I remember the following story by a man who was an elder in a church that was a few miles away from his home. One dark and stormy night, he was putting on his coat and his wife asked him where he was going. He replied, “To the Prayer Meeting”. She responded, “Is it worth it, on a night like this no one will be there!” But he felt it was his responsibility.
Later that evening, he returned, and his wife asked, “How many were there?” and he said, “Two of us”. She started guessing the name of the other person without success. She gave up and said, “Well who was the other person?” and he replied, “Jesus!” His wife said, “Well, scripture says where two or three are gathered in my name” and he responded, “But Jesus also said, I will never leave you nor forsake you!”
In my early teens, it was sometimes my privilege to go with my father when he was out preaching, mainly because I enjoyed travelling by bus or train as we didn’t own a car. Arriving at a church one Sunday evening, and as was the custom, the person who met us at the train station took us into separate room to have “a time of prayer.” I went with them as I didn’t want to sit on my own in the main church building. There were only three of us, and with my eyes closed, I heard that man start to pray. I was so amazed at his prayer that I thought Jesus must be sitting next to him and had to open my eyes to check.
These incidents gave me an appreciation of private prayer, which is sometimes reflected as we hear people pray in public.
PRAYER: Heavenly Father, like the disciples, we ask you to teach us how to pray that our relationship with you may be reflected in our daily lives. AMEN.