This small section is not intended to bring before the Lord’s people the vital importance of prayer. I believe that the prayer life of many Christians (the writer included) as well as the prayer ministry of many assemblies could be greatly improved. But I think we know that. It is not a truth we have overlooked in the book of Acts. Every page of the history of the early Church is filled with the incense of the saints rising up to God.
It would seem that the vitality of our prayers would greatly increase if some of these other issues were resolved. For example, if “…a great door and effectual [was] opened unto [us], and there [were] many adversaries” (1 Cor. 16:9). Suddenly our prayers would have grip; we would again be in it, rather than watching from the sidelines.
Or if we were all in the Book again, up to our elbows in rediscovered truth—what would that do to our contact with the Throne? Or if we expected the Spirit to guide us into a God-sized opportunity, I mean ready guide us, rather than our planning, and expecting Him to approve!
But what I think we may be missing is the instancy of NT praying. They didn’t say, as we sometimes do, “We should pray about that.” They went ahead and prayed at that very moment. We see the same in Nehemiah’s prayers, and Paul’s—he interrupts his own letter writing!
Then too, I think we’re missing the constancy of NT praying. That’s what fasting was all about, wasn’t it. Hold all calls. Forget lunch. And supper, if it came to that. Pray on. Pray through until the answer came to all, clear as a trumpet on the morning air. Sure as the voice of God.
Lord, teach us to pray…like that!