Cutting Through Cinder Blocks

An article from the 3/15 Weekly Update by Tim Keller

Every time in the New Testament that a group of Christians got together to seek the face of God humbly in prayer, there was a manifest display of the power of God.

In Acts 2 the Church came together for prayer and Holy Spirit came in a visible and powerful manner. Later in the same chapter we are told that corporate prayer was part of the fabric of the Church in addition to teaching and fellowship.

In Acts 4 the Church came together for a time of prayer and the place where they were meeting was shaken and they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. In chapter 12 the Church once again came together and it resulted in Peter being miraculously released from his imprisonment.

The common denominator is that when the Church came together to pray the power of God was always on display.

Just a little more than a week ago a group of 136 Christians gathered in the sanctuary at CAC to seek the Lord in a time of focused prayer. We lifted our voices in worship and we humbly sought God; and He answered. We saw the power of God on display with several powerful scenes of the hand of God at work.

Hearts were melted, discouraged people were uplifted and burdens were surrendered. Sin was confessed and those had never been exposed to such a time responded in some amazing ways.

A group of more than a dozen of our teenagers attended their first prayer gathering and said that they liked it, particularly the opportunity for people to pray at a microphone and the time allotted for public praise!

Clearly something happens when God’s people come together and make prayer a priority. His hand is moved, our hearts are ministered to and the world is touched as we pray.

Another prayer gathering for CAC is scheduled for a Sunday evening in June. May I urge you to make it a priority and plan to be in attendance? As your pastor I care about your spiritual health and there is nothing more significant that you could do that evening than come together with other believers and seek the face of God.

It has been said that if the wattage of a 300 watt light bulb could be collected and focused in one direction, the result would be a laser that could cut through a cinder block wall. When God’s people decide that they want Him to move in a mighty way, they will stop and pray together in anticipation of such a movement.

We are facing a wide variety of cinder block walls in our lives. Isn’t it time to start cutting?