Joined in Prayer

DEVOTION

THE BOOK OF ACTS

JOINED IN PRAYER

Acts 1:12-14

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the hill called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk from the city. 13 When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. Those present were Peter, John, James and Andrew; Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew and Matthew; James son of Alphaeus and Simon the Zealot, and Judas son of James. 14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.

NIV

First we should gather the facts that a Sabbath day’s journey was the distant allowed by the Law a man could walk on the Sabbath. This allowed distance was seven and one half furlongs which is four thousand nine hundred and fifty feet. It is a little odd, yet  not completely, that the disciples still held to the Law, when Jesus had told them he had fulfilled the Law and established a new covenant, a new law for them to follow. Customs are a difficult habit to break; traditions can be a chain binding a person from becoming all that Christ wants them to be. However the lesson we can learn here for us is that they returned and stay together as were the instructions of Jesus. He told them he would send the Spirit and they were to wait for it, which is what they are doing and they were doing it prayerfully. It is one thing to gather and worship in the same building, but it is entirely a different experience to be joined together constantly in prayer. Other translations use the term ‘in one accord’ to explain the frame of mind these disciples were in. That is a far cry from what might be in our present day worship services. We stand in our own pews, our own sections of the church and barely pay attention to each other, except when we are told to pass the peace, or greet one another, and then we simply greet the ones we already know, and ignore those we don’t and then back to our pew. Perhaps that might be the reason some churches are weak, as they are not joined together constantly in prayer. This was certainly a key activity for the strength of the disciples, and it surely should be for the strength of the church as well as each individual believer today. If we are not in constant prayer, we are missing out on the benefits God has for us. How can we hear his guidance, his instructions, his correction and his direction for our life if we are not constantly in prayer as individuals and as being joined together as a church? It would seem prayer meetings would be a far greater use of time then worship meetings, even those which include a sermon. So many of the worship meetings are more of a show than a time of congregational singing, in fact in many cases it is difficult to even hear the congregational sound as it is completely drowned out by the over amplified stage singers. Then we just listen to a pastor offer a prayer, and a sermon, and leave, without a single moment of being joined together in prayer. How can we ever hear from God in that setting? We need prayer. We need to be joined in prayer. This is not a time for individuals to demonstrate their prayer prowess either, but a time to simply be joined in prayer, a time for hearing not from men, but from God.