Most of what I've written on this site about personal prayer has been applicable to corporate prayer, but I've assumed that we need a healthy personal prayer life before we can pray effectively with others. Yet the reverse is also true. If we're not spending time praying with other Christians, our own prayer life is likely to suffer.
Praying with other Christians, whether in twos and threes or with a larger group, has many benefits. I've already mentioned one - it helps us to be disciplined in prayer. It would be sad if the only time we prayed was when we were together with other people, but being in a group does mean that we have a commitment to pray for which we are accountable to others.
Praying with others helps to move our focus away from our own needs and onto a wider perspective. It will depend on the size and nature of the group whether that means praying for local issues or the work of God worldwide. It can be helpful to pray with groups of different sizes - a prayer triplet with a couple of close friends, and the church prayer group, for instance.
In corporate prayer, we learn more about how to pray from others. I was intending to write "younger Christians learn from more mature Christians" but the reverse is just as true. None of us knows everything there is to know about prayer. We can observe and learn much about styles of praying from those who are from a different background or temperment from ourselves. We can also learn about how others deal with problems in prayer, such as prayers that seem to go unanswered.
Praying together helps to create and preserve unity amongst people. One of Satan's purposes is to divide and destroy the church. When we pray together, agreeing on what we pray in the name of Jesus, we thwart his purposes. It may take quite an effort to find this unity. Prayer groups aren't always harmonious. But the necessity of coming to agreement on what to pray can help to overcome other differences.
We tend instinctively to ask others to pray with us when we have some urgent need - a critical illness, for instance, or an important up-coming event. Perhaps sometimes this is motivated by the (wrong) idea that God will be moved by numbers. God can hear and answer the prayer of just one person. But the unity created by many people praying in Jesus' name for the same thing is important.
When we pray together, we are able to remind each other of answered prayers. We can share our hopes and longings, our disappointments and difficulties in prayer. Other people's prayers may become the vehicle for God speaking to us about something we need to hear.
When we're struggling to pray, just being with others praying can help to keep us faithful, even if we don't add our own prayers to theirs. For those who are isolated by geography, ill health or imprisonment, knowing that others are meeting together to pray for them is a great encouragement.
Showing posts with label corporate prayer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label corporate prayer. Show all posts
26 July 2009
9 June 2009
More thoughts on praying in Jesus' name
Tagging a prayer with "in Jesus' name, Amen" is meaningless if we aren't praying "in Jesus name" in practice. And if we are praying in Jesus' name in practice, then (I assume) the words themselves are not really necessary.
But we need to be aware that adding "in Jesus name" to our public prayers is a powerful statement of what we believe and who we are. A prayer addressed simply to "God" will be acceptable to many, both from traditional religions and those with more new age ideas of spirituality. Even praying to "Our heavenly father" will be acceptable to some outside Christian circles.
When we add "in Jesus' name" to our prayers, however, we are effectively declaring our faith in Jesus as the only way to God. We are no longer praying to a generic God, but to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That will be deeply offensive to some. It has sometimes been deemed unacceptable to use this phrase in a multicultural setting. In 2005, for instance, a chaplain in the US navy was dismissed for (amongst other things) repeatedly using "in the name of Jesus" in public services where people of other faiths were present.
Whether or not we choose to use the words in our public prayers depends on what our purpose is. There will be times when not causing offence will be important in reaching others with the gospel, and other times when we need to declare our faith against all opposition. Either way, our prayers will still be "in Jesus name" if we are praying to God's glory.
But we need to be aware that adding "in Jesus name" to our public prayers is a powerful statement of what we believe and who we are. A prayer addressed simply to "God" will be acceptable to many, both from traditional religions and those with more new age ideas of spirituality. Even praying to "Our heavenly father" will be acceptable to some outside Christian circles.
When we add "in Jesus' name" to our prayers, however, we are effectively declaring our faith in Jesus as the only way to God. We are no longer praying to a generic God, but to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That will be deeply offensive to some. It has sometimes been deemed unacceptable to use this phrase in a multicultural setting. In 2005, for instance, a chaplain in the US navy was dismissed for (amongst other things) repeatedly using "in the name of Jesus" in public services where people of other faiths were present.
Whether or not we choose to use the words in our public prayers depends on what our purpose is. There will be times when not causing offence will be important in reaching others with the gospel, and other times when we need to declare our faith against all opposition. Either way, our prayers will still be "in Jesus name" if we are praying to God's glory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)