How encouraging it is to hear the people of God gathered together for prayer! I’ve enjoyed many opportunities to come to the throne of grace with brothers and sisters in Christ in my local church. We grow stronger as a church when we gather to acknowledge before God and others our weakness and need. Corporate prayer provides us a means to support and comfort one another through times of sorrow and trial and to celebrate and magnify God’s praise in times of joy and triumph. It is good to hear testimonies of God’s grace in the lives of others, their petitions for prayer, and their thanks for answered prayer.
Unfortunately, it has become a trend in many churches today to no longer meet for designated times of prayer. Often the reason involves good intentions. We want to accommodate busy schedules and support families in their desire to spend time together. But while eliminating a weekly prayer service may be convenient for some, it is detrimental to all. We miss out on wonderful opportunities for Christian fellowship and growth by not regularly entering into the prayers and praise of others.
We need to pray more together as God’s people, and we need to pray that God would stir us to pray. It’s not just that we don’t pray enough; we don’t have a deep enough sense of our need to pray.
Pastor and hymn-writer John Newton expresses this well in his hymn “Great Shepherd of Thy People, Hear.”
Great Shepherd of Thy people, hear;
Thy presence now display.
As Thou has giv’n a place for prayer,
So give us hearts to pray.
[Read more of this article by Ken Puls on the Founders Blog]