Gameday Prayer

The Progression of Prayer – Part 1

The Sport of Prayer – Part 3.1

Gameday, as I mentioned previously, is like our Sunday in-service prayer moments. This is prayer in an environment with a number of others who are next-level pray-ers. To participate on gameday, one should desire to be ready to play and play at their best. Every player would like to make it to gameday and participate in the game. Everyone has a part to play and everyone is needed on the team. That reminds me that later on I will have to assign positions on the team. So how can I get myself ready for gameday prayer?

“They all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.” ^[1]

Gameday Prayer is Interactive.
In the sport of prayer, gameday is interactive. That simply means you’ll have to interact with other players (pray-ers) who are in the game. For a team to be successful, you’ll need different people to play different positions. Like in football, everyone can’t play the quarterback position and expect to win the game. In game day prayer, we need all the gifts and God-given talents present in order to be successful. Don’t hear what I’m not saying. Remember a little prayer goes a long way. However, what happens when each pray-er is prepared, ready, and comfortable enough to use their talent, skills, and gifts in prayer? We take pray-er and in this case gameday prayer to the next level.

Gameday Prayer has a leader or a guide.
Just like in any sport, the team has a leader, a coach. We all need a leader if we’re going to work together to accomplish a singular focus like winning the game. In gameday prayer or prayer with others, someone has to know what it is we need to accomplish and point the team in the right direction to accomplish it. Otherwise, the team’s players will go in their own differing directions. The goal of a team is to go in the same direction.

At first, when we began writing this and thinking about what happened in “the upper room” on what we know as the day of Pentecost, I thought this group simply found themselves in prayer without any leader or coach, so to speak. Until I took a step back and read how the gathering happened. It starts out with these words, “When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together…” ^[2] Then I asked myself this question, who were they? They were the original 11 disciples, the 2 candidates to replace Judas, Mary the mother of Jesus, Jesus’ brother, the unnamed women, and roughly a group of 120 people, led by Peter. ^[3] Peter was the coach or leader in this group of pray-ers on gameday and when they gathered they had an objective. In one instance, it was spelled out that the gameday objective was to choose a replacement on the coaching staff that was vacated by Judas. ^[4] Praying together is necessary to accomplish the objective. This is next level prayer!

Gameday Prayer requires knowledge of the game, players in position, and the game strategy.
As members on a team, each player (pray-er) must be ready to play. Team members must be ready for the game strategy and the play calls. Therefore, each player must: 1) know how to play the game, 2) know their position to play, and 3) follow the directives of the coach. However, before a player (pray-er) is ready, they have work that must be done which I will discuss in detail a little later. A player must participate in scrimmages, practice the game specifically his /her part, and 3) workout daily, if they’re going to be successful. With these three components a player is then ready to take the field on gameday.

Gameday is the goal for all the preparation that comes from being a player. The players look forward to gameday. The same can be said in prayer. Pray-ers look forward to taking the field of prayer with other pray-ers. It’s what they’ve been preparing for. It’s why they’ve put in the work. Gameday or praying with others can be something we look forward to when all of these elements are in place: a coach (direction) and team members who have prepared. This is how we do next-level prayer.

Question: what other parallels can you think of when comparing prayer to gameday?

Reference #1: ‭‭Acts of the Apostles‬ ‭1:14‬ ‭NLT, Bible.com, accessed February 23, 2022, https://www.bible.com/116/act.1.14.nlt

Reference #2: Acts 2:1 NIV, Bible.com, accessed February 23, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.2.1.NIV

Reference #3: Acts 1:12-15 NIV, Bible.com, accessed February 23, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.1.12-15.NIV

Reference #4: Acts 1:21-25 NIV, Bible.com, accessed February 23, 2022, https://www.bible.com/bible/111/ACT.1.21-25.NIV

All Scripture references used by permission, see our Scripture copyrights.