Originally written by Neil
For the last decade I’ve been a student of the great prayers and prayer movements of the Church. I’ve read about Martin Luther’s practice of rising early to pray two hours per day, unless he was extremely busy – then he would pray three hours! I’ve studied the dedication to prayer of great preachers like Billy Graham, Jim Cymbala and a host of others. Every year I stop by the Harvest Prayer Booth at the NACC & ask for recommendations on the best new prayer books – Dave Earley’s Prayer: The Timeless Secret of High-Impact Leaders was my gem from last year.
But recently I’ve shifted from just trying to get my church to pray more to actually praying more – dramatically more – myself. The reason? One brief phrase in Luke5:16. There Luke records Jesus withdrew often and prayed. WOW! If Jesus withdrew often for prayer, then why shouldn’t I? Will that cause my congregation to pray more – I don’t know – but honestly I can’t do anything to make them pray more – all I can do is withdraw often myself to pray and leave my church’s prayer frequency up to God. Just sayin…
