A Call to Corporate Prayer

Megan: I think we can give a little instruction. "You pray for this one specific thing." Direction ahead of time. I think sometimes people even have trouble thinking, What would I even pray for?

I think sometimes, too, just praying the words of Scripture is helpful. Even if you don't memorize it, but to paraphrase it, just what you remember. "Lord, we know this about You from Your Word. Thank You for this," or "We know that You're a God who did this in the past. Would You do it again here?" Using Scripture, I think, can give us confidence, too.

Erin: Don't you think there's an intimacy level of prayers? I've told this story on Revive Our Hearts before. I was a new mama. I had a new baby. And I had post-partum depression, but I hadn't told anyone. So I was in a circle with other women, and we were doing the prayer request thing, and everyone was sticking to safe. "Pray for Aunt Erma who is having hip surgery. Pray for missionaries."

Those are good things to pray for, but they were all very safe, very benign in terms of intimacy. Everybody's heads were bowed and eyes were closed, it was all women, and I said, "I don't love my husband." Of course, I did love my husband then. I do love my husband now. But in the hormonal soup of post-partem depression, that's how it felt to me.

But I'm so thankful for that moment. It was God's grace to me that I was brave enough to say that because I didn't want to take off the mask. But those women, I credit them for saving my life. They just rallied around me. None of them went, "Oh! I can't believe you said that!" I really believe they prayed for me, and they checked on me.

But I think there is a level of intimacy required to really pray. Don't you?

Megan: I think absolutely. And I think maybe that is part of the fear factor, too. "I'm going to have to say something." But I think a good thing about prayer is that, fundamentally, when we pray, we're admitting that we need God.

In some churches, we kneel when we pray. My church doesn't do this, but my parents' church does. I think that's a great picture of what prayer is. When you're in church, everybody kneels. No matter if you have been a Christian for fifty years, or you just became a Christian yesterday; whether you're five years old or fifty years old, when you pray, you're on your knees, admitting your dependence on God.

So I think prayer is actually helpful in the Christian community to remind us that none of us has got this, and that we all are dependent on God.

Erin: You say in your book, Praying Together, that the desire to write the chapter, "Praying with the Church," was what compelled you to write the entire book. I would love for you to just walk us through that chapter for the woman who's listening to this, driving in her car or mopping her floor, and she doesn't have the book handy, I would just love for you to give us a fly-over of that concept, of the church praying together.

Megan: I think that certainly that's what we see in the book of Acts. The church, the early church was always praying together all the time. Acts 2:42. What did the early church devote themselves to? The apostle's teaching, the fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. That was one of the four things that the early church devoted itself to.

But I think what we see in our churches is sometimes, especially on the Lord's Day, on a Sunday worship service, prayer sort of takes a back seat. It's just a quick prayer at the beginning, or it's a quick prayer at the end. I think part of that is we don't really know what we're supposed to do. When the pastor is standing up there praying, what are we actually doing? Are we listening to him pray? Is God hearing him because he's the pastor and he's more holy than we are? What's going on?

So in the chapter, I tried to make the point that on a Sunday morning when the worship leader or the pastor or elder or whomever is praying, that we're all praying. Logistically speaking, one person has to give voice to all of our prayers, but all of us are joining our hearts in prayer.

I talked about kneeling earlier. I spent some time in Scotland at a church, and there, everyone stands during the prayer. The pastor says, "Let's pray," and everyone stands up. When I was in that church, it was just such a reminder to me that we are all praying. We all got on our feet because we were all standing before the throne of God, and we were all praying as a church together.

So I make the case in this chapter that we should have substantial prayer in our worship that we should not be afraid of prayers that are somewhat lengthy, especially in a public setting. It takes a while for people to forget the roast in the oven, forget the squirming kids, and think, Okay, I'm actually praying. And if the prayer is super brief, by the time you realize, "Oh, I'm actually praying," it's done.

So I make the case where, "Let's have some significant time." That was one of the four priorities in the early church, so let's not be afraid to spend some time praying.

I make the case that the elders or the pastors should lead the prayer generally speaking. In the testimony of Scripture, we see that usually it's the leaders of God's people that get the privilege of doing the leading. But, as I said, everyone is doing the praying.

Erin: And are there some practical ways that we can participate as a member of the congregation? We're sitting in our pew, and the pastor starts to pray, are there some practical ways we can feel more participatory in that?

Megan: Yes. I actually think that our duty is to say, "Amen." Maybe it's not out loud, but certainly in our heart. Saying amen is our way of saying, "Yes, Lord, that's what I want, too." So I think that you can, when the pastor is praying, you hear what he says, and in your heart, or out loud (I'm totally with saying it out loud), say, "Amen, Lord. That's what I want, too." And just forcing yourself, I think, to say, "It's my responsibility to amen this prayer before the Lord," helps me to pay attention.

Erin: Yes. Our pastor just walked us through amen, where it came from, what it means. It was super helpful because it's just this little word that we only say in church, it's "Christianese," right? Maybe it's the first entry in the "Christianese Dictionary," and we just say it.

I once was in a meeting, I was having a meeting over the phone, and we were getting ready to conclude the meeting, and I said, "In Jesus' name I pray, amen," because, it's like that rote. Like, when I'm coming to the end of something, I say, "In Jesus' name I pray, amen." It was very embarrassing because we weren't praying. It was just a meeting.

But it's that rote for me. So I appreciated him exploring why we say amen. We don't have to say amen. In the church I worship, people talk during prayer. In other churches, it may be more quiet, but there's a woman who frequently sits behind me, and when our pastor is praying, I hear her often say, "Thank You, Jesus, thank You, Father, thank You, Jesus, thank You, Father." She's agreeing with Pastor Tim. She's not passively just listening to him pray, she's participating. I think that's probably powerful.

What are some common misconceptions about corporate prayer?

Megan: I think one of the common misconceptions, which we mentioned already, is that people don't know what they're doing. When one person is leading, what are we all doing? So, as we said, everybody is really praying in their hearts, so we're all praying together.

I think another common misconception maybe is that prayer is somehow sort of more powerful when we pray together. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, who was a famous preacher in the earlier part of the last century said that sometimes we have what he called a mathematical notion of prayer.

By which he means that we think that somehow if we pray for a certain number of minutes, if we pray a certain number of times, and, in the case of corporate prayer, if we have a certain number of people praying for something that somehow that's more . . . that's better. We have more signatures on our petition to God, so God is going to be more compelled to answer.

I think that we sometimes think that way, and I think that's not true. The Bible assures us again and again that the Lord hears the prayer of one person, that even one person who's covered in the blood of Jesus and has the Spirit is heard by God, and that the Spirit helps us when we pray and that Jesus is making intercession for us.

So if you are one person by yourself on a desert island, the Lord hears you, and that's precious to Him.

I do think that there's something special . . . I think we encourage one another, we love one another, there's something really precious about a whole bunch of people praying for something and an opportunity for God's glory to be seen in the answer.

Paul talks about giving thanks for the prayers of the people so that the many may give thanks. I think when lots of people are praying for something and the Lord answers, it's an opportunity for lots of people to thank Him, which brings Him glory.

I think sometimes we think of prayer as sort of a rote thing that we do, sort of saying our prayers maybe, or just sort of a set form of words that we say. As you were saying about just tacking on, "in Jesus' name," at the end. Maybe it's sort of a Christian version of "abracadabra," or a magic thing. But something's happening when we're praying, and something is happening in the spiritual places. Maybe we don't totally know what that is, but the Lord promises to use our prayers.

I love the images in the book of Revelation where it talks about the bowl that is before the throne. There's a great bowl before the throne, and it's filled with the prayers of the saints. All of our prayers are going into that bowl in heaven. And the Lord doesn't lose any of them. He doesn't misplace any of them. They're going there, and He's going to do something with them.

The book of Revelation is very mysterious about what that actually means, but there's an image where the angel tips the bowl over and pours it out upon the earth, and it accomplishes God's purposes.

I think that helps us to remember something is going to happen with these prayers. We might not know what, but something is happening in the heavenly places.

Erin: Yes. I was just speaking to somebody this week who said, "I don't believe in God because I've never had a prayer answered—not a single one." Obviously, that's too complex to try and give any trite little answer to, that takes kind of a lifetime of investment.

But what I said was something similar to that. Those have not just gone into the outer space, that He is a God who keeps your tears in a bottle, who records every notion of your tossing, and He's heard everyone and has responded in some way to everyone. I understand that, apart from knowing that He's a good and loving God, that that's hard to understand.

But I can see that, since I've prayed and prayed and nothing has happened, feeling hopeless, and yet, Scripture teaches such a different truth. Right?

Megan: Yes Robert Murray M'Cheyne says that God answers all of our prayers either, "Yes," or "Let Me give you something better." And I think that's helpful. Again, you have to have the understanding that God is a good and loving God, but it's not forgotten. Either He's going to give you what you asked for, or, in His kindness, He's going to give you something that will be better for you.

Erin: Sure. That is helpful. You made the argument for continued prayer in corporate worship and for letting it be a little bit of a wild card. I think that's part of the corporate worship service that's maybe hardest to regulate. You can time, "We're going to do three worship songs; the pastor's going to preach for twenty minutes." People like to get out on time. They get antsy; they start checking their watches.

So when we untether ourselves from those kinds of constraints, that's where prayer starts to feel a little out of control. Right?

One thing I appreciate about my pastor, and we're in a good-sized church, as he continues week after week to stand up there and walk through the prayer needs of the church. It takes time. And we are so large that most of the names on the list you don't know. But I've heard him talk in staff meetings about, "This is a commitment: I will always do this. I will always take time to alert the church family to the needs of our own family, and then we will always take the time to pray." And I so appreciate that. I'm a big fan of my pastor. Can you tell?

I'm interested in your thoughts in letting prayer, even though it can be a little bit wild, continue to be a focus in our corporate worship service.

Megan: Yes, I think it's absolutely important. I think that we're quick to devote time to things that we can see visible results from, stuff we can do, somebody that we can accomplish something with. I think we have to remember that we have spiritual priorities, and that has to be the work of the Spirit. And people growing in holiness, and people coming to faith, and children being born, sick people being healed, all of that, there's a spiritual component to that.

When we pray, we're acknowledging that, under what you can see, there's a spiritual thing that's going on, and we need the Lord to be doing that thing. So I think that's really important.

Erin: Are there some prayer needs that are fitting for corporate worship scenario and some prayer needs that aren't, some prayer needs that are best addressed, even women praying with each other, one-on-one, and some prayers that need to stay private?

Megan: I think so. I think you have to think when you're bringing a request to the group, whatever group it is: Is it appropriate for everyone to hear this? Is this something that's okay for everyone to hear? Am I needlessly exposing someone else's sin here? Do I have a right to share this thing? Is this going to be edifying for everyone to hear?

But I think, at the same time, Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me and do not hinder them." And He prayed for them there. I think we can't be like the disciples, going, "Um, this prayer need is too insignificant. Jesus doesn't want to pray for that."

We have to welcome, even immature prayer requests, even prayer requests that seem to us to be, maybe petty or maybe a little bit off, because that's the way of Jesus.

Erin: Sure. And there's some reason for not sanitizing my, "I don't love my husband." It was not a sanitary prayer. It was not clean and neat and tidy. But it was powerful. So I think it's wise for us to make space for women, people in our churches to pray for prayers that aren't safe, or ask for prayers that aren't safe.

As we're talking about corporate prayer, I keep thinking about the family and wondering in our home units the role that corporate prayer can play between us and our husbands, us and our children. I wonder if you could give us some models for corporate prayer in our home.

Megan: Sure. I think it's really important. I think that praying with your spouse is, obviously, that is the person that's closest to you. So there is this intimacy level that we talked about where you have shared needs. So you need to come to the Lord together.

That can be my husband and I. We pray once a week together in the morning. We pray every day with our children, but even so, we make a special time when just the two of us are going to pray together for those certain needs that we have together.

We do pray with our children every day. We pray quickly. We have three children. We pray quickly in the morning, before they leave for the day, and then we pray a little bit longer in the evening. Every family is going to have a different time that works for them.

Erin: Sure.

Megan: When they were very little, we would say the prayers. We would say a phrase, and they would repeat it after us. Then we'd say another phrase.

Erin: I like that.

Megan: When they got a little bit older, then we would give them something to pray, and they would pray it in their own words. Now they're seven, eight, and nine years old, so now they can pray on their own. But we sort of took it in stages like that.

I also think that prayer can be a tool of evangelism in the home. If you pray before a meal, which we should. We have the pattern of Scripture of Paul giving thanks for the food, and the first church breaking bread and giving thanks with glad and generous hearts. So if you pray before a meal, and you have non-Christians into your home, you pray before a meal, and that is a testimony to them that you know that God gives the daily bread.

If they're there when you have your evening time with your kids, or your morning time prayer, whatever you do, you invite them, to say, "We're going to have a time of prayer. You're welcome to join us."

I think that can be a time of testimony of: this is a home that prioritizes spiritual things.

Erin: Yes. We have three children as well—eight, six, and two—and the prayers that we pray with them are memorized. They're saying the same thing every time. So we do a little, "God is great; God is good; let us thank Him for our food and our family," before every meal. I understand that the Spirit teaches us how to pray, and I don't want to constrain the Spirit, but they're just learning to pray. So I have to give them some words.

When each of them were little guys, their daddy and I made them each a blessing. So we pray the same blessing for them every night. So if Daddy is gone, they know the blessings by now, they can pray them for each other. If mommy is gone, the same way. But until they're big, I don't know for how long, but we're going to pray these same three sentences every night, but we're praying it together and agreeing. And then we sing the Doxology, and that's kind of our bedtime routine.

I'm interested in your thoughts, as we mother, is it okay to give them the words? Is it okay that they're praying the same thing day after day after day?

Megan: I think so. We have the example of the disciples who came to Jesus and said, "Lord, teach us to pray," and He gave them the Lord's Prayer. And so these are adults who wanted to learn to pray, and the Lord gave them a prayer. And, you know, whether the Lord's Prayer is something we always say verbatim, or whether we learn lessons from it to model in our own prayers, I think it can be both.

I think another interesting thing to look at is Hannah, in 1 Samuel, she, after giving birth to Samuel. She prays this prayer, and she thanks the Lord. And then, if you flip to the New Testament, you have Mary. Right after the Holy Spirit came on her and she conceived the Christ child, she prays this prayer.

If you look at those two prayers next to each other, they're very similar. Mary learned to pray because she had read the prayer of Hannah hundreds of years earlier and it taught her something about how to pray. So I think models, especially for children and new believers, are very helpful.

Erin: My oldest is getting to that self-conscious age. So where he's always prayed very freely, now he doesn't want to pray out loud. But he still participates, and it gives me empathy for adults who feel like, "I don't want to do this. I don't want to pray out loud." Hopefully he'll learn to do that.

Megan: I think when kids pray together when they're young, I think that helps them to be comfortable. I'm a big fan in Sunday school, or VBS, or youth group, or whatever, letting the kids pray because if they grow up praying with each other, then I think they'll be more comfortable when they're adults. "Oh, I've been praying my whole life, so I can do this now."

Erin: Sure. It's that wild card again. I just got done teaching VBS. I had three year olds. We did let them pray. You couldn't hear them, or they didn't know when to stop, or the other kids were squirrely, or they prayed for these funny things like the bunny rabbit their mommy hit with the car. But I tried not to squash that in any way because they were praying. They were talking.

Megan: Yes, and they were recognizing that they needed God, and they had a need to speak to God. And that's valuable right there.

Erin: Right.

Leslie: We've been hearing a conversation between Erin Davis and our guest Megan Hill. They've been talking about the value of praying together.

We asked Megan what she thought about Cry Out! the national prayer event for women Revive Our Hearts is hosting September 23.

Megan: I'm very encouraged that the Cry Out! event is happening. I think it's wonderful. I think it's very wonderful for women to be able to pray together and to admit our common needs. I think it's very helpful praying together, very humbling. Here we are. We're all women, and we have this same need, and it unites us.

I think it helps us love one another better when we pray together because we're bearing these common burdens together to the Lord. My sister who is next to me, and my sister who is, by simulcast, halfway around the world, she has the same needs.

And then I think, too, when we see answers to these prayers, I think it connects us with these women, even around the nation, around the world, that the Lord has heard our prayers together. We can rejoice together.

The Bible talks about rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. I think a bunch of women coming together to pray is a beautiful example of that.

Erin: I think it's a hopeful step to take instead of wringing your hands or some other response we might have to what is clearly some major problems in the world. I think prayer is a step of hope that we're expecting.

Would you give the women who might be at Cry Out! any specific ways to pray? As you've studied effective prayer in Scripture, what Scripture says about prayer, would there be any specific prayer needs you would encourage us to pray?

Megan: Looking, say, at the Lord's Prayer, I think that gives us a great sort of model for the things that we want, that the Lord is teaching us there.

• So we start with God's glory, and we want Jesus to be exalted in the world. And we can all agree on that, that that's what we want.
• We want His kingdom to be built, and other women to come to know Him and to be built up in the Spirit.
• We need our daily bread, and we all have this common need for our physical needs to be met.
• We need to be kept from sin and the evil one and from temptation to sin.

So, I think, even something like that, which are sort of the universal needs and things that we bring to prayer are very good.

I think we have encouragements from Scripture to pray for the civil authorities, to pray, at least in this country, this upcoming election is large in people's minds. I think we have every reason to pray about something like that. The Lord tells us to pray for those who are in authority over us.

I think we have great encouragement to pray. The Lord teaches us to pray that laborers will be sent out into the harvest field. We can pray for missions and for the expansion of the kingdom.

We're told to pray for revival, to pray that the Spirit would come among us and be working. That was the pattern of the early church. They prayed for more of the Spirit. I think we can all come together and pray for that and rejoice when that happens.

Nancy: We've been listening to Erin Davis, on the Revive Our Hearts' team, and author Megan Hill talking about the value of praying together.

They recorded that conversation at the Gospel Coalition's Women's Conference a few weeks ago. That's why you may have heard some of the convention going on there in the background.

Megan Hill has written a book called, Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer in our Homes, Communities and Churches.

I think this is such an important topic, and it fits with the theme we've been emphasizing throughout this year as we're calling women to pray together. I'd like for you to have a copy of this book.

When you make a donation of any amount to support the ministry of Revive Our Hearts, we'd like to say "thank you" by sending you this book, Praying Together. Be sure to ask for Megan's book when you call us at 1–800–569–5959, or visit us at ReviveOurHearts.com.

When you make your gift, be sure to ask for a copy of the book, Praying Together.

This would be a good resource to be reading leading up to the nationwide prayer event, Cry Out! that's being hosted September 23 by Revive Our Hearts.

As you know, I've been telling you a lot about this free simulcast, and I'm excited for you to get some new updates at our website, ReviveOurHearts.com. When you go to Revive Our Hearts, if you're planning to have a group, small or large, who will join us on Friday evening, September 23, to cry out, you can register your group on our website, and then you'll see it show up on a map of the United States.

If you're in an area and you'd like to know if there's a group you can join, you can search for groups that are already signed up to pray that evening.

You'll also find on the website more details about how to make this online simulcast work for your group. Don't let the term online or simulcast throw you. Don't say, "I'm not a technical person. I don't know how to do this." There are clear directions and helps on that site. And if somebody else will be handling the technical side, you can point them to that.

It's really simple. You just need a Wi-Fi connection and a screen large enough to show it to whatever size group you'll be pulling together for that evening.

So let me encourage you to go to ReviveOurHearts.com to get the latest resources to help you. And then, please, I want to encourage you, don't be left out. Find a group or organize a group in your area, and join us Friday evening, September 23, for this nationwide prayer event for women, as we cry out in prayer together.

Believing that God hears the cries of the righteous, that He heeds their cries, that He will answer in His way and in His time, we desperately need to be crying out together in this time, and I want to encourage you to be a part of that prayer event.

Leslie: Thanks, Nancy.

As we've told you, we're focusing on prayer on Revive Our Hearts here in 2016. On Monday, Nancy will take us in an in-depth look at the Lord's Prayer. Find out how these words of Jesus can revolutionize your prayer life, and join us again Monday for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.