practical next steps

Prayer prompts – In recent years, many Christians talked publicly about developing the habit of praying the Lord’s Prayer every time they washed their hands. A particular activity prompted them to pray, and turned a mundane everyday task into an opportunity to talk to God. What specific activity or place could prompt regular short prayers in your life? Ideas might be walking into church on a Sunday, leaving your home in the morning or getting on the bus. What might work for you?

Prayer meetings – Could you make meeting with Christians a consistent opportunity for you to pray together? Whether you bump into them in the street, chat over coffee after church or arrange a quick call during the week, taking a moment to pray will be a blessing to you both. And when you do this in a church setting, it quickly becomes contagious too! Wouldn’t it be great if our Sunday gatherings were not just interrupted with formal prayer for a few minutes, but saturated with prayer, from all kinds of people, throughout.