The life of the church can be likened to being on a lake. When the prayer ministry of the church rises, so do all ministry boats rise.

That’s a great image of the foundational importance of prayer I heard at a prayer conference on April 17. It’s still circulating around my brain. Do I believe it? I mean, really believe it? Do you?

It seems to me that praying is simultaneously the easiest and the hardest thing to do.  “Easiest” in that it’s freely available to everyone and can be done anywhere, anytime.  “Hardest” in that it requires us to be in a position we naturally don’t like to be in—desperation.

There’s a proclivity to sprinkle prayer on the work we’re already doing. A dash here.  A dash there. In essence: “God, please just rubber stamp your approval on what I’m trying to accomplish on my own.” 

There’s also the tendency to be perfunctory in our prayers. Go through the motions. Utter things we can’t even remember why we’re asking for in the first place. Not expect God to do anything about our requests.

So the question comes back to me: Am I desperate for God to work in my life? In the life of His church, AABC? I am! 

I wasn’t always, to be honest. As I look at the landscape of America and the world, my heart can easily beat furiously with anxiety—almost like the feeling you get after eating a large meal laced with MSG but entangled with dread and despair. But now my heart beats fervently with a desire to see God work in and through me and AABC. My wonder of God is being renewed and the mission of making disciples is being restored. I am remembering the call He has given me, and to all followers of Jesus, to be His withnesses—to be with Him and to be sent out by/for Him (Mark 3:14).

I pray that your heart beats loudly, confidently and joyfully for God and His mission.  Please also pray for my heart. 

We have an exciting opportunity on May 3 to worship and to pray with nine other church families in the Richardson/Plano area. These partnering churches are from diverse ethnic and denominational backgrounds, but we are united in faith and mission for Jesus. Will you come and raise the ministry boats—the people in our ecosystems, our nation and our world—by your fervent prayer for them?