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.
Rick and I met this morning again to catch up with one another and pray together. We discussed United Prayer and we talked about prayer meetings in general. We all know that corporate prayer is at a low ebb in the church generally speaking but I didn't realize just how bad it was. I thought maybe churches understood the concept of a "prayer meeting" but they were simply poorly attended or "dead." But according to Rick, the more he talks with churches around the country, the sad reality is that things are a lot worse than I had imagined. Many churches (if not most churches) do not even know what corporate prayer meetings are at all. In their minds, "corporate prayer" refers to the opening prayer by the pastor during the worship service—and that's it! It's a completely foreign concept and when Rick was talking with one church leader in particular about corporate prayer, he said, "this seems like a good thing." How is this possible that we have lost so much ground in the church? Is it any wonder that we're in the state that we're in? We're not praying!
Rick is asking for God's help and leading in the possibility of us both going in to some of these churches for two days to teach about corporate prayer (from the Bible and from church history) and then actually engaging in a season of prayer to show them practically how it looks. Perhaps you could pray that God will bless this burden and desire by Rick? O how we need to recover something very important that has vanished from the church!
I was encouraged once again by Dr. Clarence Sexton as he preached last night on the text in Acts 6:4—we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. This is a man who "gets it." I thank God for him. Listen to this clip:
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:
