DEVOTED To Prayer

DEVOTED TO Prayer

Jacob Haywood | June 11, 2023

Scripture | Acts 2:42

Who in here is devoted to someone you are sitting by? I want you to try something. Have a conversation with that person. EXCEPT…you can’t talk to them. Ok, go… Ok, we know that’s impossible. We need to communicate with each other, and unless we know sign language, we must use words to do so. How about this…Who in here thinks you can have a healthy relationship with a spouse or family member and never talk to them? Communication is necessary in relationships, especially for those we are devoted to. What is our greatest, most important relationship? Our relationship with God. How is your communication with Him?

This morning, we’re going to look at a second component in our “Devoted” series where we see three specific things the early church was devoted to and how we need to be devoted to them as well. We saw last week that this devotion flows out of one primary devotion…our devotion to Christ. We saw last week that the early church was devoted to God’s Word. This morning we’re going to see that we need to be devoted to prayer. We will be doing a survey of sorts through the book of Acts, seeing how the church devoted themselves to prayer. And hopefully you’ll walk away with some tools and encouragement to start communicating with God on a regular basis, and even constantly.

Acts 2:42

Prayer should be primary. From the very beginning of the church, prayer has been primary. It was the driving force behind everything they did. We don’t just see it in our passage for this series, but it’s seen even earlier. As soon as Jesus ascends into heaven, what do the disciples do? Well, after they are urged to go to Jerusalem and stop staring at the sky, they go and…pray.

Acts 1:14 – “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

Our first response should be to pray. Immediately after Jesus ascends into heaven, they go and pray. Immediately after Peter’s powerful sermon at Pentecost and 3,000 people coming to faith in Christ, they devote themselves to prayer, as we read in Acts 2:42.

What’s the first thing you do when you are in trouble? (MOM! HELP! You call out for someone.) What’s the first thing you do when something good happens to you because of someone else? (Thank you!) What do you do when you don’t know what to do? (Hey, MOM?! You ask someone who can bring wisdom.) It’s the same with prayer. Prayer should be our first response to everything. We can see this in the Apostle Paul’s writing to the church at Thessalonica.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 – “16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

If prayer is our first response to everything, I think that’s part of how we can “pray without ceasing.” Do you need help? Pray. Are you happy? Pray. Confused? Pray. Thankful? Pray. Fearful or worried? Pray. Whatever the circumstance, our first response should be to pray.

We often think that we can’t pray without ceasing, I think, because we have a skewed view of what prayer is, at least in how we practice it. We often pray only when we have needs, but prayer is so much more than that! Prayer isn’t just asking for things. It’s talking to God. To a God we can talk to, which is a miracle in itself. And a God who cares and who listens. Jesus made a way for us to have an audience with the King of Kings. When He died on the cross, the veil in the temple was torn. If your faith is in Christ, there is no distance between you and God now because of the sacrifice of Jesus. And Jesus rose from the dead, ascended into heaven, and He is even now interceding for us at the right hand of the Father (Rom. 8:34).

Prayer is so much more than just asking for things you need. Prayer is our fellowship with God.

We are told to pray continuously. What is one thing we do continuously? Breathe. I want you to think about breathing. Do you have to be reminded to breathe? Do you have to think about breathing? No. You do it naturally. When you get to the end of your day, your parent or spouse doesn’t say, “Did you breathe today?” That’s silly. We would be dead if we didn’t. I think it’s very similar with prayer. Many of our spiritual lives are as if we haven’t breathed all day. We are suffocating spiritually because we fail to pray continuously. Martin Luther once said, “To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing.”

Prayer precedes powerful works. Throughout Acts, God uses prayer as His means to do miraculous and mighty works.

Hear what one commentator says about this:

Throughout the book of Acts, God uses prayer as a means to achieve His ends. In almost every case, prayer precedes powerful works. First, prayer precedes the filling of the Holy Spirit. The coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2:3 is directly tied to the devoted prayer of the disciples in Acts 1:14. Luke intends his reader to make this connection. To make this even more clear, in Acts 8:15, Peter and John pray that the Samaritans would receive the Holy Spirit. Luke records, “Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit” (Acts 8:17).

After the first recorded incident of persecution from the council of the high priest, Peter reports to his friends everything that has taken place. Together they pray to God, and “when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness” (Acts 4:31, emphasis added). Therefore, on three separate occasions, the Holy Spirit responds to the prayers of the early disciples.[1]

It's not just true in Acts, but it’s true in our world today. D.L. Moody said, “Every great movement of God can be traced to a kneeling figure.” Do you want to see a great movement of God in your life and in your family and in this church and in this world? Pray.

God uses prayer to lead people to salvation. One of the most powerful prayers, I believe has ever been prayed, is found in Acts. Stephen, the first person martyred for his faith in Jesus, prayed this prayer as he was being killed, modeled after Jesus’ prayer as He’s being nailed to the cross: “And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep” (Acts 7:60). I think it’s one of the most powerful prayers because of who is there and how God answered it for that person. Saul, who we know by his Roman name Paul, was there giving approval to the execution. And then Saul would encounter Jesus, be saved, and become the greatest missionary for Jesus.

Hear what this same Paul has to say in Colossians 4:2-4. The first half of the passage tells us how our prayers affect our evangelism. Prayer can be an indirect form of evangelism. Hear what he says in Colossians 4:2-4:

“2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak.”

When he says “continue steadfastly…” do you know what it literally means? “Devote yourself…” to prayer. And pray for gospel opportunities. That’s what Paul did, and that’s what the early church did.

Do you pray for salvation for specific people? Do you pray for opportunities to share the gospel?

C.S. Lewis said, “I have two lists of names in my prayers, those for whose conversions I pray and those for whose conversions I give thanks. The little trickle of transferences from List A to List B is a great comfort.”[2]

I am inspired by the testimony of the greatest man of prayer in Christian history, George Müller. He said,

“In November 1844, I began to pray for the conversion of five individuals. I prayed every day without one single intermission, whether sick or in health, on the land or on the sea, and whatever the pressure of my engagements might be. Eighteen months elapsed before the first of the five was converted. I thanked God, and prayed for the others. Five years elapsed, and then the second was converted. I thanked God, and prayed on for the other three. Day by day I continued to pray for them, and six more passed before the third was converted. I thanked God for the three, and went on praying for the other two. These two remain unconverted. The man to whom God in the riches of His grace has given tens of thousands of answers to prayer, in the self-same day or hour in which they were offered, has been praying day by day for nearly thirty-six years for the conversion of these two individuals, and yet they remain unconverted; for next November it will be thirty-six years since I began to pray for their conversion. But I hope in God, I pray on, and look yet for the answer.”[3]

Now hear what his biographer reveals: “Of the two individuals still unconverted at the time of this sermon, one became a Christian before Müller’s death and the other a few years later.”[4] How many people do you know and care about that do not know Christ? How often do you pray for them?

God answers prayers to provide and rescue. For example, in Acts, when Peter was in prison, Acts 12:5 says, “So Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.” While they are praying, an angel of the Lord helps Peter escape from prison. He makes his way to the house where they are still praying for him, and he knocks, but they don’t believe it’s actually him! (Acts 12:12-17)

Imagine if you fell into a deep pit, and there’s no way of escape. You can’t climb out of it. What is your only way of escape? What is your only chance of survival? “HELP!” God loves to come to our rescue, and He delights in providing our needs. This is how we often pray. We pray when we need something. God wants us to do this, but we shouldn’t just pray when things are bad, though.

Prayer should be a habit or discipline. Prayer isn’t just something we do when we need help. It should be a daily and consistent discipline for us. Hear what one person says about this as it is demonstrated through Acts:

First, before healing the lame beggar in front of the gate of the temple, Luke says, “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour” (Acts 3:1). Peter and John were intentional about making time for regular prayer. Likewise, when Luke and Paul were in Philippi, they went to “the place of prayer” (Acts 16:16). Again, the early Christians set aside regular time for prayer.

It is also noteworthy that the disciples were not limited to praying in the temple. On one occasion, Luke says, “Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray” (Acts 10:9). So, the disciples would commit time to pray no matter where they were in their travels.[5]

Prayer was a habit and discipline for the early church. In their Jewish culture, there were regular set times to pray, three times per day. Though we’re not in the same culture, we must set aside a certain times to pray if we are to be devoted to prayer as well. Mine is directly following my time in God’s Word. I have a notebook with a list I walk through. My wife’s is at night, and she journals her prayers. Whatever it may look like for you, devote yourself to prayer by making it a habit and daily spiritual discipline.

You may say you don’t know where to start. You might be used to only praying when things are difficult. Here is a helpful acronym that you can work through to learn to pray.

Adoration

Confession

Thanksgiving

Supplication

And once we have prayed, what happens? God answers our prayers.

We should trust God’s answers to our prayers. God doesn’t always answer our prayers how we want, but he does always answer our prayers. While God answered their prayers to rescue Peter from jail, at a later time, the brother of Jesus and leader of the church in Jerusalem, James, was stoned to death. Paul was imprisoned many times and eventually beheaded. Peter was later crucified upside down. Surely, they were praying for them during those times as well.

We can and should trust that God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Rom 8:28). Jesus modeled this kind of prayer perfectly in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went towards his death. He said, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”” (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:36; Luke 22:42; John 6:38).

God always answers our prayers. But He answers them in one of three ways: yes, no, or wait. We must trust that God’s way is best. Tim Keller, late pastor and theologian, just recently died of pancreatic cancer. He had battled with it for three years, and many people were praying for him throughout that time, including me. During one of his cancer updates, he said this:

“We approach this with an awareness of how much prayer we need. Please pray for our trust and dependence on God, for his providential oversight of the medical preparations now in process, and for our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way. Thank You.”

Though he was asking for prayers, he said the words, “our desire to glorify God in whatever comes our way.” He had written a book on prayer just seven years ago. Here’s one of the quotes from his book: “God will either give us what we ask or give us what we would have asked if we knew everything he knows.” Do you trust God like that? Do you trust God when He says no or wait? Do you trust that what God ordains is best? Tim Keller died after a three-year battle with cancer, and God still knows what He is doing answering no to the many people’s prayers for healing. Maybe the next prayer you need to pray is this: “God, I trust you.”

I had to come to terms with this as I prayed wholeheartedly for the healing of my twin sister. She got sick on a Tuesday with the flu and passed away that same Friday. In the ICU hallway, I prayed more fervently, with more faith and less doubt than I have ever prayed in my life, but she died. Over her lifeless body, I thanked God for her life. Afterwards, though, I wrestled with the question, “Why pray?” But here’s the deal with prayer I have come to see through scripture and personal experience. Prayer is not to conform God to our will. It is to conform us to God’s will. One commentator says it this way, “It is sharing with God our needs and desires so that we might be more fully conformed to his ultimate purpose…We seek to bring our wills and the wills of all people into conformity with God’s purposes. We pray not simply for personal blessing but for the extension of God’s kingdom.”[6] That is the grand purpose of prayer.

Prayer is essential. The importance of prayer for our life can’t be overstated. We looked at just a glimpse of how the early church devoted themselves to prayer, yet many Christians today live as if prayer is unnecessary. For the early church, prayer was essential. For us it’s optional. It’s no wonder we don’t see the fruit as they did. It’s no wonder we don’t see and sense God at work in our lives and all around us. It’s time prayer becomes essential to us. It’s time to devote ourselves to prayer.

Let’s start right now. Follow the ACTS acronym and spend some personal time in prayer.

[1] https://www.str.org/w/what-we-need-to-learn-about-prayer-from-the-early-church

[2] https://outreachmagazine.com/features/evangelism/33474-dont-overcomplicate-evangelism.html

[3] George Muller: Delighted in God by Roger Steer (p. 193).

[4] Steer (p. 194).

[5] https://www.str.org/w/what-we-need-to-learn-about-prayer-from-the-early-church

[6] D.G. Bloesch, “Prayer,” in Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (3rd edition, 2017, Baker Academic), 691.