A Prayer for Prayer
June 2002
O Lord, forgive us for making the church too much like the world. Forgive us for trying to act like CEO's with the means of salvation. We spend too much time drawing up budgets, and looking at plans. We focus on organization and lose sight of people.
Lord, we try to make better plans.
Lord, you just make better people.
You sent John the Baptist as the forerunner of Christ. Christ himself was born among us as the babe of Bethlehem. You called the Apostle Paul the great missionary.
You always work through people. You work not through our organizations but through us--not that we can do without you, but you have decided not to do without us. This is part of your love. This is a truth that our age of organization is apt to forget, and forget to our detriment.
What the world and the church need most is not a new order of worship, nor a new church organization. We need people dedicated to Christ, dedicated in prayer. The Holy Spirit does not flow through church hierarchies but through people who are mighty in prayer. The power of God is not poured out on the latest means of communications but on people of prayer.
Lord, you have committed to us the gospel. You have created in us a channel through which your love and power can flow out upon the earth.
Our prayer then is that we may be your holy people, worthy of your holy word.
Lord, may our ambition be for more holiness; may our desire be for conformity to Christ.
Help us to "impersonate" Jesus. May his divine life be embodied in us. May his love be an all-commanding, all absorbing force in our lives. Lead us, O Lord, that we may be clothed with humility, wise as serpents, harmless as doves. Give us a self-emptying faith and a self-consuming zeal for Jesus.
Help us not to be people-pleasers or people-fearers. Give us courage for our time that we may speak forth the Gospel like thunder.
We know lord that you do not need people of great talent or of great learning but people of great holiness and great love.
As we read of the early Christians, we see how heroic and saintly these self-denying, self-crucifying martyrs were. They applied themselves to Christ and were a mighty force in their time. May we apply ourselves to Christ in prayer that we might be a mighty force in our time.
A Christian is by definition a person of prayer. Prayer gives life and force to all that we are.
The sermon of our life is made in the closet of prayer. The meaning of our life is born of our secret communion with God.
Our prayer then is that you will strengthen our prayers, O Lord. Increase our prayers tenfold, for that we know that we will then receive benefits one hundred-fold. Amen.
If you have questions or comments, email Tony Grant
Copyright 2000 York Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church
Last Modified: 2/15/02