Prayers

And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers. (Acts 2.42) 

Prayers.  προσευχαῖς — proseuchais. 

In the 1st century this word was used by greeks as communion of public worship. ‘A public place’ draws up anxiety in many christians today. To pray in private quarters with others intimately conjoined in the action of prayer is a beautiful thing. When I pray with my kids or my wife; we are not anxious of what the other will think of our prayers. The ‘quality’ means nothing to us, we are talking to God together. In the day our text was written, the people would pray in the open air where the Jews were accustomed to pray, outside of those cities where they had no synagogue. The places were situated upon the bank of a stream or the shore of the sea, where there was a supply of water for washing their hands before prayer. People would see them. They prayed out in the open, or in a predetermined spot— with others!

For the churches of the 1st century we know they prayed in homes (Acts 12.12). They prayed in open air (Acts 4). They came together for just the purpose of prayer (Acts 15). They prayed to-geth-er. Again, the point of praying with my family is because WE need to pray. I may pray with my daughter because I want to pray for her. To make it personal and intimate I chose to pray with her rather than just say ‘Im praying for you’. Some would argue that Jesus said to ‘pray in your closet alone’. The passage actually says— “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.” (Matthew 6.6). Jesus is referring to the opposing actions of the religious Pharisees who love to be seen in public praying. The correct interpretation is: we should concentrate on Who we are talking to rather than who else may be watching/listening. We should pray in pubic with others—for others. 

Stock prayers get stock answers. God wants our heart, and hear us from the heart. In this text we see plurality. PrayerS—plural. The indication is more than a stock prayer at a generic or scheduled prayer time. Is it wrong to pray at a scheduled time? No. Daniel, of the Old Testament, shows us that scheduled times of prayer aren’t a bad thing. Rather, it can be a testimony. As in the rest of the book of Acts, they prayed together more than just at a ‘prayer meeting’. When Peter was in jail, the church came together for prayer in Acts 12. There we see them coming together for just prayer. That prayer was just for Peter. I doubt this is stock, generic prayers. This was no typical ‘prayer meeting’ as we see today, because in the scripture we do not see such an example. Today approximately a quarter of the membership of a typical church comes together for a ‘prayer meeting’ one day a week, usually on a Wednesday night. From the stats of a recent poll placed by Life Way we discover that; when we do assemble, the typical member has no idea what they are praying about and usually only one person voices the prayer for the rest. Maybe there is a prayer list and names who associate with a few, but by this time next week they will be forgotten. I do not say that this is true for all genuine hearted believers on a Wednesday night ‘prayer meeting’, but typically though. A prayer list is provided by a staff member and less than half of that audience in attendance knows who the people are on the list. This is NOT what we read here.

What we read in the totality of the New Testament is in reference to people coming together to pray—prayers. They did this together. They prayed together and prayed for each other. It is a beautiful sight to see people who have heard something about each other and stop right where they are and pray for them. I get a huge smile on my face when walking down the hall in our facilities and see brothers and sisters in Christ with hands on shoulders or holding hands while praying for each other as soon as they heard the need. Why wait? Why put it on a list? If it is in your heart why not pray right then!

Is there any good-enough excuse to being with the ones you love?  Why do we not love the church and make it that level of a priority? Why say something such as “I’ll be praying for you” rather than pray for them there and then, follow up with them later, and pray on the phone. Why not send a prayer-text to your friend? 

The priority of praying with and for the church, is not about the institution— but the people. After all, I will be spending eternity with these people. I want them to get there with a friend who isn’t afraid to pray for them right then and there in a public setting, often, in view of others, multiple times in multiple venues.

Lord teach me to pray like a disciple should.