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Attempting to restore spiritual vitality to a church - or to an individual life - without prayer, is wasted effort. God alone can breathe fresh life into a church, and he wants us to ask him to do so. If we don't, we cannot expect him to act, even though in his grace and mercy he might.
Revitalizing prayer, we noted last week, needs to be specific, seek protection, and be expectant. Harry Reeder has some further suggestions to offer for effective praying. These particular suggestions are based on the example of the early church when it encountered opposition and was forbidden to preach the gospel (Acts 4:24-30). This is a biblical instance of a church facing "tough times" and shows us how to meet such times when they come upon us.
First, our prayers need to be saturated in praise. The early Christians didn't barge into God's presence and demand that he respond to their needs. Instead, they approached him with praise and worship (v. 24b). "By orientating our minds to the greatness of our God," Harry Reeder says, "we are then better able to pray according to his will and to have the confidence that this great God can indeed grant our requests" (p. 91). Knowing God is the key to exercising faith in him.
Secondly, the example of the early church teaches us that prayer needs to be permeated by Scripture (vv. 25-26). "One of the best ways to assure that we are praying according to the will of God is to use the words that are actually contained in His revealed will," writes Harry Reeder. "This is the lost key to prayer, to be sure, but one that can unlock great power in your life and ministry" (p. 91). He goes on to suggest that we identify specific verses in the Bible that are applicable to church revitalization and begin to use these as the basis of our prayers. "As you talk to God in his own words, you will be praying more and more according to his will, and he will be answering those prayers more and more" (p. 92).
Thirdly, the early church teaches us to pray with deep confidence in the sovereignty of God. He controls all things that happen. This should give us great confidence when we pray. True, some use it as an excuse for not praying at all. "If God controls everything," they say, "what's the point of praying. What will be will be, and God doesn't need our help to make it so."
However, this is an utterly mistaken view of the way God works. He does indeed predestine and bring everything to pass. But he has also chosen that his sovereign will should come to pass through prayer, not apart from it. As Harry Reeder writes, "the purpose of prayer is not for us to change the plan of God, but for us to participate in that plan. God graciously enables us to pray so that he can graciously allow us to be a part of his work in the world" (p. 92).
The sovereignty of God, then, should not keep us from praying. Quite the opposite, it alone gives us confidence to pray at all! If God doesn't control and order all things, we have no ground to expect him to answer our prayers. It is just because he does that we can dare to ask him to do great things in our lives and through our ministries. And as we make such requests, out of pure hearts and in accord with his revealed will, we can expect him to do "immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine (Eph. 3:20).