A year of prayer….. Now what?

Lucy Hill – 24-7 Prayer Ireland 

Despite 25 years of night and day prayer when we set out to fill a whole year with prayer across Ireland we still wondered if it would be possible! But 11256 hours of prayer later (and that’s just the ones we know about) tells a different story. At the start of this year someone prayed that the year of prayer would be a joy not a chore and that’s what it’s been – not just because we’ve had over 200 prayer rooms, North and South, across nearly every denomination but because of the stories of encounter, hunger, transformation that have come out of it -it’s the stories of how once again something is being catalysed in prayer across this island! 

We’ve heard of men’s groups moving into the prayer room, children taking slots and learning to pray, an elderly woman who missed her hair appointment getting lost in an hour of prayer in the prayer room. Even more than that the overflow of prayer leading to a growing call to unity and the realisation that we need to do this together as the church in Ireland. Perhaps what’s even more exciting are the stories of churches saying this doesn’t just belong in our churches for us, we want to move these spaces out into the community, into our schools. Prayer is the invitation in a noisy and anxious but spiritually curious world, it is the invitation to come and encounter God’s presence! Steph McAlinden wrote a reflection earlier this year asking what revival would look like in Ireland and she used the phrase, ‘little fires everywhere’. That’s what we are longing to see; little fires of his presence all across our nation. 

So why stop now? What if we just kept going, night and day, seeking God for the next great awakening in Ireland? After 25 years our vision is still to revive the church and rewire the culture through night and day prayer, for what God would do in this little island not just for ourselves but for the nations. Sometimes when we take stock of what has happened with 24-7 Prayer here in Ireland it can be really hard to measure. Perhaps we’ll never know what wouldn’t have happened had we not prayed!! The question I’ve been asking the past couple of months has been;  ‘I wonder with nearly 25 years behind us, what does a soil absolutely saturated in prayer have the potential to produce?’ 

I’ve been reflecting on James 5: 17-18 where it tells us that Elijah prayed for no rain for three years and there was no rain and then he prayed for rain and the rain came and the crops grew. As someone pointed out to me, for crops to grow there had to be seeds in the ground!  This is what I believe it’s been happening for the last 25 years. Through the faithfulness of those who have prayed seeds have been sown into the soil even when the ground has been dry and hard and now is the season to pray for the rain to come. When the rain comes crops will grow because of the seeds that have been planted for the last 25 years. This is the beauty of prayer: not only do we partner with God but we partner with the prayers that have gone before us and there is a legacy of prayer that lies in the soil of this nation. So what does a soil absolutely saturated in prayer have the potential to produce? 

We do sense that the church is being called to unprecedented levels of prayer and we’d love to help you dream and imagine what this looks like for your community. 

In 2025, 24-7 Prayer Ireland is calling individuals, communities, and churches across the nation to put their feet in the places where they want to see the Kingdom come, carrying the presence of God into the world. What approach to prayer in 2025 might God be inviting you into that fits in your context? Some may incorporate expressions of mission and justice: pop up prayer rooms in your community, prayer walking your local town, prayer spaces in schools or partnering with other churches to pray together. Perhaps God is inviting you to a sustained rhythm of prayer throughout this year. Whatever the approach, these outward prayers will guide us in showing love and compassion to our neighbours. 

“History belongs to the intercessors, those who believe and pray the future into being.”  Walter Wink

Come on….let’s keep going on in prayer.