United In Prayer

Daily Reading: Exodus 12, 13:17-22; Acts 1

They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus. Acts 1:14

The first Chapter of Acts is a vivid description of the transitional time for the infant church. I see God taking the remnant of 120 followers through the grief process from walking with a physically present Christ and preparing them for their future ministry after being filled with the promised Holy Spirit. In this one chapter we get a refreshed mission for the church, “be my witnesses to the full earth!” (Acts 1:8) We experience Christ’s ascending into the clouds and we get to watch the Apostles working through issues of community and the choosing of a new Apostle. This one line, though, gives us a foundation for the church that is central to our continued ministry as the Body of Christ today, “they all met together and were constantly united in prayer.” 

At the foundation of the budding of the new church and throughout the entire history of the church God has called his people to be united in prayer. We do not engage the world like any other organization on earth. We do not fight our battles with earthly weapons or clever orators, we fight our battles on our knees centering ourselves on a person, Jesus Christ. We will find in the Book of Acts that prior to every great Godly event the Body is united in prayer. These early followers of Jesus knew that their hope came from staying connected to the vine and that their battles were spiritual in nature. They had watched Jesus probably hundreds of times get away to pray to the Father. And they knew that now they were called to pray to Jesus, their advocate before the Father. 

I am guilty, along with most of us modern Christians in getting caught up in slogans, music, marketing, preaching technics, etc, etc, etc, and forgetting the most foundational element of our ministry, PRAYER! At the center of our being we need to regain a dependence on united prayer. Centering our hearts, our ministries and our lives on Christ and Christ alone.

Lord, help us to become a people of united prayer that we may see you work mightily within our lives and our community.  Amen.