By Matt Moore
There are 650 prayers listed in the Bible. About 450 of them have recorded answers. More than 20 times, Jesus left the disciples and crowds to pray alone with His Father. We cannot deny that prayer is a central focus in God’s Word, yet many local churches—including ours—face a persistent temptation.
We believe we can engineer a Godward experience and advance Christ’s kingdom through our own creativity. And when that happens, corporate prayer is sidelined. When congregations see sparsely attended prayer meetings, it reveals something deeper—a neglect of God that runs through many churches. What we need is not just more meetings, but a shared, Spirit-driven burden to pray together.
Charles Spurgeon writes about the importance of prayer meetings and corporate prayer:
“It is good for us to draw nigh unto God in prayer, and specially good to make up a great congregation for such a purpose. We have attended little prayer-meetings of four or five, and we have been glad to be there, for we had the promise of our Lord’s presence; but our minds are grieved to see so little attention given to united prayer by many of our churches. We have longed to see great numbers of God’s people coming up to pray, and we now enjoy this sight. Let us praise God that it is so. How could we expect a blessing if we were too idle to ask for it? How could we look for a Pentecost if we never met with one accord, in one place, to wait upon the Lord? Brethren, we shall never see much change for the better in our churches in general till the prayer-meeting occupies a higher place in the esteem of Christians.”
C.H. Spurgeon, Only a Prayer Meeting, repr (Great Britain: Christian Focus Publications, 2022), 9.
As we approach our first Corporate Prayer Time on January 3, 2026, my aim is to draw our hearts toward this very priority. Harvest DeSoto must embrace the great task of prayer as one body. Our vision to “move with confidence” depends on our willingness to unite before the throne. If we hope to see God at work, we must pray and move with Him… pray and move with Him… pray and move with Him.
So I’m calling you, saints, to elevate corporate prayer to a higher place. Spurgeon rejoiced to see “great numbers” gathering to pray; I long for the same at Harvest DeSoto and beyond. I suspect you desire to pray more—personally and corporately—so now is the time. What will it take for us to see prayer as essential to our mission, as vital as disciple-making or expository preaching? I don’t know yet, but I want to find out. What might God do in and through us if we devote ourselves to prayer (Acts 2:42)?
I’ll look for you on January 3 at 5 p.m. as we seek to be a people who pray—and so move with confidence as we follow the cloud (Exod. 40:36–38).
