Why don't we pray together?

"It is written, 'My house will be called a house of prayer.' But you are making it a den of thieves!" - Jesus Christ

We had an incredible prayer meeting last night for FtF.

Our youth group has been divided into two groups for work on Fan the Flame: prayer and advertising. The prayer group has done a great job of putting together different prayer focuses for the event. They have written a seven-day prayer guide for this week, distributed rubber bands to wear as a reminder to pray, and scheduled several different prayer meetings.

The one last night was a meeting at the church from 7-9 pm. We prayed together in a circle for a while, then separated. Most of us walked the church and surrounding property, lifting our petitions to God for the event. We gathered again at the end to pray together once more.

It was such an amazing feeling to be there, along with God's people, pleading with God to do a mighty work through FtF. It gave me comfort, encouragement, and a certain feeling -- that something spectacular is coming this Saturday. I'm not a prophet and that's not a prophecy, but that's what God was telling me as I prayed last night.

But the thought struck me as we wrapped up our meeting: Why do we not do this together, consistently, as a church?

It was a fairly small group that met to pray on Monday night. Probably sixteen people, somewhere around there. Yet the entire church had been invited. So what gives?

I have heard it said about churches: "You can tell how popular a church is by how many come on Sunday morning. You can tell how popular the pastor or evangelist is by how many come on Sunday night. But you can tell how popular Jesus is by how many come to the prayer meeting."

Ouch. Is that really true? I hope not, but I fear otherwise. After all, as Brooklyn Tabernacle pastor Jim Cymbala points out, Jesus didn't call the believers' gathering place a house of preaching. Nor did He call it a house of fellowship, or of ministry, or of song. He called it a house of prayer.

When, historically, has God moved in people's hearts? When there was prayer. Check Acts 2. When the Spirit fell on the believers in the upper room at Pentecost, Peter wasn't holding a preachfest. That came afterward. They were praying.

In Acts 4, when the place where the church was meeting was shaken, they weren't having a finger-food potluck. They were praying.

There are many more examples throughout history. God works through prayer. "The intense prayer of the righteous is very powerful," says James, and I don't think we understand how powerful it truly is.

When God's people meet to pray intensely, is there anything they cannot do? We had sixteen or so people last night in our meeting. What if we had had fifty? Or a hundred? Or more? What kind of impact could we have?

The key, of course, is that the focus is not on impact. Over my teenage years, I have longed to see God do great things, make a great impact in the world, launch a Great Awakening in this country. But the focus has to be on Him alone. When we do place our eyes upon Him in truth, we will change the world.

Praying by oneself is, of course, commanded in Scripture, in Matthew 6:5-8, among other passages. But we are also commanded to meet to pray together, and too often we forsake this calling. It is in the corporate prayer meeting that God will do a great work, in the hearts of those who are praying.

Why do we underestimate the power of prayer? Why do we shortchange God, limit His work in us? Do we not believe the promises in His Word? Do we forget the stories from the past of what He has accomplished through prayer?

And just as importantly, when will we begin to devote ourselves to prayer again?