American Reformation Church Prayer Journal 65
ARC Prayer Meeting:
This pass Sunday at American Reformation Church the message preached was “Love rejoices in the Truth.” Previous to that sermon in our series defining God’s love according to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8, we tackled “Love does not rejoice in iniquity.” Through this series of messages on God’s love we are learning what God’s love is, what it is not, what it will do and what it will not do.
My goal here is to track with our Sunday morning messages to prayerfully inspire our Wednesday night prayer meeting. The righteous goal is to somehow connect the two to help prime the pump of prayer, add to the consistency of the church, and continue to build based upon the truth of God’s Word and the importance of intercession to shape our future in God’s Kingdom.
In the phrase “Love rejoices in the truth,” there are three operative words that leap out, love, rejoices, and truth. Volumes could be communicated on all three Biblical revelations. Since love is foundational, let’s connect rejoicing and truth with the importance of prayer.
The greatest example was provided by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In context, the Lord sent out 70 of His disciples to preach and demonstrate the power of God’s Kingdom in the earth. They were assigned to go to cities He planned on visiting at a later time. The disciples came back pumped, rejoicing that demons were subject to them by the power of His name. Jesus reminded them the greater reason to rejoice was the reality that their names were written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Immediately after this, Luke described Jesus as rejoicing in the Spirit. This led to our Lord praying. Jesus stated, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight” (Luke 10:21).
Later, the Apostle Paul building on this theme taught:
For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence" (1Corinthians 1:26-29).
Clearly, our Lord’s prayer was answered. It began with Jesus rejoicing in the Spirit. This led to His prayer. Jesus thanked the Father that His church was bearing good Kingdom fruit. Let’s follow the Lord’s example.
