TRADITION: Cancel the Wednesday night prayer meeting
TRUTH: God's people gathering together for prayer is taught in Scripture. [Mt. 18:19,20; Heb.10:24-25; Acts 2:42-47; Acts 2:14; Acts 12:5 for ex.]
Traditional thinking says: 'Let's cancel the Wednesday prayer meeting, only a few people are attending, and there are more important things to do with our Wednesday evenings'. However, the Truth of the Word of God teaches and illustrates for us quite a different message. If it were not for the obedience of those 120 people who prayed in the upper room of Acts 2, the Holy Spirit might not have come to indwell, fill, and supply those believers with God's power for soul- winning, preaching & witnessing!
Was it not the result of answered prayer that supplied the power, grace & boldness to the Apostles for witnessing in Acts 4? And, if the saints would not have prayed for Peter to be released from prison, would God's angel have been sent to miraculously escort the Apostle out of the well guarded jail? Let's not be so quick to minimize the prayer power of God's people even if there are 'only a few people attending'!!
I have personally experienced the results of God's people praying for me at Wednesday night prayer meeting. (No, prayer meetings don't have to be on Wednesday nights only.) Their prayers for safety on the highway surrounded us when my wife and I were involved in a major pile-up on the Interstate this winter. This is not the only time their prayers for me have been answered.
Has your church permanently cancelled prayer meeting? It could be that you need to become part of a Biblical church that believes prayer is the way God get's His will accomplished here on earth, for it only takes a 'mustard seed' of faith to move the Hand of God into action. Just one believer who will believe God for the answer puts the omnipotence of God into action on our behalf! Therefore, the praying power of the church as it gathers for the purpose of corporate prayer is one of the most powerful forces for good this planet can ever experience!