Day #11: “Praying Together” (MK)
Yesterday, Joe ended the devotional with an analogy that explored the spiritual stability that comes from praying together. Four “boys in the boat” is less likely to tip. In the Scripture reading below, we see that Jesus attached great power to unified prayer. In other words, the boys in the boat are not only more stable, but they have harnessed a far greater power through their combined activity. The analogy continues…
Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.”
There are particular promises given for prayers said in a group. Of course, we can pray on our own and we believe God will hear those prayers. But, there is a particular emphasis in the Bible, particularly in the New Testament, about the connection between spiritual power and Christian unity. Previously, we have talked about the practical concerns of praying together and intentionality in asking for others to pray together. Today, we want to think a little more about the theology beneath corporate prayer.*
In the Scripture for today, Jesus attaches a powerful promise to prayers which “two people on earth agree on.” He then attaches the reason for that promise. Jesus dwells in the midst of his people, in the power of the Holy Spirit. Again, we want to recognize that we can have fellowship with Jesus on our own. But New Testament spirituality places great emphasis on presence of the Holy Spirit among a plurality of believers. Why is this the case?
The first reason relates to God, himself. In the beginning of the Bible, Adam is told that it is not good for man to be alone. We are made for relationship. There seems to be a logical connection in the opening chapters of Genesis between our need for relationship and the character of God. Humans are made in God’s image. That is, we are made to represent God to the rest of his creation. But God is relational within himself. From all of eternity, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit have lived in perfect loving harmony. Because God is eternally triune, it is possible to say that God is love. God did not become loving after he created lovable stuff. He has always been loving, because he is relational within himself – within the Trinity. Jesus opened a window into this reality when he said that the Father had loved from before the creation of the world (John 17:24.) Yesterday, we talked about praying with the grain, when we prayed in a Trinitarian way. Another way to “pray with the grain” is to agree with others in prayer, so that we reflect the relational character of God.
A second reason that agreeing in prayer is important is that it is hard. It is not easy to agree with people on things. It takes lots of work, talking… and listening. It requires humility for us to open ourselves up to others and reveal our need for prayer. It is also humbling to set aside our agenda and listen while others explain what they want to pray for. I think you can see that all of this is really good for our spirituality. The humility of admitting we need prayer puts us in a really good position to appeal to God’s mercy (James 4:6-10.) The patience of bearing with others in their requests cultivates love. The actions of meeting together, communicating with each other, and seeking to agree in prayer can be used by God to remind us that we are finite creatures in need of big mercy from our Creator.
How can you make the time and create the space so that you can pray with others?
What are things that you need to humble yourself and ask for prayer about?
What are the needs of people around you that you can agree with and lift up to the Lord?
*”Corporate” means “body.” Christians use the word to describe the things that they do together, because the gathered church is the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12.) We may talk about “corporate worship” or “corporate prayer.” Neither of these things are related to other modern uses of the term corporate which are related to the business world. (The background connection is that “corporate” in a business sense is a business that is given legal rights to act as a person in certain areas. For example, a corporation can own things or purchase insurance. City Reformed is a non-profit corporation which does both of those things with the full recognition of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.)