Scripture Reference: Acts 4:23-31

1. There Is a Continuous Desire to Pray

A praying church recognizes the supreme importance of prayer, and always desires to pray. This is illustrated in the lives of the leaders of the Jerusalem church. Peter and John went up to the temple to pray. Later Peter and John were in prison, and while they were there the church prayed. When Peter and John were set free from prison, they immediately hastened to join the church meeting to let them know what happened to them (Acts 4:23).

When the Christians heard their report, what did they do? “When they heard . . . they lifted their voices together to God” (Acts 4:24). This church recognized the supreme importance of prayer. The leaders prayed, the people prayed, and the church meeting was turned into a prayer meeting. 

We must recognize the supreme importance of prayer. All of us must have a continuous desire to pray. We need to be like Hudson Taylor who once stated, “The sun has never risen upon China without finding me at prayer. In forty years I saw 700 missionaries and 1,000 native workers in China.”

2. The Eyes of Faith and Expectancy Are Toward God

When the Jerusalem church had problems, they turned their eyes away from humankind and from the problems on hand; they looked to the Lord who can solve any problem and who is always in control of every situation. Luke recorded that these Christians “raised their voice to God with one accord and said: ‘Lord, You are God, who made heaven and earth and the sea, and all that is in them’ ” (Acts 4:24 NKJV).

This was the approach of the psalmist as he wrote, “For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence, for my hope is from him” (Psalm 62:5). Whatever problems face us, whatever problems we encounter, the only thing that ultimately matters is our fellowship with God, our being in touch with Him, finding His will, and being available to Him to come in with power and to work in and through us.

Sometimes the outlook may be bad, but it is the up-look that counts. In a certain cotton factory, there are cards on the walls of the workplace that read, “If your threads get tangled, send for the foreman.” One day a new worker got her threads tangled; she tried to untangle them but only made them worse. Then she sent for the foreman.

He came and looked, then he asked her, “You’ve been doing this yourself?”

“Yes,” she said.

“But, why did you not send for me according to instructions?”

“I did my best,” she said.

“No, you did not,” the foreman said. “Remember that doing your best is sending for me.”

The eyes of a praying church are on God. He is the sovereign, self-revealing, and seeing Lord.