Prayer is the work!

On 29 January 2023, the day of the Epaphras Project rollout in Victoria’s Ringwood Knox Parish, I heard it expressed for the first time in Lutheran circles that prayer is the most important thing we can do. Prayer is the work!

The call to action was challenging and encouraging. And God laid it on the hearts of nine brothers and sisters at Ringwood to pray together for his work.

So, we gather on Sundays to talk about the things God has laid on our hearts and minds during the week. Then we pray our agreed-together prayers. We thank and praise God for his love and care. We pray for our pastor/s, for inspiration by the Holy Spirit with every word God knows we need to hear, for the direction of our congregation and that God will take us to those who don’t yet know Jesus as Lord and Saviour. We pray for many other things, too!

The ‘enable, grow and go’ aspects of our congregation remain a work in progress, but there is a vibe around answered prayer. We are hearing of individuals asking for particular Bible studies and prayer regarding evangelism, and we are providing copies of Australian evangelist Sam Chan’s book How to talk about Jesus (without being that guy) for inspiration.

We know God wouldn’t lay prayers on our hearts if his answers to these prayers were not already set in motion!