Prayer in Wessex
It has always been difficult to give a brief summary of the Wessex Conference and this year is no different – two good preachers, a record attendance and a subject ‘Prayer’, which may seem straightforward and yet has such depths. I urge those interested to download the messages from www.springroad.org.uk/sermons.php
David Kay spoke in the afternoon on ‘Christ and his people – earnest in prayer’. Starting with Ephesians 6:18, ‘praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit…’, he warned against complacency in prayer and failing to practise what we believe.
He went on to expound what prayer is, what it means to pray, and what prayer’s blessings are. Prayer at its height expresses the loving relationship between the believer and his God. We see this in the case of Christ, who having taken human nature, yet still as God, showed his dependency on the Father in prayer.
The evening paper by Dr Robert Oliver was on ‘The local church – zealous for prayer; with particular reference to Jonathan Edward’s Call to prayer’. He described how eighteenth-century churches on both sides of the Atlantic were stirred up to persistent prayer for God’s blessing. Edwards’ Call influenced Baptists in England. Monthly prayer meetings were established to plead for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This resulted in the great missionary movement that included William Carey going to India.
The Lord used the fellowship and prayers of his people in America, Scotland and England to further Christ’s kingdom. God’s response to prayer then serves as a great encouragement to prayer today.
Roger Lye
