The Culture of Prayer
The truth is, we live in a broken world. However, if we dwell on that, we will become discouraged and ineffective in the Kingdom. Instead, we can choose to be the light in it. In Wolf Point, members of Tikkun Olam have decided to start fostering a culture of prayer to have God’s glory shine in the midst of darkness.
The foundation to any good relationship is communication, and prayer is our primary form of communication with God. If we want to enact any meaningful change, we need to be connected with Christ, and the best way to do that is to simply talk, listen and behold him. If we go about our Christian walk without prayer as the main focus, we will become cold. Prayer helps reignite our fire and become closer to God.
One reason for having our weekly prayer meeting is our need for collective unity and desire for our spirits to be reignited and fostered by God. We also yearn to see God’s kingdom come and will be done. We want to see His transformative glory touch down on the Reservation, which allows us to see the ministry of His reconciliation.
Beholding God is one of the best ways to have your spirit fostered by him, building intimacy and closeness. When beholding God, we should focus on different facets of Him. Beholding starts off with positioning yourself at His feet and surrendering your complete self to be in His presence and leaving worldly thoughts and worries behind. In order to do this, you must first have a desire to become closer to God.
We hope that our prayer meeting will become a wildfire that ignites the souls of many, and motivates them to persist in prayer. Our goal is to have so many people involved, that we will no longer be simply leading a prayer group, but instead, receive spontaneous texts from others who want to gather and pray with and for us.
Now it’s your turn
If reading about our passion for prayer community has inspired you to start your own prayer meeting, here is a step-by-step guide to help you kickstart your group:
1. Set aside 1-2 hours every week to meet up with people at a specific location and time to pray.
2. Select someone who will send out an invitation to remind everyone about the prayer meeting. This text will include several verses about the topic you will pray about, the address, and the time. You are not limited to only reading the verses listed in the text, they are meant to help structure your meeting. The scriptures are usually centered around a theme such as spreading the gospel, unity in the body of Christ, apostolic prayers, loving our neighbor, etc. We use these general themes as our focus as we pray for our community and the world at large.
3. Start off your prayer meeting by reading the “beholding with adoration” verse and then set a timer for at least five minutes to behold the Lord. When the timer ends, take a minute to collect your thoughts, then have someone read your first focus scripture aloud for the group.
4. Take turns praying out loud. Once everyone who wants to pray on that verse has spoken, move on to the next verse.
5. Wrap up the prayer meeting by joining together in communion.
6. Before closing the meeting, take time to share prayer requests for specific needs in the community. The last thing you want is to have your prayer meeting turn into a Christian gossip circle, so use discretion when sharing details about other people’s information.
Tips:
As your prayer meetings continue, try increasing your time in silence at the beginning of each meeting.
A helpful tip is to say “Amen” at the end of your prayer so others know when they can chime in.
As your prayer meetings grow, switch up where you meet so everyone can host!