Praying in Your Group Time

One of the struggles I see with many Christians is how to facilitate a prayer time in groups. It bothers me to see people struggle with prayer. Prayer is simply communication and conversation with God. What's so hard about that?

In a group setting when we share in prayer together, there seems to be a switch that's flipped from time to time. People pray for trivial things. You take prayer requests for 20 minutes, but all of the requests are simply to make lives easier and better. When was the last time that you prayed for life change and repentance in your group? When did you pray for spiritual healing more than physical healing for someone? In a group setting, people pray for many things non-spiritually (and non-essentially) related to life. Some begin to pray in the old King James language, as if God might understand that better?!

It pains me so as a pastor to see so many struggle with prayer in a group setting. Many people never utter a word in corporate prayer times. Here's some quick tips that I use with group prayer times to make them more how I think God would like them to be:

1. Be real. Don't fake it. You are not fooling God or anyone else in your group with your spiritual condition. If you can't be real with brothers and sisters in the Lord, who can you be real with? God wants authenticity in prayer, even with a group of Christians.

2. Speak English. No King James. Practice conversational prayer in group time. Allow yourselves to cry out to God...just cry out to Him in normal verbage. God isn't interested in who can pray the most flowery words. He's more concerned with the condition of your heart. Pray from the heart.

3. Lay ground rules for requests. Yes, you can have ground rules and still be spiritual. Keep requests real and personal. Try to stay away from superficial "Santa Claus" requests in group time. It's okay to pray for freedom from pain, but let's avoid the requests for "a bigger house" and "a new television". Pray for what God wants more than what you want. Bear one another's burdens through prayer. Don't allow all of the requests to become superficial. Pray for life change in people, yes, even yourself.

4. Keep it simple. Praying with one another shouldn't be hard. Talk to God and intercede on behalf of your brothers and sisters in the Lord. There's no right or wrong way to pray (well, except for the King James "holier than thou" prayers). Don't ramble if you don't have much to pray for. Instead, use those times to thank God for all that He has done and is doing in lives.

We must remember that prayer is our lifeline to God. We cry to Him and praise Him in our prayers. He can handle your anger or disappointment, but also wants the adoration and thankfulness. Praying with a group of people should be no different than prayer between you and the Lord personally. If you find yourself putting up a mask or trying to be or talk or act like someone you are not, settle down and make it about God and not about you. As Christian brothers and sisters, we must be able to keep our prayer life real, even when we share and pray with others.