Prayer is a Dangerous Activity

We have been having Wednesday night prayer meetings at Arcadia Presbyterian Church. Nothing earth-shattering, for Baptists, but a step forward for God's "Frozen Chosen". They have been quite remarkable affairs. We even had sixty in attendance on Valentine's night. Either these people love Jesus, or they have no romantic life!

I came across this article today about a political opponent in Zimbabwe who was arrested and beaten after a prayer meeting! We in the West take the privileges and responsibilities of prayer far less seriously than we should. Brothers and sisters around the globe are dying for going to prayer meetings. As John Stott once said in Berkeley, we have no idea about the power of prayer until we also see it as a political weapon.

I do not believe he meant to put prayer in a partisan position. Democrats praying for Republicans to lose, and vice versa. However, the Kingdom of God does have political implications, beyond our present red-blue states, even beyond our Donkey-Elephant divide, even beyond the West versus radical Islam.

When I pray for God's "will to be done on earth as it is in heaven", this seems to have political implications. And too frequently in our divided times, the implications seem to be more on the "them" than the "us". If only Republicans would................... If only Democrats would................. It seems to me that we ought to pray for our own side, first, confessing our sins, and examining our own role in the social/political problem that has arisen. Too often prayer can be a means to maintain the spiritual status quo. We tell God all that needs fixing, out there, and we smugly go home, satisfied that we have done our religious duty.

I believe that prayer changes things. I also believe that prayer changes the pray-er, too. And the former without the latter seems to be a cheapening of what God intended in the first place.