[This reflection by Helen Ruffhead was published in the weekly news bulletin of Horley Baptist Church, 09/Nov/2025]
Fifty years ago I attended my first prayer meeting. At the time I was angry with God and hated to hear people praying, but some people from the Christian Union had befriended me on my first day at university. About 3 weeks into term, feeling lonely one evening I went to visit a friend, only to find her about to leave for the prayer meeting, so something made me decide to join her.
I can still remember that crowded student bedroom, with 23 of us squashed into a space just 15 feet by 9 feet. One student started praising God enthusiastically and as usual I felt: “Get me out of here, I can’t stand this”. I decided that as soon as a pause came, I would shock people with a brutally honest prayer: “Lord, when I hear people praising you, I feel like I want to be sick, but I don’t want to feel like this. Please help me.” By the time the pause came, however, I found that my unspoken prayer had already been answered as a great weight of hatred and bitterness had been lifted, so instead I prayed a rather incoherent prayer of thanks.
A few weeks later there was an even more amazing prayer meeting. I had gone there feeling quite low, but within minutes was caught up in an incredible atmosphere of worship. Two hours later we were still having a wonderful time when the Christian Union president came in and he told us that he felt an overwhelming sense of the presence of God the moment he entered that room.
Since those days I have attended hundreds of prayer meetings. Sadly, none has been as exciting as those at university, yet there is something very special about coming together to pray and meet with God.
How can we make prayer meetings more exciting? That is really the work of the Holy Spirit, but I think we can help. In the first place we need to be there, to have a desire to meet with God, an expectation that he will answer our prayers and a willingness to be totally honest with him and with each other. We also need to be united, with no secret grudges against each other or against God.
Jesus said: “Where 2 or 3 gather in my name, there I am with them.” Matthew 18 v20 [NIVUK]
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Last Sunday’s reflection: Invitation Is Scary, Isn’t It? by Dazz & HBC Team
Contributed by Helen Ruffhead; © Helen Ruffhead