Because bold, persistent prayer is effective. First it changes us. Then it changes the world. Jesus told stories to encourage us to "cry out day and night" (Lk 18) and to persist in prayer. Evidence of the instruction and power of persistent prayer is found throughout the Bible and Church history. Pentecost came to a prayer room. Paul urged the Thessalonians to "pray constantly." The early church "joined together constantly in prayer" (Acts 1-14). Celtic Monks at Bangor Abbey in Ireland prayed continually for 200 years. And in Clonmacnoise (near Dublin) God led a young guy by the name of Ciaran to start a monastery that prayed for the best part of 1000 years and sent missionaries all over the world!
In the 18th century, a small community of Moravians began a 24-7 prayer meeting that lasted for over a hundred years, mobilised 3000 missionaries and converted John Wesley! The place of prayer is not static. When the people of Jesus start loving God in a prayer room, they are propelled outwords to love others and bring the Gospel to the nations.
"I have posted watchmen on your walls O Jerusalem; They will never be silent day or night. You who call on the Lord give yourselves no rest, And give Him no rest until He establishes Jerusalem And makes her the praise of the earth," Isaiah 62:6+7
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