envelop spinner search close plus arrow-right arrow-left facebook twitter

Two Motivations for Prayer

by Bob Hopper on September 30, 2015


We recently remembered the national tragedy of 9/11. Do you remember where you where when you heard the news? I was leading an off campus staff retreat for a church that I pastored in Pittsburgh. We cut the retreat short and returned to the church campus to be available to those who were in such deep distress. We quickly made a large banner and hung it near the road by our entrance driveway: "We Are Open For Prayer – All Are Welcome".  

It was amazing to see people stop to pray – many of them strangers. We made slides of many Scriptures and just rolled them on our big screen continually. We had soft music of classic hymns playing in the background. People were wrestling with the gravity of the situation. People wept. People prayed.

It was a rare moment in our national and ecclesiastical history. What does it take to motivate people to pray with such fervor? Tragedy is one such motive, but so is opportunity. At Central, the Lord has been pleased to protect us from tragedy and equally pleased to place before us opportunity. This is why we launched the "3 for 30" prayer initiative. The gospel of our Lord calls us to repent of the idolatry of self-reliance and to seek Him at all times, in all circumstances, and for all things.

At this point Central's history, we are praying for our Senior Pastor Search Team, we are praying that the Lord make us a contagiously warm and friendly place on Sunday morning, and we are praying for the peace of St. Louis. We have asked that each gathering of Central folks – any study, event, or meeting – simply pray for those three things. Of course we cannot know how many people have engaged in this prayer initiative, but I imagine it is easily in the hundreds.  

Many people assumed, when those planes struck the twin towers and the Pentagon, that WW III had begun. Of course there was much debate about the cause and consequences of the attack. “Are we really at war, and against whom are we fighting?” There is no debate for the Christian church. We are at war against the devil and all his designs and devices to assault the glory of God and the health and growth of His church.  

Would you "join the war effort" in remembering to "pray without ceasing"?  Would you "support the war effort" with your financial giving to Central?  Would you "participate in the war effort" by looking for new faces on Sunday morning and showing them the love of Christ and by looking for ways to serve our city?

God is answering our prayers.  God has spared us from tragedy.  God has placed before us great opportunity.  May we seize the moment – and pray.  

 - Pastor Bob

Tags: 9/11, opportunity, prayer


Return to Our Blog