Overnight in the prayer room

Last night some NYFC forumites stayed in the prayer room all night. There were five of us which was a nice number, but more are welcome to come when we do the same next week! It was quite a cool night, we stayed up for most of it. Started with a solitary couple of hours just being quiet and looking at all the stuff in the room to use as aids to prayer. Later we played with the inflatable globe, throwing it to each other partly to keep us awake and energised, and we called out names of countries to pray, and the more knowledgable among us told us a bit about the current situation in some of the countries. Later we moved on to areas in Norwich and people here and afar who need prayer for whatever reason. We had a brilliant open prayer time where we just prayed for people on our hearts. It was good to share the burden with others, and, as Ben said, let God take our burdens.

I think one of the things that struck me about last night was the thought that I can pray for lots of things and really want things to happen and for God to answer, but in a way it starts with me. I have to make changes and follow God in my own life and hope that the rest of the world does too. 'Lord, send revival, start with me'. Helen put another slant on that by saying that often we pray for ourselves a lot, but we need to care about others as well (or words to that effect as far as I remember!) which is another thing sinking into my mind. Philippians 2:4 says 'Do not be interested only in your own life, but be interested in the lives of others.' Keeping up with what's going on in my friends' lives and the world has an important purpose, to engage with them so that I can pray effectively and care for people and about issues properly in the spirit of humility (just as Philippians 2 goes on to describe Jesus' humility in giving up his place with God to become like a servant for us).

We also had an interesting discussion about the Holy Spirit and other related tangents. (Early hours of the morning is always good for those kind of discussions. Pity I can't function enough to articulate my thoughts though!) I have much to think and pray about. Mark said in his blog how the presence of God felt as thick as treacle in the prayer room. I wouldn't say I felt it that strongly, but there's definately a sense that God is there and doing good things.

All in all a brilliant night, looking forward to next week.