Praying In CommunityНамуна

Boldly Approaching the Lord Together

 Hebrews 10 gives us one of the most astonishing and empowering statements about prayer found in the entire Bible. We are told that because of the blood of Jesus, we can have confidence to enter into the holy places. It’s difficult today to grasp how powerful this statement is. Though the Old Testament sacrificial system makes provision for priests to enter into the holy places of the temple, “confidence” is not a word that would normally be attached. There were too many regulations and the stakes were too high (death was a real possibility).

Yet something has happened because of Jesus’ blood that lets us approach God confidently. And not just the priests: all of us! So we are invited to step into the very throne room of God. This is as powerful a description of prayer as you’ll find in the Bible.

But we tend to miss the connected between these statements and the command to continue meeting together. These concepts come in the same paragraph: (1) Let us (plural) draw near to the throne of God with confidence, (2) consider how we can stir each other up, and (3) refuse to stop meeting together. 

Community prayer is built on the understanding that what has happened to each of us has happened to all of us. Our direct access to the throne of God is joint access. 

Seen in this light, praying in community carries an inherent acknowledgement of the value and extent of Jesus’ work on our (collective) behalf: Jesus has done all of this—not just for me, but for all of us—so we meet frequently to step into his presence together, like a family gathering in its Father’s house.