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I hope you’ve had a blessed week. This Sabbath we come together for our Spring Service—a time of renewal, celebration, and growth. How fitting that our theme is prayer because prayer is the very heartbeat of renewal. Every great movement of God throughout history has begun not with programs or buildings, but with people on their knees.
When we read the book of Acts, we see ordinary men and women who turned the world upside down. What was their secret? They prayed. They prayed in homes, they prayed in the Temple courts, they prayed in prison cells. And when they prayed, heaven moved. Pentecost was birthed out of a prayer meeting. The gospel spread across the Roman Empire not because the early Christians had influence or wealth, but because they had prayer.
Charles Spurgeon once said, “Prayer is the slender nerve that moves the muscle of omnipotence.” I love that image. Think about how something so small, so simple, can connect us to something so powerful. In the same way, our whispered prayers—whether in joy or in desperation—connect us to the Almighty God who bends down to listen.
Let me share another picture with you. Imagine a garden in early spring. The soil has been resting through the winter, but now the gardener begins to till it, break it open, and prepare it for new life. Prayer is like that tilling of the soil—it prepares the heart, breaks up the hardness, and makes room for the seeds of God’s Spirit to grow. Without prayer, we may scatter seeds of ministry, but they will fall on unbroken ground. With prayer, the soil of our hearts and our church becomes ready for God’s harvest.
But prayer is not only about asking; it’s also about aligning. Too often we treat prayer like pushing our requests upward, hoping God will respond. But true prayer is God shaping our hearts until our desires align with His. Jesus modelled this in Gethsemane when He prayed, “Not my will, but yours be done.” Prayer changes things, yes—but most of all, prayer changes us.
I believe God is calling Park Ridge to a renewed spirit of prayer. This is not simply about adding more prayer meetings to our schedule (though those are important). It’s about cultivating a culture where prayer is the natural rhythm of our lives—prayer in our homes, prayer in our small groups, prayer before we serve, prayer as we walk with friends, prayer as we go about our daily lives. Paul’s words ring true for us today: “Pray without ceasing”. Prayer becomes the breath of our souls.
Church family, what would it look like if we truly became a praying church? Imagine the difference in our youth, our families, our city, if we committed ourselves to seek God’s face together. Imagine our worship infused with prayer, our decisions bathed in prayer, our ministries birthed out of prayer. That is the kind of awakening we long for.
This Sabbath, as the blossoms of spring (which is just around the corner) remind us of new beginnings, may we allow God to awaken in us a new hunger for Him through prayer. Let us raise the sails of our lives and catch the wind of the Spirit, who is always ready to move when His people pray.
With love and in prayer, David Peñate.
