Prayer is to the church as fuel is to a fire.
Have you ever tried to reignite a smoldering fire? The most important part of the process is getting down on your knees and slowly and persistently blowing on the little flame until it catches some other twigs on fire and picks up some steam. In fact, a fire can be almost dead but if you blow on the smoldering coals, that fire will reignite.
Prayer has the same effect on the church.
Have you ever sprayed lighter fluid on a campfire that’s already burning? What happens? The campfire explodes.
Prayer has the same effect on the church.
A church or ministry that doesn’t pray is at best a smoldering fire. It might not be dead yet, but it will be soon.
But, prayer doesn’t just affect dying churches. Prayer affects healthy churches, too. It doesn’t take much for a healthy fire to turn into an uncontrollable wildfire.
Most of my family lives in Colorado. Just a few years ago, some of my family had to evacuate their house because a small fire had suddenly turned into an uncontrollable wildfire threatening to burn the forest around their house.
God doesn’t want His church to be a smoldering fire. God doesn’t want His church to be a bonfire. God want’s His church to be an uncontrollable wildfire! Jesus said, “I came to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already set ablaze!” (Luke 12:49, HCSB). God doesn’t want His church to be able to be contained by brick walls! God wants His church to be so contagiously set ablaze that everywhere the people of the church move, new fires pop up. But in order for this to happen, there has to be something to fuel it. Prayer is to the church as fuel is to a fire.
Take a moment and read Luke 18:1-5. We don’t know a whole lot about the woman in this story, but we do know that she was persistent. She wouldn’t let her issue go. In fact, the judge finally gave her what she was asking for just so she would leave him alone.
Now read Luke 18:6-8. Jesus poses 3 questions. The first two are awesome and encouraging. The last one is a straight punch to the gut.
Question #1: “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. And will not God give justice to His elect, who cry to Him day and night?” (v. 7, ESV). In other words, Jesus says, “How much more will your God, who is righteous, give justice to His children who cry out to Him day and night?” The judge wasn’t righteous. God is. The judge didn’t care about the woman, God did. But, notice the qualifier “day and night.” When is the last time you were that persistent in prayer? When have you led your ministry to be that persistent in prayer together?
Question #2: “Will He delay long over them?” (v. 7, ESV). It took this unrighteous judge who didn’t care at all about this woman a while to answer her request. How much faster will our righteous God who does care about us answer our prayers? God isn’t slow to answer our prayers. Could it be that we just think He’s slow because we don’t know how to pray?
Now for the punch to the gut question …
Question #3: “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on earth?” (v. 8, ESV). Jesus could have said, “Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find people praying on earth?” In fact, it almost seems like it would have made more sense to say that, but He didn’t. In choosing these words, Jesus basically implies that prayer is a measurement of our faith. A prayerless person is a faithless person. A prayerless church is a faithless church.
Prayer is to the church as fuel is to a fire.
In what ways are you leading your ministry or church to pray?
In what ways are you throwing fuel on the fire?
Austin Wadlow serves as the college pastor at First Baptist Church in Denton, TX. He teaches at a weekly Bible study called Overflow (overflowdenton.org) as well as for other camps and retreats. You can connect with Austin via Twitter: @austinwadlow