The Immediate Benefits of a Day of Prayer
Permit me to ask you: In these challenging days, do you often feel isolated as a ministry leader? Frustrated? Completely overwhelmed? Do you worry and obsess about loved ones, friends, children, and family? It seems impossible not to. Do you find it difficult to find joy because you are surrounded by fear and anxiety?
These are challenging times for us all. Currently, we’re enduring a sweeping wave of challenges such as cultural opposition to the Christian message, legislation and propaganda advocating gender alteration, assisted suicide, and abortion, and the ever-present temptations of a greedy consumer culture. There seems to be no end in sight. The battles of faith and life rage on, and it is easy to grow weary. Worst of all is when you feel that there is absolutely nothing you can do to halt the evil.
But I want to share with you a great encouragement.
Fifty years ago, I was taught how to pray and trained in consecrating regular days of prayer to God. Along with my wife and various ministries we have been a part of, we have set aside days to pray several times a year for 50 years now. Special days and beginning seasons of life and ministry provide good opportunities—for example, we always keep Good Friday as a day of prayer, ending the day in sharing the sacred meal. In recent days, we have held times of fasting and prayer with our partners in ministry and mission, as well as praying for our country of Canada in its desperate need, and for the church in other areas such as China.
There are amazing and immediate benefits when you take a day of prayer. When we join our hands together and consecrate a day for prayer with King Jesus, we ascend above our present trials and afflictions. In John 17:24, Jesus prayed, “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am”. Think of taking an airplane up to 35,000 feet. As you look at the world below, what seemed so big now seems so small. The world and all its problems are scaled to size.
This is what happens when we pray! We are lifted up by the Holy Spirit and ascend to be present with King Jesus in His throne room. The world and all its problems scale down to size! Jesus grows closer and closer—and at the same time, your faith grows deeper and stronger.
When we pray in the presence and power of Christ, good things happen:
Communion with Christ takes the place of loneliness and isolation.
Courage replaces fear.
Hope expels despair.
There are, at least, three lasting benefits of a day of prayer.
1. As Jesus promises, prayers will be answered and your joy multiplied.
Remember Jesus’ words in the book of John:
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
—John 14:13
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
—John 15:7-8
…Very truly I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
—John 16:23-4
When we pray, we are doing something vital, important, and powerful!
2. As the fog lifts, and God Himself will reveal the path before you.
Isaiah 30:18-21 says,
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you;
therefore he will rise up to show you compassion.
For the Lord is a God of justice.
Blessed are all who wait for him!People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
Imagine you are driving on a mountain highway and descend into a deep fog. You have zero visibility. On one hand, you need to slow down so you don’t run into a car in front of you. On the other, you need to go fast enough so the vehicles behind you don’t run into you. It’s a white-knuckle experience. Finally, you descend below the fog line. A stunning vista lies before you; you can see for miles. Now you enjoy the ride and bless the view.
Satan likes to immerse us in a deep fog, keeping us from seeing ahead or making progress as anxiety envelops our path. When we consecrate ourselves to a day of prayer, the fog lifts. Jesus rises like the sun on the horizon and suddenly the landscape of life comes into full view. We are able to see the path clearly. Life moves from anxiousness to anticipation, from dread uncertainty to bold adventure.
3. You will be visited with a Spirit of prayer.
And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
—Zechariah 12:10
It is an infallible principle: prayer begets more prayer. It’s like a flywheel—once the initial inertia is overcome by concerted effort, the wheel accelerates with its own gravity and momentum. So it is with a day of prayer. Once the initial inertia is overcome with effort, prayer gains its own momentum. As the day progresses, intercession and praise move forward with greater ease.
Lastly, I believe consecrating ourselves to days of prayer works on the 80/20 principle. A life without prayer is 80% predictable and 20% adventure carried by the Spirit. A life filled with prayer is 80% adventure carried by the Spirit and 20% predictable.
And these times, where the church is drifting and neighbors are languishing, require our lives to be primarily led by that Spirit. Now is the time to dispel the fear, renew the power, and resurrect our hope. Communing with God in prayer empowers us to do just that. Church planters, take the time to organize a day of prayer for yourself and your ministry. As Jesus promises, the benefits are profound, immediate, and lasting.
About the Author
John Smed is the Founding Director of Prayer Current, an organization that helps leaders multiply disciples through prayer and evangelism. Since 2000, John and his team have developed prayer training materials, conferences, and coaching for church leaders and networks worldwide. He is also the author of Prayer Revolution and Journey in Prayer.
With his wife Caron, John has planted two thriving urban churches in Canada, directed church planting for Mission to North America for seven years, and helped start Grace Network Canada.