Concert of Prayer

Today in Ballantyne Presbyterian Church we are celebrating a concert of prayer; it is a 24 hour prayer vigil. There is a long history in the Protestant Church of this type of extraordinary time or prayer. In 1748, Jonathan Edwards wrote a piece titled An Humble Attempt to Promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in Extraordinary Prayer, for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of Christ's Kingdom on Earth. The second part of the treatise gives a number of reasons for participation in the concert of prayer. Edwards says,

"The sum of the blessings Christ has sought by what He did and suffered in the work of redemption, was the Holy Spirit . . . The Holy Spirit, in His indwelling, his influences and fruits, is the sum of all grace, holiness, comfort and joy, or in one word, of all the Spiritual good Christ purchased for men in this world: and is also the sum of all perfection, glory and joy, that He purchased for them in another world . . . Now therefore, if this is what Jesus Christ, our great Redeemer and head of the church, did so much desire, and set his heart upon, from all eternity, and for which he suffered so much, offering up strong crying and tears (Hebrews 5:7), and his precious blood, to obtain it; surely his disciples and members should earnestly seek it, and be in much prayer for it."