Praying Together
Our Lord meets us richly in our times with him—why pray together? Is that so important? The cruciality of praying together stems from the nature of the very gospel news of Jesus’s heart for unity, from our union with Christ forming his body, and our salvation as a people.
“Salvation is a communal reality whereby sinners are joined to Christ and to one another, entering the saving reality of Christ’s body” (Marcus Peter Johnson, One with Christ)
Jesus’s Heart & the Gospel: Jesus’s prayer right before the cross was “that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (John 17:22b-23a, ESV). That was his heart! It was his life and death both to unite us to God. Praying together is visibly living out the unifying nature of our Lord and gospel.
In prayer, celebrate our reconciliation with God! How is he demonstrating his unifying gospel through you?
Who We Are: Our salvation is union with him. We are one with Christ; and thus we are one with his body. We have the same Spirit (Eph. 2:18; 4:5)! Think on that! The Spirit has made us one body; it is not us just gathering together, but the Spirit has truly, in-reality knit us together (1 Cor. 12:13; Eph. 2:15, 18, 22). Praying together is an expression of who we are, and in that way, it should be a natural aspect. As an employee, you go to work; as a mother you mother; as an artist you do art; as a member of Christ, you pray together.
How do you see togetherness as part of your salvation-identity?
Prayers of the Bible: Jesus gave us one model prayer, and it begins “OUR Father.” Paul’s prayers echo that togetherness that we “may have strength to comprehend with all the saints” the love of Christ (Eph. 3:18). Praying together was a practice of the early church; fourteen times people are praying together.
“The spirit of prayer is essentially the spirit of love. Intercession is simply love at prayer” (The Kneeling Christian)
Bearing & Sharing: Praying together is one way we bear one another’s burdens (Gal. 6:2). Praying together is living out our life as a body where “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together” (1 Cor. 12:26). Through prayer and our life journey, each one of us has learned different facets of our infinite God, and in prayer together, we share and invite others to know God in different ways. There is a deep, deep encouragement from hearing another address God for themself, the church, or your needs. How can the church know needs and care for you except when we are all present in prayer?
“Each of the redeemed shall forever know and praise some one aspect of the Divine beauty better than any other creature can. Why else were individuals created, but that God, loving all infinitely, should love each differently? And this difference…floods with meaning the love of all blessed creatures for one another, the communion of the saints…For doubtless the continually successful, yet never complete, attempt by each soul to communicate its unique vision to all others….is also among the ends for which the individual was created” (C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain, p. 155)
Honesty: Praying together also leads to a unique camaraderie; we are in the spiritual foxholes together so to speak! Prayer reinforces the bond of unity the Spirit has wrought (Eph. 4:3). It leads to honesty with each other, accountability, and spurring one another one (Heb. 10:24-25). Prayer reveals our deepest desires and our heart. We share our very self with God and with others in prayer.
Pray for the NC body to grow in unity, bearing, sharing, encouraging, in mutual honesty, spurring one another on.
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