Whatever happened to Prayer Meeting? It seems that recently, there have been less and less people going to prayer meeting. Tonight there were 7 people from Regeneration and Youth180. I think even the CYPGs had less people than they usually would have.
I realised the paucity of attendance when I was talking to Truc and Dorcas saying that the upper sanctuary used to be so full of lots of small groups of twos and threes praying. Today there were just the three of us.
I am definitely guilty of being a prayer-meeting-skipperer in the past year or so, but since trying to come more regularly I have noticed this change in the scene. For me, the biggest barrier is the great tiredness monster that plagues me regularly (it's fed by my occasional insomnia, and seems to be strongest on Tuesday nights for some reason - funny that). So I don't mean to try to make people feel bad about not going to Prayer Meeting at all (cos let's just say that I wouldn't exactly be one of the fore-runners for a best-attendance award if there was one), but rather I want to encourage people to go.
The opportunity to pray with sisters in Christ is such a great blessing that I often take for granted. Every Tuesday I go through the mental to-go-or-not-to-go shuffle. And when I end up going, sharing my prayer requests, praying and getting prayed for - I wonder why I hesitated so much to go. The peace that comes from passing your burdens to God and helping others do so by praying for them is a truly matchless feeling, that I know God has reserved for His children because He is just so caring and loving to us (who are SOOOO undeserving).
It's kinda sad when I think about how many people used to go to prayer meeting as opposed to nowadays. I guess when you know something is good, you want to share it with everyone and when people just don't seem to see how good it is or realise the blessings they're missing out on, you can't help but feel a little disappointed. Well I do anyway.
The other thing is that the driving force behind revival is of course PRAYER - and if a church's prayer meeting is empty, then so are the chances for revival, really. If there's one thing that the preachers and teachers from the Old School (like Spurgeon, Wesley, Lewis, Sanders) have taught us - it is that the power of prayer can NOT be underestimated. God is real. Prayer is powerful. And revival will always be far from us if we don't realise these truths! So give prayer meeting a go! If anything, it will help kick start your prayer life (something a lot of us, me included, struggle with).
Well that's my two cents worth about that...
I realised the paucity of attendance when I was talking to Truc and Dorcas saying that the upper sanctuary used to be so full of lots of small groups of twos and threes praying. Today there were just the three of us.
I am definitely guilty of being a prayer-meeting-skipperer in the past year or so, but since trying to come more regularly I have noticed this change in the scene. For me, the biggest barrier is the great tiredness monster that plagues me regularly (it's fed by my occasional insomnia, and seems to be strongest on Tuesday nights for some reason - funny that). So I don't mean to try to make people feel bad about not going to Prayer Meeting at all (cos let's just say that I wouldn't exactly be one of the fore-runners for a best-attendance award if there was one), but rather I want to encourage people to go.
The opportunity to pray with sisters in Christ is such a great blessing that I often take for granted. Every Tuesday I go through the mental to-go-or-not-to-go shuffle. And when I end up going, sharing my prayer requests, praying and getting prayed for - I wonder why I hesitated so much to go. The peace that comes from passing your burdens to God and helping others do so by praying for them is a truly matchless feeling, that I know God has reserved for His children because He is just so caring and loving to us (who are SOOOO undeserving).
It's kinda sad when I think about how many people used to go to prayer meeting as opposed to nowadays. I guess when you know something is good, you want to share it with everyone and when people just don't seem to see how good it is or realise the blessings they're missing out on, you can't help but feel a little disappointed. Well I do anyway.
The other thing is that the driving force behind revival is of course PRAYER - and if a church's prayer meeting is empty, then so are the chances for revival, really. If there's one thing that the preachers and teachers from the Old School (like Spurgeon, Wesley, Lewis, Sanders) have taught us - it is that the power of prayer can NOT be underestimated. God is real. Prayer is powerful. And revival will always be far from us if we don't realise these truths! So give prayer meeting a go! If anything, it will help kick start your prayer life (something a lot of us, me included, struggle with).
Well that's my two cents worth about that...
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