what is most important?

What is the most important activity that we are called to? Is it evangelism (God wants all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth)? Is it receiving sound teaching (The letters to Timothy and Titus show how necessary this is)? What about worship (God is seeking worshippers according to John 4:23)? Pastoral support (We are called to share each others’ burdens)?

Anyone attending a new church should be able to work out what the priority is after a month or so. Would they come to the right answer - the one revealed in 1 Timothy 2:1?

It is unlikely. Sadly prayer is probably the most neglected activity. At this point the most unhelpful thing I could do is to start challenging us. The more helpful thing would be to consider why we all struggle with prayer. Paul admitted that he struggled too but elsewhere states that he prayed in unknown languages more than anyone. This gift certainly helps in private prayer.

There are many reasons why we do not give priority to prayer. One of the most likely is that we do not expect God to change anything. We may have had some disappointments in the past where we prayed (and even fasted) and nothing changed. Some of us have prayed for people who had a serious illness who subsequently died. Maybe we have prayed for someone to become a Christian and they never did. This has left us with wounded faith.

God answers some prayers quickly (have you heard that the Family Sex Show will not now be taking place in Bristol!) Other prayers require us to ask and keep on asking. Prayer is not appealing to the ‘Instant-Coffee-Generation’, which is most of us. Yet it has more in common with gardening than coffee-making. A gardener sows their seeds, waters them, checks on them, and waits. Eventually they will have a plant or flowers.

Galatians 6:9 says: ‘let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up’.