Today’s Devotional is brought to you by one of our campus students, Quentin Goodman! Quentin grew up in the Southern CT Church of Christ and is now attending the University of Connecticut. To read all of our Devotionals you click this link

Prayer Leads to Revival

By Quentin Goodman

Prayer is incredibly powerful and transformative. It is one of our most effective tools we have to combat the devil’s schemes. Over the past few weeks I have been spending a lot of time in prayer, individually, and with many other disciples. I’ve struggled to have a consistently strong prayer life, even though I know how impactful and necessary prayer is. Hopefully what I share can help some of you have a revival in your prayer lives. 

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

The campus ministry has been the embodiment of this scripture over the past few weeks. Alex Lallensack, a disciple in Boston, started a 24/7 national prayer chain for all the campus ministries in the ICOC. At first I was hesitant to join, prayer is a very personal and intimate experience for me, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to let a “stranger” into my life like that. As the start of the prayer chain approached, I saw a lot of disciples I knew join in, and even disciples from all over the country. My fears began to turn into excitement as I thought about meeting new brothers and sisters in Christ. I ended up praying every night for a week with different disciples from Texas, Brooklyn, Colorado, New Jersey, Houston, LA, and Maryland. The experience was indescribable. Seeing people’s hearts uncovered and laid bare before the Creator was extremely convicting and inspiring. Hearing how people, hundreds of miles away from me, adored the Lord helped me realize that we are not alone in this Spiritual fight here in CT. 

Q: What new, scary, and exciting things are you doing now to spice up your prayer life? 

Consider the following verses:

Matthew 26:41

⁴¹ “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

John 17:15

Prayer is our tool to fight against the devil’s schemes. The devil is a lion looking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8), we need this shield of faith and prayer to protect us. We need our brothers and sisters to watch our backs! I can say that the campus ministry here has watched my back. We have two “prayer breaks” a week, it’s a time when we get together, over Zoom, just to pray together. I always get fired up and inspired after those sessions. It is so much easier for me to fight off temptation when I’ve spent time in prayer with my brothers and sisters. 

Q: When was the last time you prayed with someone from the church?
Q: How often do you pray with disciples who aren’t in your immediate friend group? 

I have learned so much from spending time with older and younger disciples. Praying with people outside of your main group can give you new perspectives on God, and it doesn’t hurt that you will most likely make another friend. You can even take it a step further and get a few numbers of people in different ministries! 

Prayer truly leads to personal spiritual revival. Prayer can nourish our souls, charge our battery, help us to have peace amidst storms, create in us a pure heart, help us understand our purpose, give us clarity, and the list goes on and on. Prayer can truly change the way we feel as we become more and more connected to God. Prayer is just as essential for our physical well being as eating is for our physical well being. If we feel burnt out, down, discouraged, prayer is a sure fire way we can have revival. If we want to see more incredible miracles around us, prayer can be the game changer! Remember to continue to pray even if it seems like “it’s not working” don’t get discouraged and don’t give up. Prayer is not like flipping a light switch in most cases. Like Jesus said in Luke 18:1, we have to pray and not give up.

Make it Practical

Starting a national prayer chain is a huge task, luckily there are many things that we can do daily to maintain strong prayer lives. 

• Mark 1:35 & Luke 5:16 are practical ways Jesus made his time in prayer intimate. Jesus had a quiet, solitary place he went to pray. He felt that it was important to get away from the normal flow of life to have a good time in prayer. Where is your quiet place? Where is your solitary place? It is so easy to squeeze in a quick prayer on the way to work, or on the way to class, but prayer was the first thing Jesus did every day, and it should be the same for us.
• Make it a habit to call and pray with a different person in the church every couple days. This will help you feel connected with many different people in the church
• Get some solid quality time with God. Plan out a day, or at least a couple of hours, to do some special activities with God. Go on a nature prayer walk. Spend time reading large portions of the Bible. Revive your prayer life!!