Liturgy: Inhabiting the Story of God
Prayer
Prayer is often seen as an individual or private practise, and yet God’s people have always prayed corporately (together) whenever they have gathered before him:
When they heard this, they raised their voices together in prayer to God. “Sovereign Lord”, they said...[1]
And so after being assured of God’s forgiveness and love for us through Jesus Christ, we approach him in prayer to praise him, to thank him for his many gifts to us, and to pray for ourselves and the world.
Thankfulness is an attractive character trait, and one of the key parts of the Christian life is growing in thankfulness—in fact God calls us to be overflowing with thankfulness
.[2] Praise is the ultimate expression of thanks; as the Psalmist sings: Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name
.[3]
We live in an age where thankfulness is highly prized and we are aware of its many benefits. But we often struggle to know who to be thankful to. Praying together helps us cultivate an attitude of thankfulness in our lives, as we thank and praise God, remembering that every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights
.[4] It’s God who gives us all good gifts, not least forgiveness, a relationship with him, and a community in which we grow and become more like him. What a privilege then to come before him and praise him for all his goodness and generosity—may it flow out into our lives and make us thankful in all we do throughout the week.
Jesus said that apart from me you can do nothing.
[5] We depend on him for everything, whether or not we are aware of it. Praying together is one way we express that dependence. We need God’s help—he sustains us day-to-day, he changes us by his Spirit to become more like him, he enables us to do good works in the service of others. It’s so easy to forget we are dependent on God and to try to live life in our own strength. But it never works. So we throw ourselves on our heavenly Father in prayer and ask him to help us and give us all we need to become the people he wants us to be. Again, practising dependence on God together each week as we pray will train our hearts to be dependent on God throughout the week.
Finally we pray for the world. As God’s royal priesthood, we stand between God and the world and speak to our Father on behalf of the world. We ask him to continue to show mercy to them, to cause the sun to rise on the just and the unjust, and most of all we pray that God’s kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven—that all those who don’t know Jesus would come to know him. It’s amazing how praying these things together can remind us who we are and what we are doing. In the language of 1 Peter, we are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that [we] may declare the praises of him who called [us] out of darkness into his wonderful light
.[6] No-one else has the privilege of speaking to the uncreated Creator of the universe as their own loving Father. Yet we have that privilege for a purpose—that everyone would come to see that Jesus is glorious and receive forgiveness of sins and life forever. Praying together makes us thankful, helps us depend on God, and forms our identity as a royal priesthood.