Sunday, March 19th
Praying Together – Acts 4:23-31
By Pastor Mara Vetters
When the Christian Church was born on Pentecost, as recorded in the book of Acts, it was born into a community of togetherness. Acts 2:1 tells us that, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place,” and for quite a while, “together” is how the Church stayed. This was a community that spent massive amounts of time together. They ate together, worshiped together, studied together, and of course, possibly more than anything else, they prayed together.
Community prayer is a constant theme in the book of Acts and throughout the New Testament. Through prayer the believers connected to God and to one another. The believers used prayer to surrender their fears and struggles, to lift up their joys and triumphs, and to worship God in all things.
When I was studying as a student at Asbury Seminary in Wilmore, KY, I heard many stories of various revivals that had broken out in the town over the last century, most notably the revival that broke out on February 3, 1970 and continued with various people praying, worshiping, and testifying of God’s glory for 144 weeks nonstop. The seminary celebrated the 50th anniversary of this event while I was a student, and as people who had lived through, or studied, this remarkable event gathered together they constantly shared a common message: God can do great things when His people gather together for prayer and repentance.
For decades and generations, students, professors, and friends of Asbury Seminary have prayed regularly for God to bring new revival in the city of Wilmore and the world beyond. In services and events and even everyday conversations, I have prayed together with them, and the prayers we have shared together sound much like the voices of the early believers found in Acts 4. “God, we know that you are great and powerful, and that you have power and authority above all earthly things. Would you pour out your power on this land and on your people? Would you fill us with your boldness and send us out to do your good works? Would you send signs and wonders, not because we want signs and wonders, but so that your glory would be clearly visible to all who see them?”
The consequences of our prayers can be powerful and startling. When the disciples in Acts prayed this kind of prayer, there was an earthquake and the newborn Church received a new jolt of energy. When a group of students prayed this way in 1970 hundreds and thousands of lives were transformed by months and years of fervent revival. And as recently as February 2023, God has answered the prayers of the Asbury community with a new wave of revival as a Wednesday chapel service stretched on for days, filled with the palpable presence of God as hundreds of people gathered to pray and worship non-stop.
In light of these remarkable stories, I can think of only one question to ask: What might God do if we dared to pray together for God to pour out His presence on our own community?
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Monday, March 20th
The Power of Praying Together
By Iona Sewell
Acts 4:23-31
This story shows how believers were able to rejoice that God had used them to preach the truth about Jesus. These followers of Christ chose to pray for more boldness, even if it meant being arrested again, instead of selfishly praying for protection. The fact that they all prayed the same prayer demonstrates their determination and unity,vs. 4:32a. Praying with one other believer or with several believers at a time adds extra power to our prayers as stated in Matthew 18:19-20, “…if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.”
The importance of praying with other Christians, with one purpose, is evidenced when Peter was thrown in prison by King Herod in Acts 12:5. We’re told…”but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.” As a result, Peter was miraculously rescued by an angel, even though he was guarded by four squads of soldiers. These examples demonstrate how God’s power is released when Christians pray together for one purpose.
Personally, I feel my prayers are more effective when praying with other believers. When my children were teenagers, another Christian mom and I prayed every Friday a.m. for our six teenagers…by specific name and whatever they were going through at that time. By God’s grace, each of these six adults today are all serving God. To me, that’s an ongoing testimony of God’s faithfulness to listen and respond when we pray for His will!
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Tuesday, March 21st
The Impact of Prayer
By Andy Osman
What strikes me the most from the passage that I did not recognize before was that Peter and John reported to the chief priest and elders all that had been said to them. The group prayed to God their concerns, their fears. They prayed to speak with boldness and continue Christ’s ministry. God responded to their prayer with the Holy Spirit by filling them with boldness to speak the word of God.
I am reminded of a question that I have asked before. I once attended a weekly workshop for eight to ten weeks about ways to pray. During the workshop I asked a question about who do we pray to, the Father, the Son, or the Holy Spirit? This surprised the group and I didn’t get a knowledgeable answer. So when I pray privately, I pray to any or all of the Trinity where I believe it applies.
We see from these verses God answered their prayer immediately. When people of faith join together, publicly or privately the result can be very powerful. Of course not all prayers are answered. “Thy Kingdom come, thy will be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.” When we pray for each other it expresses our concerns and love for the people we care about concerning their needs. Prayer is the most powerful tool we have, coupled with reading for knowledge, wisdom, and guidance in God’s Holy word, the Bible.
However we must also pray for others outside our group of friends. We must pray with an honest heart for the needs of others, not only for their salvation, but also for their needs, understanding, and fair treatment as a child of God.
I struggle with praying for my enemies. I try to understand them and I fear for them the judgment they will face if they don’t repent before they die. I have prayed for people that seem so repulsive to me, praying for their salvation and knowing that their transformation would be a great witness to God, just as Paul’s conversion was in the New Testament.
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Wednesday, March 22nd
On this Wednesday time of prayer I want to encourage you to do something a little different. Spend a few moments of listening prayer, asking God to bring a name of a brother or sister of faith that you should pray with. If you get a name, take a few minutes today, or in the next few days to pray with them. Lift up each other’s prayer requests and ask God to deepen each other’s relationship with Him. If a name doesn’t come to mind, reach out to a family member or friend from church and ask to pray together. If nothing else, call me, Pastor Luke, and we can pray together. Let us be a people who pray together.
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Thursday, March 23rd
Lives Changed
By Curt Binnion
Praying together!
– The strength of two common men who were filled with the Holy Spirit
– Urgency, wisdom, humility
– Many hands make for lighter loads. Spirit led not me led.
– Answers
I love this story of Peter and John
a) unafraid
b) selfless
c) steadfast
d) confidence
Less than 24 hours earlier they are in jail. No idea that thousands of believers were already moving. Spreading the “word” the gospel. This impacts them in jail and they are basically unaware.
Herod and Pilate have no idea what to do with these two. However they are pretty sure nothing is what needs to be done. Then later find a way to deal with them. So, they threaten them a bit to what end?
Hope to cause them to turn away from their God? Not a chance.
Their actions only embolden Peter and John to lead others to call upon the Lord and intercede on their behalf.
The answer, immediately the place shook. AMAZING!!!!
I call the Disciple’s the “I don’t get it guys”. They were with Jesus but did not recognize who he was until the completion of the Lord’s plan.
What have you seen praying together cause?
Lives changed.
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Friday, March 24th
“Praying Together”
By Pastor Barb Tuttle
Acts 4:29-31 (NLT)
29 And now, O Lord, hear their threats, and give us, your servants, great boldness in preaching your word. 30 Stretch out your hand with healing power; may miraculous signs and wonders be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 After this prayer, the meeting place shook, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit. Then they preached the word of God with boldness.
Matthew 18:20 “For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them”
Ephesians 3:12 “Because of Christ and our faith in him, we can now come boldly and confidently into God’s presence.”
Praying together allows us to stop and listen to others, hear where they are, and to join them in crying out to God for their needs. It allows us to be present in that moment, to encourage, love, support and comfort each other. Helping us become more compassionate and empathetic as we focus on others – giving us the ability to share in their suffering and celebrate in their blessings, joining our hearts and voices. Praying together helps us realize we are not alone and that we may have the same struggles as each other.
Praying together is a way to show our devotion to God and one another as a family of believers – building stronger relationships, greater understanding, strengthening our bond, allowing us to see God at work in the lives of others, our church, our community, and our nation.
Dear Lord, We know you hear our prayers, whether personal or as a community of believers. Help me to be intentional in prayer, Lord. To enter Your Presence with confidence and share Your Word with boldness. Amen
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Saturday, March 25th
Prayer of Repentance
Every Saturday we will have a prayer that we can pray ourselves to focus on repenting of our sins, and receiving forgiveness for them. It will be the same prayer each week. It is a prayer by John Wesely, the father of the Methodist movement, that is called Forgive Our Sins. We would encourage you to take a few moments and pray this prayer and confess your sins to God. He will hear you, and will forgive you.
Forgive them all, O Lord:
our sins of omission and our sins of commission;
the sins of our youth and the sins of our riper years;
the sins of our souls and the sins of our bodies;
our secret and our more open sins;
our sins of ignorance and surprise,
…..and our more deliberate and presumptuous sins;
the sins we have done to please others;
the sins we know and remember,
…..and the sins we have forgotten;
the sins we have striven to hide from others
….and the sins by which we have made others offend;
forgive them, O Lord, forgive them all for his sake, who died for our sins and rose for our justification,.and now stands at thy right hand to make intercession for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
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