Chuck Lawless: 10 Days of Simple and Strategic Prayer for Your Church

I encourage you—even if you struggle with prayer—to keep reading this blogpost. I want to help you pray for your church during the next ten days.

Think for a minute about praying people in the Bible. Abraham prayed for a city (Gen. 18:20-33). Moses prayed for God’s people (Exod. 32:11-13). Joshua prayed for guidance (Josh. 7:1-26). Hannah prayed for a child (1 Sam. 1:1-20). Solomon prayed for wisdom (1 Kgs. 3:1-15). The prophets of God prayed, too (e.g., 1 Kgs. 18:36-39; Jer. 20:7-18).

The early church prayed fervently (Acts 1:14, 3:1, 4:31, 6:4, 10:9, 12:5, 13:3, 14:23, 16:25, 20:36, 28:8). The apostle Paul prayed for believers (e.g., Rom. 1:8, 1 Cor. 1:4). Jesus, of course, modeled a life of prayer (e.g., Matt. 26:36-46; Mark 1:35; Luke 4:42; John 17).

The point is basic: prayer matters, and God’s people must be a praying people.

Too often, though, we don’t pray until we have to – that is, until we face a situation we can’t handle on our own.

We come by this pattern honestly, as we have been taught to be “fixers.” Though unstated, our practical prayer philosophy is obvious: try hard, give it our best, and turn to God as a last resort rather than a first and only hope.

Simply stated, we evangelicals are often more “fixers” than pray-ers. And why not? We have it all—education, buildings, leaders, dollars, members, structures, programs, literature, experience, youth, training … except the obvious power of God on our work.

Where do we start, then, in correcting our prayer patterns? Too often, our strategy is to move from “prayer struggler” to “prayer warrior” quickly. We decide to get up every morning an hour earlier, use that hour for prayer, and then start the day. That’s a great plan as long as it lasts, but seldom does it last long. By the end of week one, discouragement has set in because we’ve failed . . . again.

Rather than take this approach, I encourage you to start simply and strategically. Find time each of the next ten days to pray these ways for your church. In fact, read this blogpost, and then send it to five of your church members to join you in this simple strategy.... Keep reading