The Tide Of Prayer 1/20/2015

Good Morning,

I am allowing the Door County German Chocolate Cake Coffee to really sink in this morning. I arose just a little earlier than usual, giving me more time to "smell the coffee".

As a duck hunter who has traveled many back waters low on liquid I can tell you just how hard it is to row or paddle a boat in mud or sand. Now picture a row boat on a sand dune next to the ocean. Imagine me rowing in the sand as hard as I can. That boat is not going to move. But, now imagine the tide coming in and putting some water under the boat. Well, pretty soon my rowing produces movement and off I go!

The church is like that also. When genuine corporate prayer is absent from the church she struggles to do her work and move forward. But when the tide of true prayer uplifts her to hear and follow God's directions she moves forward.

Acts 12:1-17

Peter’s Miraculous Escape From Prison

12 It was about this time that King Herod arrested some who belonged to the church, intending to persecute them. ² He had James, the brother of John, put to death with the sword. ³ When he saw that this met with approval among the Jews, he proceeded to seize Peter also. This happened during the Festival of Unleavened Bread. ⁴ After arresting him, he put him in prison, handing him over to be guarded by four squads of four soldiers each. Herod intended to bring him out for public trial after the Passover.

⁵ So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.
⁶ The night before Herod was to bring him to trial, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and sentries stood guard at the entrance. ⁷ Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him up. “Quick, get up!” he said, and the chains fell off Peter’s wrists.
⁸ Then the angel said to him, “Put on your clothes and sandals.” And Peter did so. “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me,” the angel told him. ⁹ Peter followed him out of the prison, but he had no idea that what the angel was doing was really happening; he thought he was seeing a vision. ¹⁰ They passed the first and second guards and came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them by itself, and they went through it. When they had walked the length of one street, suddenly the angel left him.
¹¹ Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.”
¹² When this had dawned on him, he went to the house of Mary the mother of John, also called Mark, where many people had gathered and were praying. ¹³ Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door. ¹⁴ When she recognized Peter’s voice, she was so overjoyed she ran back without opening it and exclaimed, “Peter is at the door!”
¹⁵ “You’re out of your mind,” they told her. When she kept insisting that it was so, they said, “It must be his angel.”
¹⁶ But Peter kept on knocking, and when they opened the door and saw him, they were astonished. ¹⁷ Peter motioned with his hand for them to be quiet and described how the Lord had brought him out of prison. “Tell James and the other brothers and sisters about this,” he said, and then he left for another place.

I think it is time for us to turn the tide toward more praying churches. What churches lack in advancement can usually be equal to the lack of prayer within the church itself.

Be a praying church. Be part of a praying church.

God bless,
Marty