I have become more convinced as time goes on the strength of a church lies in it's prayer life. I have seen very good churches struggle when they forget to pray. I have also seen struggling churches take on new life when they begin to develop an active, vital prayer life. The same can be said for individual Christians: the stronger the prayer life the more vital their faith. I know this for a fact when I am going through a difficult time it is more than likely because I have not taken enough time to pray about the issue.
But effective prayer is not treating God like a genie in a bottle, something we use when we wish for something to happen but more often than not that is the extent of the prayer life of a lot of people. Effective prayer is simply communicating with God, talking to God and listening to God. It is making contact and allowing the presence of God to touch your life.
About thirty years ago I was asked the question: if your whole church had your prayer life would it be considered a praying church? At that time I was a college student and had a very active prayer life. I would be constantly talking to God about everything that was going on in my life. Since that time when I have thought about the question I think back and wonder what happened. My prayer life is not what it what once was I have gotten busy with other things and put prayer aside as an option for my life or when I really get in a mess.
Let me share with you a story of two churches: the pastor of the first church wanted to make prayer a priority so a time of prayer was started prior to the services on Sunday morning. The service was sporadically attended by a faithful few but there was always room in the chapel where the service was held to put a few more people. The pastor talked for a while about how he wanted the church to be a praying church but the time spent in prayer in worship and in the meetings and in the groups of the church stayed the same. Other than the program beginning nothing else changed.
In the second church the pastor also wanted a renewed emphasis on prayer and it began in the meetings of the church. They decided before they make any sort of decision in a meeting time needs to be spent in prayer over the issue seeking the direction of God for the church and for people's involvement. After a while some things began to happen, people began to take a more active role in the church, then tried new ideas, the began to reach out more and life in the church became much more vibrant.
After several years both churches have changed pastors and have had their share of issues but the second church has been moving forward while the first church is struggling and I believe it is because they only give a verbal appearance of how important pray is for the life of their church.
How is your prayer life?