CPM Essentials - #1 Prayer

The first of the CPM Universal Elements is prayer. Prayer is a strange thing and I won't try to claim to understand it. How my prayers can affect the God of the Universe is beyond my understanding. The fact that prayer was found to be an universal element to CPM is not surprising. After all, what missionary would not pray for their work? Of course it was present in every case!! However, the fact that it is not surprising, does not mean that it is not important. If the very Son of God took time here on earth to pray, what makes us think we don't need to?


Several years ago, I was sitting in Thailand eating pineapple and speaking with a man who has dedicated the last 10 years of his life to reaching a people group located in the mountains of western China. There are no known Christians in this group, and nobody outside of the group speaks the language. It was and is a rough job!! He told me that he had recently met with several people who had been involved in a CPM. His main observation was interesting to me. He told me that the common component he observed was not in what each person did, but in the character each person had. He said that these people were all deeply committed to prayer, and that their relationship with God radiated from them. He was struck by the fact that not a single one of them was following a CPM formula; instead, they were following their God.

Prayer doesn't fit nicely into a formula for effectiveness, but it is likely the most important thing we do. Our relationship with God impacts our effectiveness! And prayer directly impacts our relationship with God. We must not forget this. Jesus tells a crazy parable to illustrate prayer - basically insinuating that you can annoy God with your persistence to the point that He gives you what you ask! (As an aside, James reminds us in another passage that we must ask with the correct motives for this to be true ... sorry their won't be a Mercedes for everyone.) Check out what Jesus says:


Luke 11: 5-10


5Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'
7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness[c] he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.