#650 - WHY I PRAY
In addition to preaching and developing a team of preachers, my secondary responsibility, as the Lead Pastor at theMOVEMENT Church, is to develop a culture of corporate prayer.
It was about a year ago when I added this to my list of roles and responsibilities on my job description and it hasn't been easy. Though the "prayer temperature" at our church has definitely gone up a notch, maintaining momentum in the area of corporate prayer has been difficult.
Very often, I feel like if I don't continue to make corporate prayer a priority, nobody else would see it as both beneficial and necessary. Prayer meeting attendance has been down. Energy around praying our corporate prayers has been low. And I have been discouraged.
With that in mind, prior to attending the corporate prayer meeting this past Monday (only 2 other people showed up), I had to re-visit why prayer (and corporate prayer more specifically) is a priority for me and why it should remain a priority for our church. Because motivations matter, I had to re-visit my "why." I came up with two compelling reasons.
GOD IS WORTHY.
God is worthy of our prayers. God is worthy of our praise. God is worthy of our adoration. God is worthy of our thanksgiving. God is worthy of us investing the time to, every time we gather, call out to Him to praise Him for who He is and to petition Him for what He has yet to do.
God is worthy of the time, effort, and energy that it takes to pray. God is worthy.
I AM WEAK.
I am unable to move the mountains in my life apart from the powerful hand of God. I am unable to be the husband, be the son, be the pastor, be the preacher, be the leader, and be the man God has called me to be apart from God's strength bestowed upon me.
Apart from the mighty hand of God, I am unable to accomplish anything of eternal significance for the glory of God. I am weak.
One final thought. I am compelled to continue to lead myself and others towards a lifestyle of dependance on God, evidenced by a strong prayer life, because of what it communicates to a watching world if prayer is absent...
ARROGANCE.
Arrogance that believes I am responsible for my blessings. Arrogance that has bought into the lie that I am entitled to what I see God doing in and through me. Arrogance that has forgotten that every good gift comes from above. Arrogance that assumes that apart from God's hand I can actually bring God's Kingdom to earth.
Arrogance will not be the prevailing characteristic of my life or my church. Humility will.
But, for this to be true, I must not grow weary in leading us to pray. I must keep believing. I must keep leading by example. I must keep the following thought in the front of my mind and in the front of the church's collective conscience: