Recently our Vineyard Church held a 24-7 Week of Prayer. It is the third time we have done it and there is always an incredible buzz about the place. Often, unprompted, a number of us sense the atmosphere change around us. It’s hard to define and not easily put into words but, nevertheless, we believe it is there.
However, my first encounters with prayer were not that great. I remember being in the primary school playground when an earnest boy came up to me and said, “Shall we pray?” I was a bit taken back, but not wanting to disappoint him, I said, “Um, okay!”
He began, “Hands together, eyes closed…” Then shouted, “And don’t forget to blow your nose!” He then ran away laughing his head off, while I was left feeling more than a little silly.
I suspect for some the whole concept of prayer may seem a little silly. After all, it’s not as if you can physically see what you are putting your trust in, unlike a plane (even though we are still baffled how it defies gravity). Yet, millions of people around the world pray.
A survey carried out by the Church of England a little while ago found that six out of seven people pray for something at some time in their lives. That’s a high number! But does prayer work?
A report published by American cardiologists showed that patients who received prayer tended to recover quicker than those who didn’t. We also have people in our church who would say they are miraculously healed from conditions. In the case of one person, a consultant was about to carry out an irreversible operation when the x-ray showed the 26-year-old condition had completely gone. The person had received prayer two days earlier. (Although, I hasten to add, there are also those who haven’t seen change.)
William Temple, a past archbishop of Canterbury said, “When I pray coincidences happen. And when I don’t, they don’t”. This has been my experience too.
We live in an increasingly secularised culture that frowns on the place of divine intervention, not least when important decisions need to be made. I guess it doesn’t feel very ‘sophisticated’ in our Western culture. We feel pressurised into accepting a rational, soul-less life - free from all religious spirituality and philosophy. But I wonder why we don’t seem any more content or happier for this freedom from belief.
For instance, mental illness problems among adults and teenagers have never been higher and, in turn, costs the economy £77 billion a year in England alone. We also seem increasingly fragmented as a nation and yet, somehow, we remain proud of our individualism. It is, perhaps, no wonder that the something in that human spirit still longs for a greater voice of reason to speak into its emotional and physical condition.
Prayer is not primarily for the religious. It’s the language of a special relationship between us and another, between heaven and earth, creator and creation. The desire to pray is what makes us human. It reveals the state of our soul and helps us be aware that we are, actually, more Clark Kent than Superman.
The author CS Lewis wrote: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God, it changes me.”
I believe in the power of prayer as much as I believe in Jesus. It has changed me for sure. What’s more, we would love the opportunity to pray for you at Stour Valley Vineyard, whatever is going in your life - even if you do not have one single ounce of faith. God’s love is not conditional, regardless if we are church-goers or not.
ASD
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