Why We Pray

Prayer | by Pastor Adam Sinnett

 One of things we have done as the church, from the beginning, is set aside one night every month for prayer  and song. We call it our monthly prayer night. While we emphasize prayer in our communities every week, throughout the week, during the last week of each month we cancel our normal community rhythms in order to pray together. Corporately, as God’s people, we spend time thanking, praising, considering, asking, and talking to our good, gracious, living Jesus. We want to see Him do what only He can do in and through us, not merely what we can do – so we pray. If you have yet to join us, I invite you to do so on the last Tuesday of each month at the Belltown Community Center (doors open @ 6:30pm).

This is far from a place-holder event for us. We do not pray because that’s what we’re supposed to do or have to do. We pray because we get to. Prayer is one of the unique privileges of every child of God, in Christ. In prayer we set aside self-reliance and cultivate God-reliance. In prayer we turn from self-sufficiency to God- sufficiency. In prayer we relinquish man-made agendas and submit to his agenda. We also pray because:

• We want to know, trust, treasure, and more fully comprehend the love of God. (Col 1:10, Eph 3:14,18)

• We want God’s name praised in this city. (Mt 6:9)

• We need wisdom. (James 1:5)

• We want to see friends, family and neighbors saved. (Rom10:1)

• We want to see the sick healed. (James 5:13-15)

• We want to be unified around Jesus and his mission. (Jn17:20-21)

• We need strength, endurance, patience and joy. (Col 1:11)

• We need protection from temptation and the enemy (Mt 6:13; 26:41)

• We need forgiveness. (Mt 6:12)

• We need God’s empowering grace to complete what he has begun in us. (2 Thess 1:11; 2 Cor 9:8)

• We want to faithfully endure to the end (Lk 22:32)

I’ve always appreciated how AC Dixon once put it:

“When we depend upon organizations, we get what organizations can do; when we depend upon education, we get what education can do; when we depend upon man, we get what man can do; but when we depend upon prayer, we get what God can do.”

We have seen God answer countless prayers. We have seen friends saved. We have seen people healed.

We have tasted a bit of the goodness of God, together. If you’ve had a bad experience in the past with something like this, by God’s grace, we’ll redeem that. If you don’t know a single person in the church, that will change quickly. If you don’t do well in large groups, Jesus will help you. We can, of course, pray in the quietness of our homes – and we do that – but something different happens when the church gathers to pray together. We hope you join us and get a firsthand taste of it yourself. Our next prayer night is Tuesday, October 29 at 6:30 at the Belltown Community Center.

“I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face.” – JI Packer

-Pastor Adam