Praying Fervently

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. (Acts 12:5)
 
As we have been discussing in Acts 12, Peter was connected to a praying church and when he was in jail, the church prayed for him (verse 5). Now that’s a beautiful picture if I ever saw one. Here is the pastor—the leader and under-shepherd of the local church—in trouble; and the church decides to pray for him, rather than talk about him.  
 
One of the members gave the church permission to hold a prayer service at her home. They came together in a time of trouble not to complain, not for gossip, not to eat (necessarily), not to socialize, and not to plot on leadership, but they came together to pray! That’s how we should respond in a crisis. We should pray!  
 
Similarly, rather than using the pandemic as an excuse to avoid spiritual devotion, we should instead use it as a time to seek God more. Now that we don’t have to get ready an hour before church to get to church, and drive to get there, we should use this extra time on Sundays to spend more time in prayer.  
 
The pandemic is not a time to slack off, it’s a time to draw closer to God in prayer, in worship, and in the Word. The Bible says, “men should always pray, and faint not.” Whether it is a pandemic or not, we should pray. Whether we are able to worship in the building or not, we should pray. Prayer is the one thing we should do when we can’t do anything else.  
 
These Christians weren't playing around with prayer. They were serious about it. And I am convinced that we should pray with such fervor, zeal, passion, intensity, and dedication until things likewise begin to shift for us. Let’s stretch our prayer muscle to its limit and pray fervently.