This resolution of Daily United Prayer is based on An Humble Attempt, originally put forward by Jonathan Edwards in 1748. Its design is to encourage God's people in the duty of united extraordinary prayer; setting aside some time every day to pray for the revival of His church and the advancement of Christ's kingdom in our homes, in our churches, in our nation, and in the world.
"And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these things. And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high." Luke 24:47-49.
If you had a million dollars to spend for the advancement of the Kingdom, what would you do with it?
I've been thinking a lot about that question Saul of Tarsus asked in Acts 9, "What wilt thou have me to do?" If we had unlimited resources, what would we do with it? When Jesus gave what we call the Great Commission, He instructed them to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all the nations. This commission has not changed for us today. So, I ask the question again. If we had a million dollars, what would we do with it? One might say, print Bibles. Broadcast sermons on the TV, radio, web. Build schools and seminaries and hire teachers. Support missionaries. Eventually, the money would run out and perhaps we would be back where we started with little or nothing to show for it. Isn't that true?
What did Jesus do? Or, rather, what did Jesus command that we do? He said, "Tarry, until." This is a command to wait in prayer. This goes against our natural inclination, doesn't it? We are people of action. If we were given a million dollars, we would want to do something about it immediately. Well, we should do something about it. But just not immediately. "Tarry, until" implies that action will eventually follow. But the priority must be prayer. Because we must first have the leading and empowering of the Holy Spirit to make our actions effective. No amount of laboring will bring about a harvest. The sowing of the seed is important. But the rains must fall and God must give the increase.
This is a call to united prayer, friends. This is the burden and emphasis we sought to bring at the conference. I believed it then, I still believe it now. In fact, if there is any "call to action" it should be a "call to prayer." God will show us what "to do" next .. but the first point of business must be to seek God's face in united prayer.
The above is the opening talk I gave at last week's conference on the Case for United Prayer. I am still deeply convinced this is the need of the hour.
(I am continuing to work on uploading all of the conference messages. I hope to have it completed today. You can keep an eye on it here).
DAILY UNITED PRAYER unitedprayer.net
Mon-Fri @ 12pm EDT // Sat @ 10am EDT
We invite you to join our dedicated and earnest group of praying participants of all ages from around the world that meet every day over Zoom to pray. At the start of each prayer call, a different individual will bring a brief Scriptural meditation. Here's the most recent: