Though we tend to view prayer as an individual activity, this isn’t exactly God’s design. Yes, we can and should pray on our own. But as we will see over the next several days, there is power in praying with other people.
After Jesus died and then rose from the grave, he left his people—the Church—on earth to continue his mission of reuniting the lost to God. There must have been a steep learning curve as they went from following Jesus around everywhere to now carrying on his mission without him physically present.
How were they able to do this?
Luke tells us that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the earliest church was that they “devoted themselves to prayer” (Acts 1:14, 2:42). The references are plural. Certainly they each had their own individual prayer lives, but as they gathered together to figure out what God wanted them to do, they prayed with each other. Actually, they devoted themselves to this type of prayer.
This is not an insignificant detail. When the first Christians set out to carry on the mission, they were known for their devotion to praying together.
Who do you pray with?
We should never underestimate the power of prayer. In the same way, we should never underestimate the power of many people praying together with a common purpose.
What is God calling your community to do? What needs should you be bringing before him? And who can you join with as you devote yourselves to prayer?
Source: YouVersion
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