When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get.

Matthew 6:5

Jesus was teaching on the topic of prayer when He spoke those famous words from the passage we’ve come to know as, “The Sermon on the Mount.” Knowing how important prayer is, and how vital a role it is intended to play in our lives as believers, Jesus was taking the time to teach not only His disciples that day, but also all the throngs of people that had gathered on that mountainside, and even us today.

Prayer is not supposed to be a wish-list similar to what we’d leave with milk and cookies for Santa Claus on Christmas Eve or the vain repetitions and babblings of people who are merely interested in sounding spiritual rather than truly being spiritual. Prayer is so much more than, “Now I lay me down to sleep” or even, “Our Father Who art in heaven…” Prayer, in short, is meant to be personal, sincere, and instinctive, not robotic, rote, and empty.

Prayer is a dialogue with God, a two-way conversation, where both parties speak and both parties listen. Just as two best friends would respectfully interchange with one another, so prayer is meant to be between us and God. But prayer doesn’t have to be just a one-on-one event. Prayer can also be corporate. Exodus 2:23 records the mass groanings of the Israelites as they cried out to God under the bondage of their slavery. Verse 24 says that God heard their groanings. Exodus 15 records a coporate prayer of praise that was set to music heralding the Israelites deliverance from the Egyptians at the Red Sea. The “Prayers of Ascent”, Psalms 120-134, were apparently sung by the people as they went up to Jerusalem for various festivals. Once the Psalms were written, they were probably prayed and sung by the people on sabbaths and other occasions of rejoicing before Yahweh. (Deuteronomy 16:11) Sometimes the prayers would be spoken by one person on behalf of the rest of the people, such as we find in Nehemiah 1:5-11. Corporate prayer has long played a prominent and necessary role in the worship gatherings of God’s people.

However, it is very easy for us sometimes to fall into one of several extremes when it comes to the implementation of corporate prayer in our worship services. One such extreme is to find ourselves perhaps reciting an ancient liturgical prayer, not really paying attention to the meaning of the words and how they apply to us today. Churches that use a more high form of worship have to guard against this, lest their congregants memorize the words and vainly recite them without much regard to their power or intent (Matthew 6:7).

Another extreme is to mentally check-out during a corporate prayer. This is often the case when someone else is praying on behalf of the whole group, and rather than listening to and agreeing with what is being offered, the listener is mentally adrift, perhaps thinking about something else entirely, or even nodding off to sleep! That is not what corporate prayer is meant to be, either. Another extreme when it comes to corporate prayer is to avoid it because it is not what one has ever been accustomed to or it simply feels uncomfortable or awkward. There are many who have grown up outside of the church or in a denomination that didn’t regularly practice the art of corporate prayer, so to them it can feel “out-of-place.” We must work hard to avoid all these extremes.

Corporate prayer is more than liturgy, more than words penned by someone else, and certainly not an outdated form of worship. Corporate prayer is meant to be the united confession, repentance, submission, and outpouring of a specific group of people to Almighty God. It doesn’t have to fit any particular denominational mold, but rather it needs to be sincere, authentic, heart-felt, and humble. God has honored many a corporate prayer that has been offered in unity and humility on behalf of families, churches, ministries, communities, and even nations! It is not something to be avoided, but rather something to be engaged in and utilized for its utmost potential.

application

(Choose one or all of these if you like)

Think back to the last time you participated in a corporate prayer. What role did you play? Were you fully engaged? How could you have been more participatory?

Write out a prayer for your family to use corporately to praise God for His blessings on your home. Consider whether or not you’ll make it a call and response format or a corporate recitation, or something else.

Find an old church hymnal and read some of the corporate prayers and creeds and responsive readings at the back. Study them, look up the Scripture passages they were taken from and learn the context in which they were written so you can consider how they still apply to your life and the life of the church as well.

prayer

Thank You, Lord, for the gift of prayer and the privilege of talking to You one-on-one like this or with a group of my brothers and sisters in You. I confess that I so often under-utilize the power of prayer and I’m concerned that may be true for a lot of churches as well. May my life and the life of my church reflect our belief in prayer and the power it has to move mountains when coupled with our faith in You and our humble submission to You and Your will. May you be pleased by the priority I make it to talk to and listen to You on a daily, consistent basis, and may the same be true for all of us who corporately comprise the Bride of Christ. In Jesus name I pray, Amen.