When I got banned from church, my parents did something I would probably have been furious about if I had known at the time. They asked 10 people to pray for me by name.
Not just every so often but to pray by name every day that I'd come back to Jesus.
And so when I became a Christian, I was told about these 10. And this was in the days before email, so I got a bit of paper and a pen, and I wrote a letter to each person to thank them for their prayers.
Some responded with letters of their own that were smudged as they’d cried in response.
I know those prayers made a difference.
Do we underestimate our prayers?
You see, I think us evangelicals have a problem. We overestimate our activities and we underestimate our prayers. And if we get serious about petitioning for the lost, I think we will see God move in wondrous ways.
When I was visiting a church the other week, I saw two massive digital boards on the wall. One was full of loads of names, another had just four or five. During the notices, they pressed a button, and three names went from the longer list to the other side. They sang a song, they started dancing. And I'm like, what is going on?!
Then the pastor explained that the long list is a list of people who the church had committed to pray for every day this year to come to faith.
And when that person comes to faith, the name gets moved to the other list. It was incredible to see the church unite and rejoice over each name. And it convicted me – we need to get more serious about a prayer strategy to reach those around us.
Bringing Prayer Public
Private prayer is important, and so is praying with fellow Christians, but I also believe prayer is a powerful form of evangelism. When we witness to people, simply asking them “Can I pray for you?” is a witness.
We have got to take the supernatural and bring it into the natural. We have got to live our discipleship out loud.
I think we need to be more intentional about our lives. I regularly have to ask myself, ‘What am I here for?’ I'm not here just to collect a few toys, pay off my mortgage, build my pension up, and then one day die and be with Jesus. I am contending for others to go with us into the presence of God. We are all here to contend for the salvation of those around us.
But I think we can start this in the places we already go.
One of the things I do each weekend is help to coach my son’s football team. It’s 25 players, 25 sets of parents, and five coaches. But me, my wife, and my son are the only Christians at the club. And they all know that I'm a Christian. So, when one of them has a funeral or something difficult going on, people will often ask, “will you pray?”, or “will you send one up to the big man?”
Earlier this year, one of the players on the other team broke their leg. I thought to myself, what does a Christian do in this moment? Well, a Christian offers to pray.
I was nervous to offer prayer, it can feel like a strange thing when surrounded by non-believers. So, it took five seconds of ridiculous bravery. I walked across the football pitch, checked with the kid, his parent, and coach. And then I asked:
“Can I pray? I believe God could heal this leg.”
Now, it may have sounded as if I was confident. But my track record of praying for healing, and healing being received was not great. Of course, that doesn't mean God couldn't do it, so I prayed out loud.
Inside my head, I was saying, “Jesus, please. This would be the most amazing moment for my witness to all these footballers! This would change everything. If you could just heal this leg, that would be amazing.”
Do you know what? Absolutely nothing happened. And I came away so disappointed. But God used it – because I’ve had at least 10 faith conversations since.
People asked me, “Why was your instinct to pray now?”,“ Why weren't you ringing an ambulance”? Now, I've had to say each time someone else, don’t worry someone had rung the ambulance!
But the point stands. My instinct as a person of God there, as a follower of Jesus, my instinct should be to pray for the miraculous to happen. Because in our outreach we have done words and works, but I think for many of us, we've lost wonders.
