Attending Prayer Meetings - Their Importance

Erroll Hulse writes,

You can tell with a fair degree of accuracy what a church is like by the demeanour or substance of the weekly prayer meeting. Is there genuine evangelistic concern? If so, it will be addressed in the prayers. Is there a heartfelt longing for the conversion of unconverted family members? If so, that is sure to surface. Is there a world vision and a fervent desire for revival and the glory of our Redeemer among the nations of the world? Such a burden cannot be suppressed. 

I would add, that for the most part, you can tell with a fair degree of accuracy what a Christian is like by the importance and weightiness they ascribe to the practice of prayer, including of course the corporate prayer meeting. As Solomon wisely wrote, "As in water face reflects face, so the heart of man reflects the man"(Proverbs 27:19). Or, as Jesus says, you will know a tree by its fruit. Does a person make every effort to pray? Or do they find every excuse under the sun to avoid praying, whether privately or corporately? The fruit reveals the root.

Edwin Hatfield says that those who conscientiously and habitually participate in the church's prayer meetings usually "experience more sweet and pure delight in their very exercise, grow more rapidly and steadily in grace, become the most devotional, active and useful Christians, and become the life and soul, as it were, of the Church." To which Beeke asks the reader,

What about you? Is that not what you want to be? Do you support your church's prayer meetings with secret prayer and with your presence? Have your grasped their purposes and value? Do you believe that God is sovereignly pleased to tie together revival and prayer? Do you understand that the success of your minister and missionaries is intimately bound up in your prayers?

Do you realize the value of attending the prayer meeting together as a family - the value of teaching your children verbally and by example that just as your own family is bonded together by praying together, so the church family grows and stays together by praying together? Teach your children that besides the actual worship services on Sunday, no church activity is so important as the congregational prayer meeting. Train them to know that true Christians - not politicians or worldly powers - hold the key to the future of the family, the church, and the nation through the instrumentality of private and corporate prayer...If every God-fearing family in every God-honoring church around the world took the congregational prayer meeting seriously, what impact would that have around the world? 

Prayer is the normal means that God uses to shower His heavenly blessings on earth. As Beeke insightfully reminds us, though we are apt to miss our congregational prayer meeting, Jesus never does.

Beeke closes his book with the following:

We customarily record our appointments on our calendar. Will you not mark your church prayer meetings on your calendar as engagements of the highest priority for your entire family? Will you not prepare for them, and try to bring a friend or two with you? Make it a solemn duty, a habit, and a privilege to be there.

Dear friends, let us treasure prayer meetings. Let us engage in them with all our heart, remembering that revivals usually begin with prayer meetings. As one divine put it, "the Holy Spirit loves to answer petitions that are appended with many signatures."

Let us simply take God at His Word. Who can tell what He will do? As Beeke wrote, "If every God-fearing family in every God-honoring church around the world took the congregational prayer meeting seriously, what impact would that have around the world?"

In Christ, and for His glory through His [praying] church,
Pastor Ryan

P.S. I truly believe that the pathetic state of the church is due to the pathetic state of her desire to pray together. I would be surprised if even 10% of the evangelical churches in the city I live in even have a prayer meeting. We are a busy society, and we have every excuse of why we can't pray together. Yet, as Spurgeon once said, one of the most condemning verses in the Bible is, "Be it unto you according to your faith." James says, "You have not, because you ask not." Solomon says that our God hears and accepts the prayers of the upright. Paul, writing to the Corinthian church, says, "You [plural] also must help us by prayer, so than many [plural] will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many [plural]."

With so much testimony in the Word of God, do our excuses really hold up to the omniscient scrutiny of our God who "weighs the heart"? If we spent more time offering to God our prayers instead of our excuses of why we don't pray, imagine what Christ's church would look like.

Oh may God stir up the hearts of His people to humble themselves, repent, and return to Him!

For those who would like to purchase Beeke's book, it is a small, easy-to-read, and affordable book I heartily recommend. It can be purchased from most online Christian book stores, and I am certain your local Christian bookstore would be able to obtain a copy for you.