Use Prayer More

This is our Sunday teaching by our Senior Pastor, Tom Thompson. Recorded live at our Sunday Service in Harris Academy Purley, Croydon on Sunday 30th August, 2026, at the start of our week of Contending For Awakening.

Talk Summary - Use Prayer More

There’s a moment in one of Jesus’ stories when a man finds himself standing in his kitchen at midnight with a problem.

A friend has arrived unexpectedly and needs feeding. Hospitality matters. Looking after him is the right thing to do. There’s just one problem:

There’s no bread in the cupboard.

So he goes down the road, bangs on another friend’s door and asks for help. And when the answer isn’t immediately forthcoming, he keeps knocking.

Jesus calls it “shameless audacity.”

It’s a picture of prayer — but also a picture of the life of a disciple.

God calls us towards people and situations that are beyond our own resources. A colleague needs hope. A friend needs healing. Someone needs practical help. Our community needs transformation. We sense God inviting us to step forward — and then look in the cupboard and realise:

I haven’t got what it takes.

Our temptation is often to solve that problem by shrinking the calling.

Perhaps we decide we’re too busy. Too tired. Not gifted enough. We lower our expectations until what God is asking fits comfortably inside the resources we already have.

Jesus offers another option.

Use prayer more.

The gap between God’s calling and our capacity isn’t necessarily a mistake. It can become the place where we learn dependence.

Prayer says: God, I’ve said yes to this — now I need you to provide what I don’t have.

Wisdom. Energy. Money. Courage. Opportunity. Healing. People. Whatever the “bread” is, Jesus encourages us to ask, seek and knock.

And then keep asking.

That doesn’t make prayer a vending machine. Many of us carry the disappointment of prayers that haven’t been answered in the way we hoped. Jesus doesn’t ignore that mystery.

But he still looks his disciples in the eye and says: ask.

So what is the gap in your life right now?

What has God put in front of you that feels larger than your current capacity?

Perhaps instead of making the calling smaller, this is the week to make the prayer bigger.

Choose something specific. Give it time. Keep knocking.

There is something wonderfully freeing about living where, unless God provides the bread, it simply isn’t going to work.

That’s exactly where disciples are supposed to be.