Local Church Prayer

Today we’re going to discuss the extraordinary benefit of local church prayer.

After the ascension of Jesus, the disciples “all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication”, Acts 1:14.  And then after Pentecost, as the church began to grow significantly, they “continued steadfastly… in prayers”, Acts 2:42.  And after being threatened to quit preaching about Jesus, they prayed together for boldness to keep preaching, Acts 4:23-31.

Likewise, we should continue in local church prayer.  By prayer together, we can further the work of God.  We can help preachers and missionaries.  Paul said to the Corinthians, “Ye also helping together by prayer for us”, 2 Cor 1:11.  This is corporate prayer.  Look what the folks praying together in Acts 12:12 accomplished.

In Rom 15:30, Paul said, “that ye strive together with me in your prayers to God for me”.  To strive is to devote serious effort or energy to.  In other words, the work done in prayer is akin to the work done by a missionary.  This is not just a casual prayer from time to time.  Prayer like this takes work.

Paul expected local church prayer to provide him with powerful aid when he was on his missionary journeys.  He expected the prayers of the saints praying together to open a door of utterance and to help him speak as he ought to speak, Col 4:2-4.  And he believed the saints could help him speak boldly, Eph 6:18-20.  He also hoped the prayers of the church in Philippi would help him get out of jail, Phil 1:19, 2:24.

For this reason we still pray together in our Wednesday night prayer meetings.  And we utilize texts to our prayer group to pray simultaneously for urgent requests from our members.  We should even seriously consider meeting together for special prayer when we have a very urgent need like trying to get Peter out of jail.

The great tragedy in modern churches is that they have cancelled the mid-week prayer meeting.  They should have never done this and we should never cease to meet together for prayer.