This resolution of Daily United Prayer is based on An Humble Attempt, originally put forward by Jonathan Edwards in 1748. Its design is to encourage God's people in the duty of united extraordinary prayer; setting aside some time every day to pray for the revival of His church and the advancement of Christ's kingdom in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in the world.
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly." Matt 6:5-6.
I received an email last night from a participant asking why from time to time there are no devotionals in these emails but only prayer requests? I sent a reply explaining that these emails often take me an inordinate amount of time to write—sometimes hours. I went on to say that it is difficult for me to consistently give that kind of time each day to sit and write the email with all of the other responsibilities crowding out my day. That is true. But as I wrote the reply, I was thinking about the danger that I must guard myself against in writing these emails and even in the time of corporate prayer itself.
Let me explain briefly.
Writing these emails has been a good discipline for my spiritual life as it has forced me to spend even more time in the Word and in meditation than I normally would. That is partially why I have been trying to keep writing. However, the danger is that every time I open the Word or meditate on a passage, my mind can be too preoccupied with how it can be used to feed others (in the email) rather than just feeding myself. I'm sure this is a common tendency with anyone who handles the Word—whether they be a preacher, a missionary, a Sunday school teacher, or one who writes emails. :) It's a real danger. To use a restaurant analogy, you become so preoccupied with preparing meals all day for your demanding customers that you never take the time to sit down, slow down, and enjoy a meal for yourself. Over time, this will be a disaster. So, if you see less writing in these emails, you'll know that I am feeling the need to spend more time feeding my own soul instead of trying to feed anyone else.
This "others-focused" danger can also be applied to corporate prayer. If we're not careful, our preoccupation with "the people" in a corporate prayer meeting will take away the spirit of true prayer in the individual heart and will eventually kill the prayer meeting itself. In other words, are our prayers truly directed to God or are we praying to be heard of men? Can we pray the exact same prayers in private or do they only "work" when they are heard of men? Friends, let me gently exhort us all to put the blinders on and maintain discipline to direct our prayers to our Father which is in heaven and try very hard to "shut the door" of our consciousness to everything and everyone around us. It is the Pharisee that loves to be "seen of men." They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, shut the door, and pray to thy Father which is in secret.
Whether we're writing emails, preparing a devotional for this prayer time, preparing a sermon for church, or praying in a corporate prayer meeting, let us be careful not to do any of these with an eye toward men, but with a single-eyed devotion to our God.
Mark Acevedo sent me a wonderful quote by G. Campbell Morgan:
"There are certain phenomena which precede and which follow revivals of religion.....It is ever the darkest hour before the dawn. The nation always seems to be given over to the Evil One before the coming of the Son of Man. The decay of religious faith, the deadness of the churches, the atheism of the well-to-do, the brutality of the masses, all these, when at their worst, herald the approach of Revival. Things seem to get too bad to last. The reign of evil becomes intolerable. Then the soul of the nation awakens."
As Mark wrote to me, "We can certainly say we see these signs in our society today. We must stay the course and believe God for revival."
DAILY UNITED PRAYER unitedprayer.net
Mon-Fri @ 12pm EDT // Sat @ 10am EDT
We invite you to join our dedicated and earnest group of praying participants of all ages from around the world that meet every day over Zoom to pray. At the start of each prayer call, a different individual will bring a brief Scriptural meditation. Here's the most recent:
