Today’s post is part of a series entitled “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Evangelists” by Ministry Council member Rob Wolgemuth. Read the introduction here, Habit #1 here, and Habit #2 here.

Habit #3: Don’t make prayer a priority, make it THE priority:

Both Whitefield and Moody had set times of prayer every day. Neither left prayer to chance but were intentional and disciplined in setting the time aside. Whitefield would pray one to two hours in the morning (pg. 81), oftentimes praying over God’s Word as he read (pg. 82). He would also devote an hour or two to prayer every evening (pg. 80), and pray regularly at noontime. Whitefield was so consistent in his prayer time that Dallimore mentions a time when Whitefield was annoyed with himself for once skipping his nightly prayer time (pg. 81). Whitefield not only practiced a disciplined prayer life, he believed in the power of prayer and how it was used sovereignly by God; moreover, he believed that “prayer was the predecessor to revival” (pg. 20). Torrey devotes an entire chapter to Moody’s prayer life in his biography (Chapter 2). In that chapter, Torrey says of Moody: “He knew and believed in the deepest depths of his soul that “nothing was too hard for the Lord… and that prayer could do anything that God could do.” He continues later in the same chapter, “(Moody) was a man who met every difficulty that stood in his way — by prayer. Everything he undertook was backed up by prayer, and in everything, his ultimate dependence was upon God.” More from Torrey; ”Yes, D. L. Moody certainly was a wonderful preacher; taking it all in all, the most wonderful preacher I have ever heard, and it was a great privilege to hear him preach as he alone could preach; but out of a very intimate acquaintance with him I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was preacher.” Torrey recounted a specific time he was with Moody when he prayed about a challenging situation: “Oh, I wish you could have heard that prayer! I shall never forget it, so simple, so trustful, so definite and so direct and so mighty.” (Chapter 2).  Join us tomorrow at God Centered Life to read the fourth habit, and over the coming week to find all seven. You can sign up here to receive email notifications when new posts are published. ]]>