Last week, I had the opportunity to worship with the persecuted church in Romanian and Egypt.
Two phenomenal pastors, Jason McKnight (Grace Fellowship Church, NC) and David Henderson (Covenant Presbyterian Church, IN) asked me to join them as they led the two conferences for pastors and ministry leaders. The conferences were hosted by Rody Rodeheaver, president of International Needs, which is a wonderful ministry that is doing great work partnering with the church all over the world to meet the most challenging of human needs.
The goal of the conferences was simply to encourage church leaders by investing in their spiritual development. However, I had no idea how much these two conferences would be an investment in me. Over the next three weeks, I want to share the things that I learned from worshiping with the persecuted church.
Here is the first thing I learned: Prayer Matters.
In both Romania and Egypt, church leaders would come up to us to ask us to pray for them. They said over and over again throughout the conference, “Pray for me. Pray for my country.”
At first, their request made me feel good about myself. Their request stroked my ego in all the right ways. I thought to myself, “I must be someone pretty special for these leaders who don’t know me at all to ask me to pray for them.” That led me to thinking, “Well, of course they would ask me to pray for them. Who wouldn’t?”
However upon further reflection, their request for prayer didn’t reveal how special I was. It only revealed how deeply pride and arrogance had its grip on my soul. Their request for prayer challenged me in two ways.
1. Prayer matters because it reveals our dependence on God.
The leaders who asked me to pray for them understood something that I didn’t. They knew who they were dealing with. They also knew the impossibility of fulfilling the call to which they had given their lives unless God supernaturally empowered them to fulfill it. They knew that if they had any hope of seeing people come to faith and fight the good fight, God would have to do a supernatural work in them. These leaders knew that their work was beyond their own capabilities, but unlike me they didn’t try to pretend they had it all together. They were unashamedly needy. They needed God, and they were free to ask us for all the prayer we would give them. They were like the needy children Jesus told his disciples to become if they wanted in on the kingdom. These leaders, I assure you, will enter the kingdom well ahead of me.
Prayer matters because it reveals our dependence on God. – Scott Vermillion Share on X
The vulnerability in their request was delightful. They knew that they could not do the work God had called them to do without the prayers of others, so there was no pride to uphold. They saw themselves as servants in great need. Their request for prayer reminds me of Paul asking the the Ephesian church to pray for him. In Eph. 6:19, Paul boldly asks the Ephesians to “Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel…” I felt like I was in the presence of many “Pauls” last week. People better than me, who graciously invited me into their neediness to participate in the great work God is doing in them and in their countryman.
Prayer, I am now realizing, is not a tool to get God to make our lives more pleasant. It is a tool for expressing our “childlike faith.” Or I could say it’s a tool that is useful in confessing our true neediness to our loving, all powerful God.
I have been convicted by their vulnerability and their earnestness in requesting prayer – especially as a leader. It helpfully reveals the spiritual pride that I think I can do God’s work on my own strength. Like Samson, I am prone to developing an overconfidence in ministry where I believe that my strength is more useful to God than my weakness. As a result, I don’t have to wonder how many times I have asked others to pray for me to fearlessly make the good news to others. I don’t need a calculator to count how many times I have asked people to pray that God would open the ears of my countryman to hear and respond to the good news. I confess I just don’t do it. But after being asked by godly leaders to pray for them, I want to now.
As leaders, we need to recognize that pray matters. If it is all a one way street where we as leaders pray for others and we never ask people to pray for us, all we end up teaching is spiritual pride. That’s not pleasing to God. However, when we as leaders ask our communities to pray for us, we end up teaching others how to pray. We teach people that it’s ok to come as very needy people who are utterly dependent on a good and loving God. This pleases God.
2. Prayer matters because it gives us a greater vision than pursuing our own happiness.
There was also something substantially different about their request for prayer. They weren’t asking us to pray for relief for them and their circumstances. They didn’t want us to pray that their lives would be better and that they would experience more of God’s blessings instead of their current hardships. To be sure, their hardships were many and the ministry they were undertaking was difficult at best. It wouldn’t have been out of bounds for them to ask us to pray for blessing in their life. Yet, they were asking us to pray for something wholly different.
The point of imploring us to pray to God on their behalf was to further the gospel in their lives and in the lives of their countrymen. They wanted God to give them courage to continue preaching the gospel in a country abused by sadistic communists or vindictive muslims. They wanted God to rescue their countryman from the devastation of violence, lies, and idols in order that they might experience the joy and renewal of being in relationship with Christ. This was a deeper call to prayer than I was used to. And it was refreshing.
Prayer matters because it gives us a greater vision than pursuing our own happiness. – Scott Vermillion Share on X
Their request for prayer has deepened what I want God to do in my life. Their passion to be used by God for his purposes in order to reach their countryman has changed me. I am beginning to recognize that what my heart truly longs for is not for God to give me greater blessing and a pleasant life, but for God’s power to work through me for his kingdom purposes. Because of their example, I now have a larger vision for what God wants to do than to make my life pleasant. Prayer matters because it is a way to rid ourselves of our agenda in order to take up God’s agenda for our lives. When I ask others to pray for me, I begin to open myself up to God’s purposes. I then can see more clearly what my heart truly wants. I don’t want more personal blessings, but like Abraham, I want to be a blessing to others.
As leaders, we need to recognize that prayer matters. If the only vision we have for prayer is to ask for a more blessed life, our prayers will be small and go largely unanswered. But if we invite others to pray for us to gain a greater vision for what God wants to do, we get to see more of God’s heart (for us and for the world). When we confess our need for God to make us fearless in sharing the hope of Jesus with others no matter what we face, we end up modeling for others how they should pray also. We invite others into a greater vision for prayer and a deeper passion for God’s purposes to be worked out in our world.
Therefore, I want to invite you to pray for me.
Pray that I would be fearless in making the gospel known regardless of my circumstances. Pray for my countryman to hear and respond to the good news. If you do pray for me, just send me a quick email saying that you prayed (scott@theawakenministry.com). I also invite you to do the same with those in your community. Ask them to pray for you in these ways. Why? Because prayer matters.
