Prayer
29th April
Tim Hewitt
Why is it good to do the 24-7 prayer thing? Why pray for 24-hours non-stop, and why does it have to be in a prayer room.
Because it works.
Prayer isn't a formula but we do reap what we sow. Bold persistent prayer is effective. When there have been moves of God there have been moves of prayer. Jesus talks about prayer a lot. In the garden he encouraged the disciples to pray while he went off, and kept waking them up to keep praying.
When people gather is when God comes in a different way. Paul urges us to pray, seek God, carry thanksgiving in our hearts. Momentum of continual prayer.
Tim has lots of stories, for example Celtic monks who prayed in their abbey continually for 200 years. In the 18th century some Moravians started a 24-7 thing and it didn't stop for 100 years and resulted in a missionary movement in Europe.
Isiaih 62 - watchmen on the walls: give ourselves no rest.
Good to do it as a community, for a season, in an intentional way.
Tim shared some of his journey, some of his questions, where he comes from.
Questions
1) Who taught you to pray, to worship, to study the Bible. Nobody really taught Tim to pray, he just copied people around him. This is true for many of us. Would be helpful to have someone come alongside to see how we're getting on with prayer.
Something in us wants to communicate with something bigger, that's the essence of prayer. Grab hold of it and teach the younger generation. How are you going to let what's in you out. Youngsters want to be involved in something bigger than themselves. Communicating with God needs to be brought out in them.
2) Why pray. It changes things. It also changes us. If you look at people you admire who are effective prayers, they really know God, we are drawn to them. They are not better people but they are closer to God somehow. They know grace, they know the lightness of not carrying their burdens, of giving it all to God.
Prayer isn't like a vending machine where we put our prayer in one end and we get what we want out the other end. When we pray are we drawing close to God, are we letting him draw close to us, are we catching a bit of his heart.
When things don't happen which we've prayed for, what is our response. Do we get annoyed or frustrated. Look back on your times of prayer with God and realise that you've grown in him, learnt more about him, changed as part of the process.
The world is a mess, needs God to intervene. Needs us to be his hands and feet. He wants us to be a part of what he wants to do in the world.
Unanswered prayer
Tim doesn't have any answers to why some prayers go unanswered. God is a creative God who loves us and wants to walk with us through life. Tim doesn't believe that all our actions are set and predetermined. We are changed as we walk with God, our future is changed by our present actions. We are caught in the tension between wanting to know God better, and being annoyed about why some prayers aren't answered. Maybe that's where Christians live.
Get to know God, not just focusing on the answers but catching some of his heart.
God works in the now for the not yet.
Tim loves prayer. When he's had a bad day he says the only things to be done are dance & pray, in any order! When communities pray we do see answers. Share our stories from prayers in our cells to encourage each other.
| 
