Our Desire for your prayer life:
From closet to corporate…
Before instructing his disciples on corporate (or public) prayer (Matt 6:5-6), Jesus commanded and modeled for his disciples private prayer. Just to be with the Father, Jesus rose before the sunrise (Mark 1:35-37) and he stayed up all night (Luke 6:12); so great was the place of private prayer in his life. After Jesus’ ascension, you see his followers devoted to prayer (Ac 1:14, 2:42, 6:4, 14:23). What needs to be understood is that their corporate prayer life was an extension of their closet prayer life. Conrad Mbewe powerfully states, “It is in the place of secret prayer that the truths of the man of God become clothed in the fiber of his being.” God’s desire for the prayer life of The Grove begins in the closet, in private. God’s church will not be a house of prayer if the homes in his church are not a house of prayer. Imagine every family in our church having deep, intimate fellowship with the Father. Imagine hearts of adoration, contrition, thanksgiving, and dependence coming to the throne of grace.
From corporate to constant…
Of all the ways that God could have chosen to describe His house, He chose to describe it as a house of prayer (Isa 56:7; Mt 21:12-14), where people from all nations come to pray. God not only desires that all people pray, but that all people are being prayed for (1 Tim 2:1-3). The closet prayer life of believers is to be lived out in corporate gatherings. God’s desire for prayer in His people is not limited to their quiet time in the morning, nor the corporate gathering, but a constant dependence on Him (Ps 127:1-2; John 15:4-6). Imagine this corporate prayer life becoming our constant prayer life. Not only in private, and not only on Sundays, but the church gathering frequently to approach the throne of glory (Ac 2:42, 12:5). Instead of you praying for a hard season of work, imagine several brothers and sisters praying for you throughout the day. Instead of you and your spouse praying for your marriage and parenting, imagine the prayers of a hundred people reaching the throne of God! May this be the prayer culture of our church – from the closet to corporate, and from the corporate to constant.
