Some time ago, quite some time ago actually, I wrote a whole bulletin about postures of prayer. You know, giving scriptural references for standing up, laying down, sitting, kneeling, arms raised, arms lowered, head raised, head lowered, etc. The point I was making, way back then, that it wasn’t so much the posture you were in as it was the fact that you prayed at all – the frequency is the bigger part of it.

There is one position I didn’t mention, and I’ve been thinking about it lately. Its when someone stands up in the front of our group and leads a prayer for all of us. I always have a vision, when I do it in our services, of myself standing before God’s throne. He’s a king, and we have come before him as petitioners. I have been allowed to step forward and speak for all of us, as we in theory turn our minds united directly to him. It’s not I am so worthy or great; I just happen to be the one speaking.

I think about that now and then because I take the responsibility and opportunity rather seriously. I see myself facing God, while the rest of you are there behind me encouraging me. But here is the position I need to see myself in. Facing God. There’s a reason for that. I am praying FOR you all, not TO you all.

I have heard folks try to teach people through prayer. They say things not for God’s sake of hearing but because they perceive the listeners need “taught a good lesson” and they are going to use the occasion to deliver it. They may quote long passages of scripture. They may deliver reasons and arguments why they believe something to be so. Are they trying to convince God? Do they think they can sway his will like that? There are likely several things wrong with this, and a few come to mind immediately.

One, the way I envision it, I have turned my back on God when I am speaking to you rather than him! Now, there is a time and a place to talk to someone about spiritual matters. Someone might believe another needs correction or instruction because they have sin in their lives, but help me here brethren. Is there a single example where correction was delivered to someone during a prayer to God in the scriptures? Yes, in a general sense we do need to ask God to protect us from evil, or help us to be honest in the sight of men, and so on but if I have some agenda to nudge an individual who I think is wrong this is simply not the way or place to do that. Prayer to God during our worship service, or even any other time, is speaking to God. We need to remember he is our audience. While we do speak aloud so others can join in on our prayer and we can be unified, we need to avoid losing focus. There’s a different word for when someone stands up in front of an assembly and delivers a message. It’s called preaching!

Two, and this seems pretty clear to me, using prayer as somehow adding weight or authority to our beliefs, again speaking for the purpose of swaying the hearts of others, even for good motives, is not proper. In fact it is sin. When Moses struck the rock, and asked “Must we bring forth water?” he was leveraging God’s power and majesty in a way he had no right to, in a way that made himself appear all the more “righteous”, as if he had some portion of God’s power or greatness, and God called him on it. I don’t want to miss out on the “promised land”, do you? I think in a way it’s also cheating – one who does this uses a forum that is one-sided. Folks are forced to listen without any chance of rebuttal. Hardly an honest way to teach!

Third, ever get a phone call from someone and then have that person start up a conversation with someone there in the room with them? You’re like, uh, why did you call me? Sort of rude isn’t it? It’s not much different than that! So we should be very careful when we pray.

The thing about prayers, much like bulletins, or preaching, or teaching, is that if you can then you need to be willing to do it. God doesn’t just expect us to use our “talents”, he will demand an “accounting” of them one day. So we can’t look at this awesome responsibility of leading a prayer and shy away. Yes, we may botch it from time to time, and we should approach it with respect and seriousness. There will always be those that complain now and then about the way we said something, the words we used, the things they feel we left out. Yet, remember. We are standing there before our God. Our father. The one posture of prayer we should never, ever fear is the one where we stand before him with our neck stretched out. He’s going to kiss it, like the prodigal’s father, not cut it off!

Randy