Acts 1:14 Group Prayer

Acts 1:14 “All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers.”

The Book of Acts, the second book written by Luke, a physician, for Theophilus as an accounting of the Acts of the Apostles. And of course one of the first things the Apostles do is decide to find a replacement for Judas. Jesus has told them the Holy Spirit will be with them and they have seen Jesus ascend into heaven.

The Apostles had seen Jesus go and pray on numerous occasions, one of the last things they saw Jesus do was to go into the Garden of Gethsemane and pray; just before the most important moment in the life of Jesus on earth, the most important moment ever! Jesus went to talk to his Father about it, and he prayed. Now as we see in this verses 13 and 14 the first thing the Apostles do after the Ascension is to return to Jerusalem they then;

·       “went to the upper room where they were staying”  And are gathered together to pray, not in a church or out in the open but in an upper room, probably a small crowed room

·       “All of one accord” they were unified

·       “devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the Mother of Jesus, and his brothers” it was not just the Apostles who prayed but the whole community

It would appear from the rest of the chapter that many days and perhaps weeks were spent in prayer deciding who would replace Judas.

What can we take from this? I pray this is an example of why we are here today, gathering and praying as a community, unified and supporting one another in prayer.  And yes every week often praying for the same things. And thanking God through the Holy Spirit for the examples Jesus gave to us to follow.

Self-Noughting/Fifty Cent

Taken from "The Valley of Vision" The Banner of Truth Trust:

Self-Noughting

O Lord,

Help me to approach thee with becoming conception of thy nature, relations and designs.

Thou inhabitest eternity, and my life is nothing before thee;

Thou dwellest in the highest heaven and this cannot contain thee; I live in a house of clay.

Thy power is almighty; I am crushed before the moth.

Thy understanding is infinite; I know nothing as I ought to know.

Thou canst not behold evil; I am vile.

In my ignorance, weakness, fears, depressions, may thy Spirit help my infirmities with supplies of wisdom, strength and comfort.

Let me faithfully study my character, be willing to bring it to light, observe myself in my trials, judge the reality and degree of my grace, consider how I have ensnared or overcome.

Grant that I may never trust my heart, depend upon any past experiences, magnify any present resolutions, but be strong in Jesus: that I may know how to obtain relief from a guilty conscience without feeling reconciled to my imperfections.

Sustain me under my trials and improve them to me; give me grace to rest in thee, and assure me of deliverance.

May I always combine thy majesty with thy mercy, and connect thy goodness with thy greatness.

Then shall my heart always rejoice in praises to thee.

Rapper Fifty Cent recently said on the Oprah network "You should either pray or worry -- don't do both," said the former street kid. "If you pray and then worry," he explained, "How do you think that makes God feel?" (Yahoo News http://news.yahoo.com/50-cent-oprah-either-pray-worry-202800884.html)

You do after all have a jealous God you are praying to. “What’s that got to do with worrying?” you may ask. Fifty Cent is right, either pray and know it is in God’s hands or risk making God feel jealous. Jealous in so much that you pray and trust him with your worries and fears and then decide he may not be capable of handling it. But of course you need to keep worrying because you know it may not turn out well. And you are right it may not turn out well, it might be the worst thing ever.

In Luke 22:44 “And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground” Jesus prayed about his worry, to the point of sweating blood! However after praying to the Father Jesus accepted his Fathers will. And further as we explored last week Jesus went on to defend it (Mat 26:51-54) As well as in John 18:10 -11 when Simon Peter tried to protect Jesus from the soldiers and chief priests by attacking and cutting off Malchus’s ear Jesus again now defends his inevitable fate. He says to Simon Peter “Put your sword into its sheath; shall I not drink the cup that the Father has given me?”

How does Jesus go from sweating drops of blood because of His worry to accepting and defending his fate? He prays and does not worry. He does not do both. He knows how it would make the Father feel. You too can and should pray and leave your worry behind. We have an awesome God.

Today let’s pray knowing His knowledge is infinite while ours is limited.  And then shall our hearts always rejoice in praises to Him.

Psalm 25

Psalm 25 TEACH ME YOUR PATHS

Of David

In you, Lord my God,
I put my trust.

² I trust in you;
do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.
³ No one who hopes in you
will ever be put to shame,
but shame will come on those
who are treacherous without cause.

⁴ Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
⁵ Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
⁶ Remember, Lord, your great mercy and love,
for they are from of old

In our first meeting we talked about what prayer, and group prayer is and is not. Last week we talked about how Jesus taught us to pray by example of the Lord’s Prayer. This week I would like to talk about prayer in the Old Testament. After all people were praying to God before Jesus came to teach us about prayer.

 A wonderful example of Old Testament prayer is the Psalms. The Psalms are one of the most significant parts of the Old Testament. The Psalms is the poetry of the Bible, songs of praise and prayer.  Written from the time of Moses until about 500BC, most Psalms were written by David.

 Some of the biggest themes of the Psalms are trusting in God and deliverance from ones enemies and knowledge; knowledge of God and His ways.

  Sometimes I think we forget to pray for knowledge of His ways and for His will. It is easy to ask Him to give us what we want, but much harder, I think, to ask him to give us what He wants.  Which if we have trust in God this is what we should always want anyway. 

Don’t be afraid to pray for what you want but even more so don’t be afraid to pray for and accept God’s will,  even in the face of the inevitable.  Like Jesus in Gethsemane (Mat 26:39) “And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” “Obviously Jesus knows the Scripture, He knows what will happen to him.  He prays anyway, just as we should always pray even if we think we know the inevitable.  Pray for intervention, pray for comfort but again pray for God’s will and trust in Him.

Jesus goes on to not only accept his Fathers will but defend it (Mat 26:51-54) Jesus knows the most horrible thing is about to be put upon him, to be forsaken by his father and to take all the sins of the world(past, present and future) and He accepts and defends the will of the Father. On this day isn’t it great to know the awesome father we all have in our Lord! And this is why we say Amen! And this is why we pray!