How do you feel about praying with other people?

The Christian faith is interesting. It is both personal and social. We talk about a personal walk with Christ, about personal devotions, etc., but Christianity is also inherently social. Our faith was never intended to be lived out in isolation. Even God is Trinity and the three persons of the God-head communicate with each other.

Prayer, as well, has both personal and social aspects.

Sometimes we can and should pray by ourselves (I encourage daily personal devotions), but prayer is also to be done together. However, many of us feel uncomfortable praying with others.

We may be OK praying a pre-written prayer, like the Lord’s Prayer, with others, but to pray from the heart can be a little scary. The good thing is God doesn’t judge our prayers by our eloquence. He promises to listen and answer even the most stumbled through prayer.

Just as Jesus prayed with others, we should pray with each other.

In some cases that may be praying with our family or sometimes we may pray with a friend in need. If you are one who typically doesn’t pray with others, I want to encourage you to try it out this week. Whether it’s with family, friends, or anyone else, find a time to pray with someone…not just what we do in our church service.

If you feel nervous about it, let me encourage you.

• Your prayer doesn’t have to be fancy or really long. Short and simple is perfectly fine.
• Like most things, you’ll feel more comfortable with it over time and be able to think more easily of what to say the more you do it.

Feel free to have a pre-written prayer or just say what’s on your mind. My family likes to combine both in our family devotions. We start by praying whatever is on our hearts and then we finish by praying the Lord’s Prayer or Luther’s Evening Prayer.

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for promising to listen to and answer our prayers. Please remind me of the wonderful blessing that prayer is and help me to share that blessing with others by praying with them.

Amen.