The Focus: Pray for unity in church

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“They all joined together constantly in prayer…” – Acts: 1:14

Could there have been a more unified group than the disciples after Jesus’ ascension? (Acts 1:6-11)

Before the coming of the Holy Spirit, they were pretty much a rag-tag bunch. Most of them really had no clue what Jesus was up to and they spent a great deal of time squabbling among themselves.

In the Gospels (New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John), we catch a glimpse of tiffs and even jealousy among them. But then, that all changes in the book of Acts – the tiffs and jealousy are gone! They present a strong, cohesive, unified front to new converts, to dissenters, and to their opposition. No doubt, the presence of the Holy Spirit had a lot to do with this change! But, there’s no escaping the fact that ‘prayer’ was a factor too.

Do you recall Jesus’ prayer in John 17 … just before His death? His overriding request was that the church would be ‘one,’ And it must be more than a coincidence that in this record of the early church, in the very first chapter, we are told that they ‘joined together constantly in prayer.’ Praying together, even if you’re not praying for unity, can’t help but create unity!

Have you ever tried praying with someone you’re mad at? It’s almost impossible! Either you’ll get over the anger first, or you’ll be finished with the anger by the time you’re done praying.

Coming before Him jointly unites us in our common love for Him … making all other issues fade in their significance.

Why don’t you spend some time this week praying for ‘unity’ in His ‘Church’ … and let’s work to be a unified, strong, cohesive body of Believers!

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By Dennis Wheeler

Dennis Wheeler is a volunteer citizen columnist, who serves The Daily Advocate readers weekly with his weekly column The Focus. Viewpoints expressed in the article are the work of the author. The Daily Advocate does not endorse these viewpoints or the independent activities of the author.

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