The Connection Between Easter and Prayer

The Connection Between Easter and Prayer

At Easter, like at Christmas and Thanksgiving, families get together. When families get together, they eat. And when they eat, they talk. It’s as natural and normal as breathing. In the process, family members get to know each other better and their relationship strengthens. The bonds do not get stronger because family members focus on talking itself. Instead, the bonds strengthen because family members focus on one another. Talking is simply the means to the end. Knowing each other is the end, the goal, the objective.

Prayer works the same way. Prayer is talking to God, but the goal is not prayer itself. Getting to know God is the goal of prayer. Paul E. Miller makes this point well in his book, A Praying Life: Connecting with God in a Distracting World (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2009). He says, “A praying life feels like our family mealtimes because prayer is all about relationship. It’s intimate and hints at eternity. We don’t think about communication or words but about whom we are talking with. Prayer is simply the medium through which we experience and connect to God” (p. 20).

Easter is a great time to evaluate your prayer life because after the disciples came to realize Jesus had resurrected from the dead, he instructed them to “stay in the city until you are empowered from on high” (Lk 24:49). Acts 1:14 says, “They were all continually united in prayer.” And Acts 1:15 reveals that “the number of people who were together was about a hundred and twenty.” So, there were 120 believers praying together until the Lord answered, which he did on the day of Pentecost, a Jewish holiday.

The answer he gave was incredible. He gave them the Holy Spirit who empowered them to share the truth about Jesus’ death and resurrection boldly and clearly, so that in a single day the church added about 3,000 new members (Ac 2:41).

If we want to see our church grow then we need to get serious about prayer. God grows the church when believers pray together.

I hope you will accept my invitation to attend prayer meeting on Wednesday evenings at 6:30. I am sure you want to see the church grow, and I am also sure you know that prayer is important. But there is something about praying together with other believers. God often does things when we get together that he doesn’t do when we try to do them by ourselves.