Praying and praying together
- Mike Rydman
- Jul 5, 2007
Praying and praying together
I've been thinking pondering the nature of prayer lately. We're commanded to pray, and by the urgings of the Holy Spirit, (Ephesians 6:18); the Lord Jesus gives us examples of His own prayer life (Matthew 29: 36ff.), and even tells us to "pray something along these lines..." (Matthew 6:9-15.)
Many of us were raised in families whose parents taught us to pray before meals, and before we turned off the light at the end of the night. We pray in church, we pray at weddings and memorial services, and in crises situations we may find ourselves praying more than usual.
We're pretty good at sharing "prayer requests" in our small groups. Across Christendom we've all become pretty well-versed in sharing requests that have to primarily with the health needs of people we love and/or our own needs for resource and direction in our respective lives.
We've perhaps run across a real "prayer warrior" or two in our travels and travails; the kind of person who through commitment and effort appears to be especially dialed into the power of prayer and the resultant responses of God. These people have almost always been used by God to encourage our hearts.
Some of us keep journals, records of our life's circumstances and our expressed dependency on God. For those of us who write in prayer journals each day, prayer is a personal and powerful element in our relationship with Jesus. It's also true, however, that most journal-keepers hope no one will have access to his or her journal...at least until the Lord has returned or called that journal-keeper home into His presence. In other words...we want our secrets revealed in prayer to remain there, away from the eyes and mouths of other people.
In recent years there has been a movement toward church-wide prayer initiatives. Both "Life LA" and David Bryant's "Concerts of Prayer" have been efforts to draw believers into corporate prayer experiences. I am also aware of several churches in the US and Canada who maintain 24-hour prayer vigils, with praying people serving in shifts like a relay team throughout each day and night.
There is something appealing about corporate prayer, almost like the concerted and coordinated prayer of several people has got to be worth more to God than the prayers of just on person. Something like, "more gasoline should result in more fire power." On the other hand, most if not all of us struggle with praying along side other people - maybe because prayer involves transparency and vulnerability, and we western world Christians struggle with anything that causes us to appear weak. Our culture tells us ‘we can be and do anything we set our minds to." Yet, as Christians we face internal conflict when our Bible's tell us that we are to go to God in prayer, and in so doing declare our ineptitude and absolute dependence on God, our Creator and Sustainer.
And you know what else? Prayer is hard work, and I, for one get tired easily.
There is a little story concerning the people of Israel I ran across again recently, found in Exodus 17, that perhaps sheds some light on "what to do when I get tired?"
8Then Amalek came and fought with Israel at Rephidim. 9So Moses said to Joshua, "Choose for us men, and go out and fight with Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in my hand." 10So Joshua did as Moses told him, and fought with Amalek, while Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. 11Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. 12But Moses' hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. 13And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. 14Then the LORD said to Moses, "Write this as a memorial in a book and recite it in the ears of Joshua, that I will utterly blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven." 15And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD is my banner, 16saying, "A hand upon the throne[a] of the LORD! The LORD will have war with Amalek from generation to generation."
The story tells its story well. Moses sent Joshua and the armies of the Israelites into the valley to fight the bigger and badder Amalekites, while Moses was to stand up on the hill and lift his hands in prayer for an unlikely victory. But as verse 12 tells us Moses grew tired in his efforts, so the guys around him found him a chair, and then Aaron and Hur took over the heavy lifting by keeping Moses' hands outstretched to God in prayer.
But for me, the curious little bit of this story is found in verse 16: "a hand upon the throne of the Lord." Literally, Moses was lifting his hands to the throne of God, beseeching God to give the Israelite fighting forces a victory they could not otherwise achieve. What we learn here, perhaps, is that we need more help than we want to admit when it comes to lifting our hands to God. We need help in prayer.
The Christian life was never intended to be lived in isolation from other Christians. There are too many "one another" passages in Scripture for any one of us could be compelled to enjoy our new life in Jesus apart from others doing the same. God created us, and recreated us as believers to live our lives in close communion with other people. Those of you in tribes (our church's name for small groups) already know the joys of intimacy and community we enjoy being a part of a group. It is in fellowship and community with other Jesus-followers where we can finally know what it feels like to get help lifting our hands up to the throne room of Almighty God.
But...praying with others in intimate community always requires vulnerability and transparency if our prayers are to amount to anything. Honest prayer requires integrity - an honesty that says" we're telling the truth about our needs, and what we're asking God to do." This kind of corporate prayer dependence ultimately forces us beyond being content to simply pray for other people's health issues, and our own money and career concerns. This kind of prayer forces us to let God's people see a little more of what our God already sees fully in us.
I am compelled to become more consistent in repealing a lame prayer life that involves me rushing into the throne room of God to bring Him my latest shopping list of wants. Instead, I think we're called to approach the throne of our God in humility, quickly and completely stating our dependence on Him for all things - including the desire and endurance to pray. And...to be willing to do it together with people who may have stronger arms than I may have at that moment.
If prayer is really intended to conform our hearts to the heart of God, I pray He would do just that, and that He would do it in close proximity to you all.
-Pastor Mike