The Everyday Prayer

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day four)

There are moments in life that are simply too big to fit into language. Sometimes our circumstances are so heavy, so agonizing that all we can do is fall at the Lord’s feet and groan. Other times, our joy is so great and overwhelming that the only sensical thing to do is shout and dance. Then there are times where we simply can’t find where to start. Language is amazing, but it is still limited. We know that there is no word uttered on this earth that can adequately describe God – because he is bigger than language too.

So if the God to whom we pray is bigger than language, and we experience moments in life bigger than language, then it must be so that prayer can happen without uttering a word. Sometimes our most meaningful moments of prayer are when we simply hold up our hearts before the Lord with shaking hands. We can do this because the Spirit that dwells in us and intercedes for us is the very Spirit of God himself. He is both that intimate and that cosmic. I am so glad that words can’t contain our God.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day three)

“He intercedes for the saints…”

Paul’s words are a straight line from Jesus’s promise to send a comforter, his promise never to leave or forsake. Paul is not restating Jesus’s promise here. He’s not saying, “Remember what Jesus said.” Rather, he’s telling you in this passage that he has experienced what Jesus promised. He couldn’t have written these words with such clarity and such a sense of actuality unless he had witnessed such intervention from heaven firsthand. And in the way he phrases his words, you can hear that Paul isn’t claiming that his experience is an outlier. Paul often takes pains to communicate that he faces life’s drudgeries and pains just as you do. If somebody like him has known the Spirit’s presence when he hadn’t a clue how to proceed, you will too.

Re:Verse passage – Romans 8:26-27 (day two) 

for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; vs. 26b

Places where we are weak are often areas where we simply don’t know how to advance, grow, or get better. Where we lack a vision to move beyond weakness, we become stuck. If we are faithful to pray, even in our lack of clarity and understanding, the Spirit begins to provide to traction to move. We begin, because we were faithful, to grow out of complacency or despondency. Our words begin to grasp our situation and we understand our dependency on the power of the Spirit. What begins with confusion will produce spiritual fruit if we will commit to pray…even when we don’t know the words.

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day seven)

Last week I asked you to pray for camp. Your prayers were felt! We had an awesome week, but as I read this week’s passage every day, it felt like I was reading about Impact Camp. I had a first hand look into the New Testament church. For those who have been to Impact Camp before, does reading this scripture give you a mental image from camp? Even for those who grew up in other churches, does that bring you back to moments of joy from your camp experiences? Maybe it was Glorieta, Alto Frio, or a beach camp where you felt the Spirit moving in a mighty way. Something interesting happens when you bring hundreds of teenagers together to worship King Jesus. The power. The emotion. The energy. The presence of the Holy Spirit is visibly evident and active. Camp is a picture of the New Testament church, which I would also say, is a little taste of Heaven here on earth.

And the Lord was adding to their number day by day those who were being saved. Acts 2:47

Just like the New Testament church, the Lord added to our number this week. We will tell their stories soon and we will fill the baptistry with students! Praise Jesus!

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day six)

“They devoted themselves to…the prayers.” Acts 2:42 (ESV).

Most other translations drop the article, “They devoted themselves… to prayer.” That’s okay, but the most literal translation is “the prayers.” The more literal translation gives us a better idea of how they were praying. Jewish tradition provided the earliest Jewish Christians with daily formal prayers, along with many other formal prayers for special occasions. It is almost certain that it was these formal prayers that they were praying together during their fellowship. Most, if not all, the earliest Christians had been faithfully praying these prayers all their lives, every day.

It is encouraging to me that these early Christians did not abandon their Jewish faith and practice but recognized Jesus as the fulfillment of their faith. Their prayers were part of a deep and old tradition from a people trusting God would fulfill his promise of sending a messiah.

BUT while “the prayers” were deep and old, they had to have resonated with new and glorious meaning. Imagining their fellowship and their praying “the prayers” renews and strengthens my own faith as we await his return.

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day five)

“And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people.” vv. 46-47a

When we read about what the early church did together in this passage, it tells us that they gave themselves to doing four things. Those four activities are fairly ordinary in the grand scheme of things. They may not be the four things you would have done if you were starting a movement or beginning a new religion. Chances are that we might overcomplicate things to get going. Often, we can overcomplicate the gospel and the methodology by which we share it with those that need to hear it. We can overcomplicate our salvation through Christ, thinking that we need to jump through hoops some hoops to be in good standing for our salvation. We can also overcomplicate how we grow as a church.

As Aaron said earlier this week, we don’t need to wait for a church-sanctioned function to get together and to live life. The first church grew because they sought the Lord in their everyday lives together. Their circle of people spurred them on in the Biblical things they should be doing. It is much easier to grow together and to grow in Christ if we allow Him to permeate the ordinary moments of life, rather than just the Sunday morning or occasional church function. What are the ordinary moments that you can invite others to join in with you? How can you allow the Lord to use those moments to help you grow closer to the family of God?

Jimmy Gunn
Associate Pastor, Preschool & Elementary

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day four)

There are many times when church life in 2023 reflects this description of the early church. I have enjoyed breaking bread with many of our FBCSA family where that spirit of gladness and sincerity of heart was present. I have experienced the generosity of our members when they have given selflessly as I or my ministry had need. I have experienced that sense of awe as I’ve seen the Spirit move in miraculous ways in and through this body of believers. In fact, in the middle of writing this, the Lord used a coworker to give me an encouraging word right when I needed it.

And then there are moments – and often they’re just that, moments – when a ministry isn’t going the way you want it to, or you read a troubling headline about a pastoral or denominational failure, or the reality of having all things in common is a little grating, and you begin to wonder if the church has drifted from this vision in Acts.

But let me tell you, if we continue to devote ourselves to teaching the Word, to fellowship, to breaking bread, and, chiefly, to prayer, the Lord will continue the good work he started in the early church. He will make himself known to us just as he did with them. With Christ as the head of the church and our great high priest, that devotion will never return void.

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day three)

“Everyone kept feeling a sense of awe.”

“Everything is awesome” can be a pretty irritating statement to hear from others because you experience many, many circumstances that are not awesome in the least. And it’s not just the way you’re looking at those circumstances. Suffering happens, pain exists. Well, it’s a good thing the scriptures don’t actually claim everything is awesome. What the believers in Acts 2 experienced was not the awesomeness of everything, but the reality of the good, the presence of the beautiful, and the nearness of wonder. Those who count on Christ will feel a sense of awe as they find that their deepest longings – to be welcomed and treasured by others, to mend broken friendships, to learn that they matter in this universe, to live again with loved ones they’ve lost – are the very things God desires for them.

Re:Verse passage – Acts 2:42-47 (day two) 

Day by day continuing with one mind in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they were taking their meals together with gladness and sincerity of heart, vs. 46

Breaking bread is mentioned twice in this passage that we are studying. It is likely that one referred to the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, and the other to simply spending time together at a dinner table. Don’t you find it easier to pray for people that you spend time with? Isn’t it more natural to lift up needs of others that you have had an opportunity to actually hear their heart? Is there a better activity to get to know others than eating a meal together? And, hey, it’s food! In a church like ours which represents a very large geographic area, it is incumbent on us to find ways to get to know our brothers and sisters, so that we may better pray for them. You don’t need to wait for an Area Fellowship. Everybody eats, find a friend, share a meal, and pray.