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The Book of Acts By Emily Woodard, WM Spiritual Life Chairman M


any women in our denomination will spend part or all of the year 2021 studying the book of Acts in line with the ARP Women’s Ministry’s annual study. One of the many reasons a study in Acts can be helpful to us is that we can benefit greatly from the observation of the priorities and practices


of the early church. One practice that comes up early in the book is the devotion of the church to prayer. After Jesus’ ascension, Luke tells us that the apostles, along with the women and members of Jesus’ family, were “devoting themselves to prayer” (1:14). And in chapter 2, after a report on the exponential growth taking place in the church, we read of devotion to “the apostles’ teaching… the breaking of bread and the prayers” (2:42). But Luke doesn’t just tell us that the people were devoted to prayer, he shows us exactly what it looked like. A study through the whole of the book provides examples of this commitment to prayer acted upon in many and various situations.


Devotion to Prayer One rather obvious outflow of a devotion to prayer is that it was part of the regular rhythm of a day for first


century believers. We read often in Acts of the early Christians continuing the Jewish practice of prayer at cer- tain times of the day. (Remember Daniel? See Daniel 6:10, and also David in Psalm 55:17.) “Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour” when they met the man lame from birth whom Peter healed (3:1). Later we read of Peter going up on a housetop “about the sixth hour to pray” (10:9). Inter- estingly, we also have an example of a Gentile God-fearer following this pattern. Cornelius, a centurion, tells Peter of the vision he received while praying at the ninth hour (10:30). The idea of regular, scheduled, hours of prayer is foreign to us and our modern cultures and calendars. But if you have ever desired to make prayer a bigger part of your life, have you considered scheduling it? Perhaps you can think through your daily routine


20 The Associate Reformed Presbyterian


Prayer Emphasis


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