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“And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to the prayers.”
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Acts‬ ‭2‬:‭42‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

And they devoted themselves to..the prayers

In a prior post I briefly highlighted what prayer is.1 put simply… prayer is talking to Jesus.. talking to God… Communication.

My relationship with Jesus began when I started talking to Him. The Holy Spirit revealed to me the impact of sin and temptation in my life. This revelation included an awareness of spiritual evil…. As I became aware that evil was real…I became aware that God was real. This compelled me on a journey of relationship that will continue forever.

Today I want to start my series on Acts 2:42 by taking prayer to a deeper level.

I want to start with prayer in this series because that is exactly what the early community of Messiah did. Before Acts 2 came Acts 1. Before the Holy Spirit came to this small community, they were together praying:

“All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”2

Acts‬ ‭1‬:‭14‬ ‭ESV

Prayer is central to the community of Christ… which makes sense… because talking is central to the institution of family. Generally speaking when you are with family you talk to them… whether you are eating, or walking, or… well fill in the blank here. Sure, you stop talking in some moments, like when you watch a movie, or when you are working, or doing your own thing…

But then, when the movie stops or you come home from work:talking about those events becomes part of what you talk about in a healthy family.

The last few days I’ve been working on a longer story idea. I was still thinking about it so I didn’t tell my wife right away… but when it came together… I couldn’t wait to tell her.

Imagine a family dinner table or living room where not a word was spoken… Sadly, I know some of you don’t have to imagine.But, Doesn’t this seem odd to you in some way? Don’t you wish you had a loving father you could talk to?

You do!

Prayer is just this… telling our father something…like every child who has a good dad.. asking our father for things or thanking him for his love or affection. Asking our Father to weigh in on something or a decision we have to make.

That is prayer.

My daughter, Haddie, has been talking NON-STOP this weekend. Children intuitively understand the importance of talking to their parents.

Every parent here knows what I’m talking about… every parent here is probably going: yeah but the trick is to get them to STOP talking.

This is also something God is sensitive to. Jesus once taught that some people think they will be heard due to their many words… and they just talk full of of empty phrases…but God knows what you need before you ask… so just ask!!! After this is when he taught the prayer we know as the Lords Prayer.3

Desperate to Pray

Off hand prayer doesn’t seem like the most exciting thing in the world… it certainly doesn’t seem like the most natural thing in the world… in fact in certain western cultures any sort of out loud prayer that has any sufficient intimacy could be contrived as craziness to the external observer.

However, it is what drives us. It is what drove Jesus. A comprehensive study of Jesus prayer life is a worthwhile endeavor… but, one too long for this post. I’ll give you one passage though.

“Yet He would often slip away into the wilderness and pray.”
‭‭Luke‬ ‭5‬:‭16‬ ‭TLV‬‬

Talking to the Father was Jesus obsession.

When I pray. Jesus is my obsession. When Jesus is my obsession he shows me the beauty in the universe. When Jesus is my obsession, he is CONSTANTLY pointing out how His Father is loving on me through my children, wife, word, or you know… EVERYTHING.

Prayer is the fuel for the fire and the power that we experience in our lives to do the other things God has called us to. This post has been written over a series of days… in that time I, ironically, stopped praying… in part due to my easy obsession with writing.

There is a connection between talking to God… and power/love in your life. The disciples knew this because the one thing we have record of them asking Jesus to teach them: is to pray.4

I know this is a strong statement and it deserves a deeper dive. But longer story short Jesus is known for many things. Two of them are his prayer life (he is always sneaking off to pray) and his miracles. The gospels are full of these stories. Stories where Jesus is praying and stories where Jesus is healing someone. The disciples seem to have made this connection.

Quick Note: Prayer is a two way conversation… Though we don’t typically hear God in an audible voice… He does talk. I used to be much more anxious about whether or not I could hear from God. You can! Sometimes what you think you hear needs to be tested…. Interpreted.. even translated. While we are becoming like God… and we are made in His image: He is a being that is as far above us as we are a mouse. I’ll share more about hearing from God at a later date… for the time being if you want to hear from God… check out the Bible… specifically the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.. or check out Acts. When you do ask Him to speak to you about what you are reading. You might be surprised. Or if you need him to give you wisdom. Just ask. Believe He can give you wisdom and then step towards your problem. Please feel free to ask questions of course! Or message me through the connect page.

The Community That Prays

When I started this post I meant to spend the majority of time on community prayer. It became clear as I was writing that the focus needed to be WHY we pray. Once you know WHY we pray, community prayer becomes all that much sweeter. Prayer in community also flows out of your private life with God. If you are talking to God all the time on your own praying in community becomes more natural.

I can personally testify to this. When I first become aware of the power of prayer.. I was probably a bit awkward and my faith was small. Now however I feel more comfortable doing prayer in community as my “prayer life” alone with God has grown.

Prayer shouldn’t be the filler for the Christian community. It should be the constant. Corporate prayer often includes worship. This is appropriate.

Our God is a joyful, singing, talking God. He loves you very much.

I know there is a lot here. I hope I’ve given you some things to think about and then hopefully start acting on.

May you know that Jesus wants to talk to you. May you listen. May you speak to Him and come to love Him!

Footnotes

1. Talking to Our Heavenly Father

2.The greek words are even the same, though with only slightly different grammar:

Acts 1:14: προσκαρτεροῦντες προσευχῇ

Acts 2:42: προσκαρτεροῦντες προσευχαῖς

The only difference here is that προσευχῇ is singular and προσευχαῖς is plural

3. Matthew 6:5-15

4. Luke 11:1