Intentionality & Sacrifice: Praying 24-7 in Japan

Published: July 25th, 2008

It's 5:15 pm on Monday...our 17th hour of non-stop prayer for our week of 24/7 Prayer.  One of my favorite hymns, "The Love of God" seems to sum it up how I feel about this week of prayer already, especially the 3rd verse (below):

"Could we with ink the ocean fill, And were the skies of parchment made,
Were every stalk on earth a quill, And every man a scribe by trade,
To write the love of God above, Would drain the ocean dry.
Nor could the scroll contain the whole, Though stretched from sky to sky."

When we first picked the dates for the 24-7 Prayer week we were a little nervous because of how many other things would be happening simultaneously.  Since then even more things have been added.  Yesterday, a few hours after the 24-7 Kick-Off we had a BBQ at the beach for students, etc. - a kind of "thanks for the last term" party.  After the BBQ we had evening worship.  Today, two of the other missionaries have spent all day moving from their apartments 45 minutes away to a house 5 minutes away.  They have known about this move for only a week (technically probably only for a few days) and so last night one of our friends from Tokyo (here to help out with the week of prayer) went to help pack through the night.  There hasn't been much sleeping. 

But, as I sat in the prayer room this afternoon I marveled at God's wisdom in all this.  Prayer is not something we do when we have time.  It is our life breath - it is our connection and relationship to God the Father, the King Eternal, Ruler of the Universe, the one who protects, guides, and sustains us.  When Jesus prayed to the Father for his disciples in Gethsemane (John 17) he prayed, "My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one....As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world."  Prayer brings us back into the place of rest and safety in the arms of Jesus...allows us to be healed by and filled anew with His Spirit and His love. 

Then it catapults us back into the grime of the world that is still dry and empty so that we can bring that Spirit and love.  The need is so great that if we are doing our job and pouring out to others what we have received from the Father then we quickly run out and need to refill.  We are just the water carriers, bringing Jesus' water of life to a thirsty world until they are rehydrated enough to come to Him on their own.  If we don't go often to the River of Life to refill (hence Paul's charge to pray continuously) one of two things will happen...either we will bring them a cup filled only with the moisture of our own sweat (and who wants to drink that? yuck!) or if we haven't been busy pouring out our cup to others then we will bring them a cup of water, but it will be stagnant water...stale and possibly with a visible green tint from the growing algae...or maybe some floating dead bugs.  Neither of those options is refreshing or appealing.  And we wonder why people are rejecting Christ?  Many times they aren't rejecting Him or His living water...just rejecting the pollution that has gotten into the water because of laziness or busyness on our parts as the water carriers.

The BBQ started at 5:00 yesterday.  At 3:55 Haidee said something to me about needing to hurry up and tote everything down to the beach to set up.  "I can't - Pastor scheduled me in the Prayer Room," I said with a grin (possibly a smirk) on my face as I headed toward the stairs.  "You punk!" was her reply until I told her that she was signed up from 6-7.  "Ha!  That means YOU have to play games," she retorted.  The smirk on my face quickly disappeared.  I don't like games - I usually leave that to her and love being able to do so.  But it was a perfect reminder of why we pray. Not to get out of helping to set up and do ministry, but to refill so we can go play games with love in our hearts and grace in our words.

Keeping the Prayer Room running 24 hours a day is hard work and requires a lot of intentionality and sacrifice.  Everybody misses out on something of the group dynamics happening below when they are up above on their shift with God.  But even that keeps everything in balance - it isn't about finding fulfillment in the group and events aren't about one dynamic personality.  It's all about God, finding fulfillment and strength in him and then returning to the group, returning to ministry filled up so that we can serve others and pour out the grace that we have received. 

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