They Devoted Themselves | To Prayer
And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved. (Acts 2:42-47, ESV)
Among the early church, there was unity among them that had been instrumental in their foundation as a people of God. The Apostle’s teaching drew them closer to faith in Christ Jesus, the fellowship promoted the well being of the people of God, the breaking of bread connected the believers in relationship with one another. Yet, the final piece of their devotion had to be in submission to God by bowing before Him with their whole heart. Hence, the people of God devoted themselves to prayer. To devote themselves to prayer would mean, not just learning about God from the teachings of the Apostles, but also approaching God with their heart in bowing reverence to the God of the universe.
Many have often sought to explain prayer as simply talking to God. By and large, this definition is correct if not a bit simplistic. Prayer is more than a simple conversation between two people, but more of a pouring out of our deepest wants and desires to God. Through their devotion to prayer the people of God relied on Him to provide for the individual needs and wants but also for the needs of the church. They understood that only God can provide and care for our needs. All we need comes from being in Christ alone who molds, reforms, and redeems the desires of our heart to reflect Him and His glory. Prayer centers our heart in submission to God by bringing Him the fullness of our desires and knowing that God is greater than all those things.
Pour Out Our Heart to God
The core of prayer is the bringing of our heart, of the things we hold most dear in this world and the things we deeply desire and crave, and laying them bare and raw before the Lord. In prayer, the driving force of what we desire is given to the Lord. Prayer implies this bowing type of posture that, although we wish for things, desire things, and crave other things with our heart, we understand that putting our heart in the hands of God will serve us better. By submitting our heart to God, we bow to the Lord in reverence and submit fully to Him with everything we hold dear. The idea of the heart sought to describe the things that a person craved and sought to protect most. Prayer, then, as a discipline, is not a spiritual discipline of the head or rational thinking (although it is certainly not devoid of rational thinking) but a discipline of the heart.
The often given advice is that we follow our heart as a means to personal fulfillment. Our devotion to prayer regularly approaches the throne room of grace with confidence (Hebrews 4:16) and postures ourself in submission to the Lord. Prayer acknowledges that God is King over all the world and that He alone is able to provide us with our personal fulfillment. He alone can meet the needs of our heart and rescue our soul from the toil and pain of the desires of the flesh. Prayer comes before God as individuals and as a corporate gathering of people to declare that God is worthy, perfect, able, and holy as we submit to Him with the things we hold dear and the things we desire most. Through a devotion to prayer the people of God continually trust in the Lordship and sufficiency of Jesus Christ as the one who is best able to provide for His people. We glorify Jesus Christ with the offering of our hearts in total submission to Him.
Allow God To Speak To Us
The understanding of prayer as a conversation with God contains one vital component to it that is often misunderstood or ignored. In approaching God in prayer, both individually and corporately as the body of Christ, we should leave room and time for God to speak. Prayer is not intended to be a monologue from us just saying what we want from God but a chance to allow God to speak to us and through us in prayer. Furthermore, the Spirit within us plays a key role in prayer as well. Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. And he who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God. (Romans 8:26-27, ESV) In allowing the Holy Spirit to move within us, the fullness of God intercedes on our behalf as the Spirit speaks to the Son standing beside us who intercedes to the Father.
The church devoting themselves to prayer also focuses on hearing from God for the direction of their life and purpose. God speaks to His people. He hears our prayers and speaks to His people. Growing in spiritual maturity means we learn to hear and discern the voice of God but we cannot stop to think that God is not speaking. In our prayer, we need to devote time to sit in the silence and listen intently for the voice of God to cut through the distractions of life and lead us to Himself. Using brevity of words in prayer prevents us from rambling on and on to a God who desires to reveal Himself to us in relationship with Him. Furthermore, we can hear from God in our prayers as we lessen the distractions of our need to dominate the conversation. God is King and omniscient, knowing all things and ruling divinely over all creation. In prayer, we can come together to prayer for the needs of the people, the desires of our hearts, but then we can silence ourselves to hear His voice and be shaped and moved by His presence.
About The Author
Daniel Burton is the founder of The Gospel Outpost. He is passionate about discipleship and seeing people grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ. To find out more about him, check out his Author Page.
