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Pastor Jay's Blog

Grease for the Wheels of Prayer, Pt. 4

 

 

Prioritization.  I put that word first because, well…you know.  Prioritization is one of those things that we all know we need to do, but we don’t because, ironically, it is not a priority.  It is just easier to do what is easy (how is that for an earth-shaking observation?).   The need, and the difficulty, of prioritization is familiar to us all and is a reality in every area of life. 

So what must be the priorities of God’s people?  You are probably making the educated guess that I am going to say prayer.  Bingo!  Realizing the priority of prayer will serve as a good dollop of grease for our wheels of prayer.  So how can I demonstrate the priority of prayer?  I believe I could show this by tallying up all the Biblical requests and commands for prayer, and use the weight of that to convince you.  But I actually want to go to one unique passage to demonstrate prayer’s priority. 

          Acts 6:2–4 So the twelve summoned the congregation of the disciples and said,           “It is not desirable for us to neglect the word of God in order to serve tables.                    3 “Therefore, brethren, select from among you seven men of good reputation,               full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may put in charge of this task. 4 “But           we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word.”

It doesn’t get any clearer, does it?  And this comes from the very ones who would be the foundation of the church (Eph. 2:20).  It is hard to imagine all of the demands that had to be continually coming before the apostles.  As the official representatives of Christ who would establish the church, who would not want to get their wisdom and direction for a thousand different situations.  But no matter the demands or the challenges, they were undistracted from the priorities: prayer and the ministry of the Word. 

I find this amazing.  The establishment of the church was not as dependent upon administration, organization, leadership, meetings, or financial planning as it was upon prayer.  If this is not a smack in the face of today’s CEO pastor, I don’t know what is.  Prayer and the Word are to come first and be given the greatest attention.  There is a place for wise leadership that administrates and organizes and plans and strategizes.  But administration is for keeping prayer and the Word first and then everything else.  Organization is for keeping prayer and the Word first and then everything else.  All the other leadership strategies are for keeping prayer and the Word as the priority.  When prayer and the Word start getting replaced by strategy, planning, and other leadership-oriented duties, it is actually just leadership gone wrong. 

If all this is true for the church, is certainly is for the individual as well.  Clearly, God has called laymen to vocations where their attention is upon the work they must do.  But if the elders of the church are doing their job, then the centrality and priority of the word and prayer will be carried over into the lives of God’s people.  The Word will fill their mind as they work, and prayer will waft from their soul and lips “without ceasing.”   

If we want to get something done to the glory of God, we must pray.  Prayer is the priority because grace is the power.  Prayer taps into grace, because God loves coming to the rescue of those who cry out to him.  So I will say it again; If we want to get something done to the glory of God, we must pray.   

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