THE URGENCY OF PRAYER

"Gather My saints together unto Me; those that have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."
Psalm 50:5

The urgency of prayer
How often in conversation I ask or make mention for a call to prayer to be initated and promoted.  And almost immediately the response comes, "But we are praying".  Oh, how I love to examine that response.  "You are praying?  Tell me about it.  What was your last prayer time like?" 
They reply, "Well, I met God.  I asked for. ... I prayed for . . ." 
"How long did it last?"
"A while. A couple of minutes."
"At least a half hour?" I ask.
"No, probably 15 minutes."

Asking, scrutinizing, dealing with the reality of the situation, 'what is your praying like?'  We find out, real quick when pressing the issue about the individuals prayer life.  How long? HOw often? How deep? Do you weep?  Who's it about?  How much worship, adoration, longing after God?  HOw much burden do you carry?  all these things reveal the level of the prayer life. 

then we turn to ask these that attest, 'I am praying'.  Tell me about your church prayer life?  How often do they meet?  Is there a place given for prayer?  How many come to that?  What is the percentage of praying people compared to your membership? compared to your attendance on Sunday morning? 
I won't mention the name of the church or the praying saint in this following example.  A church that ran several thousand in their morning worship service.  I would imagine, but not certain that they had over 5000 membership.  They had a precious saint that was well known for his prayer life and deep writings.  A saint, a true man of God that walked with God.  And in their prayer meeting, that was given time and place to meet with God on Wednesday night, they would average 15 - 20.  Most of them good friends with this saint.  Out of 1,000's, a couple dozen in prayer. 

Dare we call this  paticular church, 'a house of prayer'?  Do we call them a praying people?  Can we see how far out of balance the church is on the issue, spiritual disciplines of prayer?  Or do we suppose to jusitfy it all with the quick answer, 'But we are praying'. 

Now in the midst of tragedy, no one has to be told to pray.  They have learned long ago, that there is a God and that He has and can help in times of trouble and need.  They don't have to be convinced or compelled to pray after the tragedy.   But, oh, isn't it the opposite, of trying to get men to pray before the tragedy.  'Don't you see the judgments?'; 'Don't you see the plagues happening now?'; 'Don't you know the Scriptures have revealed all this?'  'Shouldn't we be calling for a prayer meeting?'  And the look returned is the answer, 'NO.  Let's wait and see if it works itself out.'  is the answer.  Almost as if to say, 'No sense in pushing the panic button.' 

But we are way beyond that now.  The events of life in motion in our nation right now are urgent and compelling.  It is simply whether men have eyes to see and hearts to discern. 
I recently went to the Southern Baptist convention and made a motion for an immediate call to prayer corporately for mercy upon this nation and the church.  OUr SBC is a sinking denomination because prayer has been left off along time ago.  This motion was ruled out order.  That there was time already in the two day convention for prayer.  Now following my motion, there was another motion that prayer should be made for Billy Graham.  Immediately, the president stopped the convention and the business session and made time to have prayer for Billy Graham.  My reply - I don't think Billy Graham has much to worry about in dying and meeting God, but I am quite certain that 250 million out of 300 million souls in this nation do.  How is it, that time can be given to pray for Billy Grahm; but a nation, a church under judgment from and by God does not take priority to make time at some point to pray corporately? 

Following that rejection of a call to prayer, on my way home.  I was in Arkansas.  And the morning paper provided by the hotel had these two headlines that caught my attention.  "Severe drought covering 83.5% of parched state"; and 'Flood exits Duluth, hits other areas"  Drought in over 3/4 of Arkansas; historical record rainfall in Minnesota; record wildfires in Colorade and Utah; insect invasion in bees in New York, crickets in Austin, TX; murder-suicides at alarming rate; suicides at record levels in the armed forces and among teenagers.  The judgments from the Bible are upon this land, need I say it again, in record proportions. 

You see the tragedies are happening.  The plagues are on us, now.  But the response of prayer is limited and not heeded by God's Own people.