Praying as the Church

It struck me recently just how little praying we do as the church. I’m not just talking about how the prayer meeting is small, with mostly the same people showing each week. I’m talking about praying AS the church, and not just FOR the church.

Prayer meetings, whether for small groups, for the local church, or even for more than one local church, tend to be self-focused. We pray for the person giving the sermon, for the people to have attentive ears, for the worship to touch our hearts. These are not bad things. But the prayer seems to stop there so often. When we pray for those outside the service/group it is usually for those who are sick within our church/group, or for the salvation of those who are attending but aren’t saved. Even prayer for the loved ones of those who are members of the church or small group is rare. One friend has referred to this as the church having “her eyes rolled back into her head”, always looking inwards.

We were not created for this! We were created to be able to change earth through our prayer! In order to do this we need to pray for those outside ourselves – for the success of missions to unreached people groups, for the strengthening of the persecuted church in countries like China and the Middle East, and for the ending of social ills such as abortion and slavery (which has more people in its grip than ever before in history).

We need to be praying AS the church, as salt and light, and not just for the church.