WHY WE PRAY BIBLICAL PRAYERS
Prayer is one of our number one passions at OneEleven Global. We believe in it and we do it because prayer changes things. But what is it exactly that makes prayer effective? When it comes to corporate prayer, there seem to be a couple factors that make or break the meeting: agreement and faith.
One of the most common experiences in prayer gatherings is disunity. This isn’t because the people present are bitter enemies full of theological, political, or personal disagreements. Often (as is the case in many disagreements) it’s simply because we’re not using the same language. Prayer is a very personal thing, and when we pray, each of us channel our relationship with God replete with its unique history and understanding of him. So in one sense, it’s really easy to pray alone because what you say and how you say it doesn’t matter – God understands. However, when it comes to corporate prayer, I don’t relate to God in exactly the same way you do, and you don’t relate to God the same way the next guy or girl does. Fortunately there is a solution to this problem – a standardized vocabulary that we can all agree upon. It’s called the Word of God.
…if we pray the Bible, we are praying God’s perfect will.
When we pray the Bible, everyone can agree on the content of the prayer that is being prayed. Why? Because we all agree that the Bible is God’s Word. So if we pray the Bible, we are praying God’s perfect will. We each have our own prayer requests and longings that we can and should bring to God. But did you know that the Holy Spirit has his own prayer requests, too? He inspired men like the apostle Paul to write them down so that generations down the road, we would still know the prayers that burn in God’s very own heart. This is a great solution to the disunity that is often experienced in corporate prayer meetings. We can still use our own language to expand on the prayers of the Bible, but it gives us a starting point that keeps us anchored to the harbor that we can all call home.
Even more than simply achieving agreement, using the Bible ensures that our prayers are full of faith. We could say that prayer is most effective when we use words of faith-filled agreement. The prayers of the apostles give us faith to believe that the Church is destined for greatness. If the Holy Spirit inspired a prayer for us to experience the same power that raised Jesus from the dead (Eph. 1:19–20), then it gives us faith to believe that it is God’s will and promise to us that this will happen if we ask for it!
This one simple tool can change everything – when we use the Bible as the basis for the language of our corporate prayers, we will be filled with a newfound measure of faith and unity that God will surely answer!