If you have never been a part of a home church, you might be wondering what we do when we meet up. All home churches will be different because they all have different people with different preferences in them, but you will find some things that frequently occur in most home churches.
The gatherings are heavily based on what the early church did as recorded in Acts 2:42:
“[The early church] devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.”
In this blog I will talk about prayer.
When we gather, we pray and thank God for all he has done and is doing for us. We pray for each other’s prayer requests after everyone has had a chance to share them. We pray for the unbelieving family and friends of the people gathered. We pray for God to help us to become effective labourers in his harvest and that we would have the wisdom to say and do the right things.
There is a lot more to prayer than just this.
Whenever Jesus prayed, or taught about prayer in the New Testament, all but a few times he used the Greek word ‘proseuchomai’. This is made up of two Greek words. Pros means ‘towards, exchange’ and euchomai means ‘to wish or desire’. So in this context proseuchomai literally means an exchange of wishes and desires towards God. It is not just a one-way street where we bombard God with our thoughts and requests. Prayer is two-way communion with God where God speaks and gives us his wishes and desires as we give him ours; all we need to do is just learn to hear his voice.
To devote yourself to prayer includes both speaking and listening.
Prayer for us is a lifestyle rather than something we do only at set occasions. This is because we understand that prayer also includes listening to God. When we are out and about as believers, we are constantly listening to God and looking for opportunities to glorify Him by ministering to someone, which may take various forms. For example, these could be by praying for someone for healing, giving them food or water, or just taking time out to speak with them. Not everyone is in the same boat, so you minister to each person differently by meeting his or her needs at the time. As you go, trust that God is with you and may give you specific things to talk about in order for those needs to be met.
This is how all followers of Jesus should be walking daily.
Do you have any thoughts or comments you want to share? Feel free to comment below. We’d love to hear from you!
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