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Corporate prayer is a pain in the…

Posted by Carey 
· Friday, September 12th, 2014 

In my entire Christian life (going on 43 years, now) corporate prayer has never been easy.

That statement comes from a guy who…

  • Has been in church since he was 5 years old.
  • Has served as a professional “clergy” for over 20 years.
  • Has attended more prayer meetings than movies.
  • Has taught people about prayer and how to pray.
  • Has encouraged people to pray, out loud, in public, repeatedly.

Even so, I find corporate prayer to be difficult, unnatural, and awkward on a number of levels.

  • The temptation to “perform” is always there.

There’s special phrases and words we use that are never spoken in any other context.

“We beseech You, oh LORD…”

“…lead, guide, and direct us and help us to do thy will…”

“…we bind Satan…”

I wonder, who are we trying to impress? It can’t be God. He knows us too well. Because of that I’m convinced He’s not very impressed with any of us. So it has to be the other folks in the room we’re trying to dazzle.

corporate_prayer_self_conscious

  • The desire to not sound stupid is way too strong.

This one’s closely related to the first one, but it’s different.

Yes, it’s self-conscious praying, but mainly because I’m praying to the wrong person (or people).

If I’m truly praying, I’m speaking to God, right? So why am I worried about what the other people in the room might think about how I sound or what I’m saying?

On top of that, if it’s God I’m speaking to, I suspect that most of the time the prayers I send up to Him sound like the rantings of a 3 year old. Cute, but pretty ignorant.

So the reality is that I truly may sound stupid to the Person I’m speaking to… but that’s OK. Like any good parent, He’s got plenty of grace for that.

And He actually likes that we’re talking to Him at all.

  • The distractions are brutal.

Why is it that when I bow my head to pray my brain suddenly goes on autopilot. You too? My thoughts wander aimlessly through the landscape of memory and trivia the moment the eyes close. I think there’s a switch in my neck someplace that switches my brain from real-life-adult mode, to grab-a-random-thought mode.

Here’s a quick sample:

  • That was a crazy movie I watched last night.
  • My stomach hurts.
  • My sister will love that goofy cat video I saw on Facebook yesterday.
  • What is that smell?
  • How many times has the guy praying used the word “just?” 1-2-3-4…
  • My mother’s french fries with white gravy on top. Oh, I haven’t had that in so long!
  • I need new shoes. These are falling apart.
  • 27. Wow, that guy said “just” 27 times in his two sentence prayer.
  • It’s my turn to pray? “We beseech You oh LORD, just to…”

Corporate prayer is a real pain in the brain, and the heart.

I want to do it well. I want my interaction with God in the presence of others to be genuine, full of faith, and truly effective (James 5:16).

I want what I pray to connect with the heart of God and benefit those who hear me praying. But all the struggles make it a very painful experience.

Can you relate? Do you think your spouse or your kids can relate?

It’s clear, this is a multi-generational, non-gender-specific problem that we all need to face.

I want to give you some hard-learned but helpful suggestions.

Moving corporate prayer in a different direction

As you can tell, this issue has been percolating in my mind for some time. I’ve considered it a lot because it’s been an issue for me a lot. The answers I’ve discovered are not life-altering or mind-blowing, but they are helpful… at least to me. I trust they will be helpful to you too.

1 Admit the problem(s).

As always, none of us can address an issue we aren’t willing to acknowledge. The first step to change is the humility to admit that we need to change.

2 Ask God to help you in your praying.

Strangely enough, we don’t typically ask God to help us ask Him for help.

It’s OK, you can read that sentence again. It is a bit confusing.

Something about the idea seems a bit odd. But it’s not. We need His help for everything, right? So if we need help in praying, it makes sense to ask Him for it.

And what do you know… He’ll answer.

3 Begin the work.

Adjusting our bad habits concerning corporate prayer is going to be a lot of hard work. But that shouldn’t be a strange thing to us as followers of Christ.

Faith without works is dead (James 2:26).

That means that if we really believe God will help us with this issue, then we’ve got to begin acting as if He’s going to help us.

What does that look like? Here’s some ideas:

  • Work hard (with the Spirit’s help) to set your mind on the fact that you’re talking to God, not the other people in the room. Every time you begin thinking about the other people, ask the LORD to help you think of Him instead.
  • When it’s your turn to pray, speak naturally, as if you’re talking to a friend (because you are).
  • With the strength the Spirit of God supplies, discipline yourself to pay close attention to the things others pray. Even repeat their words silently in your mind to help you focus on their meaning. Consciously agree with their requests, saying silent words of affirmation to the Father.
  • If it’s helpful, even speak out quiet words of agreement to help you maintain focus: “Yes, LORD. Do it LORD. Amen, Jesus. Do your will Father.” “Quiet” is a very important word here; you don’t want to be a distraction.
  • When you notice your mind has wandered, instead of beating yourself up, confess, repent, and ask the LORD to help you reengage. He’s gracious to forgive (1 John 1:9) and will be faithful to do all those things.

I’d love to hear what your experience has been with corporate prayer. And I’d love to hear any suggestions you might have. Use the comments below.

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I really mean everything above. I’m serious about it. Really.

But I also think there’s plenty of humor in our struggle to pray well. The video below is from Michael, Jr., a great Christian comedian who I respect a ton. Enjoy.

 

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Categories : Spirit Health
Tags : corporate prayer, learn to pray, prayer, praying

3 Simple and Easy Ideas for Family Prayer

Posted by Carey 
· Friday, October 11th, 2013 

3 family prayer ideasHere are 3 simple and easy ways of going about “family prayer” that you can try in your family!

1. Pray for the person to your (right/left).

In our “family nights” (we sing together, read and discuss the scriptures, and pray together), we often use this method of prayer. It goes something like this…

“OK, everyone turn to the person on your right and find out what things you can pray about for them. Then we’re going to pray for those specific things”

Naturally, there’s a little bit of giggling as everyone turns to their right and finds that person turned to their right… but everyone finally gets past it and receives and gives a prayer request. Then we pray together for those things.

I don’t typically keep track of which direction I’ve told people to turn the previous family night, nor do I keep track of who’s prayed for who.

Why? Because every time we’re sitting in different places, so we naturally get “mixed around” in who we are praying for.

Sometimes I will intentionally look to see who’s sitting next to who and choose the direction I feel will be most beneficial for those relationships, but other than that, this one works on its own pretty well.

2. Round Robin Prayer

We’ve recently begun doing this one and it seems to work pretty well. We do it at the dinner table, right after we’ve finished eating and it works great.

You start with a prayer list… things that you are facing as a family. They could be financial needs, health issues, employment, salvation of a family member, etc. It doesn’t matter how many you have on the list, but it’s probably better to keep it to 15 or under.

Take the list and a pen and explain what you’re going to do.

“I have a list of things that we as a family need to be praying about. I’m going to pray for the first one on the list and check it off. Then I’m going to pass it to the (right or left) and the next person will pray for the next item. When they are finished, they will check it off and pass the list to the next person. We’ll just keep passing the list around until everything is prayed for. The last person can say the ‘Amen.'”

This way everyone is praying, everyone is involved, and nobody gets to “opt out.” And it focuses the entire family on the needs that the entire family is facing. I think it serves to build unity because we are praying together.

3. Sharing Joys and Sorrows

Another option is that we’ll give these very simple instructions,

“I’d like everyone to share something they are currently happy about, and then share something they are having a hard time with right now. As each person finishes sharing, I’ll ask for someone to take that request and then we’ll pray for all of them at the end.”

It’s a pretty simple way of going about family prayer. But it’s a great way. Everyone gets to hear what’s on the heart of the others.

It builds community and unity. It builds compassion and care within the home.

Getting started

If you have not had any sort of prayer time together as a family in the past, it’s time for that to change. You need to lead your children to prayer for each other and for the family as a whole. Here is one way I’d suggest you make the change…

  1. Call a family meeting.
  2. Repent to the family for not leading the way in prayer.
  3. Ask them to forgive you for neglecting that duty.
  4. Tell them the ideas you have for family prayer.
  5. Tell them you’d like to start praying together regularly to ask for God’s blessing and help as a family.
  6. Plan a time together when you will start (every Monday evening? Every Saturday before bed?)
  7. START

What prayer ideas do YOU have for the family? Share your ideas below…

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Categories : Parenting, Spirit Health
Tags : family, family devotions, family night, family prayer, family worship ideas, prayer
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