Plugging Into Corporate Prayer

You ask God for something and He gives it to you, but you don’t recognise it because it didn’t come as you were expecting it and you often only notice in retrospect.

So get this.

It’s a Wednesday evening, I’m on my way home from work. On the train I’m so mentally exhausted that I struggle to stay awake by the time my stop comes. I walk from the train station home so that keeps me awake, but I am tired. It’s all too convenient that I’m really tired on the evening when I’m going to a prayer meeting.

Prayer meetings. Notoriously the least attended service in the church week and on the surface for good reason. You’ve been to the weekend service, so you’ve effectively done your bit for the week. For the rest of the week it’s a challenge to have the energy once you’ve got home to then sort yourself out and go to another church function where you have to give some impression that you’re alive and active and up for it. So most people give it a miss.

It’s a pity how some people kind of give a guilt trip to those who don’t make it to prayer meetings. It goes something along the lines of being able to give time to Coronation Street (or whatever soap) but when it comes to the Lord’s business you cannot find the time. The statement is correct, but it’s hardly a motivating tool to get people to take prayer meetings seriously. Plus if you get them there, it is often the case that they will either fall asleep or appear to behave as if going to sleep would be preferable. That or watching Coronation Street. That’s why actually I like prayer meetings – not calling those who attend the hard-core Christians, but the likelihood is higher that people who are there actually want to be there. That’s always a good environment for some good spiritual work to take place.

Anyway, there I was having planned to go to the prayer meeting, but I am exhausted. Not only that but I’m coming home to three young girls and a loving wife who want some daddy/husband time. When you add that to the added temptation of the Arsenal/Man City game being on, I’ve got all the rationale I need to postpone the prayer meeting for this week.

I’ve been waiting though for a long time for an opportunity like this.

So my weary tired carcass hauls itself across the lines and into that cosy room with the comfy chairs as well as the straight chairs (I take the straight ones, I’m here to pray, not fall asleep in the comfy, comfy chairs). I have been waiting for this for some time.

There are nine other people in the room (yeah, big turn out!) and the session gets under way and by the time it’s finished my entire being is refreshed. You see for me it’s one thing to have the ongoing prayer life on your own – that’s all well and good. There is something about plugging into corporate prayer – however that’s expressed – where being with others with their concerns and their issues makes the whole deal come across as life-building – dare I say that as a believer I am more built up by praying with others than I would be on my own.

Plugging into corporate prayer can be the difference between losing heart and gaining courage. Plugging into corporate prayer can be the difference between an insular view and a wider, healthier perspective. Plugging into corporate prayer can be the difference between a lonely, solitary walk with Christ and the Body of Christ expressing itself as it should.

As diverse and as brilliant as the humanity we see around us can be the expression of corporate prayer – it has so many ways of being and it doesn’t require tens or hundreds or thousands. It just requires more than two … and consider what it does to the spiritual life to plug into that.

And that is just the beginning of realising that craving for Christian community …

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

dmcd