Introduction:
Our church has always set aside time in the worship service for corporate prayer. For years, this moment was called the Pastoral Prayer. Recently, our elders changed the name to the Congregational Prayer.
This change reflects something important: this time is no longer reserved only for pastor-elders. It’s an opportunity for members of the church to lead the congregation in a time of prayer to the Lord.
Below is the first prayer I composed. I appreciated the opportunity, especially because it allowed space to pray in a slightly different way. That difference was a focus on reverence for the Lord. At times, Western Christianity has become too comfortable. God starts to feel more like an earthly friend than a heavenly Father.
My prayer was written with the belief that everything begins with a healthy fear of the Lord. This prayer was offered for my local church. It’s also my prayer for the universal Church scattered throughout the world.
I invite you to reflect with me: have we lost a sense of reverence for God?
Congregational Prayer
Heavenly Father, we sang a few moments ago.
Joy to the World, the Lord has come; let earth receive her King.
We recognize this is no ordinary lord and king. It’s Your eternal Son, the Lord of lords—the King of kings—Emmanuel, God with us. I pray those words resonate in our hearts today and for the year ahead.
We look back at Christmas with great appreciation. Now it’s appropriate to look ahead with great anticipation. Lord, put on our hearts what You desire for Your church in the coming year. Let our prayers today reflect Your will.
First, we pray to continue being a church of prayer,
that we have hearts that pray without ceasing.
This doesn’t mean we walk around with our eyes closed and heads bowed at all times. It means that in all we do, our thoughts and hearts are directed to You. We should look up before we look out. We ask for Your holy and divine guidance, that the Holy Spirit would convict us when we’re putting ourselves before You.
I pray we are people who mean what we say. When we tell someone we’re praying for them, those words wouldn’t be hollow or shallow. We’ll actually take the time to go to You with our needs and the needs of others. We need to believe there is power in prayer with You.
Second, Lord, we want to be a church focused on outreach to family, friends, and coworkers. We also want to reach people nationally and internationally.
I pray we would do this not by being the best debaters. We shouldn’t be about winning arguments, tearing someone down, thinking this will show them the love of Christ. There is a time and place for everything. But it seems to me, Lord, that we need to be better listeners. We need to be responsive, not reactive.
We need to listen to the groaning stories of the world. Then, after we’ve listened, we can tell them of a better story, a good news story that gives life and healing to their groans. It’s that same story we read about in Your Word and sing about with so much hope. Lord, I pray we are people who share the Gospel to the ends of the earth with love and humility.
Lastly, Lord, I pray everything would start from a place of reverence. A reverence for our God who, out of love, created and sustains everything.
God, You could have washed away humanity and ended it right there in the Garden. But out of love, You created us, and out of love, You chose to redeem us through Your Son, Jesus Christ.
There are times in the Bible, Lord Jesus, where You appear in glory. Each time, the people who see You fall to their knees in fear. You are so perfect and righteous that they and we can’t look upon You without being destroyed. It’s a realization of how sinful we truly are before a holy God.
But the story doesn’t end in despair. It gets better for all of us who fall on our knees in filthy sin, scared for our lives from holy judgment, because You will approach us sinners. You will touch us on the shoulder and say, “Rise, brother” or “Rise, sister.”
You will say:
“But to all who receive Me, who believe in My name, I give the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.”
And because of this, we are eternal co-heirs with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
Lord, let all that we do, whether in thought, prayer, or deed, start in its proper place:
reverence for You.
And even when we fail to properly revere You, let us have comfort knowing that as long as we abide in Jesus,
He will come and say,
“I love you. Your sins are forgiven.
Now, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Go.”
Jesus we thank for you words and the cross. It’s in your holy name we pray.
Amen.
Lit Lamp For The Soul 
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