EHP Day 45-Time In Prayer With the Father
The Book of the Acts
All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers (1:14)…
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers (2:42)…
And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed (14:23).
The great reformer Martin Luther (1483-1546) is to have said,
“As it is the business of tailors to make clothes and of cobblers to mend shoes, so it is the business of Christians to pray.”
It may well be that a reading in the book of Acts prompted such a claim. Early Christians prayed. When Jesus ascended, they went to Jerusalem to pray and wait for what God was sending (i.e., the promised Holy Spirit). When 3,000 people responded in faith to the Peter’s gospel, they gathered themselves in smaller groups, and devoted themselves to (among other things) prayer. Even before his salvation, Cornelius habitually prayed and God was listening (Acts 10). When new churches were established, leaders were carefully chosen and dedicated with serious, extended prayer.
It is the business of Christians to pray. How about you? Is it your business?
Abraham Lincoln confessed,
“I have been driven many times to my knees by the overwhelming conviction that I had nowhere else to go. My own wisdom, and that of all about me, seemed insufficient for the day.”
If the early Christians’ business was to pray, if our greatest President was often driven to his knees, if we have access to the very heart and presence of God because of Jesus (Acts 4:16-18), give God a chance to make your day…every day. Pray. Pray again. Pray often. Pray always. Pray as if your life depended on it, for it does.
Journal Notes