What would it look like to earnestly pray? 

Acts 12: 5 - So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

While reading the story of Peter being rescued out of prison by an angel, I was struck by the word, earnestly. The Bible tells us that before Peter walked out of that prison, the church was praying earnestly for him. 

This is one of my favourite bible stories and one of the reasons is because I have read the book The Heavenly Man*. It is the biography of Brother Yun, a Chinese Christian who was persecuted, like Peter, for his faith. In fact he found himself in a similar situation. He too was in prison, he too was likely facing execution, but he was in a worse state physically - his legs had both been broken and he could not walk. But praise God, he too experienced a miracle. His legs were healed and the Holy Spirit said to him, "Go now! The God of Peter is your God!" (p.256). Brother Yun proceeded to walk straight past a guard who did not see him, through gates that were meant to be locked, to a taxi somehow waiting for him. When he arrived at the home of some Christians he was told, "The whole church has been praying and fasting for you and your coworkers for more than a week." (p.258).

Thinking about the word earnestly, I would say that Brother Yun's church, who were praying and fasting for a week, were praying earnestly for him. Which led me to some introspection, do I pray earnestly? I pray, but could the adjective earnestly be used to describe it? And sadly I concluded that I don't think I do. Not in the way that results in prison doors being opened.

I generally pray most day. I pray more now that I am not working than when I was.  But earnestly? What would that look like? And more practically what would it take the place of? 

If I was to account for every minute in my day, I would find many minutes to pray more, and praying more is a part of praying earnestly, but what else is? 

Praying with intent and with faith. Too many of us believe in the miracles of the Bible but don't necessarily believe they can still happen today. But they do. Brother Yun is still alive today living in Germany. Many missionaries speak of miracles they see regularly, including Jackie Pullinger in Hong Kong and Heidi Baker in Mozambique, both alive today. I believe that if we looked at their prayer life, they would be earnest because they are seeing the need so vividly in front of them. You might say "but they are full time missionaries, they have the time". My response is that they are not living in isolation, the people in the churches they are attending and the communities they are living in are praying earnestly. Ordinary people. 

I am ashamed to admit that praying earnestly is something I have gotten closer to since becoming sick. More time, more selfish motivation. I feel this is a tragedy that it took that to get me praying more and still I have a long way to go to be praying earnestly. 

So what would it look like for me, or for you, to pray earnestly? I mean regularly, not just on prayer nights or at bible studies, but regularly? What would we have to give up? How would our attitudes need to change? How would our expectancy and faith need to change? How would our prayer life change? What would we miss out on and is it really that much? (I am thinking of how many tennis matches I have watched in the last week).

I think of the people in my church and my friends who need me to be praying earnestly. The ones will serious sickness, the one going on a mission trip later this year, the ones whose families need prayer, for marriages, for our city filled with many more people that do not follow Jesus than those that do, for our free meal ministry, for our government, for our children navigating this modern world... the list goes on. 

When we read about the Acts church, we see the miracles that happened, the ways thousands came to Christ in one sitting and we are amazed. But we need to look at the behind the scenes and see the earnest prayers that enabled this to happen. If we want to have an Acts church, to see revival in our cities, to see people released from prisons be they missionaries imprisoned falsely in foreign countries or those imprisoned in their bodies and minds through sickness, we need to mimic the early church in the way they prayed. We need to earnestly pray, every day, and if you are able, to fast as well.  God wants us to ask him for things. Are we willing to do this? Do we want a testimony where ..... happened because the church was earnestly praying?

* Brother Yun with Paul Hattaway (2002), The Heavenly Man. Monarch Books. 

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