The Strategy of Prayer

Someone once said that prayer is the Christian's secret weapon. The more that I serve and live, I can see that prayer is the missionary's secret weapon also. I am amazed by all of the "strategies" that exist in missions circles. If you follow these ten steps then you should see a CPM (Church Planting Movement). It was the same sentiment when Rick Warren's book came out and my fellow seminarians were eating it up. None of these things are intrinsically bad, but they can distract if we do not keep the primary focus on Christ. Where I serve people pray to Mary because she has "special pull" with Jesus to get what they want. It is essentially a manipulation of Jesus by the use of his Mother. We also witnessed again this week the Holy week celebration in which people pay to suffer for their sins. I know, I know, why suffer to celebrate something in which the suffering was already completed. You will have to study your Catholic theology for that one, because I cannot explain it biblically. Anyway, whether your baptist or something else, we need to always keep Christ at the center as Matthew 6:33 teaches. I find myself longing for us to set aside our programs and focus on the basics of the faith. I saw this week several needs and concerns that God took care of as we worked with our friends from Goldsboro, NC. Is that to say that everything was perfect? No, far from it. We had illness attacking us from every side, but we remained faithful to what God had called us to. A friend lovingly has implied that we are not doing something right. While we know that we are not perfect, we also did not sense that what we were going through was punishment from God. Some people laugh at the idea of bringing a team from far away to come and pray, but we saw God raise up people of peace and break some really hard ground. We prayed for an area that is going to host a medical clinic in August and we think that we found a host that is not going to charge us for his facilities. We prayed for various needs through the week and God answered our prayers in some incredible ways.
So what idol will I turn to when I need God's direction for our city? What program or ten step method? I think I will stick with praying for His divine appointments, direction, and people of peace as I seek to serve Him in our city. That just makes the most sense to me. It may not make me famous, sell books, win me a promotion, or even see overwhelming response, but I cannot resist the feeling that anything less would just be another form of idolatry.

Strategically serving Him,
Craig