The Hour of Prayer

The Hour of Prayer

Fanny Cosby left us an undying evergreen hymn which always resonates an awakening clause to the soul - “O the pure delight of a single hour that before thy throne I spend, when I kneel in prayer… I commune as friend with friend’’

This hymn describes the prayer routine cultivated by the early church which was a way of making prayers ‘’the key of the day and the lock of the night’’ (George Herbert). Outstandingly, many orthodox churches around the world have sustained this routine of set hours of prayer but not a lot of this practice can be found in more recent church plants and denominations.

The ever-potent admonition of 1 Thessalonians 5:17 - “Pray without ceasing” means we are to pray nonstop; and by extension means to pray in season and out of season.

What then happened to the season of prayers observed in the early days after Pentecost?

We are told the Apostles cultivated a routine called ‘the hour of prayer’. The exact timing of these hours of prayer is not always mentioned but the resultant effects of this habit is abundantly evident in scriptures.

One example is listed in Acts 3 which paints the vivid picture of a certain man who was at a gate called Beautiful at ‘The hour of prayer’ which in this case was 3pm. It was at this time that “his ankle bones received strength” and before the end of the hour he could be seen “walking, and leaping, and praising God."

We can deductively but delicately conclude that the 3pm prayer watch is for dealing with lameness. Perhaps if we utilized this hour of prayer, we could soon bid goodbye to all the ‘lameness’ lurking in and around our health, finances, marriages etc.

We have been instructed to pray without ceasing but not to ditch the hours of prayer

We find another prayer watch at 12am in Acts 16:25. Two imprisoned gentlemen “sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them.’’ This hour produced a sudden drama of earthquake and commotion, because ‘’then, without warning, a huge earthquake! The jailhouse tottered, every door flew open, all the prisoners were loose.’’ It is interesting to read further that ‘’Startled from sleep, the jailer saw all the doors swinging loose on their hinges”. I am tempted to conclude that the 12am prayer watch specialises in creating a dramatic intervention of the supernatural. Might it be that if we prayed at the same hour, we can experience a dramatic intervention in circumstances that seem to chain and tie us down in everyday life? This may well be the remedy for those jailed and imprisoned with evil and unstoppable habits and vices of smoking, binge eating, pornography, homosexuality, gambling, sexual perversion and allied situations that seem to imprison men and women in our contemporary time.

For brevity of page we cannot consider other interesting accounts of the results of ‘the hour of prayer’ but we must realise that this phenomenon is still very important, so much so that a certain other religion has adopted and adapted their own version of the liturgy of the hours and prays 5 times a day as a

matter of necessity. As Christians we must not take these practices for granted or look at them as outdated religious practices. Whilst we can pray at any and all times, there are specific watches of the day that we should stop and pray, and we will see miraculous manifestations.

Christian theology also let us know that the early Christians and even Jesus Christ prayed around these specific times - 12am (Acts 16:25), 3am (Acts 3:1), 6am (Mark 6:48-50), 9am(Acts 2:15), 12pm (Acts 10:9), 3pm(Acts 10:30) and 6pm (Matthew 14:23), 9pm (Luke 12:7-38) David also told us that he prayed seven times a day (Psalm 119:164)

No wonder Jesus said, “My house was designated a house of prayer” (Mark 11:17) The church is not meant to be a rentable hall for events, conferences and parties as is now modern practice. We are too busy to pray and have now put our prayer rooms out on sale.

What a beauty it will be if the liturgy of the hours can return to our homes, churches and businesses; just like the days of Pentecost, we might be welcoming a new revival in the land.

Oladoke Oke

oladoke.oke@gmail.com