Letters to Peter, 1

My friend Peter has set me a challenge for 2024: each month he is going to ask me a question for me to answer. I want my answer to come from the heart, so I won't use books, except the Bible. And I will try keep it to 500 words. 

Thanks for the challenge Peter. I hope others find it helpful too.

1.      How do you encourage and build the prayer life of your local church fellowship?

Background is that we have been plugging prayer over the last year or more and have a number of prayer meetings and opportunities to pray yet the leadership generally feel that prayer is still a weak area of the church at the moment.

January 2024

Dear Peter,

Thanks for prompting me to think about prayer in the local church. What an vital question! There can be few things about the life of the local church that are more important.

And there can be few things about the life of the local church with which we can feel more of a sense of failure.

The great exhortations of Scripture – “Be…faithful in prayer” (Rom 12:12); “…always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people” (Eph 6:18); “…in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (Phil 4:6); “Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful” (Col 4:2); “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances” (1 Thess 5:17), etc., – these great exhortations are a huge challenge.

And they might be crushing, were it not for the great promises and encouragements that go along with them: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matt 11:28-30); “I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Phil 4:13).

And that same Lord Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit to help us and be with us for ever (John 14:16). And he is the Spirit of truth (17), the one who has inspired the Scriptures to teach us, rebuke us, correct us, and train us in righteousness, so that we may “be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Tim 3:16-17; John 16:13). And that includes the work of prayer.

We are exhorted to “pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests” (Eph 6:18). Prayer is something the Spirit both empowers us for and guides us in: “We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans” (Rom 8:26). 

And what wonderful examples of prayer we have in the Scriptures: the prayer the Lord Jesus taught his disciples (Matt 6:9-13); the prayer of the disciples in those early days after Pentecost (Acts 4:23-31); and Paul’s great prayers in his letters (e.g., Eph 1:15-23 and 3:14-21).

But the greatest motivation to prayer is surely the gospel itself, isn’t it? We can organise prayer meetings, download apps, and sign up for prayer letters from all over the world. We can instruct, exhort, and challenge till we are red in the face. But none of these will fire up a church to pray like the gospel will.

So more than anything else, my prayer for you and your church, Peter, is that you would once again be captivated by the grace of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That you would be thrilled as you listen again, in the preaching and teaching of the Word of God, to the wonderful reality that, “God was reconciling the world to himself through Christ, not counting people’s sins against them” (2 Cor 5:19).