In February of 1989, I went to the first four-day Pastor’s Prayer Summit held at Cannon Beach. The event produced a huge life change in me regarding my prayer life, but equally impactful at that time were the ten books I read in the next six months of my life on prayer. The Biography of George Mueller was the first, “Why Revival Tarries” by Leanord Ravenhill, the biography of John Knox, Charles Spurgeon on Prayer, the biography of David Brainard, and five books on prayer by EM Bounds. The bottom line in those books was that a pastor who didn’t pray for his church people at least three hours a day was a hireling. The main point of all of those books was that the weakness in most pastors’ prayer life was simply time. God wants our time, and if we don’t give Him much time, we won’t experience much blessing. Out of that came my life and church motto, “Much Prayer = Much Blessing. Little Prayer = Little Blessing. No Prayer = No Blessing. I was into convenient prayer, comfortable prayer, quick prayer, on-the-fly prayer, and a little prayer, and the number of blessings I was receiving from God was in line with what I was giving Him.
My life has changed a bunch since that first prayer summit and God has blessed our church and my life as a result. JBC is halfway through our winter “Five Days of Prayer” for our Missions ministry. I am praying seven of the ten hours each day. I used to pray ten hours daily, but I am getting wimpy in my old age. Even the six to seven hours now takes a lot of positive self-talk to accomplish. The key requirement is faith in the power of prayer and a powerful desire to see God work and lives changed.