The Measure Of A Church - What Does A Praying Church Look Like?

The Measure Of A Church - What Does A Praying Church Look Like?

We can agree that it is important for a church to pray but the question remains, what does that look like? What does a praying church do that makes prayer so special and effective?

Prayer is the easiest and the hardest of all things for a church. It’s not easy to pray meaningfully. You can’t fake it and just go through the motions. When Israel began doing that, God once told them:

Isaiah 1:15

“So when you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide My eyes from you; Yes, even though you multiply prayers, I will not listen.”

So, how does a church learn to pray in a way that is meaningful and pleasing to God? The only place to learn prayer is in prayer. We learn prayer by doing it and we perfect that craft by constantly coming to Him on our knees. But we have to understand why we are doing that.

A praying church recognizes that prayer is not about us. Dick Eastman, in his book “No Easy Road”, puts it this way:

"Prayer, then, must be reaching out to God rather than a constant groping after our own trivial desires. Real prayer craves God; selfish prayer craves things."

Prayer must always have God’s glory as its goal. It must be genuine, it must be fervent, it must be persistent and it must be about God. Prayer is not just asking God for stuff, it is meeting with Him and falling into step with what He wants.

When a church does that, God will knock down walls and blaze new trails that will take you where you never imagined.

That’s what a praying church looks like!