Worship services at Lookout Mountain Presbyterian Church are filled with prayer. We praise God for his glory and character, we ask for our sins to be forgiven, we thank him for his extraordinary promises and victorious acts of salvation, and we ask for his Spirit to transform our hearts and lives through his Word and Sacraments. These prayers create space for us to respond to our Creator’s glorious love and mercy toward us, and to acknowledge that the Christian life is one of full dependence on and relationship with the One in whom all things hold together (Col 1:17).
While prayer is a foundational part of our church life, its form varies. Many of our prayers—adoration, confession, thanksgiving—emphasize a vertical relationship with God. The worship leader praises God for who he is. We confess individual sins silently. We thank God for his gift of salvation to each of us personally. While this vertical relationship between God and his people is a foundational reality of our faith, it ultimately leads to a horizontal reality as well: that of loving our neighbor and acting justly, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God as we offer our bodies as living sacrifices (Matt 22:39; Mic 6:8; Rom 12:1). The regular practice of intercessory prayer embodies this horizontal aspect of life in Christ.
Intercessory prayer, also known as “prayers of the people,” is not new to LMPC but has recently become a more regular part of our worship services. These prayers cover a range of topics including physical, emotional, or spiritual needs; the church itself; those outside the church; the health of our city; and any one person or group of people in the world who are in need. King Solomon, at the dedication of the temple, asks God to “hear” and “act” in the event of military defeat, sin committed by one person against another, famine, and plague (2 Chron 6). Paul, in his letters to the churches, prays that his fellow believers would “increase and abound in love for one another and for all people” and that they would “know what is the hope of [God’s] calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe” (1 Thess 3:12; Eph 1:18-19a). No topic is off limits. God invites us to bring our hurts, our fears, and our desires, as well as the hurts, fears, and desires of the world around us, before him in prayer.
One difficulty in bringing the full range of our lives before the Lord, especially in a public setting like corporate worship, is believing that he actually hears us and will answer us. Over time we experience disappointment, pain, trauma, and fear, all of which seem to communicate that our Savior may be indifferent to the conflicts and sorrows in our daily lives. Sometimes our prayers are answered in ways we never would have expected, and sometimes they seem not to be answered at all. Most of us know theologically and intellectually that God hears our prayers, but are experientially unsure. Jesus says, “For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened,” not to guarantee that every request will be perfectly fulfilled, but to invite his people into communion with himself, promising that none who seek to know him will be turned away (Matt 7:8). Psalm 55:22 promises, even in the midst of the psalmist’s own lament and grief, “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you, he will never allow the righteous to fall.” Interceding, not only as individuals but as the body of Christ, reminds us of our Savior’s invitation to ongoing relationship with him. It teaches our minds to watch and wait together and see what God will do. It emboldens our hearts as we stand witness to each other’s deepest needs and hurts being brought before the Father. It moves our souls to deeper reliance on the Creator and Sustainer of all things.
Corporate intercession, then, has two sides. On the one hand it cultivates intimacy between God and his people as we bring our concerns to him, trusting him to hear and respond according to his perfect will. On the other hand, it teaches the church to hear and respond to each other and those outside the church, just as we have experienced from our heavenly Father. It sows seeds of empathy, humility, and patience for a rich harvest of unity in Christ that cannot be ignored as God forms us into “a people for his own possession who are zealous for good works” (Titus 2:14). If we pray only for the world but neglect those in our midst, we deny our role in building up the local body of Christ, and if we pray only for the local body but neglect the world, we ignore our mission in Christ to be a blessing to the nations.
Intercessory prayer affirms both the need for restoration in a fallen world and the truth that God alone can bring that restoration. It is a liturgical act of dependence on God’s promises and his character, and a profound opportunity to reach out to each other by sharing in Christ’s divine work of renewal. It teaches us that, no matter who is in our midst, a perceived friend, foe, or stranger, all are called to unity in Christ through love and service to each other. It is a summons to push against our ingrained biases toward ease and familiarity. Ronald P. Byars wisely notes, “As we pray for those who are religiously, politically, and economically different from us—even at odds with us—we engage in a kind of reprogramming to exorcise our prejudices. In effect, we petition God to reshape our minds and hearts so that those whom we might easily regard as enemies may become visible to us as precious in God’s sight.” Intercession expands our minds and hearts to see the world as God sees it. To reach out to the lonely, the marginalized, the suffering, in Christian fellowship, trusting that in Christ “there is no Greek or Jew…but Christ is all and in all” (Col 3:11).
Incorporating patterns and practices of looking outward instead of inward will shape not only our actions but our very hearts. It will form and establish us as people who fundamentally care deeply about the place in which we live and the people with whom we worship. Our bond to each other will be based, not on having similar lifestyles or interests, but on the reality that we are united to Christ and to each other by the enduring and transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Through Jesus, who ever lives to intercede for us, we will continue to pray that “the God of endurance and encouragement grant us harmony with one another in Christ Jesus, so that with one mind and one voice we may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Rom 15:5).