The women and men who have been part of Mother Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity, have found their work sustainable across the years because each of them keeps a rhythm of daily prayer. Even amidst the sounds of desperate people, blaring horns, cars, and people selling their wares, they gather for regular times each day to still their body, mind, and spirit before the Lord in prayer. Those in the Missionaries of Charity pray six hours a day and work five hours a day. They also have a regular rhythm of rest: one day a week; one week a month; one month per year; one year in every six.
If this was true of Jesus, how much more do we need to experience the love of God through refreshing times of prayer and worship as the source of service for him and others?Years ago, a friend of mine visited Mother Teresa in Calcutta and asked her, “With all the staggering needs in the world, how do you keep going?” She replied, “We pray the work: we do our work with Jesus, for Jesus, and to Jesus.” Mother Teresa knew that her labor on behalf of the poor was more than anything else an expression of her devotion to Christ. Beyond our tangible efforts for justice in the world today, our prayers for shalom, our rhythms of enjoying time with God, and rest are a central part of our calling.
Prayer Is a Work
We need to change the way we think about prayer. Prayer is more than just the preparation for our service, or a turbocharger that gives the “real work” of ministry more power. In a very real way, prayer is a work itself—it is the work of ministry. Prayer is a powerful force in shaping the world. When we pray, we resist the spiritual forces of evil that blind people. This is why the apostle Paul wrote that “our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places,” calling us “to pray in the Spirit at all times” (Eph. 6:12,18). While unseen and usually unnoticed in Western contexts, cosmic forces of darkness are real and we dare not engage them with the frailties of our flesh alone, but with the all-powerful weapons of God (2 Cor. 10:4).
Prayer is a powerful force in shaping the world. When we pray, we resist the spiritual forces of evil that blind people.When he served as a leader of the anti-human trafficking nonprofit International Justice Mission (IJM), Sean Litton would tell the story of a young woman who had lived in a brothel in northern Thailand. Lured by the promise of a good job, Elizabeth (not her real name) had been tricked into going to Thailand, and then forced to work in a brothel. Members of IJM had been praying that God would intervene to remove barriers so they could offer assistance and aid to the girls who had been trafficked. In answer to prayer, they were able to cooperate with some local law enforcement officials (a miracle in itself), leading to the rescue of Elizabeth.
After the rescue, they discovered small script scratched on the wall of the tiny room where Elizabeth had been locked up inside the brothel. Sean asked a co-worker to translate the characters into English. They read:
The Lord is my light and my salvation—
so why should I be afraid?
The Lord is my fortress, protecting me from danger,
so why should I tremble?
When evil people come to devour me,
when my enemies and foes attack me,
they will stumble and fall.
Though a mighty army surrounds me,
my heart will not be afraid.
Even if I am attacked,
I will remain confident.
The team learned that Elizabeth was a Christ-follower with a heart to serve God. She had written those words on the wall of her room as a visible reminder of her daily prayer for God to rescue her from the brothel.
Sean heard these words and realized that, out of all the girls trafficked into Thailand, he and his team had rescued the one who was specifically praying to God for deliverance. Overcome by the mercy and kindness of God, Sean broke down and wept. In spite of all the challenges they had faced, the barriers and the complexity of working with the local officials, God had guided them to Elizabeth—a clear answer to their prayers and hers. In prayer we rise against the order of this age and join the transformation of the kingdom of this broken world to the kingdom of our Lord
In mysterious ways that we don’t fully understand or typically perceive with our eyes, God uses our prayers to heal and transform the world. Prayer is an act of reverence, but, as theologian Karl Barth noted, it is also an act of defiance against the way things are. In prayer we rise against the order of this age and join the transformation of the kingdom of this broken world to the kingdom of our Lord (Revelation 11:15).
As we receive God’s love and power through prayer, we become contemplative activists who engage in the glorious work of bringing our divided world into harmony with Christ (Col. 1:20).
Adapted from God in My Everything by Ken Shigematsu