The pleasures of praying together

Praying together should be a joy.

But, for many people, it is trial to be avoided or something to be feared.

I have found it a pleasure ever since my wife and I grasped the concept of "conversational prayer" at a previous church decades ago.

I described this idea in a previous post last July which you can find at http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3617534320094379788#editor/target=post;postID=337178175674168398.

In essence, conversational prayer involves a few people talking with God and with each other as if they were chatting at home in their family room.  Group members pray brief sentence prayers around a single topic - Joe Blow's job problems or Sally Swift's breast cancer diagnosis - pausing before moving on to another prayer concern.  This allows the Holy Spirit to guide the prayer time, dropping thoughts into the minds of prayer group members.

I have found such prayer gatherings move quickly and deeply.  People leave feeling that the Holy Spirit has had his hand on their shoulders as they prayed. They feel his presence.

Yesterday, we put on a brief conversational prayer course in our church and several people turned out.  Personally, I left uplifted.  And several people said they enjoyed their time praying.

Why make such a big deal out of praying together?  Because there is something special in people praying together in agreement as Jesus said in Matthew 18:19-20.  Jesus is there and responds directly when we pray this way.

In his book And The Place was Shaken, author John Franklin made this bold statement: "The greatest works of God come by corporate prayer, and we will not see the power of God in sufficient measure to transform the world around us until we pray together."

Most great revivals have blossomed as a result of concentrated, persevering prayer by groups of people praying together.

Praying together allows the Spirit to bring things to our minds that would be lost if we were simply praying on our own.  Praying together regularly helps the Spirit change us over time as God speaks to us through others.

Praying together should be a delight - not a burden.  It should be as easy as talking with a friend.  Only the friend is God.