Kim Melnick
Mar 11, 2025
Our Sunday Morning Need
Does your family gather for prayer before meals?
Most of us would say yes. We thank God for His provision, reflect on His attributes, ask for His blessing, and offer petitions for His help. This practice is ingrained in our lives—sometimes routine, but often heartfelt.
At Restoration Church of Sanford, we often call each other brother, sister, mother, or father, recognizing the church as a family. Yet, when we gather on the Lord’s Day, we often neglect the preparation of corporate prayer before feasting on the Word of God.
Why do we faithfully pray before physical nourishment but often overlook the practice of praying together as a family, before seeking the spiritual nourishment our souls desperately need?
I hope to highlight the privilege and necessity of praying for our gatherings and invite you to join our elders in praying together on Sunday morning as we anticipate and prepare for God's work among us.
In short, we pray because we need the Lord’s help.
Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me, bless his holy name! Psalm 103:1
We need the Lord’s help to prepare hearts for worship. We often enter the doors on Sunday morning with a load of cares. Much like we would clear the table in preparation for a meal, our hearts and minds need to be cleared from distractions and worries. We must call our hearts to worship and this happens beautifully when we gather for prayer together. I can testify personally that my heart is overflowing and so ready for worship after praying with my brothers and sisters.
O’ Taste and see that the Lord is good. Psalm 34:8a
We need the Lord’s help to remember His gracious provision. Corporate prayer reminds our hearts of the sweetness of God. And the Lord definitely has it rigged here because, as we pray together, we are not only prompted to remember how He revealed His goodness to us in the past week, but our hearts are encouraged as we hear the words of praise and thanksgiving that our brothers and sisters offer to our Lord as well.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
We need the Lord’s help to prepare our hearts to receive the Word. Just like we need to be hungry to fully enjoy a meal, we must be hungry for the righteousness found in God’s Word. Oftentimes, our elders will share how the Lord ministered to their hearts as they spent time in the sermon text. As prayers are offered from the passage, the Lord excites our own hearts and gives us a craving for the Word of God.
Other seeds fell on good soil and produced grain, some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. He who has ears, let him hear. Matthew 13:8-9
We need the Lord’s help to prepare the hearts of those who will join us for the proclamation of the Gospel. We never know who will walk through our doors on Sunday morning but we know that it is only by the Spirit of God that ears will be open to hear the good news of the Glorious Gospel. We are a church on mission-will we pray for the hearts of those, even those we don’t know, to receive the Word of God?
So far, we’ve covered the needs of our own hearts and the hearts of those who will join us, but the truth is, our pastors have a great need for our prayers as they bring us the Bread of Life.
But those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:31
Our pastors need our prayers for the Lord’s strength. We are prone to think that our elders live in a bubble, protected and sheltered from the everyday trials and annoyances of life. It’s simply not true. They come in on Sundays, often after a week of hard ministry, packed with heavy burdens and responsibilities. They have faced disappointments and quarrels within their family, maybe even that morning. They have worries and concerns of their own.
As we call out to the Lord on behalf of our pastors, His Spirit uses our prayers to encourage their hearts, to lighten their burdens, to strengthen their faith and to remind them that they are not alone.
But the Lord is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one. 2 Thessalonians 3:3
Our pastors need our prayers for the Lord’s protection. With eyes fixed on Christ, and on the frontlines of ministry, our elders have engaged in an intense battle with the enemy over the past week. They have fought hard to see what God has for them in His Word and to prayerfully consider what He has for us, His people, as well. In the words of John MacArthur, “When a pastor faithfully preaches God's Word, he becomes a prime target for Satan, who seeks to strike the shepherd and scatter the sheep.”
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. Proverbs 3:5-6
Our pastors need our prayers for their confidence to be in the Lord. When they are doubting themselves, or perhaps even questioning their sermon, the Spirit uses our prayers to give our pastors strength and confidence in God’s Word and His work in their own lives. The Lord reminds them that He is the One who will speak through them. The pressure to worry about their performance fades. He is the One to whom all glory and praise is due and He is working for their good and the good of His people.
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
Our pastors need our prayers for the Spirit of God to empower them as they preach. They need the Lord’s help to guide and direct their words to reach our hearts with the encouragement, conviction or inspiration that He intends for us. What a privilege it is for the church to call on the Holy Spirit to do this work in corporate prayer together.
I hope you’ve recognized the significance of gathering in prayer on Sunday mornings, as it unites us as God’s family and prepares our hearts for worship—through singing, praying, reading, and receiving the Word of God together.
Our elders gather in the prayer room (the first door down the hall near the nursery) beginning at 9:15 every Sunday morning.
See you there!