My house shall be called a house of prayer

“These I will bring to my holy mountain and give them joy in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.” (Isaiah 56:7)

On a hot Tuesday morning in the summer of 1999, I drove our church’s 15-passenger van from Glastonbury down to the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church. The pastor of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church, Jim Cymbala, had written his first book, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire:  What Happens when God’s Spirit Invades the Hearts of His People a couple of years before, and the Christian world was buzzing at the powerful things God was doing through the prayerful community at the church. The leadership of our church (I was NewLife’s youth pastor at the time) had decided to take a field trip down to Brooklyn to attend their staff meeting, learn more about the church, and, most importantly, to experience their Tuesday evening prayer meeting.

The prayer meeting was scheduled to officially begin at 6:30 PM. The church met in an enormous building that had previously been a theater. But even though there was a seating capacity of a few thousand, we were encouraged to show up early, lest we not get a seat(!). Sure enough, the doors opened at 5:00 PM, and people started streaming in until the place was full. But somehow, even with a few thousand people filling the Tabernacle, a palpable sense of reverence hung in the air. The people had come early, they had come desperate, and they had come with an expectation that God was going to provide for their needs, break through strongholds, and save the lost. The prayer meeting was powerful, and we left encouraged at what God can do when His people gather together to fervently seek Him.

As you can imagine, we came back to Glastonbury excited for what God could do, and we started up our own evening prayer meeting. And, as you might imagine, after a few months of decreasing attendance, the prayer meeting fizzled out.

Jim Cymbala is often quoted as saying, “You can tell how popular a church is by who comes on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by who comes on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by who comes to the prayer meeting.” It’s a catchy saying, perhaps a bit unfair, but the hard truth is that prayer is sacrificial – but rewarding – work. We often do not see immediate returns on our requests, and so we can default to working in our own strength for those things that we want. Or, we don’t value (or maybe even understand) the personal transformation that can take place when we bring our whole selves into God’s presence and seek to align our will with His. Or, perhaps we neglect to take the time to thank and praise God for who He is and all He has done for us.

As we learned back in 1999, it is not easy for a church to metamorphosize into a community devoted to prayer. But it is possible to take incremental steps in that direction. Depending upon where you are in your prayer journey, consider taking one of the following steps:
Resolve to arrive at church on Sunday five minutes earlier than you currently do, and to enter the sanctuary with reverence, leaving conversations out in the fellowship room, so that you can prepare your heart to meet with God

- Come to a prayer meeting – 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesdays at noon (in-person or virtually), or before church at 9:30 AM
- Commit to praying regularly with a fellow believer or two for each other and for God’s work in our church and in the world
- Read a book written by or about someone with a deep prayer life: Andrew Murray, Leonard Ravenhill, George Mueller, David Brainerd, Jim Cymbala, E.M. Bounds, etc. (my personal favorite is Why Revival Tarries by Ravenhill)

Set aside time every day to talk to God about the joys, sorrows, and needs of your life
As you take this step, cling to Jesus’ promise in Matthew 7:7-8: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”