Community Prayer!

“Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” Matthew 18:19-20

I believe in community prayer and these verses support that. I am very blessed to have a small community of friends who have prayed each other through some really rough times. We began meeting when our kids went to college to pray for them as they navigated life in college. We met weekly and in that time we saw these young people make good decisions and bad decisions. We saw some of them graduate college and get married. We saw miracles in their lives and in each other’s lives. We came together week after week and we prayed through and we agreed on good things for their futures and what we wanted for them in Christ. We prayed for our other children, prayed for our families, we have seen each other through losses and we have rejoiced with each other and praised God through weddings and births and blessings! We know each other’s hearts and when our hearts come together to pray for things we have seen miracles. 

One of the key words of this scripture is “agree”. As I dug into this verse, I found that the Greek word for agree means “ to symphonize”. Isn’t that beautiful? When we come together whether we are together in person or together in thought and we ask God for things in Jesus name, it is like it is music to God’s ears! I’m going to quote the paragraph I read because, well I can’t say it any better. 

“Jesus wants us to complement each other like a great orchestra. ‘It is a metaphor taken from a number of musical instruments set to a same key, and playing the same tune: here, it means a perfect agreement of the hearts, desires, wishes, and voices, of two or more persons praying to God.”

Isn’t that a beautiful way to see community prayer! I keep having the vision of when my grandlittles are here and they both start asking for something, let’s say a snack. Their sweet little voices calling my name in unison with each other is music to my ears and I will pretty much give them whatever they want when they start doing that. It brings a smile to my face and bubbles up so much joy in my heart that I can’t contain myself until I bring joy back to them. It is the best feeling. I wonder if God feels the same way when we get a group together and he hears the symphony of our voices and our hearts asking for things.  

The next key words are “in my name”. When we come together in community prayer to ask something of Him, we must be asking in Jesus name! I think many times when we get discouraged that our prayers are not being answered we may have confused the asking in His name. This means having the ultimate will of the Father in mind when we ask something. Are we praying for someone’s salvation? Well we know that it is His desire that all should come to Him and that none should perish. Keep asking and gather a community to help you! Are we praying for a certain relationship to work out or are we praying for it to work out if it is God’s will and what is best for the long run? Are we praying for a job or a move or material things? For instance, are we asking Jesus for a new car because we like the smell of a new car and we want to drive a nice shiny new car, or are we asking for a new car because we are worried the one we are driving will not get us to work and back anymore? Look at the things you are asking for and be sure that you are asking “in Jesus name”. To be asking and gathering together in His name, means He is the point, it means we know Him and we are known by Him. It means we are asking for things that would be in line with His character and nature and it means that we know that it is what Jesus would endorse. When we gather together to ask for things in His name that we know would be about His character and His work then we can know that we are gaining the ear and the heart of God and we can know that He will answer.