21 Days of Prayer ChallengeSample

Day 12: Is there more power when we pray together?

From Pastor Mark Zehnder

Prayer is a beautiful gift God gives to each of us as his individual children. This is such a comfort…that we always have access to God in prayer no matter where we are and even when we are all alone. There is something very special about having a regular, quiet, solitary time just with God.

But it gets even better.

In addition to having this gift of prayer individually, we also have it together in community. Which brings us to this interesting question, "Is there more power when we pray together?" Let's look at some Scriptures that discuss praying together and see if we can answer this question.

Interestingly, when Jesus' disciples asked Him to teach them to pray, He gave them a prayer that started with the word, "Our." He said, pray, "Our" Father. Not "my" Father, but "our." That says something of the fact that Jesus intended for us to pray together.

In Matthew 18:19-20, Jesus says this: "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there I am with them." Wow! What a promise! This sure seems to make the case that praying together is very powerful and that Jesus is with us when we pray together.

In addition to these blessings, praying together and seeing how God answers our prayers increases our faith and causes us to be even bolder when we pray. Finally, praying together increases our unity in the Body of Christ.

We see this in powerful times of prayer in the early church. Read Acts 4:31 and Acts 12:1-16.

Recently we were together in worship on a Sunday morning. Many of us had individually been praying specifically for a family in our church. It had been 20 days that we were praying, and not much progress seemed to be happening.

That morning I asked the whole church in the middle of our prayer time to lift this family up, and we boldly asked for a breakthrough. Thirty minutes later, I received a text that the prayer had been powerfully answered, and this breakthrough took place. Of course, this wouldn't mean that all those individual prayers didn't matter, but it would be hard to argue that there wasn't greater power when the whole church prayed together.

Day 12 Challenge: Pray together with at least one other person today. Before praying, let everyone share any prayer request(s) they may have.

Prayer Prompt: For healthy marriages