A Call to Prayer.
I'm calling you, the church, to prayer. I’m calling you to turn to God, and ask God what God is saying to us at this time. I’ve been praying at 8:20pm (20:20) on the 20th of each month during 2020 and invite you to join me this Saturday for the next.I’ll be on Zoom from 8pm on 20th and begin praying at 8:20pm as I believe we need to get ‘together’ on this. Why?
We’re having lengthy discussions at present about both reopening our buildings and, more deeply, what the church fit for post Covid-19 might look like. I hope you’re also reflecting on this and I really hope you’re praying too! It's potentially a time of spiritual renewal and even revival!
According to a recent article from hope1531.com, “a principle of spiritual renewal is that it always follows periods of crisis, change, and transition.” We can see the closure of our buildings and our inability to get back to public gathering as a crisis in itself, or as an invitation. Perhaps crisis provides the fertile ground for us to see God’s face and to hear God’s voice.It’s also true that revivals are born out of prayer. (I was recently reading about the Fulton Street revival of 1857-58 which came around the time of one of the worst financial panics in American history. At a time of crisis, prayer filled the void and many turned to God. It began with one person offering to meet folk for prayer and quickly grew to 3,000 folk meeting each week.)
Interestingly enough, the first permissible opening of churches is for private prayer and, whilst Methodist Churches are not usually accustomed to being places of private prayer, I think that this is an invitation to make prayer our first move. 2 Chronicles 7:14 says, “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My facethen I will hear from heavenand heal their land.” We desperately need to, “pray and seek God’s face.”
I need to repent of my lack of prayer, personally and be honest with you that I have never been one for organising many prayer meetings – in fact, perhaps we all need to repent of our lack of prayer – we’ve perhaps made ourselves too busy to pray when in fact we are too busy not to pray.
So join me this Saturday for the next. I’ll be on Zoom from 8pm on 20th and begin praying at 8:20pm as I believe we need to get ‘together’ on this.
I’ll also be organising more Zoom gatherings (as this is, I think, our best platform to do this ‘together’ at present) and I’d love you to join me. That’s not to say you can’t participate if you’re not on Zoom as we all need to spend time in individual, private prayer seeking God’s will. What I’m calling you to is regular, intentional prayer time and please get in touch with what you feel God is saying. Also, look out for some conversation opportunities for us to seek God together and take this opportunity to STOP, LOOK and LISTEN to God.