Over the past couple of weeks, God has been directing us toward and encouraging us to pray. This is not surprising if you consider our time in Mark–week after week we sense Jesus calling us to deeper waters of faith. Even more specifically, calling us towards prayers of faith that produce fruit pleasing in His sight (see sermon from Mark 11:20-25).
Prayer is significant in the life of God’s people and neglecting it would prove disastrous. Consider this analogy taken from Tim Keller’s book on prayer:
Imagine you were diagnosed with such a lethal condition that the doctor told you that you would die within hours unless you took a particular medicine—a pill every night before going to sleep. Imagine that you were told that you could never miss it or you would die. Would you forget? Would you not get around to it some nights? No—it would be so crucial that you wouldn’t forget, you would never miss…We have to pray, we can’t let it just slip our minds.[1]
Brothers and Sisters, Light in the Desert Church must pray and pray often. As we continue the work of replanting, we must seek God through prayer to grow more and more dependent on Him.
We are not alone believing that prayer is essential for the work God has called us to do here at Light in the Desert Church. The wisdom of many others consistently suggests that prayer is the essential element that continued the work and fueled the passion behind their efforts of replanting. One such pastor said, “If you don’t cry out to God in consistent, passionate prayer, you won’t replant a church.”[2]
These points and God’s word compels us to be in focused prayer for Light in the Desert Church. Prayer is the means by which we experience God and grow in intimacy. It does not neglect our pursuit of right theology but helps us “experience [our] theology.”[3] In the end we want to be a people familiar with our God who have a deep intimacy with Him. This is the only way forward in seeing Light in the Desert Church become a place used by God to display His glory.
How do you get involved? We’ve created a simple prayer guide—a monthly cycle of focused prayer, one for each week of the month, on things we sense God is doing here in our midst. Click the link, download the prayer guide, and pray…it’s that easy!
[1]Tim Keller, Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, (New York: Penguin Group, 2014), 9-10.
[2]Mark Clifton, Reclaiming Glory: Revitalizing Dying Churches, (Nashville: B&H Publishing, 2016), 55.