What if the story ended there…maybe it did

Last October at Paradigm we did a 5 week series and focus on prayer.  The third week of the series, I did a talk called “What If The Story Ended There.”  We looked at Acts 12:5 which says, “So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.”  For those of you who were there, you may remember at the end there were a couple of Christian men I mentioned who were currently in prison and being persecuted for their faith in Jesus.  One of their name’s was Son Jong Nam who had been in prison since 2006 awaiting execution.

Tonight I came across this video at persecutionblog.com (click here for the video) that reports Son Jong Nam’s death in North Korea.

I don’t know if you remember (October was a long time ago), but the whole point of us looking at Acts 12:5 was to see that after the church came together and earnestly prayed for Peter, he was miraculously released.  In fact, as a result of the church earnestly praying for their persecuted brother, three things happened: Peter experienced God’s miraculous deliverance, the church experience God’s miraculous answer to prayer, and a miraculous movement of God was set into motion.  The whole thought of the night though was, what if the church never came together and prayed for Peter?  What if Acts 12:5 just said, “So Peter was kept in prison.”  What if the story ended there?

At the end of the night, everyone was given a card with a persecuted Christian’s name and face on it and was challenged to commit to praying for that person.  I don’t know if you still have your card, but I still have mine.  My card had the face and name of Son Jong Nam on it.  I’m writing this tonight for three reasons.  1) To confess that I did not devote myself to praying for Son Jong Nam, and though I know that God is glorified in his death and every martyrs death (“The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church” -Tertullian), I am deeply convicted tonight for my lack of devotion to praying for my persecuted brothers and sisters throughout the world.  2) To re-challenge you all to get those cards back out that you were given and commit to praying for those believers.  The most powerful weapon that we have been given is the power of prayer.

3) The third reason I’m writing this tonight, is to say this: What in the world are we doing??  What is keeping us both individually and corporately from devoting ourselves to prayer?  Why is it that we are not to that place of maturity in our pursuit of God?  I can’t help but imagine what all I (and we) have missed out on because of a lack of devotion to prayer.  Could it be that we are missing out on God’s miraculous deliverance? Could it be that we are missing out on seeing and experiencing God’s miraculous answer to prayer?  Could it be that we are missing out on seeing, experiencing, and being a part of a miraculous movement of God?

The question last October was, “What if the story ended there?”  The way it is looking at this point is, it did, it has, and it will…unless something changes and you and I become people devoted to earnest prayer.

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To access the sermon from Paradigm “What If The Story Ended There?” you can click here.

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~ by Austin W. on July 11, 2010.