“I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people… This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:1, 3).
Prayer is our relational speaking to God. There is a sense in which all our worship is prayer. Our liturgy is punctuated throughout by various kinds of spoken, sung, and silent prayers: invocation, confession, supplication, intercession, illumination, sanctification, thanksgiving, adoration, devotion. “Christian prayer [is] a subset of Christian communion with God” (Fred Sanders).
In fact, there is a sense in which all of life is meant to be prayer. “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). Prayer is a way to bring our experience of the world into our relationship with God through Jesus. We do this together in our corporate prayers during worship, which is a good way to learn to live a life of prayer.
We must learn to pray just as we learn other speech—from someone else. We learn prayer from God himself. Prayer is—first, essentially, and eternally—an activity of the Triune God; the Son speaks to the Father in the Spirit. When the Son became incarnate, divine speech became human. The Gospels portray Jesus as being in constant contact with the Father, and we have a record of several of his prayers. As our High Priest in heaven he continues to pray for us (Hebrews 7:24-25). The Holy Spirit also prays on our behalf (Romans 8:26). God wants us to pray, because he lives a life of prayer and wants to share his own life with us.
So Jesus teaches his disciples to pray, and invites us to join him in his prayer (Matthew 6:5-15), a relational prayer addressing his Father as our Father. Our corporate prayers are shaped by the Lord’s Prayer, by the Psalms (sometimes called “the prayer book of the Bible”), by the prayers of the apostles (e.g., Ephesians 1:15-23; 3:14-21), and by many other prayers recorded in the Scriptures. It is appropriate for an elder to lead the people in prayer, to reflect the leadership of Jesus who teaches us to pray. When we pray corporately we participate in the life of Christ together.
Prayer in the name of Christ isn’t just “asking God for stuff.” It is living all of life with God, rather than apart from him. It is a way to bring everything going on inside us, in our hearts and minds, to God. It is a way to wrestle with him by faith. It is a way to ask him hard questions. It is a way to seek to articulate our dependence on him and our delight in him. It is a way to hear the care of others in their prayers for us. In prayer, we engage in a God-centered, spiritual relationship. And one of the main things we ask for when we pray, whether for ourselves or for others, is that we would grow in our capacity to engage God in this relationship. We pray for God to save us from a life apart from him, and for a life of deeper prayer in Christ. We pray for God to save all kinds of people for this relationship. We pray for the reconciliation of all people to God and to each other in Christ. So our prayers are a reflection of the love of Christ—love is the driving motivation, love is the goal, love is the divine context for our prayers.
What makes prayer in the name of Christ different from other prayers? What makes corporate prayer in Christian worship different from other prayers? Why do you pray? What has motivated you to pray at various times? What seems good about prayer to you? What seems difficult about prayer to you? In what ways have you learned how to pray throughout life by praying together with God’s people in church? What prayers from the Bible are you most familiar with? Can you think of prayers from the Bible to help you pray when you are sad, confused, angry, afraid, or anxious? Should you pray when you are upset with God? Why or why not? What prayer(s) do you most often pray? Do you pray for the salvation of all kinds of people, or are there certain people you would never pray for? Do you pray for particular people to come to know Christ, or to grow in their relationship with God in Christ?
