Preparing
for Prayer Week
“You
have not because you ask not”
James
4:2
Sunday, December 31st thru Saturday,
January 6th will be our first annual week of prayer at Safe Harbor
Presbyterian. We will begin today with a
sermon focusing our minds and hearts on prayer.
There will a prayer meeting at the church every day Monday to Saturday
at
There are many ways that folks begin the new year. Some begin
it with drinking and partying; others with food and football. For some the weeks after Christmas are about
relaxing and being with family. Now, not
all of these are bad things, but let me submit that there may be something
better, especially for those who love Jesus:
Prayer. Real,
intimate, grace-filled, Christ-focused prayer.
Most of us know that how we begin a day
often determines how the middle and end of the day go—where our focus, desire
and joy will be. It is one of the
reasons that I believe Scripture calls us to begin the day seeking God and His
grace (Psalm 1:3;
59:16; 90:14; 92:2;
143:8). Could this not be true as
well as we begin a new year? If we begin
the year looking away from our strength to God’s strength, from our desires to
God’s desires, from the triviality of the TV to the greatness of God, from our
security to the unsearchable riches found in Christ Jesus, will it not help us
to do this more and more throughout the year?
Conversely if we begin the year walking in the same old way, seeking the
same old things is there any reason to think that anything will change? James, the brother of Jesus, both reminds and
rebukes us, “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2).
In 1857 James Alexander, the son of
Archibald Alexander who was the first professor at Princeton Seminary, wrote a
small tract entitled Pray for the Spirit.
In it he states, “In order for mighty and unexampled revival to begin
what we especially need is for the whole church to be down on its knees before
God.” There were four main points
expounded in the tract:
1) There is such a thing as the pouring out of
the Holy Ghost.
2) The influence of the Spirit of God is
exceedingly powerful.
3) The Spirit whom we seek is the Author of
Regeneration and Sanctification.
4)
The Holy Spirit sends those gifts which are necessary for successful work.
Revival in the church begins and is
maintained as one individual heart after another humbles itself before
God. Please be in prayer with me that
God would send His Spirit of supplication among us as we begin this year
together.
But let me add one more thing to encourage
you in prayer in the weeks ahead. When Alexander wrote his tract he was in the midst of seeing a
revival take place in
In 1857 forty-six year old Jeremiah Lanphier had been appointed as a City Missionary in
downtown
We might mention that what was happening in
Lanphier’s church at this time was no exception to
the rule. Others have noted that in the
late 1850’s much of the American church was marked by plummeting attendance and
spiritual disinterest.
Discouraged but burdened by the need before
him, Lanphier decided to invite others to a prayer
meeting at
How Often Shall I Pray?
As often as the language of prayer is in
my heart; as often as I see my need of help; as often as I feel the power of
temptation; as often as I am made sensible of any spiritual declension or feel
the aggression of a worldly spirit.
In prayer we leave the business of time
for that of eternity, and intercourse with men for intercourse with God.
A day Prayer Meeting is held every
Wednesday, from
This meeting is intended to give
merchants, mechanics, clerks, strangers, and business men generally an
opportunity to stop and call upon God amid the perplexities incident to their
respective avocations. It will continue for one hour; but it is also designed
for those who may find it inconvenient to remain more than five or ten minutes,
as well as for those who can spare the whole hour.
The first week only six attended, the next
week twenty; the
following week forty came. Soon they
were holding daily meetings and prayer meetings began springing up elsewhere in
the city. It is estimated that within
six months more than ten-thousand businessmen were gathering daily for prayer
in
James Alexander in describing to a friend
what was happening wrote, “From the mingled motives in which religious concern
has its beginnings, numbers of worldly visitors entered the doors. Conversion after conversion was
reported. Men
who had felt the emptiness of earthly things, and smarted under losses, came
hither for consolation.”
Gardiner Spring, the most prominent
Presbyterian minister in
And so it is when God’s people pray. It is a foretaste of heaven. We are abased and God is lifted up—lifted up
in our lives and lifted up before the watching world. It is what I need; it is what you need; it is what the church needs, and it is so
desperately what the world needs to see in us—God exalted.
Please join with us in Prayer Week to seek
the Lord and His grace as the year begins and above all else to exalt God and
His goodness.
Learning
to seek God in prayer with you in 2007,
James
____________________________________
© James
Calderazzo
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Email: safeharborpca@gmail.com.